I was working with Unity for a couple of time (long time) now and as the time passed I had some ideas (and also annoyances by the lack of some features) for Unity to improve productivity and workflow speed.
Here it goes:
2014
Selection ONLY Tool
Button to select on Hierarchy the object locked on Inspector
Also, quietly warn the user that he is not tweaking the object he selected in the hierarchy.
Show a small pin icon on the right side of the object locked name on Hierarchy.
Collision view mode with option to control the transparency
Also see collision meshes wire in this mode.
Scale primitives like on CSG (draggable handles on each corner of it) for faster prototyping and level bounds/block colliders placements. (Can be done with the new Rect Tool but still a little limited when working in perspective view because you can’t scale in the 3 axis in the same perspective)
“Imaginary” objects that can take other objects (real ones) as their children for better organizing purposes. (And no unnecessary transforms, also, they don’t need to be kept after build)
UI Mode (something like 2D Mode):
Darken the areas beyond canvas.
Temporary hide everything that is not in the UI Layer. (On the scene and on the hierarchy).
Give an option to disable this of course.
Automatically focus on the first Canvas found. (or give an option to select a scene main/default canvas). Also the option to disable this and focus where you left your camera on the last time.
Create new ui objects right clicking in the canvas (thus, opening a context menu), since middle mouse button already pans the view.
GameObject’s main component icons next to it on he Hierarchy view.
Make each scene has its own “last scene camera position”, so when you load a previous scene the camera will be where you left it when you saved it instead of a weird position.
Make it possible to “Paste Component As New” by righting click on an empty space in the inspector and selecting this option on a context menu.
Image effects preview in editor camera.
Better editor patching system.
Lock Current layout
I’m pretty sure you undocked a window by accident at least once.
“Click to inspect” button on the right side of an object field
instead of give only the option to open the object referenced on the object field, also give the option to select it whatever it is in the project and inspect it. (You can do this on some object double-clicking it, but not all of them, like a texture for example, if you double-click it you will open your image application, but, what if you want to make some modifications on the image import settings? Currently you need to click to show it on the project window and select it on the project window.)
Highlight selected view/pane tab.
When creating a new empty game object, leave the game object name in edit mode (just like when creating new scripts, you create, then the script is already there for you to edit, you don’t need to type F2 or Right click and rename it)
Lock objects in hierarchy so you can’t select it. (or edit it) (Devil_Inside)
Improve CharacterController class, add stuff like AddForce for it, also fix the isGrounded issue, change character shape (collider) and etc.
Define Default Import Settings (moonjump)
Preview not only animator transitions but also the state itself (with option to disable or enable looping).
Know an state length trough the animator, so we can be aware of the animation length based on the speed that is currently set there. (for non-looping states)
Dark skin available for Personal version.
Natively snap object to the ground without an editor script.
Bug Reporting and Discussion sub-forum
So we don’t report bugs that are not bugs actually but pebkac.
2016
Drag to reorder components in inspector.
Big stuff:
Native built-in script editor (Code)
Native built-in visual shader editor
Native built-in visual script editor (Graph)
Better input system (emulate input, etc)
Prefab editor (no need to instantiate it in the scene to edit it)
something like an extra scene view openable in parallel with the current scene to especifically tweak some prefab, similar to the avatar editor.
FWIW you can already do this with some collider types - holding down shift with a BoxCollider will give you a little green handle in the middle of each face that can be clicked and dragged to pull the face around.
As for everything else, sure, sounds good. Have you looked for the appropriate suggestions over on Feedback?
[q]
Selection Tool would be a tool to only select the objects around, while using the Move TooI I always accidentally move the object a little… You can see on Maya and other 3d softwares that you can select objects with the Move Tool, but you also have a tool that only select stuff.
[q]
But the mesh is left behind…
Yes, some of those are there… some are not, I don’t… being sincere - I don’t think the feedback is a very effective way to get your desired feature, or… maybe small stuff like these could be at least cogitated.
I wish we had a built in road tool to create roads on the terrain, including intersections, setting road width, pavement width, number of lanes, creating of building lots etc. That would make it heaps easier to create cities.
Btw there was a program called CityScape it could do all this, but its discontinued after AutoDesk took it over. You could create a terrain just like in unity, paint it, and then draw roads on it, it was something like SimCity++.
not as a big deal for me now, since i got a new PC, but it is absolutely lame cant redefine the folder… … it had made me totally ignore asset store… (my C drive was almost totally full, but have 3 HDs with Alot of space, now different C drive)
** @willemsenzo ** But that would be a complete new module/tool, and not small… But, that would be very cool!
** @CaoMengde777 ** Yes, it would be nice, but where the downloads are saved? They are not saved in the same folder of the unity editor? You could just uninstall the unity editor and install it where you have enough space for the editor and the downloaded assets I think.
Ability to set default import settings for assets.
Every time I import a model, I always have to set the import scale, and it is almost always the same scale. It would be nice to make that scale the default.
Most of my images will be changed from compressed, mip maps need to be turned off, max size changed to 2048, etc. I would like to set my usual settings as the default.
Workflow is a big thing for Unity. This would improve workflow. “Project Settings > Import Defaults” would work well.
Right now we need to click on the component option and choose Move Up to move the component one level “Up”,
now try to do that in a gameObject with a lot of component and you want to move the lowest component to the Highest.
This. They have sort of started down the path already with the editor options/2d mode, I would like to see it taken further. Usually in a project you will typically use the same settings more often than not, it would be nice to set them in advance for a project.
You mean search game object called “X” that (necessarily) has the component “Y”? Or you mean look for all game objects that has the component “Y”?
I think you can do the second by typing the entire component name on the hierarchy pane search… The first would be nice though!
All good ideas guys, UT team could implement some of these!
