Templates! What are they?
Hello beta testers!
We want to know your thoughts on our new templates! (Templates are those things you can choose between in the dropdown window when you make a new project through the Hub.) Here’s a big, detailed overview of what they include and do!
Templates allow us to preset batches of settings for a target game type or level of visual fidelity. This means that depending on what template you choose, your project will have all of its settings configured with the project type in mind, including some default packages, lighting settings, time settings, quality settings, graphics settings, etc.
In addition, most templates include some example content, such as a default WASD camera controller, materials for the correct render pipeline, fonts and even an example Shader Graph in the Lightweight template.
Specifically?
First off, all templates include some key changes:
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A variety of .preset files configured with the project type in mind
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Default color space set to Linear rather than Gamma
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Run in Background enabled
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Optimize Mesh Data enabled
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Time and Quality Settings configured with steady 60 fps targets in mind:
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Fixed Timestep has been set to ~1/60
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Maximum Allowed Timestep has been set to 0.1
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V Sync Count has been set to Every V Blank
In addition, each template has many more specific settings. Read on, faithful beta tester!
The 2D template is the most particular:
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Scene view defaults to 2D mode
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Camera starts in Orthographic with a solid color background - no default skybox
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Lighting, fog, and shadow settings are all turned off
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Ambient lighting is configured with a cool grey solid color
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Anti-Aliasing is disabled
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Always Included Shaders has been pruned down to just Sprites/Default and UI/Default
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Sprite Packer Mode is set to Always Enabled
The 3D (aka 3D Ultra in b5), High Definition, and Lightweight templates include:
- Our latest Post-Processing V2 package, configured with a PostProcessProfile.asset file, a “PostProcessing” layer configured in settings, a global Post Process Volume object in the scene, and a Post Process Layer component on the camera. We’ve set these up with some nice, relatively subtle defaults, like ACES color grading, soft bloom, motion blur, ambient occlusion, and anti-aliasing.
- Reflection Probes (and Light Probes) in the scene when it makes sense
- GPU Skinning and Graphics Jobs enabled in Player Settings
- Lighting settings configured with the project type and example assets in mind (and Progressive Light Mapper enabled by default)
- A SimpleCameraController component that enables smooth WASD movement and shows how to do some basic scripting (and an example of how to do framerate-independent lerping!)
The High Definition and Lightweight templates pull in their respective pipeline packages and configure some essential assets that the render pipes rely on, located in the Assets/Settings folder.
In the case of Lightweight, the most important setting is a simple Lightweight_RenderPipeline asset, but the template also includes the Shader Graph package (which in its current beta only works with Lightweight) and an example custom PBR Shader Graph.
For High Definition, you’ll find several assets in that folder that configure things like sky, fog, shadows, and sub-surface scattering.
Finally, the Lightweight VR template, in addition to bringing in and configuring the Lightweight render pipe, sets things up a little nicer for VR:
- Some placeholder objects set up with TrackedPoseDrivers for hands and remotes
- A SetCorrectCameraHeight script on the camera to set height depending on the device
- A post-processing stack tuned for VR
Going Forward
Templates are still in an early stage of iteration (for instance, expect to see a fast-loading 3D template with no example content or post-processing come beta 5), so if you are trying them out please keep the following questions in mind:
Are there any significant setting changes missing from the existing templates? Or any settings we changed that you’d prefer set differently or unset for a particular template?
The template list for the 2018.1 release was intentionally kept lean, but for future releases we would like to create and include more! What else would you like to see as a template in the future?
Presets are another new feature for 2018.1 and some have already been included in this build. Please review the existing presets and let us know what others you would like to see. Presets can be made based on asset types such as spotlight and pointlight, component defaults when adding a component, and import settings when importing new content. More on presets can be found here .
Feedback please 
