Visual Studio 2017 Tools for Unity, where to find a download?

News & General Discussion
1

I’m unable to find a download for Visual Studio 2017 Tools for Unity. :face_with_spiral_eyes:

Following the Visual Studio 2017 Tools for Unity “More Information” link in the “Extensions and Updates” dialog inside Visual Studio, forwards me to this site, where no download is available.

Google brings up various Microsoft sites where I can also find no download link, eg this site.

The Visual Studio Marketplace has no version for VS 2017 available:

There exists a Visual Studio 2017 Tools for Unity change-log, but again no download:

Where can I download Visual Studio 2017 Tools for Unity? I really want to update from 3.1.0.0 to 3.3.0.0, due to one bug in which I constantly run into, which is fixed in 3.3.

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VS 2017 includes VSTU built-in. Just install it from the VS 2017 installer.

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Good idea. Unfortunately the VS 2017 installer installed 3.1.0.0 again, which I had installed already. I don’t understand why Microsoft isn’t proving a download just like they do with other extensions. That’s really odd to me.

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It’s a transitional time for the tools, they’re just being sloppy on integrating them. Looks like they want to ship them with the IDE rather than make them a standard downloadable plugin.

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Hello folks,

3.1 is the latest stable build that is available for everyone for VS 2015 as an out of band extension and in VS 2017 through the Game development with Unity workload.

3.2 was an internal release.

3.3 will be included in the next dot release version of Visual Studio 2017, 15.3. If you want to use it before 15.3 is released, you can simply use the preview:

https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/preview/

Being a first party component of Visual Studio has advantages and disadvantages. We’ve been following the Visual Studio release cadence to make sure everyone has a good experience, and we usually go early in the previews for you to try on new features or jump unto bug fixes that are important to you.

If that’s sloppy I need to adjust my definition :slight_smile:

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6

What I meant by “sloppy” is that it’s difficult to discover what actually is the latest version and how to get it. I had similar issues when I was moving to vs2017, not knowing about the change and finding mixed information about what was happening with it, specifically the old version pages.

Sorry, I didn’t mean there isn’t good work being done, just that the old versions, change to being integrated, etc, makes it more confusing in general to figure out how to correctly get it now. I’m sure that will iron out over time once there is some consistent patterns

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No worries I was just teasing in good fun.

That’s actually great feedback, I’ll work with my team and the documentation team and see how we can make things clearer.

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8

I’m using VS2017 Preview but also VS2017… I’m not going to provide any downloads but I’ll tell you what I did and you’ll have to workout the details yourself. You can uninstall VSTU 2017, then install VS2017 Preview to get the extension… In regular VS2017 create a new Extensibility VSIX Package project. Put the proper references and files into that project from the VSTU extension from VS2017 Preview… make sure you update the Manifest with the correct product ID, name etc… Make sure you update the proper files to “Content” and copy local. Set the version to something that will install (i.e. 3.1.0.1 but not 3.3.0). Build… install your VSIX.

There are other steps if you want the Item Templates, etc. all working correclty, but if you’re really hard up to get 3.3.0 into VS2017 without using Preview, this is pretty much what you’re going to have to do.

And no guarantees it will work properly… you were warned. :slight_smile:

3183505--242888--vstu.PNG

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You guys. Well you know the saying, if it works… :slight_smile:

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It was actually working fine for me in my limited tests. :smile: But now I’m updating to 15.3 since it released yesterday anyway.

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I would appreciate if you can continue to provide separate VSTU downloads, for example on the Visual Studio Marketplace.

It’s just a lot easier to download one installer and distribute it in the team, rather than having every person either upgrade Visual Studio or go through the Visual Studio Installer and select the appropriate packages.

Having software/updates accessible makes working in teams, where application versions are carved into stone - everyone has to use the same version, much much easier.

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https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/visualstudio/install/create-a-network-installation-of-visual-studio

Unless you’re on an unreliable network, updates are pretty small and fast so not sure why updating the tooling once installed would be too difficult.

vs_enterprise.exe --Layout D:\VSToolsForUnity -add Microsoft.VisualStudio.Component.Unity

That will download the playloads for Visual Studio tools for Unity. You can also specify the language independently.

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13

I’ve lost a few hours trying to get Visual Studio 2017 to work correctly with Unity, but IntelliSense isn’t working. When opening a script from Unity by double clicking on it, it opens as a misc file. I found several references by doing a Google search but so far everything I’ve tried doesn’t work. Any suggestions on how to fix this problem? Using Unity 2017.1 but I also tried 5.6.2.

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That’s weird… it should open the solution itself in Visual Studio. Have you checked your project settings to make sure Visual Studio is set as the default IDE?

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I checked and there is no other option since this is the only IDE on the PC. I attempted by file – open file – open with.

Yeah, it’s strange. I have re-installed three times now. When I first install, IntelliSense works fine. Then I create a script in Unity, double click it, and then from that point forward IntelliSense no longer works. I believe because it is showing as Miscellaneous, but I don’t understand why it is doing that.

In the Solution Explorer it shows my solution as incompatible and the application is not installed. I am only starting to learn C# so I’m not familiar.

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Do me a favor… if this is Visual Studio 2017… hit your start menu and find Visual Studio Installer… Run it… select “Modify” and select individual components… find Visual Studio Tools for Unity… if it’s installed, untick it and uninstall it, then run the installer again and reinstall it. Otherwise, just tick it and install it.

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17

Ok, so I uninstalled Tools for Unity and then re-installed. I then launched Unity, created a new script, double clicked which launched Visual Studio 2017. It shows up as Miscellaneous Files and IntelliSense does not work.

I then closed Unity and closed Visual Studio. Next I launched Visual Studio, new file, Visual C# Class and the same problem.

I closed that out and then created a new project. In the project settings the OK button is grayed out. I double checked the location to ensure it was pointing to a valid location, and the OK button still grayed out. So unable to create a New Project.

Back to the installer, under workloads, I installed .NET desktop development. I then went for new project again and this time presented with a .NET framework higher than 3.5. Using .NET Framework 4.6.1, there were options for Visual C# and the Ok button was no longer grayed out. I selected Console App and created a new project. IntelliSense seems to work, but in a generic way. For example, if I begin to type ‘transform’, it does not give code completion for transform. It no longer says Miscellaneous Files but still no code completion.

I then went back to Workloads and selected Universal Windows Platform development in the installer. This added a 6GB module. Launched the test project and same problem. Launched Unity, opened script, and same problem.

Back to the VS Installer and individual components. Checked the component named Unity 5.6 Editor to install. Same problem, no code completion. Back to Unity Preferences External Tools to try and select Unity.Vs.OpenFile. This would not select before but this time the setting seems to select. External argument “$(File)”. Closed out VS, double clicked script in Unity, and it does not launch Visual Studio.

Back to preferences and changed to Mono Develop just to try it out. It launches and code completion works fine. Typed tran, and given many options as it relates to Transform. Just as I would expect from Visual Studio. Closed out Mono Develop and back to preferences to select Visual Studio 2017. It requires a restart to take effect so restarted Unity 2017.1. Same problem in Visual Studio. I shouldn’t say there is no code completion, but it is things like: true, try, tryf, etc.

I wrote a novel here but open to any other ideas someone may have. Not sure where else to go with this. Uninstalling and re-installing has given the same result three times. I don’t want to use Visual Studio without code completion so I need to resolve this problem before I can continue with learning how to code in C#.

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Update: Ok, without doing anything else, I decided to launch Unity 5.6.2. Created a new project, created a new script, double clicked it and it then launched VS 2017. Typed ‘tr’ and IntelliSense works just fine; giving options for transform, transparency, etc.

I then closed that out, launched Unity 2017.1 and opened the file that was used in Unity 5.6.2. When double clicking and opening in VS 2017, IntelliSense works just fine.

Although I now have a working VS 2017, I really don’t understand why.

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I launched my original project and now back to the same problem; no code completion. Or, at least, not normal code completion.

I’m noticing a difference between the scripts:

  1. BalloonController.cs which does not code complete correctly.

  2. TestTwo.cs which works just fine.

The script that works fine has the following grayed out:
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;

And the name of the project shows correctly.

The script that does not work fine has the following in white (not grayed out):
using System.Collections;
using System.Collections.Generic;

And the name of the project says Miscellaneous Files.

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Ok, I think this is my final entry. It seemed that deleting the solution and starting over might work. So I deleted all the files related to VS within my Unity project. I then restarted Unity and opened the project. When double clicking on the script, it launched VS and created a new solution. Now everything works fine. I don’t know what caused the problem, but the fix was simply deleting the old solution, and creating a new one.

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