As a serial user of asset store products for vfx, models, props, sfx etc I tend to import the pack in to my main project but rarely use all of the assets from a pack and then end up with a ton of unused stuff which just bloats the project.
I’ve got away with it in the past because my projects tended to be on the smaller side (and unity strips them out in the build process) but I’m working on a bigger project now and its biting me on the backside.
Firstly…
How do you identify unused assets in your projects?
Are there any specific tools you use?
Secondly…
If you use asset store products, whats your process for dealing with the items you don’t want?
e.g. I could create a temp project for models / vfx / sfx and import the assets in to it and then export the ones I want and import in to my working project.
You can right click on asset, and use “find references”. If not found, most likely is not used. It may require more extensive search.
You rather should be in control, of which assets you use, after importing. If not using, delete straight away.
You can also export your project as asset, with all dependencies. You will filter out what is not used.
On other hand, when building game, unused assets are skipped all together.
Yeah, I started doing this but I left it a bit late for this project. Something I’m definitely going to do more in future.
I’ve been using this tool to help reduce the size for mobile builds but noticed it also shows a report on unused assets (top 10 by size i think) although I’ve never really used it for that purpose - trust issues
I gather up all my unused assets, put them in a pile, and then use them as fuel to start a fire.
Then, I gather up all my unfinished games and prototypes and cook them over the fire slowly for a lovely dinner.
I call the recipe:
“**** me why do I procrastinate so much, and why do I spend so much on crap when I know that I have a procrastination problem?”
Being fellow gamedevs, you may also have heard of or even eaten this recipe. Its very popular.
/s
But if you meant unused assets inside of a pack, I just dont import them XD Sometimes I create a temporary project and import into there, unitypackage the stuff I need, and then bring that into the actual project. Then I delete/burn/reverse the polarity of the temporary project.
Sometimes I try then out in their own project first. Sometimes I try them out in my main project and then later delete the asset and use version control to revert any changes. Then I try to import what I really want.
As far as bloating the project… meh. Once it gets checked into version control it is there for good. Deleting it doesn’t actually free up any space there unless I create a brand new repository to get rid of the entire history. Usually it is not otherwise a problem so I just leave the checked in unused assets be.
E.g. Bitbucket is 2GB, Gitlab - 10 GB per project.
And Unity projects tend to ran out of space really quickly if everything is just showed in the main repo.
BFG-ing the repo correctly solves the history problem btw.
Admittedly, everyone should have a private git server.
Not everyone can afford one though for their hobby projects.
I normally don’t care too much myself, having all the assets I “may” use in one project is handy as it makes trying them out is a quick process but I think I’m at the stage now where its a hindrance more than a help.
A couple of examples would be…
Having to download the project again from VSC and going through the painful import process.
Disk space & download size - currently 12gb without Library folder.
Also I recently thought I’d like to take a look at HDRP (currently URP) and I had to wait while it updated 4.5k+ materials
