The ability to test your application by switching from Edit mode to Play mode is one of Unity’s core features. You can use Play mode to run your project directly inside the Editor, through the Play button in the ToolbarA row of buttons and basic controls at the top of the Unity Editor that allows you to interact with the Editor in various ways (e.g. scaling, translation). More info
See in Glossary.
Play mode is intended to provide a realistic preview of how your application is likely to behave for users. By default Unity performs two significant actions on entering Play mode to ensure your project starts and runs as it would in a build:
These two actions take time to perform, and the amount of time increases as your scriptsA piece of code that allows you to create your own Components, trigger game events, modify Component properties over time and respond to user input in any way you like. More info
See in Glossary and scenes become more complex. When you frequently make and preview changes, the cumulative time spent waiting to enter Play mode can significantly slow down your development process.
To prioritize faster development iteration times over accuracy of the Play mode simulation, Unity offers the ability to disable domain reload and scene reload on entering Play mode.
The following diagram provides a high-level overview of the effects of disabling domain reload and scene reload:
For more detailed information on the effects of disabling domain and scene reload, refer to Details of disabling domain and scene reload.
You can configure what processes start when you enter Play mode in Enter Play Mode Settings in the Editor section of the Project SettingsA broad collection of settings which allow you to configure how Physics, Audio, Networking, Graphics, Input and many other areas of your project behave. More info
See in Glossary window. To disable domain reload and/or scene reload on enter Play mode:
Did you find this page useful? Please give it a rating:
Thanks for rating this page!
What kind of problem would you like to report?
Thanks for letting us know! This page has been marked for review based on your feedback.
If you have time, you can provide more information to help us fix the problem faster.
Provide more information
You've told us this page needs code samples. If you'd like to help us further, you could provide a code sample, or tell us about what kind of code sample you'd like to see:
You've told us there are code samples on this page which don't work. If you know how to fix it, or have something better we could use instead, please let us know:
You've told us there is information missing from this page. Please tell us more about what's missing:
You've told us there is incorrect information on this page. If you know what we should change to make it correct, please tell us:
You've told us this page has unclear or confusing information. Please tell us more about what you found unclear or confusing, or let us know how we could make it clearer:
You've told us there is a spelling or grammar error on this page. Please tell us what's wrong:
You've told us this page has a problem. Please tell us more about what's wrong:
Thank you for helping to make the Unity documentation better!
Your feedback has been submitted as a ticket for our documentation team to review.
We are not able to reply to every ticket submitted.