Integrate Unity into UWP applications

You can use the Unity as a Library feature to integrate the Unity Runtime Library in Universal Windows Platform (UWP) applications. The Unity Runtime Library exposes API controls to manage when and how to load, activate, and unload content within another UWP application.

This integration enables you to include Unity-powered features in your UWP application, such as:

• 3D/2D real-time rendering
• ARAugmented Reality More info
  See in Glossary experience
• 3D model interaction
• 2D mini-games

To integrate the Unity Runtime Library into a UWP application, follow these steps:

1. Go to File > Build Profiles.
2. From the list of platforms in the Platforms panel, select Universal Windows Platform or create a build profile for Universal Windows Platform.
3. In the Platform Settings section, select Build Type > XAML.
4. Build your project.

As a result, Unity creates a Visual Studio project, which you can use to embed the Unity Runtime Library into another UWP application. The project is a general XAML UWP project in the form of a MainPage.xaml file which contains a SwapChainPanel setup to load the Unity project. You can extend or replace this project with any other non-Unity application business logic.

Note: The MainPage.xaml file is present only if you’re building a UWP app using the XAML build type from the Unity Editor.

When using a SwapchainPanel, Unity renders over other elements. This enables you to render a small object with a transparent background on top of other non-Unity application content. To do this, enable the PlayerSettings.WSA-transparentSwapchain option. You can unload the Unity engine to reclaim resources when Unity loads up with Application.Unload.

Limitations

If you use another application to host your Unity build, Unity won’t control the runtime lifecycle, so your build might not work. You should also be aware of the following limitations:

• You can’t load or integrate more than one instance of the Unity runtime.
• You might need to adapt your native and managed plug-insA set of code created outside of Unity that creates functionality in Unity. There are two kinds of plug-ins you can use in Unity: Managed plug-ins (managed .NET assemblies created with tools like Visual Studio) and Native plug-ins (platform-specific native code libraries). More info
  See in Glossary to work properly.

Additional resources

• Using Unity as a Library in other applications