| 0–9 | A | B | C | D | E | F | G | | H | I-J | K | L | M | N | O | P | | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X-Z |
A Blend Tree for 1D blending, which blends motion according to a single Animation Parameter. More info
A Blend Tree for 2D blending, which blends motion according to two Animation Parameters. More info
A 2D GameObject such as a tilemap or sprite. More info
A 3D GameObject such as a cube, terrain or ragdoll. More info
The Unity Accelerator is an external tool that provides an asset cache that keeps copies of a team’s imported assets. The goal of the Accelerator is to speed up teamwork and reduce iteration time by coordinating asset sharing so that you don’t need to reimport portions of your project. More info
Light that doesn’t come from any specific direction, and contributes equal light in all directions to the Scene. More info
A method to approximate how much ambient light (light not coming from a specific direction) can hit a point on a surface.
Abbreviation of Unity AnalyticsA data platform that provides analytics for your Unity game. More info
See in Glossary
An Android system that lets you store cryptographic key entries for enhanced device security. More info
Enables you to make an object change its form by blending between two separate meshes. More info
Used for continuous blending between similar Animation Clips based on float Animation Parameters. More info
Animation data that can be used for animated characters or simple animations. It is a simple “unit” piece of motion, such as (one specific instance of) “Idle”, “Walk” or “Run”. More info
A node in a Blend Tree graph that contains an animation clip, such as a run or walk animation. More info
The method of compressing animation data to significantly reduce file sizes without causing a noticeable reduction in motion quality. Animation compression is a trade off between saving on memory and image quality. More info
Allows you to add data to an imported clip so you can animate the timings of other items based on the state of an animator. For example, for a game set in icy conditions, you could use an extra animation curve to control the emission rate of a particle system to show the player’s condensing breath in the cold air. More info
Allows you to add data to an imported clip which determines when certain actions should occur in time with the animation. For example, for an animated character you might want to add events to walk and run cycles to indicate when the footstep sounds should play. More info
The value of an animatable property, set at a specific point in time. Setting at least two keys for the same property creates an animation. More info
An Animation Layer contains an Animation State Machine that controls animations of a model or part of it. An example of this is if you have a full-body layer for walking or jumping and a higher layer for upper-body motions such as throwing an object or shooting. The higher layers take precedence for the body parts they control. More info
Used to communicate between scripting and the Animator Controller. Some parameters can be set in scripting and used by the controller, while other parameters are based on Custom Curves in Animation Clips and can be sampled using the scripting API. More info
A graph within an Animator Controller that controls the interaction of Animation States. Each state references an Animation Blend Tree or a single Animation Clip. More info
Allows a state machine to switch or blend from one animation state to another. Transitions define how long a blend between states should take, and the conditions that activate them. More info
A component on a model that animates that model using the Animation system. The component has a reference to an Animator Controller asset that controls the animation. More info
Controls animation through Animation Layers with Animation State Machines and Animation Blend Trees, controlled by Animation Parameters. The same Animator Controller can be referenced by multiple models with Animator components. More info
Allows you to create multiple variants of an Animator Controller, with each variant using a different set of animations, while retaining the original Controller’s structure, parameters and logic. More info
The window where the Animator Controller is visualized and edited. More info
The anisotropic filtering (AF) level of a texture. Allows you to increase texture quality when viewing a texture at a steep angle. Good for floor and ground textures. More info
A technique for decreasing artifacts, like jagged lines (jaggies), in images to make them appear smoother.
Ahead of Time (AOT) compilation is an optimization method used by all platforms except iOS for optimizing the size of the built player. . More info
The Android Package format output by Unity. An APK is automatically deployed to your device when you select File > Build & Run. More info
Augmented Reality More info
The relationship of an image’s proportional dimensions, such as its width and height.
A collection of files and data from Unity projects, or elements of projects, which are compressed and stored in one file, similar to Zip files, with the .unitypackage extension. Asset packages are a handy way of sharing and re-using Unity projects and collections of assets. More info
Legacy - An asset and version control system with a graphical user interface integrated into Unity. Enables team members to work together on a project on different computers.
Any media or data that can be used in your game or project. An asset may come from a file created outside of Unity, such as a 3D Model, an audio file or an image. You can also create some asset types in Unity, such as an Animator Controller, an Audio Mixer or a Render Texture. More info
A container for audio data in Unity. Unity supports mono, stereo and multichannel audio assets (up to eight channels). Unity can import .aif, .wav, .mp3, and .ogg audio file format, and .xm, .mod, .it, and .s3m tracker module formats. More info
An audio filter that distorts the sound from an Audio Source or sounds reaching the Audio Listener by simulating the sound of a low quality radio transmission. More info
Any effect that can modify the output of Audio Mixer components, such as filtering frequency ranges of a sound or applying reverb. More info
Any audio filter that distorts the sound from an Audio Source or sounds reaching an Audio Listener. More info
An audio filter that passes high frequencies of an AudioSource and cuts off signals with frequencies lower than the Cutoff Frequency. More info
A component that acts like a microphone, receiving sound from Audio Sources in the scene and outputting to the computer speakers. More info
An audio filter that passes low frequencies of an Audio Source or all sound reaching an Audio Listener while removing frequencies higher than the Cutoff Frequency. More info
A component which plays back an Audio Clip in the scene to an audio listener or through an audio mixer. More info
A plug-in that changes the way audio is transmitted from an audio source into the surrounding space. It takes the source and regulates the gains of the left and right ear contributions based on the distance and angle between the AudioListener and the AudioSource. More info
Augmented Reality (AR) uses computer graphics or video composited on top of a live video feed to augment the view and create interaction with real and virtual objects. More info
A specification for which body parts to include or exclude for an animation rig. Used in Animation Layers and in the importer. More info
An interface for retargeting animation from one rig to another. More info
Light components whose Mode property is set to Baked. Unity pre-calculates the illumination from Baked Lights before runtime, and does not include them in any runtime lighting calculations. More info
A textured 2D object that rotates so that it always faces the Camera. More info
The pose at which the character was modeled.
A node in a Blend Tree graph that blends animation clip nodes. More info
Transition from one animation to another smoothly and seamlessly, such as blending a character’s walking and running animations according to the character’s speed.
A shorthand term for “bit block transfer”. A blit operation is the process of transferring blocks of data from one place in memory to another.
A post-processing effect used to reproduce an imaging artifact of real-world cameras. The effect produces fringes of light extending from the borders of bright areas in an image, contributing to the illusion of an extremely bright light overwhelming the camera or eye capturing the scene.
The mass center of the character. It is used in for animation retargeting and provides the most stable displacement model. More info
Defines a fixed behavior for a 2D Rigidbody. Can be Dynamic (the body moves under simulation and is affected by forces like gravity), Kinematic (the body moves under simulation, but isn’t affected by forces like gravity) or Static (the body doesn’t move under simulation). More info
A closed shape representing the edges and faces of a collider or trigger.
A cube-shaped collider component that handles collisions for GameObjects like dice and ice cubes. More info
A collision detection phase that computes pairs of potentially overlapping objects by judging only their respective bounding volumes. More info
A set of customizable configuration settings to use when creating a build for your target platform. More info
The process of compiling your project into a format that is ready to run on a specific platform or platforms. More info
Built-in packages allow users to toggle Unity features on or off through the Package Manager. Enabling or disabling a package reduces the run-time build size. For example, most projects don’t use the legacy Particle System. By removing the abstracted package of this feature, the related code and resources are not part of the final built product. Typically, these packages contain only the package manifest and are bundled with Unity (rather than available on the package registry).
An image texture used to represent geometric detail across the surface of a mesh, for example bumps and grooves. Can be represented as a heightmap or a normal map. More info
Unity stores bundled packages in the global cache when you install Unity. You can install these packages in your project even if you are completely offline (not currently connected to the internet or a local network).
A list of methods that were called at run time, organized as a last-in-first-out stack.
A component which creates an image of a particular viewpoint in your scene. The output is either drawn to the screen or captured as a texture. More info
A capsule-shaped collider component that handles collisions for GameObjects like barrels and character limbs. More info
A Profiler category identifies the workload data for a Unity subsystem (for example, Rendering, Scripting and Animation categories). Unity applies color-coding to categories to help visually distinguish the types of data in the Profiler window. More info
Represents the average position of all mass in a Rigidbody for the purposes of physics calculations. By default it is computed from all colliders belonging to the Rigidbody, but can be modified via script. More info
A simple, capsule-shaped collider component with specialized features for behaving as a character in a game. Unlike true collider components, a Rigidbody is not needed and the momentum effects are not realistic. More info
An extended ball-socket joint which allows a joint to be limited on each axis. Mainly used for Ragdoll effects. More info
A plane that limits how far or close a camera can see from its current position. A camera’s viewable range is between the far and near clipping planes. See far clipping plane and near clipping plane. More info
Includes platforms that require confidentiality and legal agreements with the platform provider for using their developer tools and hardware. These platforms aren’t open to development unless you have an established relationship with the provider. For example PlayStation®, Game Core for Xbox®, and Nintendo®.
A component that works with the Skinned Mesh Renderer to provide a physics-based solution for simulating fabrics. More info
An invisible shape that is used to handle physical collisions for an object. A collider doesn’t need to be exactly the same shape as the object’s mesh - a rough approximation is often more efficient and indistinguishable in gameplay. More info
An automatic process performed by Unity which determines whether a moving GameObject with a Rigidbody and collider component has come into contact with any other colliders. More info
A collision occurs when the physics engine detects that the colliders of two GameObjects make contact or overlap, when at least one has a Rigidbody component and is in motion. More info
A functional part of a GameObject. A GameObject can contain any number of components. Unity has many built-in components, and you can create your own by writing scripts that inherit from MonoBehaviour. More info
A method of storing data that reduces the amount of storage space it requires. See Texture Compression3D Graphics hardware requires Textures to be compressed in specialized formats which are optimized for fast Texture sampling. More info
See in Glossary, Animation CompressionThe method of compressing animation data to significantly reduce file sizes without causing a noticeable reduction in motion quality. Animation compression is a trade off between saving on memory and image quality. More info
See in Glossary, Audio Compression, Build Compression.
An extremely customizable joint that other joint types are derived from. It can be used to create anything from adapted versions of existing joints to custom designed and highly specialized joints. More info
A Unity Editor window that shows errors, warnings and other messages generated by Unity, or your own scripts. More info
Abbreviation of game consoleA device that runs and displays video games.
See in Glossary
A simple component for adding a constant force or torque to game objects with a Rigidbody. More info
Settings on Joint components which limit movement or rotation. The type and number of constraints vary depending on the type of Joint. More info
A joint limit property that sets the minimum distance tolerance between the joint position and the limit at which the limit will be enforced. More info
A collision detection method that calculates and resolves collisions over the entire physics simulation step. This can prevent fast-moving objects from tunnelling through walls during a simulation step. More info
A collection of six square textures that can represent the reflections in an environment or the skybox drawn behind your geometry. The six squares form the faces of an imaginary cube that surrounds an object; each face represents the view along the directions of the world axes (up, down, left, right, forward and back). More info
Allows you to include or omit objects to be rendered by a Camera, by Layer.
A joint setting to control spring oscillation. A higher damping ratio means the spring will come to rest faster. More info
Unity automatically pre-installs a select number of default packages (for example, the Analytics Library, Unity Timeline, etc.) when you create a new project. This differs from a bundled packageUnity stores bundled packages in the global cache when you install Unity. You can install these packages in your project even if you are completely offline (not currently connected to the internet or a local network).
See in Glossary because you don’t need to install it and it differs from a built-in packageBuilt-in packages allow users to toggle Unity features on or off through the Package Manager. Enabling or disabling a package reduces the run-time build size. For example, most projects don’t use the legacy Particle System. By removing the abstracted package of this feature, the related code and resources are not part of the final built product. Typically, these packages contain only the package manifest and are bundled with Unity (rather than available on the package registry).
See in Glossary because it extends Unity’s features rather than being able to enable or disable them.
A rendering path in the Built-in Render Pipeline that places no limit on the number of Lights that can affect a GameObject. All Lights are evaluated per-pixel, which means that they all interact correctly with normal maps and so on. Additionally, all Lights can have cookies and shadows. More info
A memory store that holds the z-value depth of each pixel in an image, where the z-value is the depth for each rendered pixel from the projection plane. More info
A post-processing effect that simulates the focus properties of a camera lens. More info
A development build includes debug symbols and enables the Profiler. More info
A form of parallel projection where the dimensions of a 3D object are projected onto a 2D plane, and only two of the three angles between the axes are equal to each other. This form of projection is commonly used in isometric video games to simulate three-dimensional depth. More info
A Blend Tree that allows you to map animator parameters directly to the weight of a Blend Tree child. This is useful when you want to have exact control over the animations that are being blended rather than blend them indirectly using one or two parameters (in the case of 1D and 2D blend trees). More info
A direct dependency occurs when your project “requests” a specific package version. To create a direct dependency, you add that package and version to the dependencies property in your project manifest (expressed in the form package_name@package_version). More info
A collision detection method that calculates and resolves collisions based on the pose of objects at the end of each physics simulation step. More info
A version of the Shadowmask lighting mode that includes high quality shadows cast from static GameObjects onto dynamic GameObjects. More info
An audio effect that modifies the sound by squashing and clipping the waveform to produce a rough, harsh result. More info
An audio setting that allows you to control how much the velocity of an object (relative to the audio listener) affects the pitch of any audio sources attached to it. More info
An audio setting that allows you to set the mix level of unprocessed signal in output in mB.
An audio setting that allows you to set the volume of the original signal to pass to output.
A Physics Material property that defines the friction for a Rigidbody when it’s in motion. Lower values mean less friction, so a setting of zero represents slipping on ice. More info
A Camera setting that allows you to dynamically scale individual render targets to reduce workload on the GPU. More info
C# source files composed entirely of code that runs in the Unity Editor only and not in the runtime Player build. Keep such scripts in dedicated Editor assemblies either by placing them in a parent folder called Editor or creating an Editor-only assembly definition.
An embedded package is a mutable package that you store under the Packages directory at the root of a Unity project. This differs from most packages which you download from a package server and are immutable. More info
(Ericsson Texture Compression) A block-based texture format that compresses textures to significantly reduce file sizes without causing a noticeable reduction in image quality. More info
A way of sending events to objects in the application based on input, be it keyboard, mouse, touch, or custom input. The Event System consists of a few components that work together to send events. More info
A fog model that emulates realistic fog behavior by simulating light absorption over distance by a certain attenuation factor.
A value that represents a combination of a camera’s shutter speed and f-number. It is essentially a measurement of exposure such that all combinations of shutter speed and f-number that yield the same level of exposure have the same EV.
See ExtrapolationThe process of storing the last few known values and using them to predict future values. Used in animation, physics and multiplayer.
See in Glossary
The process of storing the last few known values and using them to predict future values. Used in animation, physics and multiplayer.
A Texture property that enables you to define how much area to leave around a sprite in a generated mesh.
The maximum draw distance for a camera. Geometry beyond the plane defined by this value is not rendered. The plane is perpendicular to the camera’s forward (Z) direction.
Autodesk’s proprietary format that Unity uses to import and export Models, animation, and more. More info
A feature set is a collection of related packages that you can use to achieve specific results in the Unity Editor. You can manage feature sets directly in Unity’s Package Manager. More info
A common game genre, featuring a first-person view of a 3D world, and gun-based combat with other players or NPCs.
A joint type that is completely constrained, allowing two objects to be held together. Implemented as a spring so some motion may still occur. More info
A 2D joint type which is completely constrained, allowing two objects to be held together. Implemented as a spring so some small motion may still occur. More info
A customizable frame-rate-independent interval that dictates when physics calculations and FixedUpdate() events are performed. More info
A Scene view navigation mode that allows you to fly around the scene in first-person, similar to how you would navigate in many games. More info
Audio in Unity is built on top of a middleware called FMOD. FMOD is integrated with the Unity engine for creating and playing back interactive audio.
A post-processing effect that overlays a color onto objects depending on the distance from the camera. Use this to simulate fog or mist in outdoor environments, or to hide clipping of objects near the camera’s far clip plane. More info
A method of posing a skeleton for animation by rotating the joint angles to predetermined values. The position of a child joint changes according to the rotation of its parent and so the end point of a chain of joints can be determined from the angles and relative positions of the individual joints it contains.
A rendering path that renders each object in one or more passes, depending on lights that affect the object. Lights themselves are also treated differently by Forward Rendering, depending on their settings and intensity. More info
See first person shooter, frames per second.
A single image from a sequence of images that represent moving graphics. While your game is running, the camera in your game renders frames to the screen as fast as possible. May also refer to a frame from a video clip, or sprite animation frames. See frames per secondThe frequency at which consecutive frames are displayed in a running game. More info
See in Glossary (FPS).
The frequency at which consecutive frames are displayed in a running game. More info
An effect representing the increase in reflectivity on objects when light hits at grazing angles.
The region of 3D space that a perspective camera can see and render. In the Scene view, the frustum is represented by a truncated rectangular pyramid with its top at the camera’s near clipping plane and its base at the camera’s far clipping plane. More info
A device that runs and displays video games.
A device to control objects and characters in a game.
The fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
The cached intermediate files used when Unity precomputes lighting data. Unity keeps this cache to speed up computation. More info
The Package Manager retrieves Git dependencies from a Git repository directly rather than from a package registry. Git dependencies use a Git URL reference instead of a version, and there’s no guarantee about the package quality, stability, validity, or even whether the version stated in its package.json file respects Semantic Versioning rules with regards to officially published releases of this package. More info
A graphic overlay associated with a GameObject in a Scene, and displayed in the Scene View. Built-in scene tools such as the move tool are Gizmos, and you can create custom Gizmos using textures or scripting. Some Gizmos are only drawn when the GameObject is selected, while other Gizmos are drawn by the Editor regardless of which GameObjects are selected. More info
A group of techniques that model both direct and indirect lighting to provide realistic lighting results.
An Android build system that automates several build processes. This automation means that many common build errors are less likely to occur. More info
A Particle System property that scales the gravity value set in the physics manager. A value of zero switches gravity off. More info
The glowing light areas around light sources, used to give the impression of small dust particles in the air. More info
A shadow property that produces shadows with a sharp edge. Hard shadows are not particularly realistic compared to Soft Shadows but they involve less processing, and are acceptable for many purposes.
high dynamic range
high dynamic range image
A greyscale Texture that stores height data for an object. Each pixel stores the height difference perpendicular to the face that pixel represents.
The higher limit of a Character Joint. More info
A joint that groups together two Rigidbody components, constraining them to move like they are connected by a hinge. It is perfect for doors, but can also be used to model chains, pendulums and so on. More info
Abbreviation of High Level API.
In a multiplayer network game without a dedicated server, one of the peers in the game acts as the center of authority for the game. This peer is called the “host”. It runs a server and a “local client”, while the other peers each run a “remote client”. More info
A pre-defined bone-mapping. Used for matching bones from FBX files to the Avatar. More info
An animation using humanoid skeletons. Humanoid models generally have the same basic structure, representing the major articulate parts of the body, head and limbs. This makes it easy to map animations from one humanoid skeleton to another, allowing retargeting and inverse kinematics. More info
See In App PurchaseRevenue from “micro-transactions” within a game. More info
See in Glossary
A special file used in many Version Control Systems which specifies files to be excluded from being placed under version control. In Unity projects there are a number of files which could be excluded from version control, and using an Ignore File is the best way to achieve this.
A Unity-developed scripting back-end which you can use as an alternative to Mono when building projects for some platforms. More info
You cannot change the contents of an immutable (read-only) package. This is the opposite of mutableYou can change the contents of a mutable package. This is the opposite of immutable. Only Local packages and Embedded packages are mutable.
See in Glossary. Most packages are immutable, including packages downloaded from the package registry or by Git URL.
Revenue from “micro-transactions” within a game. More info
An indirect, or transitive dependency occurs when your project requests a package which itself “depends on” another package. For example, if your project depends on the alembic@1.0.7 package which in turn depends on the timeline@1.0.0 package, then your project has an direct dependency on Alembic and an indirect dependency on Timeline. More info
A key on a keyboard relating to the Input class. More info
Settings where you can define all the different input axes, buttons and controls for your project. More info
A Unity window that displays information about the currently selected GameObject, asset or project settings, allowing you to inspect and edit the values. More info
See InterpolationThe process of calculating values in-between two defined values. Used in animation (between keyframes), physics (between physics time-steps), and multiplayer (between network updates)
See in Glossary
The process of calculating values in-between two defined values. Used in animation (between keyframes), physics (between physics time-steps), and multiplayer (between network updates)
The automatic calculation of joint angles (eg. the shoulder and elbow joint of an arm) so that the end point (eg. the hand) reaches a desired point in space. In contrast to Forward KinematicsA method of posing a skeleton for animation by rotating the joint angles to predetermined values. The position of a child joint changes according to the rotation of its parent and so the end point of a chain of joints can be determined from the angles and relative positions of the individual joints it contains.
See in Glossary More info
A lightmap property that determines the precision of the incoming light data used to light each texel in the lightmap More info
A lightmap property that sets the number of rays that are cast and used to compute which clusters affect a given output lightmap texel. More info
A form of parallel projection where the dimensions of a 3D object are projected onto a 2D plane, and the angles between all three axes are equal to each other. This form of projection is commonly used in isometric video games to simulate three-dimensional depth. More info
A physics component allowing a dynamic connection between Rigidbody components, usually allowing some degree of movement such as a hinge. More info
An Input Manager property that defines which joystick will be used. More info
A process that removes redundant keyframes. More info
A frame that marks the start or end point of a transition in an animation. Frames in between the keyframes are called inbetweens.
The geometry that describes the position and orientation of a character’s joints and bodies. Used by inverse kinematics to control character movement.
A value defining which layers to include or exclude from an operation, such as rendering, collision or your own code. More info
Layers in Unity can be used to selectively opt groups of GameObjects in or out of certain processes or calculations. This includes camera rendering, lighting, physics collisions, or custom calculations in your own code. More info
A component that simulates the effect of lights refracting inside a camera lens. Use a Lens Flare to represent very bright lights or add atmosphere to your scene. More info
The Level Of Detail (LOD) technique is an optimization that reduces the rendering workload to improve performance. More info
A Light property that defines the use of the Light. Can be set to Realtime, Baked and Mixed. More info
A component that enables you to add Light Probes to GameObjects in your scene. More info
A component that allows you to use more lighting information for large dynamic GameObjects that cannot use baked lightmaps (for example, large Particle Systems or skinned Meshes). More info
Light probes store information about how light passes through space in your scene. A collection of light probes arranged within a given space can improve lighting on moving objects and static LOD scenery within that space. More info
Final rendered texture containing lighting data. Lightmap textures store baked lighting information such as indirect illumination and shadowing, and are applied to meshes via their UVs.
A pre-rendered texture that contains the effects of light sources on static objects in the scene. Lightmaps are overlaid on top of scene geometry to create the effect of lighting. More info
A tool in Unity that bakes lightmaps according to the arrangement of lights and geometry in your scene. More info
A component that takes an array of two or more points in 3D space and draws a straight line between each one. You can use a single Line Renderer component to draw anything from a simple straight line to a complex spiral. More info
A local package already exists on the file system, usually outside the project folder. To install the package, notify the Package Manager of its location through the Packages window. More info
A component to manage level of detail (LOD) for GameObjects. More info
See level of detailThe Level Of Detail (LOD) technique is an optimization that reduces the rendering workload to improve performance. More info
See in Glossary
An animation clip setting that blends the end and start of an animation to create a seamless join. More info
A joint property that sets the lower limit of a joint. More info
The Unity Player that exists in the main Unity Editor.
A managed .NET assembly that is created with tools like Visual Studio for use in Unity. More info
There are two types of manifest files: project manifestEach Unity project has a project manifest, which acts as an entry point for the Package Manager. This file must be available in the <project>/Packages directory. The Package Manager uses it to configure many things, including a list of dependencies for that project, as well as any package repository to query for packages. More info
See in Glossarys and package manifestEach package has a manifest, which provides information about the package to the Package Manager. The manifest contains information such as the name of the package, its version, a description for users, dependencies on other packages (if any), and other details. More info
See in Glossarys.
Minimum distance between UV charts within the same layout. Margin helps prevent texture bleeding between charts during filtering and mipmapping, and is usually specified in texels at the target resolution.
A Unity Profiler API structure that describes a CPU or GPU event, such as a button click. Each event marker appears as a vertical lines or label in the Profiler window. More info
An asset that defines how a surface should be rendered. More info
The Mono C# compiler file format. More info
A free-form collider component which accepts a mesh reference to define its collision surface shape. More info
A mesh component that takes a mesh from your assets and passes it to the Mesh Renderer for rendering on the screen. More info
A mesh component that takes the geometry from the Mesh Filter and renders it at the position defined by the object’s Transform component. More info
The main graphics primitive of Unity. Meshes make up a large part of your 3D worlds. Unity supports triangulated or Quadrangulated polygon meshes. Nurbs, Nurms, Subdiv surfaces must be converted to polygons. More info
Light components whose Mode property is set to Mixed. Some calculations for Mixed Lights are performed in advance, and some calculations for Mixed Lights are performed at runtime. The behavior of all Mixed Lights in a Scene is determined by the Scene’s Lighting Mode. More info
Mixed Reality (MR) combines its own virtual environment with the user’s real-world environment and allows them to interact with each other.
A file containing a 3D data, which may include definitions for meshes, bones, animation, materials and textures. More info
A 3D model representation of an object, such as a character, a building, or a piece of furniture. More info
A scripting backend used in Unity. More info
Mixed Reality
This allows you to have more intuitive control over the character’s skeleton. When an Avatar is in place, the Animation system works in muscle space, which is more intuitive than bone space. More info
You can change the contents of a mutable package. This is the opposite of immutableYou cannot change the contents of an immutable (read-only) package. This is the opposite of mutable. Most packages are immutable, including packages downloaded from the package registry or by Git URL.
See in Glossary. Only Local packageA local package already exists on the file system, usually outside the project folder. To install the package, notify the Package Manager of its location through the Packages window. More info
See in Glossarys and Embedded packageAn embedded package is a mutable package that you store under the Packages directory at the root of a Unity project. This differs from most packages which you download from a package server and are immutable. More info
See in Glossarys are mutable.
A collision detection phase that determines whether the pairs of objects found in the broad phase will actually collide. It then computes the contact points for those pairs and gives them to the solver to use when solving collisions. More info
A platform-specific native code library that is created outside of Unity for use in Unity. Allows you can access features like OS calls and third-party code libraries that would otherwise not be available to Unity. More info
A plane that limits how close a camera can see from its current position. The plane is perpendicular to the camera’s forward (Z) direction. More info
The Unity system that enables multiplayer gaming across a computer network. More info
A type of Bump Map texture that allows you to add surface detail such as bumps, grooves, and scratches to a model which catch the light as if they are represented by real geometry.
The direction perpendicular to the surface of a mesh, represented by a Vector. Unity uses normals to determine object orientation and apply shading. More info
See GameObjectThe fundamental object in Unity scenes, which can represent characters, props, scenery, cameras, waypoints, and more. A GameObject’s functionality is defined by the Components attached to it. More info
See in Glossary.
A process that disables rendering GameObjects that are hidden (occluded) from the view of the camera. More info
On-demand resources (ODR) is a feature available for the iOS and tvOS platforms, from version 9.0 of iOS and tvOS onwards. It allows you to reduce the size of your application by separating the core assets (those that are needed from application startup) from assets which may be optional, or which appear in later levels of your game. More info
A common type of camera view used in games that give you a bird’s-eye view of the action, and is sometimes called “2.5D”. More info
The amount of supporting code that the Profiler needs to run. This overhead might affect the performance of your application.
Each package has a manifest, which provides information about the package to the Package Manager. The manifest contains information such as the name of the package, its version, a description for users, dependencies on other packages (if any), and other details. More info
Minimum distance between different UV layouts in the atlas, specified in texels. Padding prevents cross-object bleeding within a UV atlas to accommodate filtering and mip levels.
An object that contains child objects in a hierarchy. When a GameObject is a Parent of another GameObject, the Child GameObject will move, rotate, and scale exactly as its Parent does. You can think of parenting as being like the relationship between your arms and your body; whenever your body moves, your arms also move along with it. More info
A component that simulates fluid entities such as liquids, clouds and flames by generating and animating large numbers of small 2D images in the scene. More info
A small, simple image or mesh that is emitted by a particle system. A particle system can display and move particles in great numbers to represent a fluid or amorphous entity. The effect of all the particles together creates the impression of the complete entity, such as smoke. More info
A display mode in which an XR headset’s cameras capture the user’s physical surroundings and display them as the background of the app. Virtual content appears layered over the real world. Apps that use passthrough are a type of Mixed Reality (MR) application. To develop a passthrough app in Unity, you can use the Mixed Reality templates. More info
A version control system for file change management. More info
An API that enables you to take photos from a HoloLens web camera and store them in memory or on disk. More info
An advanced lighting model that simulates the interactions between materials and light in a way that mimics reality. More info
A system that simulates aspects of physical systems so that objects can accelerate correctly and be affected by collisions, gravity and other forces. More info
Use this to adjust the friction and bounce that occurs between 2D physics objects when they collide More info
A physics asset for adjusting the friction and bouncing effects of colliding objects. More info
To repeatedly play an animation to the end, then in reverse back to the beginning, in a loop.
The smallest unit in a computer image. Pixel size depends on your screen resolution. Pixel lighting is calculated at every screen pixel. More info
Set this to true to make an Audio Source start playing on awake More info
An API for controlling Playables. Playable Graphs allow you to create, connect and destroy playables. More info
An API that provides a way to create tools, effects or other gameplay mechanisms by organizing and evaluating data sources in a tree-like structure known as the PlayableGraph. More info
The .log file created by a Standalone Player that contains a record of events, such as script execution times, the compiler version, and AssetImport time. Log files can help diagnose problems. More info
Settings that let you set various player-specific options for the final game built by Unity. More info
A 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
A process that improves product visuals by applying filters and effects before the image appears on screen. You can use post-processing effects to simulate physical camera and film properties, for example Bloom and Depth of Field. More info post processing, postprocessing, postprocess
An asset type that allows you to store a GameObject complete with components and properties. The prefab acts as a template from which you can create new object instances in the scene. More info
A preview package is in development and not yet ready for production. A package in preview might be at any stage of development, from the initial stages to near completion.
Identifies the workload data for a Unity subsystem (for example, Rendering, Scripting and Animation categories). Unity applies color-coding to categories to visually distinguish between the types of data in the Profiler window.
A set of data associated with a Profiler marker, that the Profiler has recorded and collected.
A window that helps you to optimize your game. It shows how much time is spent in the various areas of your game. For example, it can report the percentage of time spent rendering, animating, or in your game logic. More info
Each Unity project has a project manifest, which acts as an entry point for the Package Manager. This file must be available in the <project>/Packages directory. The Package Manager uses it to configure many things, including a list of dependencies for that project, as well as any package repository to query for packages. More info
A 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
A window that shows the contents of your Assets folder (Project tab) More info
In Unity, you use a project to design and develop a game. A project stores all of the files that are related to a game, such as the asset and Scene files. More info
A Unity feature that allows you to customize the look of certain controls in the Inspector window by using attributes on your scripts, or by controlling how a specific Serializable class should look More info
A visual simulation of three-dimensional characteristics on a two-dimensional object or environment. This effect is sometimes called “2.5D”. More info
A primitive object that resembles a plane but its edges are only one unit long, it uses only 4 vertices, and the surface is oriented in the XY plane of the local coordinate space. More info
Unity’s standard way of representing rotations as data. When writing code that deals with rotations, you should usually use the Quaternion class and its methods. More info
The process of generating an image by calculating pixels for each polygon or triangle in the geometry. This is an alternative to ray tracing.
The process of generating an image by tracing out rays from the Camera through each pixel and recording the color contribution at the hit point. This is an alternative to rasterization. raytracing
Light components whose Mode property is set to Realtime. Unity calculates and updates the lighting of Realtime Lights every frame at runtime. No Realtime Lights are precomputed. More info
A rendering component that captures a spherical view of its surroundings in all directions, rather like a camera. The captured image is then stored as a Cubemap that can be used by objects with reflective materials. More info
A 2D joint that allows two game objects controlled by Rigidbody physics to maintain in a position based on each other’s location. Use this joint to keep two objects offset from each other, at a position and angle you decide More info
A series of operations that take the contents of a Scene, and displays them on a screen. Unity lets you choose from pre-built render pipelines, or write your own. More info
A special type of Texture that is created and updated at runtime. To use them, first create a new Render Texture and designate one of your Cameras to render into it. Then you can use the Render Texture in a Material just like a regular Texture. More info
A layer that defines how specific effects are applied across different objects. Rendering layers don’t define draw order. They’re selection groups you assign objects to. Rendering layers let lights, decals, shadows, and custom passes include or ignore specific objects.
A bitmask that aggregates multiple rendering layers. By assigning one or more rendering layers to an object’s MeshRenderer or an effect such as light, decals, or APVs, you can control how and where Unity applies the effect in the scene.
The technique that a render pipeline uses to render graphics. Choosing a different rendering path affects how lighting and shading are calculated. Some rendering paths are more suited to different platforms and hardware than others. More info
Applying animations created for one model to another. More info
A skeletal hierarchy of joints for a mesh. More info
The process of building a skeleton hierarchy of joints for your mesh. Performed with an external tool, such as Blender or Autodesk Maya. More info
A component that allows a GameObject to be affected by simulated gravity and other forces. More info
Motion of character’s root node, whether it’s controlled by the animation itself or externally. More info
A transform in an animation hierarchy that allows Unity to establish consistency between Animation clips for a generic model. It also enables Unity to properly blend between Animations that have not been authored “in place” (that is, where the whole Model moves its world position while animating). More info
The Transform at the top of a hierarchy of Transforms. In a Prefab, the Root Transform is the topmost Transform in the Prefab. In an animated humanoid character, the Root Transform is a projection on the Y plane of the Body Transform and is computed at run time. At every frame, a change in the Root Transform is computed, and then this is applied to the GameObject to make it move. More info
An interactive view into the world you are creating. You use the Scene View to select and position scenery, characters, cameras, lights, and all other types of Game Object. More info
A Scene contains the environments and menus of your game. Think of each unique Scene file as a unique level. In each Scene, you place your environments, obstacles, and decorations, essentially designing and building your game in pieces. More info
A framework that powers scripting in Unity. Unity supports three different scripting backends depending on target platform: Mono, .NET and IL2CPP. Universal Windows Platform, however, supports only two: .NET and IL2CPP. More info
A way of allowing a user-driven callback to persist from edit time to run time without the need for additional programming and script configuration More info
A 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
A UI Control which displays a large set of Controls in a viewable area that you can see by using a scrollbar. More info
A cloth property that prevents cloth from penetrating itself. More info
A Unity facility that provides a growing range of complimentary services to help you make games and engage, retain and monetize audiences. More info
An instance of the Shader class, a Shader object is container for shader programs and GPU instructions, and information that tells Unity how to use them. Use them with materials to determine the appearance of your scene. More info
A verion of a shader program that Unity generates according to a specific combination of shader keywords and their status. A Shader object can contain multiple shader variants. More info
A program that runs on the GPU. More info
Unity’s language for defining the structure of Shader objects. More info
A shadowmask texture uses the same UV layout and resolution as its corresponding lightmap texture. More info
The process of binding bone joints to the vertices of a character’s mesh or ‘skin’. Performed with an external tool, such as Blender or Autodesk Maya. More info
A special type of Material used to represent skies. Usually six-sided. More info
Particles that create semi-transparent effects like smoke, fog or fire. Soft particles fade out as they approach an opaque object, to prevent intersections with the geometry. More info
A shadow property that produces shadows with a soft edge. Soft shadows are more realistic compared to Hard Shadows and tend to reduce the “blocky” aliasing effect from the shadow map, but they require more processing.
The process of mapping real-world surfaces into the virtual world.
The color of a specular highlight.
A bright spot of light that appears on the surface of shiny objects when illuminated.
A collision detection method that inflates broad phase AABB of moving objects according to their velocities. This enables support for effects like rotations. More info
A sphere-shaped collider component that handles collisions for GameObjects like balls or other things that can be roughly approximated as a sphere for the purposes of physics. More info
A joint type that connects two Rigidbody components together but allows the distance between them to change as though they were connected by a spring. More info
Graphics: A utility that packs several sprite textures tightly together within a single texture known as an atlas. More info. 2D: A texture that is composed of several smaller textures. Also referred to as a texture atlas, image sprite, sprite sheet or packed texture. More info.
A texture which defines which areas of an underlying image to reveal or hide. More info
A component that lets you display images as Sprites for use in both 2D and 3D scenes. More info
A 2D graphic objects. If you are used to working in 3D, Sprites are essentially just standard textures but there are special techniques for combining and managing sprite textures for efficiency and convenience during development. More info
A script that attaches to a state within a state machine to control what happens when the state machine enters, exits or remains within a state, such as play sounds as states are entered. More info
The set of states in an Animator Controller that a character or animated GameObject can be in, along with a set of transitions between those states and a variable to remember the current state. The states available will depend on the type of gameplay, but typical states include things like idling, walking, running and jumping. More info
A technique Unity uses to draw GameObjects on the screen that combines static (non-moving) GameObjects into big Meshes, and renders them in a faster way. More info
A static GameObject that is receiving a shadow from another static or dynamic GameObject More info
A memory store that holds an 8-bit per-pixel value. In Unity, you can use a stencil buffer to flag pixels, and then only render to pixels that pass the stencil operation. More info
Overflow hidden with either rounded corners or vector image background.
A streamlined way of writing shaders for the Built-in Render Pipeline. More info
A joint property that defines the axis around which the joint can swing. More info
A joint property that limits the rotation around one element of the defined Swing Axis. More info
The pose in which the character has their arms straight out to the sides, forming a “T”. The required pose for the character to be in, in order to make an Avatar.
A scripting function that allows you to move characters in such a way that a hand or foot lands in a certain place at a certain time. For example, the character may need to jump across stepping stones or jump and grab an overhead beam. More info
A joint property to set the target position that the joint’s drive force should move it to. More info
A joint property to set the desired velocity with which the joint should move to the Target Position under the drive force. More info
A terrain-shaped collider component that handles collisions for collision surface with the same shape as the Terrain object it is attached to. More info
The landscape in your scene. A Terrain GameObject adds a large flat plane to your scene and you can use the Terrain’s Inspector window to create a detailed landscape. More info
A Mesh component that displays a Text string More info
A TextField control displays a non-interactive piece of text to the user, such as a caption, label for other GUI controls, or instruction. More info
3D Graphics hardware requires Textures to be compressed in specialized formats which are optimized for fast Texture sampling. More info
A file format for handling textures during real-time rendering by 3D graphics hardware, such as a graphics card or mobile device. More info
An Inspector that allows you to define how your images are imported from your project’s Assets folder into the Unity Editor. More info
Platform-specific settings that allow you to set the resolution, file size with associated memory size requirements, pixel dimensions, and quality of your textures for each target platform. More info
The coordinate system that defines a texture’s bounds.
An image used when rendering a GameObject, Sprite, or UI element. Textures are often applied to the surface of a mesh to give it visual detail. More info
A simple class that allows a sprite to be rendered on a Tilemap. More info
A GameObject that allows you to quickly create 2D levels using tiles and a grid overlay. More info
A Unity Settings Manager that lets you set a number of properties that control timing within your game. More info
A checkbox that allows the user to switch an option on or off. More info
The process of remapping HDR values of an image into a range suitable to be displayed on screen. More info
A 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
A visual effect that lets you to make trails behind GameObjects in the Scene as they move. More info
A Transform component determines the Position, Rotation, and Scale of each object in the scene. Every GameObject has a Transform. More info
The blend from one state to another in a state machine, such as transitioning a character from a walk to a jog animation. Transitions define how long the blend between states should take, and the conditions that activate the blend. More info
The three degrees-of-freedom associated with translation (movement in X,Y & Z) as opposed to rotation.
A GameObject and associated Component that allows you to add tree assets to your Scene. You can add branch levels and leaves to trees in the Tree Inspector window. More info
See Build AutomationA continuous integration service for Unity projects that automates the process of creating builds on Unity’s servers. More info
See in Glossary
Abbreviation of Unity In App PurchaseRevenue from “micro-transactions” within a game. More info
See in Glossary
A downloadable app designed to help with Android, iOS and tvOS development. The app connects with Unity while you are running your project in Play Mode from the Unity Editor. More info
The unit size used in Unity projects. By default, 1 Unity unit is 1 meter. To use a different scale, set the Scale Factor in the Import Settings when importing assets.
A PackageA container that stores various types of features and assets for Unity, including Editor or Runtime tools and libraries, Asset collections, and project templates. Packages are self-contained units that the Unity Package Manager can share across Unity projects. Most of the time these are called packages, but occasionally they are called Unity Package Manager (UPM) packages. The Unity Package Manager (UPM) can display, add, and remove packages from your project. These packages are native to the Unity Package Manager and provide a fundamental method of delivering Unity functionality. However, the Unity Package Manager can also display Asset Store packages that you downloaded from the Asset Store. More info
See in Glossary managed by the Unity Package Manager. Refer to PackagesA container that stores various types of features and assets for Unity, including Editor or Runtime tools and libraries, Asset collections, and project templates. Packages are self-contained units that the Unity Package Manager can share across Unity projects. Most of the time these are called packages, but occasionally they are called Unity Package Manager (UPM) packages. The Unity Package Manager (UPM) can display, add, and remove packages from your project. These packages are native to the Unity Package Manager and provide a fundamental method of delivering Unity functionality. However, the Unity Package Manager can also display Asset Store packages that you downloaded from the Asset Store. More info
See in Glossary.
Collection of multiple UV layouts packed together. A UV atlas combines several meshes’ layouts into a single texture space to reduce draw calls and optimize baking workflows like lightmapping.
Individual unwrapped section within a UV layout. UV charts are contiguous islands of faces that share a continuous mapping. Their placement determines seams, distortion, and packing efficiency. Also known as a UV island.
The 2D representation of a single mesh’s UV coordinates. A UV layout defines how the mesh’s surface maps to texture space and influences lightmap unwrapping, texture sampling, and packing.
Vertical blanking interval (VBlank) is the time between the end of the final visible line of a frame and the beginning of the first visible line of the next frame. This is the refresh interval as defined by a screen’s refresh rate.
A vector that defines the speed and direction of motion of a Rigidbody
When a package passes release cycle testing for a specific version of Unity, it receives the Verified For designation. This means that these packages are guaranteed to work with the designated version of Unity.
A system for managing file changes. You can use Unity in conjunction with most common version control tools, including Perforce, Git, Mercurial and Unity Version Control (UVCS). More info
A program that runs on each vertex of a 3D model when the model is being rendered. More info
A Unity API that allows you to record videos directly to the file system in the MP4 format. More info
The user’s visible area of an app on their screen.
Virtual Reality (VR) immerses users in an artificial 3D world of realistic images and sounds, using a headset and motion tracking. More info
A node of a visual tree that instantiates or derives from the C# VisualElement class. You can style the look, define the behaviour, and display it on screen as part of the UI. More info
An object graph, made of lightweight nodes, that holds all the elements in a window or panel. It defines every UI you build with the UI Toolkit.
Virtual Reality More info
A JavaScript API that renders 2D and 3D graphics in a web browser. The Unity Web build option allows Unity to publish content as JavaScript programs which use HTML5 technologies and the WebGL rendering API to run Unity content in a web browser. More info
A special collider for grounded vehicles. It has built-in collision detection, wheel physics, and a slip-based tire friction model. It can be used for objects other than wheels, but it is specifically designed for vehicles with wheels. More info
A GameObject that adds the effect of wind to your terrain. For instance, Trees within a wind zone will bend in a realistic animated fashion and the wind itself will move in pulses to create natural patterns of movement among the tree. More info
The area in your scene in which all objects reside. Often used to specify that coordinates are world-relative, as opposed to object-relative.
What You See Is What You Get. A term used to describe a system where the user interface closely resembles the final output.
An umbrella term encompassing Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR) applications. Devices supporting these forms of interactive applications can be referred to as XR devices. More info
A camera control that lets you scale the view on your screen. To zoom a camera in the Unity Editor, press Alt + right click and drag. More info