Getting started

Once you have installed the Addressables package in your Unity Project, you can get started.

The basic steps to using Addressables include:

Make your assets Addressable
Reference and load those assets in code using the Addressables API
Build your Addressable assets

See the Space Shooter project in the Addressables-Sample repository for an example of a project set up to use Addressable assets.

Note

This Getting Started topic doesn't discuss the various ways you can organize your Addressable content. For information on that topic, see Organizing Addressable Assets.

Installation

To install the Addressables package in your project, use the Unity Package Manager:

Open the Package Manager (menu: Window > Package Manager).
Set the package list to display packages from the Unity Registry.
Select the Addressables package in the list.
Click Install (at the bottom, right-hand side of the Package Manager window).

To set up the Addressables system in your Project after installation, open the Addressables Groups window and click Create Addressables Settings.

Before initializing the Addressables system in a Project

When you run the Create Addressables Settings command, the Addressables system creates a folder called, AddressableAssetsData, in which it stores settings files and other assets it uses to keep track of your Addressables setup. You should add the files in this folder to your source control system. Note that Addressables can create additional files as you change your Addressables configuration. See Addressables Settings for more information about the settings themselves.

Note

For instructions on installing a specific version of Addressables or for general information about managing the packages in a Project, see Packages.

Making an asset Addressable

You can mark an asset as Addressable in the following ways:

Check the Addressable box in the asset's Inspector:
Drag or assign the asset to an AssetReference field in an Inspector:
Drag the asset into a group on the Addressables Groups window:
Put the asset in a Project folder that's marked as Addressable:

Once you make an asset Addressable, the Addressables system adds it to a default group (unless you place it in a specific group). Addressables packs assets in a group into AssetBundles according to your group settings when you make a content build. You can load these assets using the Addressables API.

Note

If you make an asset in a Resources folder Addressable, Unity moves the asset out of the Resources folder. You can move the asset to a different folder in your Project, but you cannot store Addressable assets in a Resources folder.

Using an Addressable Asset

To load an Addressable Asset, you can:

Use an AssetReference referencing the asset
Use its address string
Use a label assigned to the asset

See Loading assets for more detailed information about loading Addressable assets.

Loading Addressable assets uses asynchronous operations. See Operations for information about the different ways to tackle asynchronous programming in Unity scripts.

Tip

You can find more involved examples of how to use Addressable assets in the Addressables-Sample repo.

Using AssetReferences

To use an AssetReference, add an AssetReference field to a MonoBehaviour or ScriptableObject. After you create an object of that type, you can assign an asset to the field in your object's Inspector window.

Note

If you assign a non-Addressable asset to an AssetReference field, Unity automatically makes that asset Addressable and adds it to your default Addressables group. AssetReferences also let you use Addressable assets in a Scene that isn't itself Addressable.

Unity does not load or release the referenced asset automatically; you must load and release the asset using the Addressables API:

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.AddressableAssets;
using UnityEngine.ResourceManagement.AsyncOperations;

internal class LoadWithReference : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Assign in Editor
    public AssetReference reference;

    // Start the load operation on start
    void Start() {
        AsyncOperationHandle handle = reference.LoadAssetAsync<GameObject>();
        handle.Completed += Handle_Completed;
    }

    // Instantiate the loaded prefab on complete
    private void Handle_Completed(AsyncOperationHandle obj) {
        if (obj.Status == AsyncOperationStatus.Succeeded) {
            Instantiate(reference.Asset, transform);
        } else {
            Debug.LogError($"AssetReference {reference.RuntimeKey} failed to load.");
        }
    }

    // Release asset when parent object is destroyed
    private void OnDestroy() {
        reference.ReleaseAsset();
    }
}

See Loading an AssetReference for additional information about loading AssetReferences.

Loading by address

You can use the address string to load an Asset:

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.AddressableAssets;
using UnityEngine.ResourceManagement.AsyncOperations;

internal class LoadWithAddress : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Assign in Editor or in code
    public string address;

    // Retain handle to release asset and operation
    private AsyncOperationHandle<GameObject> handle;

    // Start the load operation on start
    void Start() {
        handle = Addressables.LoadAssetAsync<GameObject>(address);
        handle.Completed += Handle_Completed;
    }

    // Instantiate the loaded prefab on complete
    private void Handle_Completed(AsyncOperationHandle<GameObject> operation) {
        if (operation.Status == AsyncOperationStatus.Succeeded) {
            Instantiate(operation.Result, transform);
        } else {
            Debug.LogError($"Asset for {address} failed to load.");
        }
    }

    // Release asset when parent object is destroyed
    private void OnDestroy() {

        Addressables.Release(handle);
    }
}

Remember that every time you load an Asset, you must also release it.

See Loading a single asset for more information.

Loading by label

You can load sets of assets that have the same label in one operation:

using System.Collections.Generic;
using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.AddressableAssets;
using UnityEngine.ResourceManagement.AsyncOperations;

internal class LoadWithLabels : MonoBehaviour
{
    // Label strings to load
    public List<string> keys = new List<string>() { "characters", "animals" };

    // Operation handle used to load and release assets
    AsyncOperationHandle<IList<GameObject>> loadHandle;

    // Load Addressables by Label
    void Start() {
        float x = 0, z = 0;
        loadHandle = Addressables.LoadAssetsAsync<GameObject>(
            keys, // Either a single key or a List of keys 
            addressable => {
            //Gets called for every loaded asset
            if (addressable != null) {
                    Instantiate<GameObject>(addressable,
                        new Vector3(x++ * 2.0f, 0, z * 2.0f),
                        Quaternion.identity,
                        transform);
                    if (x > 9) {
                        x = 0;
                        z++;
                    }
                }
            }, Addressables.MergeMode.Union, // How to combine multiple labels 
            false); // Whether to fail if any asset fails to load
        loadHandle.Completed += LoadHandle_Completed;
    }

    private void LoadHandle_Completed(AsyncOperationHandle<IList<GameObject>> operation) {
        if (operation.Status != AsyncOperationStatus.Succeeded)
            Debug.LogWarning("Some assets did not load.");
    }

    private void OnDestroy() {
        // Release all the loaded assets associated with loadHandle
        Addressables.Release(loadHandle);
    }
}

See Loading multiple assets for more information.

Managing Addressable assets

To manage your Addressable assets, use the Addressables Groups window. Use this window to create Addressables groups, move assets between groups, and assign addresses and labels to assets.

When you first install and set up the Addressables package, it creates a default group for Addressable assets. The Addressables system assigns any assets you mark as Addressable to this group by default. In the early stages of a Project, you might find it acceptable to keep your assets in this single group, but as you add more content, you should consider creating additional groups so that you have better control over which resources your application loads and keeps in memory at any given time.

Key group settings include:

Build path: where to save your content after a content build.
Load path: where your app or game looks for built content at runtime.

Note

You can (and usually should) use Profile variables to set these paths. See Profiles for more information.

Bundle mode: how to package the content in the group into a bundle. You can choose the following options:
- One bundle containing all group assets
- A bundle for each entry in the group (particularly useful if you mark entire folders as Addressable and want their contents built together)
- A bundle for each unique combination of labels assigned to group assets
Content update restriction: Setting this value appropriately allows you to publish smaller content updates. See Content update builds for more information. If you always publish full builds to update your app and don't download content from a remote source, you can ignore this setting.

For more information on strategies to consider when deciding how to organize your assets, see Organizing Addressable assets.

For more information on using the Addressables Groups window, see Groups.

Building Addressable assets

The Addressables content build step converts the assets in your Addressables groups into AssetBundles based on the group settings and the current platform set in the Editor.

In Unity 2021.2+, you can configure the Addressables system to build your Addressables content as part of every Player build or you can build your content separately before making a Player build. See Building Addressables content with Player builds for more information about configuring these options.

If you configure Unity to build your content as part of the Player build, use the normal Build or Build and Run buttons on the Editor Build Settings window to start a build. Unity builds your Addressables content as a pre-build step before it builds the Player.

In earlier versions of Unity, or if you configure Unity to build your content separately, you must make an Addressables build using the Build menu on the Addressables Groups window as described in [Making builds]. The next time you build the Player for your project, it uses the artifacts produced by the last Addressables content build run for the current platform. See [Build scripting] for information about automating your Addressables build process.

To initiate a content build from the Addressables Groups window:

Open the Addressables Groups window (menu: Windows > Asset Management > Addressables > Groups).
Choose an option from the Build menu:
- New Build: perform a build with a specific build script. Use the Default Build Script if you don't have your own custom one.
- Update a Previous Build: builds an update based on an existing build. To update a previous build, the Addressables system needs the addressables_content_state.bin file produced by the earlier build. You can find this file in the Assets/AddressableAssetsData/Platform folder of your Unity Project. See Content Updates for more information about updating content.
- Clean Build: deletes cached build files.

By default, the build creates files in the locations defined in your Profile settings for the LocalBuildPath and RemoteBuildPath variables. The files that Unity uses for your player builds include AssetBundles (.bundle), catalog JSON and hash files, and settings files.

Warning

In most cases, you should not change the local build or load paths from their default values. If you do, you must copy the local build artifacts from your custom build location to the project's StreamingAssets folder before making a Player build. Altering these paths also precludes building your Addressables as part of the Player build.

If you have groups that you build to the RemoteBuildPath, it is your responsibility to upload those AssetBundles, catalog, and hash files to your hosting server. (If your Project doesn't use remote content, set all groups to use the local build and load paths.)

A content build also creates the following files that Addressables doesn't use directly in a player build:

addressables_content_state.bin: used to make a content update build. If you support dynamic content updates, you must save this file after each content release. Otherwise, you can ignore this file.
AddressablesBuildTEP.json: logs build performance data. See Build Profiling.

See Building Addressable content for more information about how to set up and perform a content build.

Starting a full content build

To make a full content build:

Set the desired Platform Target on the Build Settings window.
Open the Addressables Groups window (menu: Asset Management > Addressables > Groups).
Choose the__ New Build > Default Build Script__ command from the Build menu of the Groups window.

The build process starts.

After the build is complete, you can perform a player build and upload any remote files from your RemoteBuildPath to your hosting server.

Important

If you plan to publish remote content updates without rebuilding your application, you must preserve the addressables_content_state.bin file for each published build. Without this file, you can only create a full content build and player build, not an update. See Content update builds for more information.

Remote content distribution

You can use Addressables to support remote distribution of content through a Content Delivery Network (CDN) or other hosting service. Unity provides the Unity Cloud Content Delivery (CCD) service for this purpose, but you can use any CDN or host you prefer.

Before building content for remote distribution, you must:

Enable the Build Remote Catalog option in your AddressableAssetSettings (access using menu: Windows > Asset Management > Addressables > Settings).
Configure the RemoteLoadPath in the Profile you use to publish content to reflect the remote URL at which you plan to access the content.
For each Addressables group containing assets you want to deliver remotely, set the Build Path to RemoteBuildPath and the Load Path to RemoteLoadPath.
Set desired Platform Target on the Unity Build Settings window.

After you make a content build (using the Addressables Groups window) and a player build (using the Build Settings window), you must upload the files created in the folder designated by your profile's RemoteBuildPath to your hosting service. The files to upload include:

AssetBundles (name.bundle)
Catalog (catalog_timestamp.json)
Hash (catalog_timestamp.hash)

See Distributing remote content for more information.

Incremental content updates

When you distribute content remotely, you can reduce the amount of data your users need to download for an update by publishing incremental content update builds. An incremental update build allows you to publish remote bundles which contain only the assets that have changed since you last published an update rather than republishing everything. The assets in these smaller, updated bundles override the existing assets.

Important

You must turn on the Build Remote Catalog option before you publish a player build if you want to have the option to publish incremental updates. Without a remote catalog, an installed application doesn't check for updates.

For more detailed information about content updates, including examples, see Content update builds.

Starting a content update build

To make a content update, rather than a full build:

On the Build Settings window, set the Platform Target to match the target of the previous content build that you are now updating.
Open the Addressables Groups window (menu: Asset Management > Addressables > Groups).
From the Tools menu, run the Check for Content Update Restrictions command. The Build Data File browser window opens.
Locate the addressables_content_state.bin file produced by the previous build. This file is in a subfolder of Assets/AddressableAssestsData named for the target platform.
Click Open. The Content Update Preview window searches for changes and identifies assets that must be moved to a new group for the update. If you have not changed any assets in groups set to "Cannot Change Post Release," then no changes will be listed in the preview. (When you change an asset in a group set to "Can Change Post Release," then Addressables rebuilds all the AssetBundles for the group; Addressables does not move the changed assets to a new group in this case.)
Click Apply Changes to accept any changes.
From the Build menu, run the__ Update a Previous Build__ command.
Open the addressables_content_state.bin file produced by the previous build.

The build process starts.

After the build is complete, you can upload the files from your RemoteBuildPath to your hosting server.

Important

Addressables uses the addressables_content_state.bin file to identify which assets you changed. You must preserve a copy of this file for each published build. Without the file, you can only create a full content build, not an update.