Build content introduction

A content build processes Addressables groups to produce the content catalog, runtime settings, and the AssetBundles that contain your assets. Addressables uses these files to load content at runtime.

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. Refer to Building Addressables content with Player builds for more information about configuring these options.

Configure builds

If you configure Unity to build your content as part of the Player build, use the Build or Build and Run buttons in the Unity Editor Build Settings window to start a build. You can also invoke the Editor on the command line, passing in one of the -buildPlatformPlayer options or use an API such as BuildPipeline.BuildPlayer to start the build. In all cases, Unity builds your Addressables content as a pre-build step before building the Player.

If you configure Unity to build your content separately, you must start the 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. Refer toBuild scripting for information about automating your Addressables build process.

Content build types

Your content build can produce two general categories of content:

  • Local content: Content that's included directly in your player build. The Addressables system manages local content automatically as long as you use the default build path for your local content. If you change the local build path, you must copy the artifacts from the local build path to the project's Assets/StreamingAssets folder before making a Player build.
  • Remote content: Content that's downloaded from a URL after your application is installed. It's your responsibility to upload remote content to a hosting server so your application can access it the designated URL specified by a RemoteLoadPath.

Refer to Build artifacts for more information about files produced by a content build.

Groups and profiles

Your project's group settings determine which category a group belongs to. The active Profile determines the specific paths and URLs that the Addressables system uses to build and load the content. The Addressable Asset settings also contain options that affect your content builds, such as whether to build remote content at all.

Start a build

You can start builds from a script or from the Groups window.

Refer to Create a build for more information about builds from the Groups window, or to Build scripting for more information on how to extend building Addressable content through scripts.

The Addressables system includes the following build scripts:

  • Default Build Script: Performs a full content build based on Group, Profile, and Addressables system settings.
  • Update a Previous Build: Performs a differential content build to update an existing build.
  • Play mode scripts: The Play mode scripts are technically build scripts and control how the Editor accesses your content in Play mode. Refer to Play mode Scripts for more information.

The build scripts also provide a function to clear the cached files they create. You can run these functions from the Build > Clean Build menu of the Groups window.