Edit Mode Support

You can preview a scene’s Localization without entering play mode. Edit mode support is provided by the Localization Scene Controls window (Window > Asset Management > Localization Scene Controls).

Use the dropdown to select a Locale to preview. You can also change the Locale with the Up and Down arrow keys when the dropdown is selected.

When previewing in edit mode, the Addressables system is bypassed and assets are accessed directly from the AssetDatabase. Addressable Play mode scripts are not used outside of Play mode.

Unity Events

Unity Events, such as those in the Localize String Event component, should be set as Editor and Runtime so that the event is sent whilst previewing in Edit mode and values are updated accordingly.

Driven Properties

Unity uses the Driven Properties system to apply temporary changes to properties in a scene, without those changes being saved. When using the LocalizeStringEvent and LocalizeAssetEvent components, the default properties added with the Localize menu command are marked as Driven so temporary changes can occur when the Locale is changed. When the Locale is changed back to None, all driven properties will revert back to their original values.

In Unity 2020.2 and above you can identify the driven properties within the Inspector. Driven properties are disabled and have a color tint applied. The tint color applied to driven properties can be configured through the Preferences window (Preferences/Colors) under Localization/Driven Property. The Component Editor must be using IMGUI in order for the visual indication to work. UI Toolkit is not currently supported.

You can mark any Serialized property as driven. The following example shows how a script can support both Edit mode and play mode. Use the EditorPropertyDriver to register driven properties. When a property is registered as driven, no changes applied to it will be saved into the scene. You can untrack all properties and revert them to their original values by opening the Scene Controls Window and setting the Locale to None, or by going into the script and setting LocalizationSettings.SelectedLocale to null.

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.Localization;

// To support Edit mode we need to use ExecuteAlways.
[ExecuteAlways]
[RequireComponent(typeof(TextMesh))]
public class EditModeSupportExample : MonoBehaviour
{
    public LocalizedString localizedString;
    TextMesh m_TextMesh;

    void Start()
    {
        localizedString.StringChanged += UpdateTextMesh;
        m_TextMesh = GetComponent<TextMesh>();
    }

    void UpdateTextMesh(string text)
    {
        // This will let us make temporary changes to a serialized property.
        // When the Locale is changed back to None the changes will be reverted
        // back to the original value. This must be called before we make any changes.
        // Calling this in a player build will do nothing.
        EditorPropertyDriver.RegisterProperty(m_TextMesh, "m_Text");

        m_TextMesh.text = text;
    }
}