Intelligent Delivery configuration workflow

Use the following workflow as a guide to configure your Unity project to use the Microsoft GDK Intelligent Delivery package when targeting the Microsoft Store for distribution.

Prerequisites

A Unity project (6000.5.0a1 or later) with the following packages installed as dependencies of the Microsoft GDK Intelligent Delivery package:

Follow these steps to get started:

  1. Set up Addressable groups
  2. Map the Addressable asset groups
  3. Build Addressable asset groups
  4. Generate layout
  5. Build your project as a Microsoft Store package

1. Set up Addressable groups

The Microsoft GDK Intelligent Delivery package is built upon Unity's Addressables system and requires you to organize the assets of your project into Addressable asset groups. For more information, refer to Organize assets into groups (Addressables package documentation).

2. Map the Addressable asset groups

Use the GDK Intelligent Delivery Mapper window (menu: GDK > Intelligent Delivery > GDK Intelligent Delivery Mapper) to map the Addressable asset groups you want to use as Intelligent Delivery chunks. Define features that include those chunks using their assigned feature tags, and then create recipes that combine multiple features together.

Note

Subsequent changes to the Addressable groups might break your Intelligent Delivery mappings. Review your mappings after making changes.

3. Build Addressable asset groups

Build the Addressable asset groups for your target platform. For more information, refer to Build Addressable assets (Addressables package documentation). You do not need to build Addressable groups to create your Intelligent Delivery mapping but you must build them to generate a layout.

4. Generate layout

Generate an intermediate layout configuration file. The generation process performs a quick and early validation, eliminating the need to wait for a complete build cycle.

  1. In the Intelligent Delivery Mapper window (menu: GDK > Intelligent Delivery > GDK Intelligent Delivery Mapper), select Generate Windows Layout.
  2. Review the Reports tab.

If the process detects any errors or warnings, the Reports tab immediately displays the issues that can affect the layout. Otherwise, it displays a summary. Any errors cause makepkg.exe to fail when building the final Microsoft Store package. Address at least all errors before attempting to build your packaged project.

Note

The system cannot detect some issues early, such as those related to device specifiers and language settings.

5. Build your project as a Microsoft Store package

  1. Create a packaged build of your project.
  2. After the build completes successfully, review the generated XML layout file to verify the configuration used during packaging.
Note

During the build process, the system automatically reads the intermediate layout.json file and patches the default makepkg.exe layout to match your requirements. When the build process succeeds, the build output includes both the packaged version of your application and the final XML layout file that makepkg.exe used when packaging. It is recommended that you review the final layout.xml.

Additional resources