Unity3D NuGet Package

This repository contains the source code for the Unity3D NuGet package.

Unity3D allows developers to effectively reference assemblies of the Unity game engine (e.g., UnityEngine.dll) as NuGet packages.

If you find this package useful, consider supporting its development!

Unity® and the Unity logo are trademarks of Unity Technologies.

Contents

• Basic Usage
• Why Another NuGet Package for Unity?
• Usage
  • Editing the project files
  • Choosing a TargetFramework
  • Referencing additional Unity assemblies
  • Referencing assemblies stored in a Unity project
  • Referencing assemblies at non-default install locations
  • Removing the default reference to UnityEngine.dll
  • Referencing the Unity core modules
  • Referencing assemblies in specific Unity versions
• Available Short-Hand Properties
  • Versions 2.x
  • Versions 1.x
• FAQ
• Support
• Contributing
• License

Basic Usage

Install this package then follow the steps below for the version you installed. Replace UnityVersion with your installed Unity Editor version.

Version 2.x

Add a Directory.Build.props file in the same folder as your .csproj file (or any of its parent folders), with content like the following:

<Project>
    <PropertyGroup>
        <UnityProjectPath>path\to\UnityProject</UnityProjectPath>
        <!-- Or -->
        <UnityVersion>2022.1.1f1</UnityVersion>
    </PropertyGroup>
</Project>

Version 1.x

Add a UnityVersion property to your .csproj, so it looks like the following:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <TargetFramework>netstandard2.1</TargetFramework>
        <UnityVersion>2022.1.1f1</UnityVersion>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <ItemGroup>
        <PackageReference Include="Unity3D" Version="2.0.1" />
    </ItemGroup>
    <!-- Other properties/items -->
</Project>

Why Another NuGet Package for Unity?

It's true, there are a number of good NuGet packages for Unity already available on nuget.org. Unfortunately, most of these packages are no longer being updated and have a number of issues. Almost all of them fall into one of two categories:

1. Containing the actual Unity binaries within the package. These packages include:

   • Unity3D.SDK by amelkor
   • UnityEngine by Leanwork
   • Unity3D.UnityEngine
   • Unity3D.UnityEngine.UI by Dzmitry Lahoda
   • UnityEngine5 by Taiyoung Jang.

   The problem with these packages (aside from the questionable legality of re-distributing Unity Technologies' binaries), is that a new version of the package must be pushed for each new version of Unity. When these packages stop being updated (which has happened in almost every case), then they are no longer useful because they don't allow you to program against the latest Unity APIs. Most of them do not have versions for Unity 2019.1+, and/or do not support the modern .NET Standard profiles.

2. Containing some kind of script that adds references to assemblies from a particular installed version of Unity. The main package in this category is Unity3D.DLLs by Precision Mojo, LLC. This package uses a PowerShell script to add references to the latest version of Unity installed on a user's machine. which is powerful, as it theoretically makes the package forward-compatible with all versions of Unity yet to come. Unfortunately, this package has not been updated since 2013, meaning that many of the NuGet/PowerShell conventions that it relied upon are no longer supported in the newest versions of Visual Studio. Even when the package was current, it located the Unity assemblies in a clever but brittle manner that does not support the newer Unity Hub install locations, assumed that there was only one Unity installation per machine, and, more importantly, only worked on Windows (using the Windows registry).

Moreover, only Dzmitry Lahoda's packages seem to recognize the need for other Unity assemblies besides just UnityEngine. As more advanced Unity users will know, UnityEngine.dll doesn't contain everything. Editor scripts also require a reference to UnityEditor.dll, UI types like Text and Button require a reference to UnityEngine.UI.dll, assemblies from Asset Store assets are stored in the project folder under Assets/, and many types were split from the Unity assemblies as Unity broke up editor features into Packages.

Therefore, this NuGet package was designed with the following goals:

• Add Unity assembly references programmatically, so that the package is forward-compatible
• Add references via standard MSBuild tooling, rather than clunky scripts in unfamiliar or unsupported programming languages
• Allow devs to reference additional Unity assemblies with simple Reference items in the project file, rather than by calling some obscure script
• Provide short-hand MSBuild properties for the most common Unity assemblies, with paths that resolve on all dev platforms (Windows/MacOS/Linux)
• Require minimal configuration: just a Unity version or Unity project path, and an optional install path for non-default setups

Usage

Don't freak out! The basic usage example above will satisfy the large majority of use cases. The usage options below are for more advanced setups.

As shown in the basic example above, this package only requires a UnityVersion or (in v2) UnityProjectPath property to be up and running. UnityVersion must be a complete version string, in the format used by Unity Hub (the values boxed in red in the screenshot below).

In versions 1.x, this property should be added to your .csproj file. See the next section for instructions.

In versions 2.x, it must be added to a Directory.Build.props file. If you're working with a specific Unity project, the recommendation is to set UnityProjectPath rather than UnityVersion. This NuGet package will then look up the project's Unity version from its ProjectSettings/ProjectVersion.txt file, so that when you update the project to a new Unity version, your assembly references will also update. UnityProjectPath must be the path to a Unity project folder, not the Assets/ subfolder. Try to define the path relative to Directory.Build.props so that it resolves across platforms (this works well when your MSBuild/Visual Studio project and Unity project are in the same repository). If both UnityVersion and UnityProjectPath are provided, then the explicit version will take precedence. If you do not set UnityVersion or UnityProjectPath, then UnityVersion will default to the constant string "SET_VERSION_OR_PROJECT". If you see this text in the paths of assembly references in your IDE, then you'll know that those properties are missing or inaccessible to this NuGet package. Make sure that one of these properties is defined in Directory.Build.props for versions 2.x, and not in your .csproj file.

Editing the project files

To edit a project file in Visual Studio:

• When targeting .NET Standard (recommended): just double-click on the project in the Solution Explorer
• When targeting .NET 4.x: right click on the project in the Solution Explorer, click Unload project, then right click again to select Edit <YourProject>.csproj. When you're done editing the file, right click on the project again and select Reload project. Having to unload the project before editing can be cumbersome, so check out this excellent article by Scott Hanselman for instructions on migrating to the newer, leaner SDK syntax of .NET Standard.

To add a Directory.Build.props file for version 2.x, simply create a text file and rename it. .props files are special files that .NET projects (specifically, MSBuild projects) can use to set additional build properties. Directory.Build.props, in particular, is a standard .props file that MSBuild will import before importing other NuGet packages. You must set the UnityVersion or UnityProjectPath property in Directroy.Build.props, so that it is available to this NuGet package for defining a bunch of its own properties for the various Unity assembly paths.

You can create the Directory.Build.props file in the same folder as your .csproj, or any of its parent folders. MSBuild walks the directory structure upwards from your project location, stopping once it locates a Directory.Build.props file.

Warning: You cannot use any of this NuGet package's available short-hand properties in the Directory.Build.props file, as they are not in scope at that point. See the MSBuild import order for more info.

Choosing a TargetFramework

For new projects, you should use the modern "SDK-style" .csproj files, which have a root <Project Sdk="..."> element rather than <Project ToolsVersion="...">. This style yields smaller, more readable project files, and simplifies portability with projects built against other .NET runtimes. You should then use one of the following .NET Standard TargetFrameworks:

• For Unity 2021.2+, use netstandard2.1
• For Unity 2021.1 and below, use netstandard2.0

If, however, you are working with an existing, older project, then you may be forced to use one of the following .NET 4.x TargetFrameworks:

• For Unity 2021.2+, use net48 :
• For Unity 2020.2 - 2021.1, use net472
• For Unity 2020.1 and below, use net461

If you don't, you will see errors like:

The primary reference ... could not be resolved because it has an indirect dependency on the assembly ... which was built against the ".NETFramework,Version=v4.[x]" framework. This is a higher version than the currently targeted framework ".NETFramework,Version=v4.[y]".

Referencing additional Unity assemblies

By default, this package only adds a reference to UnityEngine.dll. However, there are several other Unity assemblies that your project might need to reference. These include UnityEditor.dll for writing custom editors, or UnityEngine.UI.dll for referencing UI types like Text and Button. To reference these assemblies, add Reference items to your .csproj, like so:

<ItemGroup>
    <Reference Include="$(UnityEditorPath)" Private="false" />  <!-- Versions 2.x -->
    <Reference Include="$(UnityInstallRoot)\$(UnityVersion)\$(UnityEditorPath)" Private="false" />  <!-- Versions 1.x -->
</ItemGroup>

Note the use of the *Path MSBuild properties. These properties spare you from remembering the default Unity install path or the relative paths to any Unity assemblies, and they also make the references work across platforms (Windows/MacOS/Linux). See below for the full list of provided short-hand properties.

Also note the use of Private="false". This basically means "don't copy the referenced assembly to the output folder". This is recommended, so that Unity assemblies aren't being copied around unnecessarily, since they're automatically linked with managed plugins inside the Unity Editor.

If you want to reference a Unity assembly for which there is no short-hand property, you can just hard-code its path into a Reference item yourself. If it is one of Unity's built-in assemblies, then the path should start with $(UnityInstallRoot)\$(UnityVersion)\, so that it resolves across platforms, and so you're not duplicating the Unity version in multiple paths. If it is an assembly under your UnityProjectPath then see the next section.

Referencing assemblies stored in a Unity project

You may need to reference assemblies stored in a Unity project folder (i.e., under Assets/ or Library/). This is especially common when your code and Unity project are stored in the same repository, and you want to reference assemblies from Asset Store assets or Packages that you've installed. In these cases, the paths in your Reference items should be relative paths, so that they resolve across platforms. When you define an MSBuild property named $(UnityProjectPath) to store this relative path, you can use it as a short-hand for multiple References. Moreover, there are a couple short-hand properties for common assembly paths under UnityProjectPath. For example, if you want to raise Standard Events with the Analytics package and use the Addressables workflow, then your .csproj would look something like:

In versions 2.x (UnityProjectPath defined in Directory.Build.props):

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
    <ItemGroup>
        <Reference Include="$(UnityAnalyticsStandardEventsPath)" Private="false" />
        <Reference Include="$(UnityScriptAssembliesPath)\Unity.Addressables.dll" Private="false" />
    </ItemGroup>
</Project>

In versions 1.x:

<Project Sdk="Microsoft.NET.Sdk">
    <PropertyGroup>
        <!-- Other properties... -->
        <UnityProjectPath>/relative/path/to/unity/project</UnityProjectPath>
    </PropertyGroup>
    <ItemGroup>
        <Reference Include="$(UnityProjectPath)\$(UnityAnalyticsStandardEventsPath)" Private="false" />
        <Reference Include="$(UnityProjectPath)\$(UnityScriptAssembliesPath)\Unity.Addressables.dll" Private="false" />
    </ItemGroup>
</Project>

Note: the Unity project must have been built recently, so that the Library/ folder actually contains the imported assemblies!

Also note that, while there are short-hand properties for a couple assemblies under the PackageCache folder (see the full list), there are no short-hand properties for assemblies stored in the ScriptAssemblies folder. That folder is completely flat, so you can just reference assemblies there by filename.

Referencing assemblies at non-default install locations

Because Unity Hub is the tool recommended by Unity Technologies for installing Unity, this package checks for Unity assemblies at the Hub's default install locations using the UnityInstallRootPath property (UnityInstallRoot in versions 1.x). If you are not using Unity Hub, or you are using a non-default install location, just set UnityInstallRoot[Path] to a different path.

For example, if you were using a Windows machine and your Unity version was installed without the Hub in a Unity\ folder on your V: drive, then you would need the following code. In versions 2.x, this code must be in Directory.Build.props; in versions 1.x, you can just put it in your .csproj file.

Warning: When changing the UnityInstallRoot[Path] property (or OSInstallRoot[Path]), it is up to you to keep the paths cross-platform.

<PropertyGroup>
    <!-- Other properties... -->
    <UnityInstallRootPath>V:\Unity</UnityInstallRootPath>   <!-- Versions 2.x -->
    <UnityInstallRoot>V:\Unity</UnityInstallRoot>   <!-- Versions 1.x -->
</PropertyGroup>

Removing the default reference to UnityEngine.dll

You may not want to keep the default reference to UnityEngine.dll, e.g., if you only need a reference to some other Unity assembly, or want to reference Unity's module assemblies directly. To remove the Reference from your project, simply use the MSBuild Item remove syntax, i.e., add the following line to an <ItemGroup> in your .csproj:

Warning: If using directory imports, be sure to put the below line in Directory.Build.targets, not Directory.Build.props, otherwise you'll be trying to remove the Reference before it's been added!

<Reference Remove="$(UnityEnginePath)" />   <!-- Versions 2.x -->
<Reference Remove="$(UnityInstallRoot)\$(UnityVersion)\$(UnityEnginePath)" />   <!-- Versions 1.x -->

Referencing the Unity core modules

UnityEngine.dll is actually built up from multiple smaller "module" assemblies stored in the UnityModulesPath. These modules contain types related to Audio, Animation, Particle Systems, Navigation, etc. If you are writing a managed plugin that references assemblies from a Package, you may get confusing compiler errors from APIs in the Package that use types defined in a module. For example, if you reference the Unity UI Package from Unity 2019.2+, and use it to access ScrollRect.velocity (which returns a Vector2), you would see an error like:

Error CS0012 The type 'Vector2' is defined in an assembly that is not referenced. You must add a reference to assembly 'UnityEngine.CoreModule, Version=0.0.0.0, Culture=neutral, PublicKeyToken=null'.

This error is shown because Unity UI's assembly doesn't use the Vector2 type from UnityEngine.dll; it uses the type from the module assembly UnityEngine.CoreModule. Therefore, the default reference to UnityEngine.dll added by this NuGet package does not satisfy the compiler. However, if you reference both UnityEngine.dll and the module assembly, then you'll get compiler errors about duplicate type definitions.

The solution is to remove the default reference to UnityEngine.dll, and then reference each module that you need individually. So, for this particular example, your .csproj might look like the following.

In versions 2.x:

<ItemGroup>
    <!-- Other Package assembly references -->
    <Reference Include="$(UnityScriptAssembliesPath)\UnityEngine.UI.dll" Private="false" />

    <Reference Remove="$(UnityEnginePath)" />
    <Reference Include="$(UnityModulesPath)\UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll" Private="false" />
    <!-- Other module references -->
</ItemGroup>

In versions 1.x:

<ItemGroup>
    <!-- Other Package assembly references -->
    <Reference Include="$(UnityProjectPath)\$(UnityScriptAssembliesPath)\UnityEngine.UI.dll" Private="false" />

    <Reference Remove="$(UnityInstallRoot)\$(UnityVersion)\$(UnityEnginePath)" />
    <Reference Include="$(UnityInstallRoot)\$(UnityVersion)\$(UnityModulesPath)\UnityEngine.CoreModule.dll" Private="false" />
    <!-- Other module references -->
</ItemGroup>

There are no short-hand properties for assemblies stored in $(UnityModulesPath). The folder is completely flat, so you can just reference assemblies there by filename. If you're unsure of which modules to reference, check out the Unity Scripting Manual. Every type includes an Implemented in note at the top of the page, telling you in which of Unity's core modules the type is implemented. For example, see the screenshot below of the manual page for Vector2:

Warning: There is a Unity module assembly named UnityEngine.dll. This is not to be confused with the UnityEngine.dll assembly under $(UnityManagedPath)! After removing the default UnityEngine.dll reference from your project, you may still need to reference this module for types like GUIElement, Network, ProceduralMaterial, etc.

Referencing assemblies in specific Unity versions

Note: this section does not apply to versions 1.x.

Unity assembly paths sometimes change between versions: new assemblies are added, old ones are removed or broken up into UPM packages. If your managed plugin must support multiple versions of Unity, then you may want to say "reference this assembly, but only in these Unity versions" or "reference this assembly using the correct version-specific path". For scenarios like these, there are new MSBuild properties in v2 that expose the major, minor, and patch versions of your project's UnityVersion:

1. UnityVersionMajor: e.g., 2021 in 2021.3.5f1
2. UnityVersionMinor: e.g., 3 in 2021.3.5f1
3. UnityVersionPatch: e.g., 5f1 in 2021.3.5f1
4. UnityVersionAsNumber: equals $(UnityVersionMajor).$(UnityVersionMinor), e.g., 2021.3 in 2021.3.5f1

These properties cannot be overriden, since they are parsed directly from the UnityVersion that you provide (or from the ProjectVersion.txt file under the UnityProjectPath that you provide).

The major, minor, and UnityVersionAsNumber properties are numeric, so you can use them in range inequalities in your project files. For example, suppose you wanted to reference NUnit in an editor plugin that supports multiple versions of Unity. The Unity Test Framework has included NUnit since version 2019.2, but for older versions of Unity, you would have to import NUnit yourself. Therefore, to reference NUnit in any Unity version, you could use MSBuild Conditions like the following in your project file:

Warning: "less than" (<) inequalities must be escaped with <, since MSBuild project files are still XML files.

<ItemGroup>
    <!-- Other References -->
    <Reference Include="custom\path\to\nunit.framework.dll" Private="False" />
    <Reference Condition="'$(UnityVersionAsNumber)'>='2019.2'" Include="$(NunitPath)" Private="False" />
</ItemGroup>

The second Reference will overwrite the first for projects referencing Unity 2019.2+ assemblies.

For assembly paths that change between Unity versions (e.g., UnityEngineUIPath), the short-hand properties adjust according to the provided (or parsed) UnityVersion, using code much like above, so you don't need to worry about conditionally setting the paths yourself. If a path is not applicable in a particular Unity version (such as NunitPath in Unity 2019.1 and below), then its MSBuild property will be undefined for that version (e.g., $(NunitPath) would be empty).

Available Short-Hand Properties

Note that, unless otherwise noted, any of the following properties can be overwritten by setting the property manually. For versions 2.x, set them in Directory.Build.props; for versions 1.x, you can set them directly in your .csproj file. For example, to change the UI assembly's path, you could set:

<UnityEngineUIPath>path\to\UnityEngine.UI.dll</UnityEngineUIPath>

As assembly paths change in future versions of Unity, you can continue referencing them by overwriting these properties, until the properties are updated in this package. This ability makes this NuGet package truly "forward-compatible". You can manually override the property for a single assembly (e.g., UnityEnginePath), or for many assemblies under the same absolute/relative base path (e.g., UnityModulesPath or UnityModulesDir).

Generally, properties named *Path are absolute paths, and properties named *Dir or *Assembly are relative paths. Most assembly path properties (e.g., UnityPackageCachePath) are a combination of a relative path property (e.g., UnityPackageCacheDir) and a base path, which might use another short-hand property. Through clever use of these properties, you can even reference assemblies from more than one Unity project. You might do this if you wanted to reference an assembly at the same relative path in two different Unity projects under different conditions. You could use the same relative short-hand property in both cases, but set the base path conditionally.

The assembly paths under the PackageCache use the * wildcard. This saves you from hard-coding a UPM package version and updating it each time you update from Unity's Package Manager Window. Unity only stores one version of a Package in the PackageCache folder, so you don't need to worry about multiple versions of the same Package being referenced by the wildcard.

Note: It is worth repeating that, unless otherwise noted, any of these properties can be manually overridden.

Versions 2.x properties

Versions 1.x properties

FAQ

1. Why would I use this NuGet package? The primary, intended use case for this NuGet is for Unity developers writing managed plugins (pre-compiled DLLs that will be imported into Unity) that also depend on Unity APIs. It allows developers to reference the Unity assemblies via Reference items in their project file, just like they might reference any other NuGet package or local assembly, without having to remember Unity's assembly paths or keep them up-to-date and cross-platform. With the option to use Unity as a library in 2019.3+, developers might also use this package in native mobile apps created with Xamarin, or in really any library or executable that needs access to the Unity APIs.
2. How does this work? This NuGet package imports an MSBuild .props file into your project, which adds the various properties and Reference items at build time. In versions 2.x and above, these properties can use the UnityVersion property that you define in Directory.Build.props because that file is imported before NuGet packages. And when you set UnityProjectPath, the Unity version can instead be parsed from the project's ProjectVersion.txt file using File.ReadAllText in an MSBuild static property function.
3. Are the Reference paths really cross-platform? Yes, but only paths that begin with the default $(OSInstallRootPath) or $(UnityInstallRootPath) properties ($(OSInstallRootPath) or $(UnityInstallRootPath) in versions 1.x), or with a custom relative or cross-platform base path that you define. This works through a magical little combination of MSBuild Conditions and the IsOsPlatform() Property Function.
4. Is this package officially maintained by Unity Technologies? No, it is maintained by one wild and crazy guy. However, this package will be submitted to Unity Technologies as it gains traction, so that maybe we can finally have an officially supported NuGet package for Unity assemblies!
5. If not, how is this package legal? Well, it's 'not actually distributing the Unity assembly binaries, just MSBuild files that reference them. This NuGet package won't add anything if you haven't actually installed a version of Unity on your machine.
6. Can you help me solve [error] in Unity version [version]? Possibly. Compatibility is only tested with, and support offered for, the latest Unity LTS releases and the TECH stream releases of the current year. Unity does not officially support versions older than that, so neither does this package! That said, if you're having an issue with an older version of Unity, there's a good chance that someone in this community has seen it before, so feel free to open an Issue!
7. With which Unity versions has this NuGet package been officially tested? In the following:
   • 2022.1
   • 2021.3 LTS, 2021.2, 2021.1
   • 2020.3 LTS, 2020.1
   • 2019.4 LTS
   • 2018.4 LTS
8. Why hasn't this repository been updated since [date]? This NuGet package is very simple, with most of its functionality contained in a single small file. Between that, and the package's use of forward-compatible properties like UnityVersion that can be tweaked at design time, this repository simply does not require frequent updates. Most changes going forward will be to add more short-hand properties, and to add test projects for new versions of Unity.

Support

Issues and support questions may be posted on this repository's Issues page. Please check if your Issue has already been answered/addressed by a previous Issue before creating a new one. 🙏

Contributing

Please refer to the Contributing guide.

License

MIT