Whether you’re an artist or a programmer, this year’s second TECH stream release gives you lots more creative power and better workflows. Check out some of the highlights below, and start downloading it while you do so.
Explore the new features
Artist and designer tools
See what’s new for artists and designers, including updates to level design tools such as ProBuilder and Polybrush, and 2D animation enhancements.
Programmer tools and features
Check out the improved profiling and mobile optimization tools, upgrades to physics, Code Editor Integration (IDEs) available as packages, and more.
Platforms and Editor updates
Discover the numerous updates for AR Foundation, additional tooling for mobile developers, improved toolset for XR, and much more.
Graphics features and updates
Explore the new 2D Lights and Pixel Perfect in LWRP, improvements to HDRP, Shader Graph, and much more.
About to ship? Consider our 2018.4 LTS
The Long-Term Support (LTS) version of Unity is for projects about to ship. If you wish to lock-in your production on a specific version of Unity for maximum stability, Unity 2018.4 LTS is what you’re looking for.
The LTS release doesn’t have any new features, API changes or enhancements. It’s simply a continuation of the 2018 TECH stream, with updates and fixes. That’s why we call it 2018.4, while this year’s TECH stream began with 2019.1 and has now become 2019.2.
Many existing and upcoming Unity features are available as packages, which you can download via the Package Manager in the Editor.
Preview packages give you early access to new features and improvements. However, they aren’t recommended for projects in production. They’re still evolving and likely to contain bugs.
Verified packages have undergone additional testing and have been verified to work safely with a specific version of Unity, and with all the other packages that are verified for that version.
TECH stream releases are for developers who want to access the latest features and capabilities. This year we’re shipping three major TECH stream releases (2019.1, 2019.2, and 2019.3). We add updates and bug fixes to the current TECH stream release on a weekly basis until the next TECH release is officially launched, then the cycle begins again.
The last TECH stream release of the year becomes a Long-Term Support (LTS) release and receives continued support for another two years. In terms of versioning, we increment the final TECH stream release of the year by one and add “LTS.” For example, TECH stream release 2018.3 became 2018.4 LTS.
Unlike the TECH stream, the LTS stream does not have any new features, API changes or enhancements. Instead, any updates address crashes, regressions, and issues that affect the wider community, console SDK/XDKs, or any major issues that would prevent a large number of developers from shipping their games or apps.
LTS releases receive bi-weekly updates. The LTS stream is for developers who want to continue to develop and ship their games/apps on the most-stable version for an extended period.
If you are in production or close to release, we recommend the latest LTS release. If you want to use the latest Unity features in your project, or are just getting started with production, the TECH stream is recommended.
2019.3 will be available in the fall of 2019. You can, however, already get the 2019.3 alpha version.
Alpha releases offer the earliest access to our latest features, which are added every week of the alpha cycle until the feature-cutoff date. As such, they come with a higher stability risk than beta releases. With both alphas and betas, you have an opportunity to influence our development process by using the new features and providing feedback via forums and bug reports.
Because there may be feature stability issues with these early releases, we do not recommend them for projects in production, and we highly recommend you make backups of any projects before you open them.
Both our alpha and beta releases are open to everyone, so no signup is required. Get started by downloading them from the Unity Hub.