Tech Stream release

Unity 2022.1

Unity 2022.1 provides early access to innovative new features and an opportunity to influence the next Long Term Support (LTS) release.

The 2022.2 Tech Stream is now available. Learn more here.

Shaping innovation with you

With Tech Stream releases, you’re the first to try out new features and tools while shaping Unity development through your feedback. Tech Streams are published twice a year, are supported until the next release, and can help you prepare for new feature adoption in projects that are in discovery or prototyping stages.

Shaping innovation

Highlights

Discover the latest features and workflow enhancements.

new visual search queries

Enhanced productivity

Create efficiently in the Unity Editor with improvements to speed up your workflows. With a greater focus on team independence, you’ll save time and increase your iteration speed. Making it faster to enter Play mode and import files, Visual Search Queries that help you find what you need, and multiselection in the Package Manager are just some of the many improvements that make a huge difference.

For 2D creators, we’ve focused on accelerating foundations, import, animation, and physics. We’ve added Sprite Atlas v2, support for PSD extension files and layer management in the 2D PSD Importer, and Delaunay tessellation for 2D physics. The Sprite Swap feature now has streamlined keyframing and animation previews.

Spline authoring framework

Extensible Editor

Customize the Editor and enable your team with efficient in-engine workflows. UI Toolkit is on its way to becoming a unified solution for Editor and runtime UI. In 2022.1, we accelerate usability for tool developers with more UI widgets, TreeView with multi-column support, vector drawing APIs, and Property Drawers and Property Attributes.

The Spline authoring framework is now available and works with Edit modes. Programmers can also extend functionality by developing tools and custom components to empower more of the team.

The Material API is extended to all material properties, supporting keyword states, HDRP’s diffusion profiles, and IES lights, which enhance procedural material usage. We’ve also added a new API for Unity File System, and this enables tool creation for Asset Bundle visualization and analysis.

Craft stunning visuals that scale

Scalable material workflows

Tap into greater productivity with faster Material workflows. Quickly and efficiently scale Material authoring for any render pipeline. 

Material Variants offer a powerful, integrated workflow to reduce iteration cycles when managing large amounts of assets to improve collaboration. Available in both Universal Render Pipeline (URP) and High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), this new feature lets you create material hierarchies where children can share common properties with the parent Material and override only the properties that differ.

Detailed performance insights

Detailed performance insights

Profile your project and fine-tune its performance for a better player experience. Take your project to the next level with profiling and performance tools, a key area for us in 2022.

We’re delivering the Frame Timing Manager for capturing and accessing GPU and CPU frame timing data and timestamps at a granular level. The Frame Timing Manager is available in the Editor and lets you target and adjust performance bottlenecks in your project, regardless of platform.

We also added the Frame Stats Profiler to the Rendering Debugger for both in-Editor and player modes in all scriptable render pipelines.

Enhanced platform optimizations

Platform optimizations

Unity platform support ensures stability and performance wherever your games are played. Frame Timing Manager is now available in-Editor, which allows you to target and adjust performance bottlenecks in your game, regardless of the target platform. Analyze your Android game performance with access to low-level data via the System Metrics Mali package from ARM, and games on Samsung devices can now take advantage of Adaptive Performance 4.0 with support for visual scripting.

Speed up iteration time for iOS and Xbox game development with the latest incremental player build process. Maximize VR game performance with late latching and motion vectors, and improved graphics performance for games using Vulkan.

Resources

Release notes

Release notes have more details on all the updates included in this release, including feature additions, performance improvements, bug fixes, and more.

Raising the bar with Unity’s new tech demo, Enemies

Enemies showcases the power and capabilities of the Unity platform for creating high-end, visually compelling content – making it possible for any creative team to fully realize its vision.

Documentation

See more details on the most important new features on the what’s new page in the Unity manual.

Choose the right release

We support multiple release versions so you can download the solution that best fits your needs.

Unity 2021 LTS

The Long Term Support (LTS) release is our default version. We recommend Unity 2021 LTS for creators who are about to lock in production on a specific version of Unity.

LTS + Tech Stream

Understand Unity’s release versioning, and learn what you can expect from a Tech Stream release or an LTS release.

Download Unity 2022.1

Get Unity 2022.1 from the Unity Hub – our tool to help you manage Unity Editor installations, create new projects, and access your work, all in one place. If you’re a new professional user, start by getting a Unity Pro license from your team or the Unity Store.

Frequently asked questions

Which version of Unity do you recommend for my project?

If you are in production or close to launch, 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.

Learn more about our different releases here.

What’s a Tech Stream release?

This release is for creators who value exploring in-progress features to stay on the cutting edge for their next project. This version is primarily recommended for the preproduction, discovery, and prototyping phases of development, but it can be used for production projects as well. The second Tech Stream in each yearly cycle becomes the foundation for the next Long Term Support release.

Learn more about our different releases here.

How long will Unity 2022.1 receive official support?

Updates and bug fixes are added to the current Tech Stream release on a weekly basis until the next Tech Stream release is officially published. We publish major Tech Stream releases twice a year.

What is an LTS release?

The LTS release is our default version and is primarily recommended for creators past the preproduction phase of development who are about to lock in production on a specific version of Unity. 

Learn more about our different releases here.

What new features are in Unity 2022.1?

Check out the full release notes on all the updates included in this release, including feature additions, performance improvements, bug fixes, and more. See more details on the most important new features on the What’s new page in the Unity manual.

How can I share feedback about Unity 2022.1?

If you want to discuss workflows, go to the relevant section of Unity Forums. If you run into an issue with Unity 2022.1, check the Issue Tracker to see if it’s a known issue or if you’re the first to experience it. If you can’t find what you’re looking for, go to Help > Report a Bug in the Unity Editor. Alternatively, you can find the Bug Reporter installed next to the Editor in the program folder.

How can I access Unity alpha and beta releases?

Both our alpha and beta releases are open to everyone, so no signup is required. Get started by downloading them from the Unity Hub. Because there may be feature-stability issues with these early releases, we do not recommend them for projects in production. We strongly encourage that you back up any project before you open it with an alpha or beta release.

Where can I see Unity’s roadmap?

Explore the roadmap details and share your feedback directly to the Product team on the Unity Platform Roadmap portal.

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