Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity.; 2 minutes to read +3; In this article. Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity is a free Visual Studio extension that turns Visual Studio for Mac into a powerful tool for developing cross-platform games and apps with the Unity platform. Create Visual Studio Solution(Windows only) Enable this setting to generate Visual Studio Solution files for your Project, so you can build your final executable in Visual Studio. Create Xcode Project (Mac Only) Enable this setting to generate an Xcode project so you can build your final application bundle in Xcode.
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Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity is a free Visual Studio extension that turns Visual Studio for Mac into a powerful tool for developing cross-platform games and apps with the Unity platform.
Unity integration is included out of the box in Visual Studio for Mac, and starting from Unity 2018.1, Visual Studio for Mac is the default C# IDE for Unity projects.
Note
This information is for Visual Studio for Mac IDE. For Visual Studio Code, see this guide for more information.
Overview
Here are some of the key features of Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity:
Compatible with Visual Studio for Mac Community Edition
Visual Studio for Mac Community Edition is available for free, and bundled with Unity installs starting with Unity 2018.1. See the Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity setup documentation for more information.
IntelliSense for Unity messages
IntelliSense makes it fast and easy to implement Unity messages like OnCollisionEnter, including their parameters.
Superior debugging
Visual Studio for Mac Tools for Unity supports all the debugging features that you expect from Visual Studio:
Set breakpoints, including conditional breakpoints.
Evaluate complex expressions in the Watch window.
Inspect and modify the value of variables and arguments.
Drill down into complex objects and data structures.
Powerful refactoring and context actions
Write more usable code with quick menus and keyboard shortcuts for renaming, refactoring, and context actions.
Roslyn diagnostics and quick-fixes for Unity
Write better code that captures the best practices with Visual Studio for Mac's deep understanding of Unity projects.
Browse and add new files
Browse Unity projects and add folders, scripts, or shaders, all within the Visual Studio for Mac IDE.
Use familiar key bindings
Boost productivity by using the key bindings that you know. Visual Studio for Mac provides familiar key bindings for many popular IDEs, such as Visual Studio on Windows, ReSharper, Visual Studio Code, and Xcode.
Customize the Visual theme
Give your eyes a rest with the included dark theme.
Tips for Unity developers getting started with Visual Studio for Mac
These links explain useful features for Unity developers just starting with Visual Studio for Mac:
Customizing the IDE – Learn how to change the visual theme or switch to a more familiar key binding scheme.
Source Editor – Learn how Visual Studio for Mac can make writing better code faster and easier, including common keyboard shortcuts.
Unity’s real-time 3D development platform lets artists, designers and developers work together to create amazing immersive and interactive experiences. (Available for Windows, Mac, and Linux.)
The Heretic: a short film created with Unity 2019.3
Unleash your creativity
Unity is the world’s leading platform for creating and operating interactive, real-time 3D content, providing the tools to make amazing games and publish them to a wide range of devices. The Unity core platform enables entire creative teams to be more productive together.
Real-time 3D creation for everyone
A creative hub for artists, designers, and programmers, the Unity core platform enables rapid editing and iteration in your development cycles, with real-time previews of your work. You can create 2D or 3D scenes, animations or cinematics directly in the Unity Editor.
Create once, deploy anywhere
Reach the widest audience and feel confident that your IP is future-proof, no matter how the industry evolves or where your imagination takes you. Build your content once and deploy across over 20 platforms, including Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, PlayStation, Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and the leading AR and VR platforms.
When it comes to graphics, you need control to shape your vision and power to push your visuals. Unity’s real-time rendering capabilities enable you to produce amazing visual fidelity with the Scriptable Render Pipeline.
“One of the great things about using Unity is that, thanks to the speed with which you can iterate, we can very quickly learn what’s working and what’s not.”
“I love the fact that I can touch every facet of audiovisual storytelling in one place, at the same time. The simplest way to describe working in Unity is pure creation.”
“Unity’s extremely high-quality visuals are unsurpassed, which is crucial for immersive experiences. We love the power of the Unity engine.”
Discover inspiring stories from creators who chose Unity to bring their projects to life.
Find the best Unity version for your project, whether you’re using Unity Personal, Plus or Pro. Then, update your Unity Editor version through Unity Hub.
Unity 2019.4 LTS release
If your project is ready for production or you have a live project that you want to update, we recommend our latest Long Term Support (LTS) release. Unity 2019.4 LTS has the same feature set as Unity 2019.3 and will receive bi-weekly updates for 2 years.
Unity 2020.1 TECH release
TECH stream releases give you access to the latest features. We update the current TECH stream release on a weekly basis until the next TECH release is launched.
Unity release archive
Looking to download past versions of Unity or read Unity release notes? We have it all organized in one place.
Read the Unity User Manual for a complete introduction to Unity. You’ll learn how to customize your workflow, integrate with external tools, and even extend the Editor itself.
Animation and cinematic tooling
Animation 2D rigging IK 2D animation Timeline Cinemachine
Audio and video
Data-Oriented Technology Stack (DOTS)
C# Job System Burst Compiler Entity Component System Unity Physics and Havok Physics (preview) DSPGraph audio framework (preview)
Whether you’re a beginner or expert, professional or student, we have the resources to help you accomplish your creative goals with Unity.
Learn Premium
Get direct guidance from Unity Certified Instructors in biweekly interactive sessions, and go deeper into intermediate and advanced topics with Unity Learn Premium.
Tutorials
Get award-winning free tutorials, sample projects, and full courses for mastering real-time 3D development to make video games, virtual reality, augmented reality, and more.
Community
Get help and discuss solutions with experienced Unity users. Share your knowledge. Share the love.
Looking for the next release of Unity? Unity alpha and beta releases are open to everyone. They grant you early access to features in the upcoming full releases. Try them out and let us know what you think.