Unity Software : In-Editor tutorials available to try in Unity 2021.1

This new pre-release package helps Unity developers create in-Editor interactive tutorials for their Editor tools and projects.

In-Editor tutorials (IET), began as an internal tool that teams across Unity used to create interactive tutorials for learning projects, theLEGO® Microgamefor instance.

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Beginning with IET 2.0.0, the packages will be publicly available. This version supports Unity 2019 LTS and newer, where it appears as a preview package in the Package Manager. If you use 2021.1 beta, however, it will appear as a pre-release package (which you must enable). You can find out more about the new package lifecycle in thisforum post.

The In-Editor Tutorials consist of two packages, Tutorial Framework and Tutorial Authoring Tools. The first option makes it possible to create and run interactive In-Editor tutorials (simply 'tutorials' hereafter) for a wide range of Editor use cases. The Tutorial Authoring Tools package provides menu items for setting up the project foundation and creating tutorial content for the most common use cases. You have the option to start a new blank tutorial, or take on the ready-to-use tutorial which includes a few preset tutorial pages that you can easily customize.

To recap:

• com.unity.learn.iet-framework: the framework allows you to run the tutorials. Projects that include tutorials must have this package present.
• com.unity.learn.iet-framework.authoring: the authoring tool is necessary if you plan to create tutorials. The final published tutorial projects do not depend on this package.

Who is Tutorial Framework for?

The use cases for tutorials mainly belong in teaching environments, where a tutor can easily create sample projects with accompanying instructions and tasks for their students. It is also useful for large collaborative projects, where new information and specific tools must be explained to new contributors. Another use case involves tutorials with custom tools that can be shared with others.

Key considerations

The upcoming In-Editor Tutorial Framework 2.0.0 and the IET Authoring Tools 1.0.0 are supported by 2019.LTS and 2020.LTS, as well as 2021.1 versions of the Unity Editor. As the name suggests, the tutorial content created with the In-Editor Tutorial packages is Editor-only and not currently suitable for creating runtime or in-game tutorials. At the moment, this package only provides UI functionality (no public APIs).

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If you cannot find these packages, you can add them on Package Manager using the 'Add package from Git URL…' feature: com.unity.learn.iet-framework and com.unity.learn.iet-framework.authoring

Features overview

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The following Tutorial-related options exist in the Create submenu.

Welcome dialog

IET contains the functionality to implement welcome dialog with a customizable button row for your project.

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Tutorial window

The main component of IET is the Tutorial window, which runs the tutorials available in the project.

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A new empty tutorial page

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The tutorial window in the Lego Microgame on the right side.

Tutorials

Incorporating tutorials in your project allows your players to fully understand how to use it.

Tutorials can take the form of passive walkthroughs or contain specific tasks that the user must complete in order to progress.

Tutorials typically contain instructions for the players to complete before advancing to the next step or page of a tutorial. You can validate the completion of these instructions against a set of predefined 'criteria,' such as fselecting a certain object in the Hierarchy or Inspector window. It is also possible to write custom 'criteria'for evaluating more complex actions. You can then auto-advance a tutorial to the next page once a task is complete.

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The Tutorial pages can contain multimedia, such as video, images or audio. They can also comprise of informative pages or require user interaction.

Masking & Highlighting

To help the users understand where to focus their attention -or prevent them from accidental errors when following a tutorial - you can use IET to highlight or mask the different parts of the Editor and their elements (like Controls in the toolbar, labels, etc.)

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User-defined tutorial logic

A powerful feature of IET is the tutorial author's ability to incorporate their own code as callbacks for various phases of the tutorial execution. This makes it possible to set up the scene i, or outline the completion criteria, as desired, before a user starts a specific tutorial.

Customizable style sheets

You can customize the style for both Light and Dark themes, from the settings asset.

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Links to external resources

It is possible to add links in the main tutorial window, so you can include relevant project material, such as documentation, videos, or other supporting content from the web.

Localization

Tutorials can be localized into the languages currently available in both Hub and Editor: Japanese, Korean and Chinese.

Examples and additional resources

To see how we use the IET system at Unity, download and try one of our Microgames, like theLEGO® Microgame mentioned earlier. The packages' documentation can be foundherefor the Tutorial framework, andherefor the Tutorial Framework Authoring Tools. If you have additional questions, don't forget to visit theforum space for Tutorial Framework.

Join Unity 2021.1 beta

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There's still time to try 2021.1 while it's in beta. Get the latest versionfrom the Unity Hub or on ourdownload page. It currently includes over 2,100 fixes and more than 280 features and updates.

Take it out for a spin, and if you run into any issues, submit a bug report to qualify for your chance to win one of four ultrawide IPS 34' 144 Hz monitors. Remember, the beta is not intended for use in production-stage projects, and you should always make sure to back up your existing projects if you plan to use them with the beta.