Unity3d Asset Bundle Series

Welcome back! I’ve been neck-deep in Unity3d asset bundles for the last few months. They are potentially so super useful, and yet historically they are difficult to make and use. We used to use them to get around the download limits imposed on mobile app downloads. These days you can split the application binary to get a similar effect. Even then, it’s a tricky proposition. But with an asset bundles, you can change your live game just by telling the client to download a new data set. Did you know you can build different asset bundle sets for each of the Android GPU classes? The client would never have to know anything was different, and magically you have the most efficient texture format possible for each device, with just a little logic to load the right bundle directory file.

I used to use the pre-Unity 5 bundle system, with full automated dependency tracking. Even created a general purpose system where you simply add what you wanted and it figured out the details for you. Took over a year to build and test. Did get used in a shipping game. Right about then Unity came out with the new fangled Unity 5, with built-in simplified asset bundle support!

So stay tuned. Over the next few weeks I’m going to tell you all kinds of useful stuff about how to work with asset bundles. First one, next week, will tell the tale of upgrading a project to the new Unity 5 bundle system. See you there!

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The story thus far….