Frequently Asked Questions

Welcome to Unity Answers, a site provided by Unity for use by the community!

What is Unity Answers?

Unity Answers is a place for asking questions and finding answers - all about Unity! Unity Answers co-exist with the Unity Forums, but they have different functions:

• Unity Answers is a place for questions that can be answered! Avoid asking questions here that are subjective, argumentative, or require extended discussion.
• Unity Forums is a place for discussions, opinions, showing off your work, getting feedback, and general community chatter.

One problem with the Unity Forums was that old threads tended to get buried, so users ended up asking the same questions over and over again. We hope that Unity Answers can function as a more efficient place for that kind of question and answer exchange, while the Unity Forums is still great for all the rest!

Moderators

Moderators help maintain the quality of the content on Unity Answers. They can send posts to the moderation queue for review, are able to close and edit posts that have been published as well as delete content.
The moderators follow the Moderator Guidelines, so if you want to find out how they manage the content on UA you should take a look at the page.

What kind of questions can I ask here?

Unity questions, of course! As long as your question is:

• detailed and specific
• written clearly and simply
• of interest to at least one other Unity user somewhere

... it is welcome here. Oh yes, and it should be about Unity.

Please look around to see if your question has already been asked (and maybe even answered!) before you ask. If you end up asking a question that has been asked before, it may end up getting rejected in the moderation queue or closed if it has been published. Other users will hopefully edit in links to related or similar questions to help future visitors find their way.

Help Room

The Help Room can be reached through the Spaces dropdown in the menu bar. Use this space for questions that don't fit the Main/Default space, for example if it's more of a general problem-solving question. 

Do also remember to have a look at our Getting Started forum, Scripting forum and Learn material. Doing a search for a similar topic will most likely lead you to a question on Answers or a thread on the Forum that has already been provided with a solution.

Do I have to log in or create an account?

Yes. All users will need to create a Unity account. This is the same account you use for the Forums, Online and Asset stores and for managing your license portfolio. You sign on once with your Unity Account and employ the same username and email across all Unity services and resources.

What are the guidelines for writing good questions?

We want Unity Answers to become a comprehensive database of questions and answers related to Unity. When you ask your questions, it can be helpful to keep a few things in mind:

• Don't post multiple unrelated questions in one post. Make separate posts instead, each with one question.
• Don't write things that will be irrelevant in a few days. Writing that "This is urgent!" will probably not get you faster answers, but it may make people frown at your question.
• Be specific. If you want specific answers, ask specific questions. If something "doesn't work", write what exactly it does that is wrong.
• Use specific tags. unity, scripting, editor, etc. are very non-specific tags. Consider using tags that are more specific to your exact question. Tags are case sensitive, so if you can't find the tag you want to use in the drop-down list, try using lower/upper case letters as an alternative. Here is the full list of tags.
• Break multi-part problems into simpler questions. Instead of posting a question: "How can I make a gui toggle to change the skybox?", post two simpler questions instead: "How can I make a gui toggle?" and "How can I change the skybox?" This way the questions will also be relevant to people who want to make a toggle for something else, or who want to change the skybox based on something else.

It's also perfectly fine to ask and answer your own question, but please post just the question first, and then reply to it below with your answer.

If anyone posts questions, answers, or comments that you feel don't follow the guidelines, please try to resolve the situation in a respectful manner. Write a friendly comment to the poster pointing out what's wrong. The option to "flag this post for serious problems" should not be used except as a last resort, and never if a question or answer is simply lacking, nor as a shortcut to get attention.

Where can I learn how to post good questions?

Please see the video here.  Also, for some instruction on why asking for code is bad, please see "What have you tried?" by Matt Gemmell.

Be honest.

Above all, be honest.

• When you see good questions or helpful answers, vote them up! This will help getting the best answers and the most interesting questions be listed first. Any registered user is able to vote up, regardless of reputation.

• If you ask a question and someone writes a helpful reply, make sure to mark that reply as the answer! (Click the check-mark icon to make it green.) This is both your privilege and duty as the person who asked the question. You gain 5 Karma points when accepting an answer that helped solve your issue.
• If you see misinformation, vote it down. Insert comments indicating what, specifically, is wrong. Even better — edit and improve the information! Provide stronger, faster, superior answers of your own!

User profile and notifications

To reach your user profile, simply click on your username in the top-right corner of the page. From there you can view all of your activity as well as set the preferences for your e-mail notifications through clicking on the "User Tools" drop-down menu.

What if I don't get a good answer?

In order to get good answers, you have to put some effort into the question. Edit your question to provide status and progress updates. Document your own continued efforts to answer your question. This will naturally bump your question and get more people interested in it.

Other people can edit my stuff?!

Like Wikipedia, this site is collaboratively edited. If you are not comfortable with the idea of your questions and answers being edited by other trusted users, this may not be the site for you.  Experienced users can edit your questions and answers and accept the "correct" answer.

Why did my question get closed or rejected?

If your question was closed or rejected, you can still view any comments left for that closed post in your activity panel on your Unity Answers profile page.

If you are just starting out with Unity we suggest checking out the Learn section, as there exists several tutorials, documentation and live training sessions. We want to encourage users to look up information themselves, as this is the best way to learn. If you can easily find what you are looking for in the Documentation, Learn section or by simply searching in Answers or the Forum, we suggest you doing that before asking your question.

There are several reasons for questions to be rejected or closed, each moderator makes the decision to publish or reject a post according to their own judgement and following the Moderator Guidelines.

Some reasons for getting a post rejected:

• You haven't provided enough context: we need more information about your problem, relevant code snippets and what you have tried already.
• There exists duplicate questions with answers if you were to do a search, either on Answers or on the Forum
• Your question isn't specific enough: asking for a script, asking multiple questions in one post or asking a question that could be either subjective or require extensive discussion (and thus belongs in the Forum)
• Badly formated question: code needs to be formatted using the 101/010 button, break your post up into several parts so it's understandable what you are asking, and make sure there is a question in your post
• Asking us to fix your code: more than likely, you simply need to get a better understanding of basic programming. Having a look at the Scripting tutorials on the Learn page will help you become more familiar with scripting in Unity
• Posting about a specific compiling error or NullReferenceException: there is a myriad of these questions with answers already, have a look at those posts to get hints on what could possibly be your issue

Helpful threads for new users

• How can I start learning Unity fast (list of tutorials)
• What are the syntax differences between C# and JavaScript/Unity Script
• What is a NullReferenceException in Unity
• Why are questions getting rejected
• Standard assets in Unity 5 are missing
• Missing a module? Just reopen the Download Assistant
• Guidelines for using rigidbody, collider and character controller
• Autocomplete not working in MonoDevelop
• Unity Web Player plugin on Chrome
• How do I ask a good question
• Why should I use Version Control
• How to set up Version Control for your Unity projects
• C# compiler errors Knowledge Base articles

Having issues with Unity 5?

The team is working very hard to fix bugs for upcoming releases, and any known issues, changes and fixes are being documented in the release notes for each version so please have a look. Unity Answers is not a bug database, so make sure you are reporting any bugs you encounter, and follow the status of the bug reports in our issue tracker.

If you are unsure of what is included in the Personal, Plus or Professional subscription plans, please check out the compare plans on the store.

Make sure to also check out the blogpost explaining the API changes and automatic script updating in Unity 5 if you're running into issues with your scripts from previous versions of Unity.

What are the main differences with the new QATO backend?

Unity Answers switched backend to QATO due to changes in the StackExchange licensing model which would mean lack of proper control over the Unity Answers site from our side, and also to be able to have improvements implemented that StackExchange were unwilling to prioritize. While a few things may not be quite as polished from the beginning, we believe that the switch will be a big benefit on the long term. Here are some of the main differences:

• Questions and answers can't be posted anonymously anymore. Login is required.
• Images can now be uploaded directly from your harddrive and inserted in a post.
• Some badges are different or no longer available.
• The ability to create bounties is not available on the new site at this point.

What is Karma/Reputation?

Reputation (also sometimes called karma) is a (very) rough measurement of how much the Unity community trusts you. Reputation is completely optional. Normal use of Unity Answers — that is, asking questions and providing answers — does not require any reputation whatsoever. Published content can get sent to the moderation queue for review, and all users with more than 1000 Karma points can view these questions and answers and choose to publish or reject them.

However, if you want to help us run the site, you'll need reputation first. Reputation is never given, it is earned by convincing other users that you know what you're talking about.

Here's how it works: if you post a good question or helpful answer, it will be voted up by your peers: you gain 10 reputation points. If you post something that's off topic or incorrect, it will be voted down: you lose 5 reputation points. If you provide a good answer and it becomes accepted, you gain 20 reputation points, and accepting someone else's answer gives them 5 reputation points as a reward for providing help.

Amass enough reputation points and Unity Answers will allow you to go beyond simply asking and answering questions:

At the high end of this reputation spectrum there is little difference between users with high reputation and moderators. That is very much intentional. We don't run Unity Answers. The community does.

What Badges Can I Collect?

What are the Kite Symbols Against Some Usernames?

Two kite symbols denotes a user is a Unity or dZone employee.