JetBrains Rider 2018.1 Help

Unity

Unity is a game-development platform used to create 2D and 3D games and deploy them on multiple platforms. JetBrains Rider provides powerful support for Unity including: Unity-specific quick fixes, context actions and inspections, code completion and syntax highlighting in shader files, debugging Unity scripts, running and debugging Unity tests, and much more.

Supported versions

JetBrains Rider provides support for Unity API versions 4.7 - 5.6, 2017.1 and later.

Getting started

Support for Unity is based on two plugins:

  • The open-source Unity Support plugin which provides the aforementioned feature set. The plugin comes bundled with Rider, so manual installation is not required.
  • The additional Unity editor plugin which provides integration with the Unity Editor, namely sets Rider as the default script editor, ensures the C# solution and project files are up to date, and more. Rider will automatically add this plugin to all Unity projects that are opened. It will initially install the plugin to Assets/Plugins/Editor/JetBrains/JetBrains.Rider.Unity.Editor.Plugin.Repacked.dll, but will look for the file by name if it is moved. Do NOT commit this file to your source control: Rider will automatically keep this file up to date, installing newer versions when available. You can disable this behaviour in File | Settings | Languages & Frameworks | Unity Engine.

To start using Rider with your Unity project

  1. Open an existing Unity project in the Unity Editor.
  2. Start Rider and open the .sln file of this Unity project. Rider will install the Unity editor plugin into the project. Once the solution has been loaded with the new plugin, Rider and the Unity editor become connected. This is shown with a Unity icon on the status bar.
    connected icon
  3. Switch back to the Unity Editor, with the same Unity project open. The new Unity editor plugin will automatically configure Rider as the external script editor.

This only needs to be done once, and can also be done manually, via the Unity Editor's External Editor Preference pane.

Double clicking on C# scripts and .shader files will now automatically open JetBrains Rider, load the solution and navigate to the file. The solution can be loaded directly with the Assets | Open C# Project in Rider menu item.

Last modified: 20 August 2018