Setting up Unity

This page will help you install everything you need to use Unity for KSP2 modding.

Installing Unity

1. Download Unity Hub from https://unity.com/download.
2. Download Unity 2022.3.5f1 by clicking on the Install this version with Unity Hub link on this page: https://unity.com/releases/editor/whats-new/2022.3.5.
3. Download and install Git from https://git-scm.com/downloads.

Initializing the Unity project

1. Open Unity Hub.
2. Click on New Project at the top right of the window.
3. At the top of the new interface, set the Editor Version to 2022.3.5f1. You can keep the project template set to 3D (Core).
4. Set the Project name, it can be whatever you want like for example MyModId.Unity.
5. Set the Location to the folder you want the Unity project to be saved in.
6. Click Create project.

For a quick presentation of the Unity interface: https://luxstice.notion.site/Learning-Unity-faf0ab10f24c4925bf4b51a997a41666.

Configuring the Unity project

Installing the Addressables package

Unity doesn’t come with this package natively, so we need to install it first:

1. Open the Package Manager by clicking Window>Package Manager in the toolbar at the top of Unity.
2. This will open a new window where you can manage most of the packages in your project.
3. Go where it says Packages: In Project and change that to Unity Registry.
4. In the search bar, look for Addressables. Select it and click Install. It will show a couple pop-ups, and once it is finished, it will show a green checkmark next to the Addressables package version.

Installing ThunderKit

ThunderKit is a package for Unity which we use to import the game's components into the Unity editor. However, it is not hosted in the official Unity package repository and needs to be installed directly from its GitHub repository.

1. Go to Window>Package Manager and click on the + sign in the top left corner of the window that opens, after that click on Add Package from Git URL, paste https://github.com/PassivePicasso/ThunderKit.git and click Add.
2. The ThunderKit Settings window should open, if it doesn’t, just go to Tools>ThunderKit>Settings in the toolbar at the top of Unity.
3. Go to Import Configuration and in Import Project Settings, change the dropdown value to Everything.
4. Go to ThunderKit Settings and in Locate and load game files for project, click on Browse and select your main Kerbal Space Program 2 executable found at <KSP2 root folder>/KSP2_x64.exe.
5. Click Import and wait for KSP2 to be imported. If asked, click I made a backup, Go Ahead.
6. If Unity asks you to restart your project, confirm it by clicking on Restart Project.
7. After the process is finished, to check if the game was correctly imported, select or create any game object and in the inspector click Add Component and search for Core Part Data.

Installing KSP2 Unity Tools

1. Go to Window>Package Manager and click on the + sign in the top left corner of the window that opens, after that click on Add Package from Git URL, paste https://github.com/KSP2Community/KSP2UnityTools.git and click Add.

If you have previously installed an older version of KSP2 Unity Tools manually from a .unitypackage file, you will need to delete the whole "KSP2UnityTools" folder from your Assets folder and then do the installation.

Setting up swinfo.json and addressables

1. After installing KSP2UnityTools, go to Tools>KSP2 Unity Tools.
2. Follow one of two following steps, depending on which applies for you:
3. If you have a mod you want to copy addressables into:
   1. Set Build Mode to "Copy Assets Only".
   2. In the build path select the addressables folder in your mod's directory.
   3. At the bottom of the window, press Import swinfo.json and select your mod's swinfo.json.
4. If you want to build a full mod from Unity:
   1. Set Build Mode to "Everything".
   2. Set build path to where you want to output your packaged mod (you can set this later, just set it before build).
   3. If you already have a swinfo.json file, you can skip the next steps using the import swinfo.json button as described in the previous section.
   4. Input your mod's ID (this is critically important).
   5. Setup the rest of your mod's info (these correspond to the swinfo).
5. After following one of the previous two processes, press Set Up Addressables From Mod Info, and it should automatically set up the addressables groups for you.