Porting from Unity to PlayCanvas

This document provides information and guides related to the tools needed to migrate a Unity project to PlayCanvas.

Install Unity Export Tool

Instructions for using the Unity plugin that will export data, images, models, etc. from Unity and outputs the resources to a folder inside the Unity project

Install the Unity Export Tool package into the Unity project

To install the Unity Export Tool package, open up the Unity project and go to menu option Assets > Import Package > Custom Package.

Select Unity package to install

Navigate to the location of the PlayCanvasSceneCreator Unity package and select it. Click Open.

Review and confirm files for installation

Click Import

Confirm installation was successful

Confirm the PlayCanvas folder has been created in the Assets window.

Open up window for Unity Export Tool

In Unity project, go to menu option Window > Playcanvas > Playcanvas Transform Window.

Start the export process

Move the PlaycanvasTransformWindow tab beside the Inspector tab for easy access. Click the Export Playcanvas button.

Locate the generated folder

The PlaycanvasBuild folder will be created inside the parent folder of the Unity project. If the Unity project's location is D:\Projects\Unity\Unity_PlayCanvas_Export_Sample, then the PlaycanvasBuild folder should be located in D:\Projects\Unity.

Confirm the export was successful

The files that will be imported into PlayCanvas can be found in the PlaycanvasBuild\ExportedAssets folder.

Install Unity2PlayCanvas Browser Extension

Instructions for installing the Unity2PlayCanvas browser extension

Download the Unity2PlayCanvas browser extension. There are two ways install to install the extension. Use only one method of installation (Important!).

Method 1 for installing the Unity2PlayCanvas browser extension using Google Chrome installation method (Recommended).

Open Chrome browser extensions page

Open chrome browser and go to url: chrome://extensions/

Configure Chrome browser for Developer Mode

Click the Developer mode button on the Extensions page to enable Developer Mode

Install browser extension

Click the Load unpacked button to install the extension (select folder ‘{Release file}/Extension’)

Confirm browser extension was installed successfully

The browser extension will be added to the All Extensions list with remove and reload button.

Method 2 for installing the Unity2PlayCanvas browser extension using Tampermoneky installation method.

Download Tampermonkey browser extension

The Tampermonkey browser extension can be downloaded here: https://www.tampermonkey.net

Open Tampermonkey dashboard

Open plugin dashboard (this example uses chrome)

Install Unity2PlayCanvas browser extension

Drag the Unity2PlayCanvas.js file into the Tampermonkey dashboard. The file location should be ‘{Release file}/Extension/Unity2Playcanvas.user.js’ script.

Refresh PlayCanvas editor

Refresh the PlayCanvas editor after adding or updating the script. Delete the old script before updating to new version of the script.

Uninstalling the Unity2PlayCanvas browser extension

In order to uninstall the Unity2PlayCanvas browser extension, open the Tampermonkey dashboard and click the trash can icon.

Import Unity Scene into PlayCanvas

Instructions for using the PlayCanvas browser extension that will recreate the Unity scene in PlayCanvas editor from the resources generated by the Unity Export Tool

Integrate the Unity scene into the PlayCanvas editor by creating assets (materials, state graphs) and entities.

Create/select an output folder in PlayCanvas

In PlayCanvas editor, create/select an empty folder under root of Assets folder (Important!).

Upload generated files to output folder

Under path ‘{Unity project's Parent folder}\PlaycanvasBuild\ExportAssets’, select all files generated by Unity tool then drag into the folder in PlayCanvas editor.

Wait for uploading to complete

Start process

Click the Unity2PlayCanvas dropdown to expand/hide the panel and click the ‘Run Progress’ button

Wait for process to complete

Check for errors in the process

Hover over the error messages to read them and click ‘view’ button to check problem entity or asset.

Rerun the process if needed

If you want to rerun the process, scroll down in the panel to the bottom and click ‘Clear Created’ button, then wait for progress to delete all created entities and assets