Setup Unity SDK (Unity)¶
Welcome to Beamable! This guide will walk you through the steps required to install the Beamable SDK into a Unity project.
Compatibility
• Beamable supports Unity versions 2021.3 to 6000 and is compatible with all template types
• Beamable supports Windows, Mac, iOS, Android, and WebGL platforms
Setting Up Account in Beamable Portal¶
To start using Beamable in your project you need to have a valid Beamable account. Please do so via our Portal. Please remember your Alias as it'll be used to log into the SDK in your editor or via the Beamable CLI.
Downloading and Installing the Beamable SDK¶
You can Download the Beamable SDK Installer Package Here.
Once downloaded, follow these steps to install the Beamable SDK into your Unity project.
| Step | Detail |
|---|---|
| 1. Import the Beamable SDK Installer Package |  • Unity → Assets → Import Package → Custom Package |
| 2. Verify the import |  • Press the "Import" button |
| 3. Install the Beamable SDK |  • Click to continue |
| 4. Remove the Beamable SDK Installer Package | • Now that the installation process is complete, the installer package is no longer needed. You can remove it. |
| 5. Install Dotnet (if required) | Starting with the Unity 2.1.0 SDK, Beamable requires that you have dotnet 8.0.302 installed on your machine. If you don't, the Beamable SDK will offer a download option for you, and once you've finished installing it, you can continue through the dialog. |
Congratulations the Beamable SDK is now installed!
Note
If you need to install a Release Candidate version of Beamable, use the Search for specific version drop down under the main Install Beamable SDK button. You can also find nightly builds here.
Log into Beamable¶
Open the Beamable Login Window by clicking the Beamable button in the Unity toolbar. Now see the Beamable Login Window prompts for user account credentials. Enter the Organization Alias and Password you created when you signed up for Beamable.
Now you're ready to start your first Beamable project!
Say Hello to Beamable!¶
To confirm that you have a working Beamable setup, we will pull in the default Beamable runtime console prefab and make sure we can access a player account.
Navigate to the Beam Library by finding it from the Beamable Button in the top-right of the Unity editor.
In the Beam Library, find the Admin Console card and click the Add Prefab button to add the prefab to an empty scene.
Enter play-mode, and hit the ~ character (the same character as `). This should open up the Admin Console. You can type in a bunch of commands like help, or dbid.
Note
The dbid command will print out the current player's id. Learn more in the frictionless auth section.
Beam CLI Dependency¶
The Beamable plugin will automatically install the Beam CLI into your Unity project. The Beam CLI is a developer tool for managing Beamable resources like Microservices, Content, and more. The Beamable Unity plugin relies on the CLI for interacting with Beamable. Your Unity project is a valid Beamable CLI project, which means you can also use the CLI directly if required.
You should expect to see a .beamable folder and a .configfolder in your Unity project's file structure. The .beamable folder contains Beamable specific information about your project, and the .config folder is a special dotnet folder that defines the version of the Beam CLI. If you are using source-control, both of these folders should be included in source-control.
The .config folder has a file called dotnet-tools.json which specifies the version of the Beam CLI being used by the Beamable Unity SDK. By default, the Beamable SDK will maintain this number, and you should not edit it by hand.
As new versions of the Beamable SDK are released, they depend on different Beam CLI versions. This table shows which versions of the Beamable SDK depend on what CLI versions.
| SDK Version | CLI Version |
|---|---|
| 3.1.5 | 5.4.2 |
| 3.1.4 | 5.4.2 |
| 3.1.3 | 5.4.2 |
| 3.1.2 | 5.4.2 |
| 3.1.1 | 5.4.1 |
| 3.1.0 | 5.4.0 |
| 3.0.0 | 5.3.0 |
| 2.4.3 | 4.3.4 |
User Beware: Changing the CLI version may cause issues
Starting in SDK 3.0, you may disable the SDK's explicit control of the dotnet-tools.json by enabling the Beamable/Editor/AdvancedCli/Disable Version Requirement setting in Unity's Project Settings window. If you do this, please understand that the Beamable SDK may stop functioning, as it is trying to use an unplanned version.