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Addressables
The Addressables system provides tools and scripts to organize and package content for your application and an API to load and release assets at runtime.
When you make an asset "Addressable," you can use that asset's address to load it from anywhere. Whether that asset resides in the local application or on a content delivery network, the Addressable system locates and returns it.
Adopt the Addressables system to help improve your project in the following areas:
- Flexibility: Addressables give you the flexibility to adjust where you host your assets. You can install assets with your application or download them on demand. You can change where you access a specific asset at any stage in your project without rewriting any game code.
- Dependency management: The system automatically loads all dependencies of any assets you load, so that all meshes, shaders, animations, and other assets load before the system returns the content to you.
- Memory management: The system unloads assets as well as loads them, counting references automatically and providing a robust profiler to help you spot potential memory problems.
- Content packing: Because the system maps and understands complex dependency chains, it package AssetBundles efficiently, even when you move or rename assets. You can prepare assets for both local and remote deployment, to support downloadable content and reduced application size.
For an introduction to the Addressables system see Simplify your content management with Addressables.
[!NOTE] The Addressables system builds upon Unity AssetBundles. If you want to use AssetBundles in your projects without writing your own detailed management code, you should use Addressables.
Adding Addressables to an existing Project
You can adopt Addressables in an existing Unity Project by installing the Addressables package. To do this, you need to assign addresses to your assets and refactor any runtime loading code. See Upgrading to the Addressables system for more information.
Although you can integrate Addressables at any stage in a project’s development, Unity recommends that you start using Addressables immediately in new projects to avoid unnecessary code refactoring and content planning changes later in development.