Unity Addressables Guide (10) - Local Hosting for Testing

Unity - Addressables Guide (9). Download from Server Part 3

In episode 9, we went through an example of uploading bundles to an external server using Amazon S3 and downloading them in-game.

If the size you're testing is quite large, costs can add up.

Therefore, it's better to test using a local server with a workflow rather than using services like Amazon.

For this purpose, Unity supports a Hosting Service.

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The method is very straightforward.

First, open the hosting window through the path shown in the image above,

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Click the Create button at the top left and select Local Hosting.

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You'll see a screen like this on the right,

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Click the Start Hosting button to start the local hosting server.

Once you click it, you'll see that a local server URL has been generated.

Then click the Create Profile button to create a profile.

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A window will appear asking for the profile name and server URL.

Enter the server URL you generated above.

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Create a group for bundling the content.

Now the group has been created and is ready for bundling.

Let's create a simple Addressable asset to test with.

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Right-click the asset to mark it as Addressable.

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Once the asset is marked as Addressable, an address is assigned.

You can use this address to load the asset in code.

Now let's generate the bundle build by clicking the Build button.

Build the Addressable assets into bundles.

You can see in the hosting window that the bundle was built successfully.

Now let's load the asset from the local server using a simple script.

Using the Addressables.LoadAsset API, you can load the asset with its address.

Key Takeaways:

• Use local server hosting for testing instead of external services to reduce costs
• Create profiles and groups in the hosting window
• Mark assets as Addressable to assign addresses
• Build bundles using the Build button
• Load assets using their addresses in code