tools-unity-addressables

Unity Addressables

Overview

Addressables provides a system for loading assets by address, with automatic dependency management, memory tracking, and remote content delivery support.

When to Use

• Loading assets dynamically at runtime
• Managing asset memory lifecycle
• Implementing remote asset downloads
• Reducing build size with asset bundles
• Loading scenes asynchronously

Core Concepts

Asset References

// In inspector - reference to addressable asset
[SerializeField] private AssetReference _prefabReference;
[SerializeField] private AssetReferenceT<AudioClip> _audioReference;
[SerializeField] private AssetReferenceSprite _spriteReference;
[SerializeField] private AssetReferenceGameObject _gameObjectReference;

Loading by Address (String)

// Load by address string
var handle = Addressables.LoadAssetAsync<GameObject>("Prefabs/Enemy");
var prefab = await handle.Task;

// Or with UniTask
var prefab = await Addressables.LoadAssetAsync<GameObject>("Prefabs/Enemy").ToUniTask();

Loading by AssetReference

// Load from serialized reference
var handle = _prefabReference.LoadAssetAsync<GameObject>();
var prefab = await handle.ToUniTask();

Loading Patterns

Basic Asset Loading

public class AssetLoader
{
    private AsyncOperationHandle<GameObject> _handle;
    
    public async UniTask<GameObject> LoadAsync(string address, CancellationToken ct)
    {
        _handle = Addressables.LoadAssetAsync<GameObject>(address);
        
        try
        {
            return await _handle.ToUniTask(cancellationToken: ct);
        }
        catch (OperationCanceledException)
        {
            // Release on cancellation
            if (_handle.IsValid())
                Addressables.Release(_handle);
            throw;
        }
    }
    
    public void Unload()
    {
        if (_handle.IsValid())
        {
            Addressables.Release(_handle);
            _handle = default;
        }
    }
}