Scene loading and unloading in Unity - Mini Project: Build & Apply

Scene loading and unloading

📖 Scenario: You are making a simple Unity game where the player can move between two scenes: a Main Menu and a Game Level. You want to load and unload these scenes properly to save memory and keep the game smooth.

🎯 Goal: Build a Unity script that loads the MainMenu scene first, then loads the GameLevel scene additively when a button is pressed, and unloads the MainMenu scene to switch smoothly between scenes.

📋 What You'll Learn

Create a script to manage scene loading and unloading

Load the MainMenu scene at start

Additively load the GameLevel scene on command

Unload the MainMenu scene after loading GameLevel

Use UnityEngine.SceneManagement namespace

💡 Why This Matters

🌍 Real World

Games often have multiple scenes like menus, levels, and settings. Loading and unloading scenes properly helps keep the game fast and uses less memory.

💼 Career

Understanding scene management is essential for Unity developers working on games or interactive applications to create smooth user experiences.

1

Setup initial scene loading

Write a Unity C# script called SceneController. Inside the Start() method, first call DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject); to make this SceneController persist across scene changes, then load the scene named MainMenu using SceneManager.LoadScene with LoadSceneMode.Single.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class SceneController : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        // Load the MainMenu scene here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject); first to persist the controller across scenes, then SceneManager.LoadScene with the scene name "MainMenu" and LoadSceneMode.Single to load the scene alone.

2

Add a method to load the GameLevel scene additively

Add a public method called LoadGameLevel() to the SceneController class. Inside it, load the scene named GameLevel using SceneManager.LoadScene with LoadSceneMode.Additive.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class SceneController : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
        SceneManager.LoadScene("MainMenu", LoadSceneMode.Single);
    }

    // Add LoadGameLevel method here
}

Need a hint?

Create a public method LoadGameLevel() and inside it call SceneManager.LoadScene with "GameLevel" and LoadSceneMode.Additive.

3

Add a method to unload the MainMenu scene

Add a public method called UnloadMainMenu() to the SceneController class. Inside it, unload the scene named MainMenu using SceneManager.UnloadSceneAsync.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class SceneController : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
        SceneManager.LoadScene("MainMenu", LoadSceneMode.Single);
    }

    public void LoadGameLevel()
    {
        SceneManager.LoadScene("GameLevel", LoadSceneMode.Additive);
    }

    // Add UnloadMainMenu method here
}

Need a hint?

Create a public method UnloadMainMenu() and inside it call SceneManager.UnloadSceneAsync with "MainMenu".

4

Print confirmation after loading and unloading scenes

Add Debug.Log statements inside LoadGameLevel() and UnloadMainMenu() methods to print "GameLevel scene loaded" and "MainMenu scene unloaded" respectively.

Unity

using UnityEngine;
using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class SceneController : MonoBehaviour
{
    void Start()
    {
        DontDestroyOnLoad(gameObject);
        SceneManager.LoadScene("MainMenu", LoadSceneMode.Single);
    }

    public void LoadGameLevel()
    {
        SceneManager.LoadScene("GameLevel", LoadSceneMode.Additive);
        // Add Debug.Log here
    }

    public void UnloadMainMenu()
    {
        SceneManager.UnloadSceneAsync("MainMenu");
        // Add Debug.Log here
    }
}

Need a hint?

Use Debug.Log("GameLevel scene loaded") inside LoadGameLevel() and Debug.Log("MainMenu scene unloaded") inside UnloadMainMenu().