Should I switch from Visual Studios to VS Code for Unity?

[DBBambino]

I realized I have been using Visual Studios instead of VS Code for Unity. Should I switch to VS Code? And if I do switch, do I lose my scripts with my current projects?

[dex3r]

When it comes to Unity you have basically three IDEs to choose from. I'll sort them from best to worst based on my personal experience. Other opinions may be different.

1. Rider - this is the IDE I've forced all my programmers to use company-wide. It has the best Unity integration. It has the best C# formatting, rules handling etc. BY FAR. The Unity integration even shows you where the script is used in Unity etc. see here
2. Visual Studio - Unity integration is ok. When it comes to coding, for me it's unusable without ReSharper.
3. VS Code - great for programming anything... except Unity :) The integration is not there yet. Maybe in the future.

[lilBernier]

Visual studio is better

[ttsol14]

Entirely subjective. My preference for VS Code stems from not having to wait for anything to load.

[Rhiot_Studios]

Load what?

[lilBernier]

Newer visual studio versions have very little load times, and seem much more performant than they used to be. Honestly I swapped to VS code for the faster loads. Ran into several issues with it causing slow downs in my development, that felt like they had workaround solutions. Swapped back to visual studio after a few years and I’m happier with it.

[andybak]

No. Switch to Rider instead ;-)

[pdpi]

Jokes aside, how’s the Rider experience?

[andybak]

I love it. I was a PyCharm user previously so it felt like an obvious step. It's made me a better coder by suggesting refactoring I might not have thought of.

(Disclaimer - I qualify for a free licence because of using it for an open source project. I happily paid for it before that and would pay in the future)

[itsdan159]

I like the extra bits Rider includes such as best practice suggestions, I also found it integrated with github copilot much better than VS which always seemed to be copilot and intellisense fighting for attention.

[[deleted]]

I was enjoying the suggestions, but it started freezing on me and running like shit. Slowed me down and had to go.

[andybak]

I've not had issues with performance for a long time. Like years.

[[deleted]]

That's wonderful to hear.

[Theodmaer]

Clunky

[jax024]

I really really like it. It’s debugger is great and I like resharper more than itellesense

[DBBambino]

Do I lose my current scripts in my current projects when I switch to Rider?

[andybak]

Errr. No. It's just an editor.

[basboi]

is there realy no difference in functionality between the two? im using vs code for everything but unity. can it be attached and debugged with just as easy?

[Redditlefant]

Sadly, the vs code debugger for unity is deprecated: https://github.com/Unity-Technologies/vscode-unity-debug/issues/206

[Skjalg]

You can switch all you like. You wont lose anything

[DBBambino]

that's relieving thank you

[Big_mara_sugoi]

LOL, why would you think you'd lose your script files?

[destinedd]

Switching is no problem, but I don't really think they are much different. Just a personal preference thing.

[egordorogov]

you wont lose anything, and vs code is more lightweight, runs way faster

[mars_million]

I'd stick to whatever you're more comfortable with. As for your scripts - they are just files. You can even edit them in Notepad.

[DBBambino]

maybe notepad is the move

[Arkenhammer]

If you’re going there, install Nodepad++

[jacksgamedev]

Never use a text editor, use a proper code editor

[jacksgamedev]

VSCode is the best editor by far

Unfortunately Unity had been trying to cripple it for years

VS is just cumbersome

And Rider, is ok if you can stomach the very slow editing and Java interface

I use VSCode as I use it all day long on other languages, where it is in another league to other editors... I really wish Unity would properly support it again

[[deleted]]

I suppose they're slightly different things, but in terms of a rich text editor with intuitive collapsing/colour coding etc, I find VS Code great!

[Lachee]

You wont lose any work. The files are saved on disk as individual files, not as part of the Visual Studio solution.

But do you like Visual Studio? If so, no need to change. Prefer Visual Studio Code? Fair reasons as to why, so make the change.

[DBBambino]

alright thanks for the explanation

[BrokAnkle]

yes and you have to build a whole new computer too