Lesson 6 +10 XP

Scene Management

In Unity, a Scene represents a single level, menu screen, or workspace. Your project is organized into scenes, and you load and unload them to navigate the game.

Loading Scenes in C#

To load and manage scenes, you must include the UnityEngine.SceneManagement namespace. You load a scene by its name or index:

using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class GameManager : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void LoadNextLevel()
    {
        // Load scene named "Level2"
        SceneManager.LoadScene("Level2");
    }
}

Single vs Additive Loading

By default, loading a scene operates in Single Mode (LoadSceneMode.Single). This unloads the current scene and loads the new scene.

Alternatively, you can load scenes in Additive Mode (LoadSceneMode.Additive):

The new scene is loaded alongside the current active scene(s).
This is useful for splitting large worlds into smaller chunks, or loading a persistent UI scene on top of gameplay scenes.

Asynchronous Loading

Loading large scenes can freeze the game for a moment. To avoid this, load scenes asynchronously:

IEnumerator LoadSceneAsync(string sceneName)
{
    AsyncOperation op = SceneManager.LoadSceneAsync(sceneName);
    while (!op.isDone)
    {
        float progress = Mathf.Clamp01(op.progress / 0.9f);
        Debug.Log("Loading progress: " + (progress * 100) + "%");
        yield return null;
    }
}

TL;DR

Scenes are levels or screens stored as assets.
Use UnityEngine.SceneManagement namespace to load scenes.
Single loading closes the current scene; Additive loading keeps it open.
Use LoadSceneAsync to load scenes in the background without gameplay freeze.

Scene Management