When I want to edit C# Unity scripts, they open in Visual Studio. It is supposed to provide auto complete for all Unity related code, but it doesn't work.
Here you can see the missing functionality:
As seen, the transform object does not open the autocomplete menu.
Unity version: 5.5.2f1
Visual studio 2015
Visual Studio Tools for Unity is installed
There is no auto-completion because the script says "Miscellaneous Files" instead of the of the name of the Project. Take a look at the image below that came from the video in your question:
The "Miscellaneous Files" message can happen for many reasons:
It can happen when you open your Unity C# file from another folder instead of opening it from Unity Editor.
This can also happen because Unity crashed while Visual Studio is still open therefore corrupting some files.
It can happen because Unity was closed then re-opened but is no longer connected to Visual Studio. When Visual Studio is opened you get "Miscellaneous Files" and no auto-completion.
This can happen when Visual Studio Tools for unity is not installed.
When you create a script from Unity then quickly open it before Unity finish processing it or before the round icon animation stuff finish animating.
Most of the times, restarting Unity and Visual Studio should fix this.
I can't tell which one is causing the problem but I will cover the most likely solution to fix this.
Fix Part 1:
Download and Install Visual Studio Tools for unity from this link. Do this while Unity and Visual Studio are both closed.
From Unity Editor, go to Edit → Preferences... → External Tools. On the External Script Editor drop down menu, change that to Visual Studio 2015.
Fix Part 2:
If newly created C# files are coming up as Miscellaneous then follow the instruction below:
From Visual Studio, go to Tools → Options... → Tools for Unity → Miscellaneous. Under Show connectivity icon, set it to true then restart Visual Studio.
When you re-start, connection icon should now be available in Visual Studio. Click it then choose the Unity instance to connect to. The red 'x' icon should now turn into a brown checkmark icon. Now, when you create a new C# file in Unity, it should open without saying Miscellaneous.
Fix Part 3:
Still not fixed?
Re-import project then open C# Project.
Close Visual Studio.
From Unity, re-import project by going to Assets → Reimport All.
Now, open the project in Visual Studio by going to Assets → Open C# Project. This will reload the project and fix possible solution file problems.
Fix Part 4:
Still not fixed?
Fix each C# file individually.
Click on Show All Files icon.
Select the script that doesn't do auto-complete then right-click and select Include In Project.
Fix Part 5:
Not fixed yet?
Credit goes to chrisvarnz for this particular solution which seems to have worked for multiple people.
Close Visual Studio
Go your project directory and delete all the generated Visual Studio files.
These are the files extensions to delete:
.csproj
.user
.sln
Example:
Let's say that the name of your Project is called Target_Shoot, these are what the files to delete should look like:
Target_Shoot.csproj
Target_Shoot.Editor.csproj
Target_Shoot.Editor.csproj.user
Target_Shoot.Player.csproj
Target_Shoot.Player.csproj.user
Target_Shoot.sln
Do not delete anything else.
Double click on the script again from Unity which should generate new Visual Studio file then open Visual Studio. This may solve your problem.
Fix Part 6:
If not working, check if you are having this error:
The "GetReferenceNearestTargetFrameworkTask" task was not found
Install Nuget PackageManager from here.
Restart Visual Studio.
See this answer for more information.
Fix Part 7
Make sure all of the projects are loaded.
In Solution Explorer it should tell you # of # projects.
If all of the projects are not showing, right click on "Solution (# of # projects)" and click Load Projects.
Try this,
In Unity Editor Go to Menu, Click on Edit -> Preferences -> External Tools -> External Script Editor. Set it to Visual Studio (your installed version of VS).
Now in Menubar go to Edit -> Project Settings -> Player Settings -> Other Settings -> Under Configuration -> Check API Compatibility Level -> Change it to your installed .Net version. In my case I set it to .Net 4.x
Now if Visual Studio is running already go to Visual Studio, it will ask to reload project. Reload the project. Check if it works, if not close Visual Studio. Now Open cs file from Unity Editor, and now it should work.
I found another way to fix this issue in a more convenient manner:
Select the broken file in Solution Explorer.
Open its Properties.
Switch field "Build Action" from "Compile" to "None".
Then switch it back to "Compile".
This will kill the synchronization between Unity and Visual Studio somehow.
The next time Visual Studio will reload the project, it will prompt a warning.
Just click on "Discard".
If you have done all of the above and still isn't working , just try this:
Note: you should have updated VS.
Goto Unity > edit> preference >External tools> external script editor.
Somehow for me I had not selected "visual studio" for external script editor and it was not working. As soon as i selected this and doubled clicked on c# file from unity it started working.
I hope it helps you too.
Unload and reload the project, in Visual Studio:
right click your project in Solution Explorer
select Unload Project
select Reload Project
Fixed!
I found this solution to work the best (easiest), having run into the problem multiple times.
Source: https://alexdunn.org/2017/04/26/xamarin-tips-fixing-the-highlighting-drop-in-your-xamarin-android-projects/
This page helped me fix the issue.
Fix for Unity disconnected from Visual Studio
In the Unity Editor, select the Edit > Preferences menu.
Select the External Tools tab on the left.
For External Script Editor, Choose the Visual Studio version you have.
Click regenerate Files
You Done
Select project in Visual Studio
Click "Refresh" button
I hit the same issues today using Visual Studio 2017 15.4.5 with Unity 2017.
I was able to fix the issue by right clicking on the project in Visual Studio and changing the target framework from 3.5 to 4.5.
Hope this helps anyone else in a similar scenario.
Two Alternative Options:
Fix 1
#singleton pointed me in this direction. Instead of changing the target in Visual Studio you should change it in Unity since the project is auto-generated.
First delete the auto generated Visual Studio files:
.csproj
.user
.sln
Then from within Unity go to PlayerSettings and under 'Other Settings' change the 'Scripting Runtime Version' from Stable 3.5 to Experimental 4.6.
However, that didn't fix it for me.
Fix 2
I noticed all of the references to Unity related code was marked with a yellow warning. Check your error logs and see if this is the case. In particular see if you get the following error: getreferenceNearestTargetframeworkTask
If so try:
Start Visual Studio Installer again.
On the Build Tools 2017, click Modify,
Ensure that "Nuget targets and build tasks" are ticked. This should become ticked if you click on Universal Windows Platform development.
Update 2020 with Visual Studio Community 2019 and Unity 2019.3:
Open Visual Studio Installer as Administrator, select to modify your current installation and add "Game development for Unity"
If you add a new c# script in Unity now, and open it (automatically) with Visual Studio, it is not described as "Miscellaneous" at the top of the window but with "Assembly-CSharp", and the autocomplete works.
i found my solution by creating the .cs file from visual studio itself instead of unity editor
right click on project folder in solution explorer
add > new item
type "unity" on the search field on the top right
select "CSharp MonoBehaviour"
name your script on the bottom and click Add
In my case, correct .net version was not installed on my PC. I install the .net 3.5 on my pc and that worked for me.
For Windows or macOS:
Download/Install the Visual Studio IDE (with Unity Tools)
When installing, make sure you include installation of
Game development with Unity
Then using Unity (you can double click one of your C# files), open a new C# project and the Visual Studio IDE should open with your new project structure.
From there, you should be able to see what you are looking for.
For example:
For Linux (suggestion):
Try Monodevelop - Additional Information, it provides code completion/hints.
My autocomplete also didn't work because Visual Studio Tools for Unity wasn't installed. So, after you install that, delete the auto generated Visual Studio files. Others said that you open file again and the problem is solved but it's not.
The trick is: instead of normally double-clicking the file, you need to open the C# file from Unity by right click and then "Open C# Project".
The issue I faced was that the C# Project was targeting a different .NET Framework (4.7.2), whereas the Unity project had a different target (.NET 3.5).
I fixed this by changing the target in Unity as-
File -> Build Settings -> Player Settings -> Other Settings -> API
Compatibility Level : Set it to the .NET version you already have
installed (Check your .NET Version here). In my case, it was 4.x
After this, Visual Studio worked perfectly and autocorrect was fixed too.
Try pressing Ctrl + Alt + Space (which toggles between suggestion and standard completion modes)
For some odd reason, the "Game development with Unity" tool can become disabled in Visual Studio.
To fix this..
Open Visual Studio
Go to Extensions → "Manage Extensions" → Installed
Find "Visual Studio 2019 Tools for Unity"
If it is disabled, enable it
Restart VS
Credit to Yuli Levtov's answer on another Thread
The following works for me.
Go to Edit->Preferences->External Tools->External Script Editor Select Scripting Editor
I solved to install the same version of .NET on WIN that was configured in my Unity project. (Player Settings)
Go to Options on the Tools menu and then select Documents in the Environment node. (If Documents does not appear in the list, select Show all settings in the Options dialog box.)
Put a tick on "Miscellaneous files in Solution Explorer" and Click OK. (This option displays the "Miscellaneous Files" node in Solution Explorer. Miscellaneous files are files that are not associated with a project or solution but can appear in Solution Explorer for your convenience if you tick this option.)
Locate your file in the Solution Explorer under "Miscellaneous Files". Then drag and drop your file to where it should belong and voila! This will copy the file to where you drop it. You may now safely delete the older file under Miscellaneous Files folder if you wish to do so
Credits: https://stackoverflow.com/a/47662523/10471480
In case Scripts folder is not visible:
Click on "Show all files" in Solution Explorer
Locate the Scripts folder.
Right Click on Scripts and select "Include in Project"
Keep in mind that if you are using the ReSharper tool, it will override the IntelliSense and show it's own. To change that, on VS, go to Extensions -> ReSharper -> Options -> IntelliSense -> General then choose Visual Studio and not ReSharper.
Before restarting and/or re-installing VS, First try opening any other of your projects to see if Intellisence works, if it does, then issue probably lies with your current project. First, most probable victim would be the NUGET packages with pending updates. To Fix this,
Right click on references
Proceed to Manage NUGET Packages Under NUGET Packages
proceed to updates Install Updates and recheck Intellisence
I tried all of these but ended up finding out that I needed to right-click the solution in Solution Explorer and add existing items and find the C# assembly file in Window's Explorer. There seem to be a bazillion different problems that give you this error, this is likely the most simple solution. If you double click on your script from unity, it does not seem to drag the assembly along.
Another possible fix:
In the project window, click on the Assets folder
Right click, and Create -> C# Script
Double click that, and wait.
For some reason, this work.
None of the above solutions worked for me. However I opened the ProjectName.CSPROJ file and manually added the new file and it worked like charm
What worked me is that I copied all the code inside the broken class and removed that file.
Then, I opened an empty file with the same name and pasted back.
Result: beautiful syntax highlights came back!
"Preferences" -> "External tools" -> set you exteranl tool
Thats one fix. Also for VS you can use ReSharper by JetBrains, but I recommend use Rider. That one is also free for students.
It provides less performance than visual studio, but more than VS+Resharper definitely.
Have a good day, mate)
Try with combination: Ctrl + Alt + Space
one of the above methods are worked for me and I just found a solution to this problem,
1. First, go to the project directory and delete .sln file
2. Second, go to unity and double click your script. Then Visual Studio will be open with an error,
Then click ok and close Visual Studio editor.
Finally, turn off your Windows Defender and then go to your project directory and there will be .csproj file. Just double click and open this from your Visual Studio editor and open the scripts folder inside the assets folder and open the scripts and autocompletion will be working perfectly fine.
These actions solved the problem for my projects in Visual Studio 2022
FIX 1
Solution
Assembly-CSharp (right-click)
Load Entire Dependency Tree
FIX 2
Solution
Assembly-CSharp
References
Double click on any lib to force loading
The other day I created a MS visual studio 2010 C# project and started coding. I saved the source frequently, but I did not select a destination to save to (just pressed ctrl+s and assumed the source was being saved). However I had to run and threw my laptop in my backpack on sleep. Unfortunately this laptop (acer aspire 5252 fyi) battery drains extremely quickly when on sleep, and eventually my computer shut off. Now I can't find my source files anywhere and I'm going crazy because I know I saved it and it's several days worth of work.
I tried doing a windows search but couldn't find the project files. I also did a little experiment - I created a new project and without saving the entire solution, I pressed ctrl+s on the source files. Save was successful, but I cannot even find the file that's open in the IDE. Even the "open containing folder option" is grayed out (see screen shot).
I really need these source files back. Obviously it's because I didn't save the solution that the source got wiped out, but where do the source files get saved temporarily before the solution is saved?
Thanks.
You are using Visual Studio's support for temporary projects. Nice feature for quicky test projects (and SO answers) but not a great way to ensure that your projects are still there after VS quits. Programming without source control is similarly inadvisable.
Tools + Options, Projects and Solutions, General. Ensure that the "Save new projects when created" option is ticked to minimize the odds that you'll forget to pick a solution folder. Triple-check that creating a new project now gives you a "Location" property in the dialog.
There is a default location for projects to be saved. That is probably where your files went.
In Visual Studio, on the menu, click Tools > Options > Projects and Solutions > General. There is a "Visual Studio projects location".
On my Windows 7 machine, the folder for Visual Studio 2010 is
C:\Users\<username>\Documents\Visual Studio 2010\Projects
Your unnamed project is probably saved with a default name like WebSite1.
If you would like to change that default location, here is some information on how to do that.
Visual Studio temporary projects are normally found in *C:\Users\"User Name"\AppData\Local\Temporary Projects* . It is a temporary folder that is deleted as soon as Visual Studio starts up.
How to save a Temporay Project from above link:
To save a temporary project
In Solution Explorer, choose the solution or project that you want to save.
On the menu bar, choose File, Save or Save As.
The Save Project dialog box opens.
In the , Name box, specify a name for the project.
In the Location box, specify where you want to save the project.
Select the Create directory for Solution check box.
Note: This check box is not available for Visual Basic web projects, Visual C# web projects, or other directory-based projects.
In the New Solution Name box, specify a name that differs from the project name.
Select the Add to Source Control check box if you want to add the solution to a version-control database or repository.
Choose the OK button.
I am new to visual studio and I am experimenting around with some Windows Services. I have created two solutions and I would like to view both of them at once. Without having to click file->recent projects to switch back and forth.
Ideally this could take place in the solution explorer and just nest the projects, but I am only able to view one solution/project at a time there.
Is there anyway to view multiple solutions/projects in Visual Studio?
This is the way Visual Studio is designed: One solution, one Visual Studio (VS) instance.
Besides switching between solutions in one VS instance, you can also open another VS instance and open your other solution with that one. Next to solutions there are as you said "projects". You can have multiple projects within one solution and therefore view many projects at the same time.
There's a much easier (but not so obvious) way; right click on the Visual Studio icon in the taskbar, then right click on the application name in the popup menu, then click "Open". Windows will then open another instance where you can open another solution in.
If you have two separate solutions, then you cannot view them simultaneously in the same VS instance. However, you can open multiple instances of VS and tab between them.
An alternative would be to import the projects from one solution into the other, thus putting all of your projects into one solution. You can do this by following these steps:
In the Solution Explorer, select the Solution into which you want to import a project. Right-click, and select Add->Existing Project from the context menu.
In the file chooser, find the project file that you want to import (it will end in .XXproj where XX is the language you're using).
Click Open and voila! Your project is imported.
There is a way to store multiple solutions in one instance of VS.
Attempt the following steps:
File > Open > Project/Solution
This will bring up the open project window, notice at the bottom where it says options, select add to solution
Then select the file you want to add and click open
This will then add the solution to your project. You still won't be able to run the same project in a single instance of VS, but you can have all your code organized in one place.
NOTE:
This worked for Visual Studio 2013 Professional
Just right click on the Visual Studio icon and then select "New Window" from the contextual toolbar that appears on the bottom in Windows 8. A new instance of Visual Studio will launch and then you can open your second project.
You can create a new blank solution and add your different projects to it.
You can have multiple projects in one instance of Visual Studio. The point of a VS solution is to bring together all the projects you want to work with in one place, so you can't have multiple solutions in one instance. You'd have to open each solution separately.
Don't know whether this is useful but if you want to work with multiple projects without navigating through projects tree {like multi window} you can try opening VS in another virtual desktop (at least it's possible for Windows 10) by holding Ctrl+win+D. Then open another VS studio and open your other project there. You can switch between projects by Ctrl+win+arrow key {left/right}.
Two ways come to mind...
Open another visual studio window and open the second solution in it.
It would be preferable to add your existing projects to one solution, just right click and add existing project and navigate to the project file(csproj). .... e.g. C:\Users\User\Documents\Visual Studio 2012\Projects\MySqlWindowsFormsApplication1\MySql Windows Forms Project1\MySql Windows Forms Project1.csproj ....In this second way you might want to setup multiple start up projects i.e. for people with client-server apps or apps with dependencies. ....To do this Select the solution then GoTo: Project>>Properties>>Startup Project>> Select Multiple Startup projects and set actions to Start. When you debug, the selected as start will run.
For interest sake you could open another multiple solution windows to view different projects at the same time. http://www.schwammysays.net/visual-studio-2012-tip-multiple-solution-explorers/
After a long research and different experiments the easiest way "FOR MAC USERS" is to create a script:
open -a "Visual Studio" \
"path to first sln" \
"path to second sln" \
...
:D
File -> New Window. Select the other project in that window. Each project lives in a separate window. You can tab between them.
MAC users - this issue was winding me up, as its not possible to open two different Visual Studio instances at the same time. Ive found a solution that works fine, though its a little unorthodox : get the latest beta testing version, which will install alongside your normal VS install in a separate sandbox (it does this automatically). You can then run both versions side by side, which is enough for what I needed - to be able to examine one project for structure, code etc., while doing the actual coding I need to do in the 'current' VS install instance.