How to process Prefabs using InstaLOD for Unity

About this document

Prefabs are a great way to group meshes together so that they can be reused quickly and easily.

Unity Prefabs are marked as not modifiable, meaning that once a prefab has been created, they can only be optimized using InstaLOD for Unity in Prefab Mode.

Prefab Mode 

To edit a Prefab Asset, open it in Prefab Mode. Prefab Mode allows you to view and edit the contents of the Prefab Asset separately from any other GameObjects in your Scene. Changes that you make in Prefab Mode affect all instances of that Prefab.

You can edit a Prefab Asset in isolation, or in context.

Left: editing a Prefab in isolation. Right: editing a Prefab in context.

 

Editing in Isolation

You can begin to edit a Prefab in Prefab Mode in several ways. When you edit a Prefab in isolation, Unity hides the rest of your current working Scene, and you only see the GameObjects that relate to the Prefab itself (plus, optionally, a pre-set editing environment - see below).

To open a Prefab Asset and edit it in isolation you can do it in the following ways:

• Double-click the Prefab Asset in the Project window
• Select a Prefab Asset in the Project window and click the Open Prefab button in the Inspector window

Editing in Context

Alternatively, you can open a Prefab Asset in context via an instance of that Prefab. When you edit a Prefab in context, the rest of your current working Scene remains visible, but locked for editing.

Ways of doing that include:

• Select a Prefab instance in the Hierarchy window and click the Open button in the Inspector window
• Select a Prefab instance in the Hierarchy window and press P on the keyboard. This is the default keyboard binding
• Use the arrow button next to the Prefab instance in the Hierarchy window