Loading Scenes in Unity

A player’s experience with a game includes several scenes, each with its own set of assets

This example explains the creation of a second scene, a menu with its own background.

File menu with New Scene

The previous scene “Game” is saved, or prompted to save, and a new scene appears “Untitled.” Save and choose a name for the new scene and save to the Scenes folder.

Name and save untitled new scene

Now the Hierarchy begins with the new scene name.

Hierarchy and new scene name

Image Size 512x512

In the inspector, adjust the Width and Height (100, 100) to match the image size (512, 512):

Adjust Width and Height

Highlight the Main Camera — Camera — Background to black from the default dark blue:

Main Camera Background

In the Camera — Clear Flags, change Skybox to Solid Color:

Camera Clear Flags Solid Color

Drag the background overlay, the parent, not the child .jpg, to the Hierarchy.

SpaceBG_Overlay

Zoom in to see the SpaceBG_Overlay, use the Rect tool to adjust sides, corners to fit the Game view edges.

Zoom and adjust edges of background overlay

Here is the Game view.

Game View

New Game Button

New UI button

Highlight the Button, rename “New_Game_Button” and position with the Rect tool. In the Hierarchy, the button has a child “Text.” Add “New Game” to Text component — Text property.

Button with Text property

At the bottom of the Button component is the “On Click {}” to enable communication with scripts.

Button — On Click {} properties

Highlight the Canvas and change Canvas Scaler — UI Scale Mode — “Constant Pixel Size” to “Scale With Screen Size”

UI Scale Mode with Scale With Screen Size

Highlight the New_Game_Button and anchor to the right middle of the screen, repositioning as needed.

Anchor button to right middle of screen

Connecting a C# script to the Main Menu

MainMenu script in Canvas Inspector as added component

The Canvas has a script. To have the button click communicate with the script, double click to open the script.

public class MainMenu : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void LoadGame()
    {
        // load the game scene
    }
}

To communicate, open the Build settings.

File menu Build Settings

From the prior Build Settings, “Scene/Game” is set as “Scenes In Build.”

Prior Build Settings as Scenes/Game

Right click on “Scenes/Game.” Click Remove Selection.

Remove Selection from Build Settings

Add Open Scenes.

Add Open Scenes

Drag “Game” from Project — Assets — Scenes — Game to Build Settings — Scenes in Build.

Drag from Assets — Scenes to Build Settings

using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class MainMenu : MonoBehaviour
{
    public void LoadGame()
    {
        SceneManager.LoadScene(1);  // ID:1 main scene "Game"
    }
}

Save (so that Unity recognizes the method).

The On Click {} Event

Highlight the Hierarchy — Canvas — New_Game_button and in the component Button — On Click {} click the ‘+’ to add a connection.

On Click {} with ‘+’ to Add to list

From the online tutor:

Drag in the object that has the component we want to talk to.

Canvas has the component script Main_Menu, so drag and drop onto the “None (Object)”

Drag Canvas onto property On Click {} of Button component

Adding LoadGame()

New_Game_button connected to Canvas with MainMenu.LoadGame()

...
            SceneManager.LoadScene(0);  // ID 0 is scene "Game"
...

After correction and Save:

using UnityEngine.SceneManagement;

public class GameManager : MonoBehaviour
{
...
    [SerializeField]
    private bool _isGameOver;   // starts out false
    void Update()
    {
        // if r key pressed, restart current scene
        if( Input.GetKeyDown(KeyCode.R) && _isGameOver )
        {
            SceneManager.LoadScene(1);  // ID 1is scene "Game"
        }
    }
...
}

Adding Text Credit

Right click Hierarchy — Canvas and choose UI — Text.

Main Menu with Credit Text