Unity Project Template Cheat Sheet

This page contains a comprehensive breakdown of the differences between each of the default project templates that can be created via the new project window within Unity Hub, including all dependencies, packages, assets, and project settings.

The following information was gathered from an installation of Unity 2021.1.7f1. I hope you will be able to use it to compare and contrast each template to find which is a best fit for your project.

Packages

Package	2D	2D (Mobile)	3D	3D Mobile	HDRP	URP	VR	AR
2D Animation	✔	✔
2D Pixel Perfect	✔	✔
2D PSD Importer	✔	✔
2D SpriteShape	✔	✔
2D Tilemap Editor	✔	✔
Android Logcat		✔		✔
AR Foundation								✔
ARCore XR Plugin								✔
ARKit XR Plugin								✔
Cinemachine					✔
High Definition RP					✔
Input System					✔
JetBrains Rider Editor	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Magic Leap XR Plugin								✔
Mobile Notifications		✔		✔
Oculus XR Plugin							✔
Test Framework	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
TextMeshPro	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Timeline	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Tutorial Framework							✔	✔
Unity Collaborate	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Unity UI	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Universal RP						✔
Visual Scripting	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Visual Studio Code Editor	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Visual Studio Editor	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Windows XR Plugin							✔	✔
XR Plugin Management							✔	✔

Dependencies

The following is a chart of all dependencies listed in the package.json file within each of the default project template archives, with the exception of the 3D template which has none.

Dependency	2D	2D (Mobile)	3D (Mobile)	HDRP	URP	VR	AR
2d.animation	✔	✔
2d.pixel-perfect	✔	✔
2d.psdimporter	✔	✔
2d.sprite	✔	✔
2d.spriteshape	✔	✔
2d.tilemap	✔	✔
cinemachine				✔
ide.rider		✔	✔
ide.vscode		✔	✔
inputsystem				✔
learn.iet-framework						✔	✔
mobile.android-logcat		✔	✔
mobile.notifications		✔	✔
modules.androidjni		✔	✔
modules.animation		✔	✔
modules.assetbundle		✔	✔
modules.audio		✔	✔
modules.imageconversion		✔	✔
modules.imgui		✔	✔
modules.jsonserialize		✔	✔
modules.particlesystem		✔	✔				✔
modules.physics			✔
modules.physics2d		✔				✔	✔
modules.screencapture		✔	✔
modules.tilemap		✔
modules.ui		✔	✔
modules.uielements		✔	✔
modules.umbra			✔
modules.unityanalytics		✔	✔
modules.unitywebrequest		✔	✔				✔
modules.unitywebrequestassetbundle		✔	✔
modules.unitywebrequestaudio		✔	✔
modules.unitywebrequesttexture		✔	✔
modules.unitywebrequestwww		✔	✔
modules.video		✔	✔
modules.vr						✔
modules.xr						✔	✔
render-pipelines.high-definition				✔
render-pipelines.universal					✔
test-framework		✔	✔
textmeshpro		✔	✔
ugui		✔	✔
xr.arcode							✔
xr.arfoundation							✔
xr.arkit							✔
xr.magicleap							✔
xr.management						✔	✔
xr.oculus						✔
xr.windowsmr						✔	✔

Project settings

This section is a comprehensive list of all of the differences in project settings between templates. If a setting is not listed here it’s because that setting is consistent across all templates. If a cell is blank, it is only because that setting is not represented in the ProjectSettings folder within the template archive, and not overridden from the default value.

Audio

Project setting	2D	2D (Mobile)	3D	3D (Mobile)	HDRP	URP	VR	AR
RequestedDSPBufferSize	0	0	1024	1024	0	0	1024	0

Physics

Project setting	2D	2D (Mobile)	3D	3D (Mobile)	HDRP	URP	VR	AR
ClothInterCollisionDistance	0.1	0.1	0	0	0	.1	0	.1
ClothInterCollisionStiffness	0.2	0.2	0	0	0	.2	0	.2
DefaultMaxAngularSpeed	50	50	7	7	7	7	7	50

Editor

Project setting	2D	2D (Mobile)	3D	3D (Mobile)	HDRP	URP	VR	AR
DefaultBehaviorMode	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0
SpritePackerMode	4	4	0	0	0	0	0	0
EtcTextureCompressorBehavior	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
EtcTextureFastCompressor	1	1	1	1	2	1	1
EtcTextureBestCompressor	4	4	4	4	5	4	4
LineEndingsForNewScripts	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
SerializeInlineMappingsOnOneLine	1	1	1	0	1	1	0	0

Additional extensions to include

Template	Value
2D	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;asmref;rsp
2D (Mobile)	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;asmref;rsp
3D	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;rsp;asmref
3D (Mobile)	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;rsp;asmref
HDRP	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;asmref;rsp;asmref
URP	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;asmref;rsp
VR	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;rsp;asmref
AR	txt;xml;fnt;cd;asmdef;asmref;rsp

Quality

Project setting	2D	2D (Mobile)	3D	3D (Mobile)	HDRP	URP	VR	AR
CustomRenderPipeline					HDRP	URP
LightmapKeepPlain	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
LightmapKeepDynamicPlain	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
LightmapKeepDynamicDirCombined	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
LightmapKeepShadowMask	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
LightmapKeepSubtractive	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
FogKeepLinear	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
FogKeepExp	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
FogKeepExp2	1	1	1	1	0	1	1	1
LightsUseLinearIntensity	0	0	0	0	1	1	0	0
LightsUseColorTemperature	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0
DefaultRenderingLayerMask		1			257
AllowEnlightenSupportForUpgradedProject			0	0		1	0	0

Always included shaders

Shader	2D	2D (Mobile)	3D	3D (Mobile)	HDRP	URP	VR	AR
Legacy Shaders/Diffuse	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Hidden/CubeBlur	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Hidden/CubeCopy	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Hidden/CubeBlend	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
Sprites/Default	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
UI/Default	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔	✔
UI/DefaultETC1	✔	✔				✔		✔
Hidden/VideoComposite					✔	✔	✔	✔
Hidden/VideoDecode					✔	✔	✔	✔
Hidden/Compositing					✔	✔	✔	✔
Hidden/VideoDecodeOSX								✔

This is a work in progress. I will be adding more data every week until it’s done. (So much for that promise!)

Assets

Coming soon.

Further reading

I’ve written a few articles on Unity Project Templates, check them out if you’re interested!