After following the steps below you will have a fully functional project ready for the web.

Prerequisites

Below each tool, you find quick links to download the latest version at the time of writing.

Install these tools for development

Tool
Node.js (required)	16.x or 18.x Windows MacOS	For running a local development server
VS Code	any version Windows MacOS	For code editing (optional)
Supported Editors
Unity	2020.3.16+ 2021.3+ 2022.2+ Get Unity Hub	For setting up your scenes, components, animations...
Blender	3.3 3.4 3.5 3.6 Get Blender	For setting up your scenes, components, animations...

Install these tools for production builds

Tool
toktx	4.1 Windows MacOS Mac OS Apple Silicon Other Releases	For texture compression (recommended) You can read more about that here in our docs

After installing the tools above, you might have to restart your machine
so that all environment variables are properly updated.

Needle Engine without Editor

If you just want to work with the Needle Engine runtime and don't want to use any Editor integration just yet then go ahead and install it from npm by running:

npm i @needle-tools/engine

To quickly test Needle Engine in the browser use engine.needle.tools/new
It creates a new project on StackBlitz

Alternatively you can add a prebundled version of Needle Engine to your website:

https://unpkg.com/@needle-tools/engine/dist/needle-engine.min.js
https://unpkg.com/@needle-tools/engine/dist/needle-engine.light.min.js no physics module

Needle Engine with Unity

Video: Starting from a fresh Unity project

Step 1 • Make sure node.js and Unity are installed

Step 2 • Create a new Unity project

Open Unity Hub and create a new project. 2021.3 recommended!
Make sure to switch it to Linear color space in Project Settings / Player.

Step 3 • Install the Unity Integration

Alternative

Our installer is a .unitypackage that will set everything up for you.

Drop the downloaded .unitypackage file into a Unity project (or double click to open) and confirm that you want to import it.
This will set up our Needle Engine Unity integration - wait for the installation and import to finish.

If the Installation has finished you seems not installed yet click Assets > Refresh once or focus another app and then focus Unity again.

A window may open stating that "A new scoped registry is now available in the Package Manager.". This is our Needle Package registry where packages are downloaded from. You can safely close that window and continue with the next step below.

Step 4 • Create a new scene from a template

Select File > New Scene and choose from one of the Needle templates.
We recommend the Collab Sandbox template which is a great way to get started with interactivity, multiplayer,and adding assets.

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Create a new scene from a Scene Template

We provide a number of Scene Templates for quickly starting new projects.
These allow you to go from idea to prototype in a few clicks.

1. Click on File > New Scene
2. Select one of the templates with (needle) in their name and click Create.
3. Click Play to install and startup your new web project.

Create a new scene from scratch

If you don't want to start from a scene template, you can follow these steps.
Effectively, we're going to recreate the "Minimal (Needle)" template that's shipping with the package.

1. Create a new empty scene

2. Set up your scene for exporting
   Add an empty GameObject, name it "Exporter" and add an ExportInfo component to it.
   In this component you create and quickly access your exported runtime project.
   It also warns you if any of our packages and modules are outdated or not locally installed in your web project.

Note

By default, the project name matches the name of your scene. If you want to change that, you can enter a Directory Name where you want to create your new runtime project. The path is relative to your Unity project.

3. Choose a web project template Now, select a web project template for your project. The default template is based on Vite, a fast web app bundler.

4. Click Play to install and start your new web project

Needle Engine with Blender

With Needle Engine for Blender you can build fully interactive 3D websites running on three.js.
They can easily deployed to the web are get optimized automatically by the Needle Engine Build Pipeline*

*Needs Node.js installed

Step 1 • Install Blender 3.3, 3.4, 3.5 or 3.6

Step 2 • Install Node.js (optional but recommended)

Step 3 • Download and Install the addon

The Blender addon is downloaded as a zip file.
In Blender go to File / Settings / Add-ons and click the Install button.
Then select the downloaded zip to install it.

• Read Needle Engine for Blender for a full feature list and instructions

Questions?

The local website shows a warning: website not secure

You might see a warning in your browser about SSL Security depending on your local configuration.
This is because while the connection is encrypted, by default there's no SSL certificate that the browser can validate.
If that happens: click Advanced and Proceed to Site. Now you should see your scene in the browser!

Something is not working as expected? Where can I see logs?

Keep an eye for console warnings! We log useful details about recommended project settings and so on. For example, your project should be set to Linear color space (not Gamma), and we'll log an error to the Unity console if that's not the case.

Please also have a look at our FAQ if your question is not answered here.

What's next?

• Exporting 3D objects and content
• Project Structure
• Deploy your website to the web
• Typescript Essentials
• Needle Engine for Unity Developers
• Scripting Reference

In case you need more troubleshooting help, please see the Questions and Answers section.
You can also join our Discord Community