Projects

Projects

Projects (at the top of either page) is your Unity projects: make one ready to use, with the packages and the products from your library it needs, open it in Unity, and change its packages. It's new in Hoard 5.0. From 5.1 it takes the whole window, with its views as tabs along its top: Projects, Repositories, Backups, Unity and folders, and (from 5.1.3) Logs. Rows alternate in colour, and the one under the pointer is outlined.

It's the same list of projects as ALCOM's and the VRChat Creator Companion's. A project you add or take off in any of the three is added or taken off in all of them, and Hoard keeps the Creator Companion's other settings as they are. Hoard does what ALCOM does from its own code, so it doesn't need ALCOM or the Creator Companion installed: it chooses the same package versions, and makes the same projects.

The list

Each project shows its kind (avatars or worlds), its Unity version, and when you last opened it. ★ makes it a favourite, at the top of the list. From 5.2.0 beta 2, a project also shows what's new for it, two ways apart: how many of its packages have newer versions (outlined), and how many products from your library in it have updates (filled, from what Hoard for Unity reported of it).

Choose a project to open its details beside the list (5.2.0 beta 2), as a product's open beside the Library: its letters in its kind's colour, where it is, its size on disk, when it was last opened and made, how many packages and backups it has, and what's new (each leads to it: its packages in Manage, its products in what Hoard for Unity reported). Then Open in Unity, Manage (its packages and more) and Show in folder; under Organise, the favourite, Back up... and Take off the list; its folder and tags, changed right there; what takes its room (its assets, its packages, Unity's cache, and everything else); its packages, each with any newer version; what Hoard put in it from your library; and its backups, with Back up... and See backups. Unity's cache (its Library and Temp folders) is made again when the project's opened, and a backup leaves it out. Choose the project again, or ×, to put its details away. A project whose folder has gone (moved, or on a drive that isn't connected) says so, with Take off the list in its details.

List and Tiles (beside Add a project..., 5.2.0 beta 2) choose how the list shows, as ALCOM's and the Creator Companion's grid view do, and Hoard remembers it. As tiles, each project is a tile in its kind's colour, twice as wide as it's tall, and (with all projects shown) each folder is one folder tile, with its projects inside: choose it to see them.

A project's details (5.2.0) put it in a folder of your own (Folder: one you have, New folder..., or Not in a folder) and give it tags (Tags: type one and Add, or × to take one off): words to find it by, such as quest or poiyomi. They're Hoard's own (the Creator Companion and ALCOM have only a favourite). Once a project is in a folder, the folders show above the list: choose one to see just its projects, Not in a folder for the rest, or All projects. Choose a tag in a project's details to see those that have it, and choose it again, or its × above the list, to see them all. Find a project looks at folders and tags too.

Add a project... lists one you already have: in Hoard's own window it opens your computer's folder picker, in your projects folder (in a web browser, you type the folder's full path). Take off the list leaves its folder as it is; to delete a project from your computer, see Managing a project.

Projects you've opened Hoard's window in (Hoard for Unity) that aren't on the list show below it, with what they use and their credits, and Add to the list.

A new project

New project makes one in your projects folder, from:

• VRChat Avatars or VRChat Worlds: VRChat's templates (the same as ALCOM's), for Unity 2022.3.22f1 (the VRChat SDK's own version), 2022.3.6f1 or 2019.4.31f1. The VRChat SDK is installed in it from VRChat's repository.
• Blank: an empty project, for any Unity you have.
• An ALCOM template (.alcomtemplate) you have, which ALCOM keeps in the Creator Companion's folder, in vrc-get/templates.

A Unity version marked ✕ isn't installed on this computer: the project is made either way, and Unity Hub installs that version to open it. The name is checked as you type, as ALCOM checks it (a name Windows can't use as a folder name, one already there).

Hoard for Unity is in a new project to begin with (its repository is added for you if you haven't got it); click it to leave it out. Add packages opens a view of its own: every VPM package from your repositories that works in the project's Unity, in groups by the repository it comes from (VRChat's own first, your package folders last; each folds away, and what you find opens its group), to tick (with a version, if you'd rather not have the newest), then Add the chosen packages. Put in products from your library opens Downloads in Select mode, for this project: tick the products you want, then Add to project, and you're back at the new project as you left it, with them in (Cancel goes back without them). A product with several packages (one for PC, one for Quest, a few variants) asks which this project needs. Put in a set puts in what's downloaded of one of your sets. What the products need (What it needs: lilToon, Poiyomi Toon, Modular Avatar, VRCFury, NDMF, Avatar Optimizer, the VRChat SDK) is offered beside them, to add with a click; the repository it comes from is added for you, unless a repository you have already gives it (one added in ALCOM or the Creator Companion too, under any spelling of its address), which is used instead, so no repository is ever added twice. What the project already has isn't offered again: it's said, as Already in the project.

Make the project makes it as a task (see Projects' tasks): the template, its packages, then your products. A .unitypackage goes straight into the project (as ALCOM puts one in, without opening Unity), a VPM package in a .zip goes into Packages, and whatever those packages need is installed with them.

From anywhere in your library

Products don't have to be chosen in Projects. In the Library or Downloads, choose some (tick them, Ctrl- or Shift-click, or Select) or right-click one, then Projects:

• Put in a project... chooses a project from the list and shows what goes in, with what the products need (to leave out with a tick), before it's put in. Nothing already in the project is replaced.
• New project with these... opens New project with them already in it.

A product with several packages to choose from (one for PC and one for Quest, say) asks which, in two steps (5.2.0): first its packages, each with its size and its variant (PC or Quest) marked, with Select all and Select none; then, after Next, what it needs, before Put these in. One that isn't downloaded, or has no Unity or VPM package, is left out, and Hoard says which.

Presets

Save as a preset keeps the template, Unity version, packages and products as a preset, to start a project from again (Start from a preset): your usual avatar base, say. Save it for ALCOM too writes the preset as an ALCOM template, so ALCOM can make the same project. ALCOM can't open a package inside a .zip, so those are left out of it (Hoard says which).

Managing a project

Manage shows a project, with tabs of its own: Packages (in columns: each package, the version installed, any update, and the repository it comes from), Add packages, From your library, and, when Hoard for Unity has reported on it, what it found. From there:

• Add packages (its tab: tick them, then Add the chosen packages), Update one or all of them, or Remove one (with what only it needed).
• Another version of a package: choose a package's version (the button with its number on it) to see every version that works in the project's Unity, newest first, and install any of them, an older one too. The packages it needs change to match. Add packages can choose a version as well, instead of the newest.
• Put it right, when the project's packages aren't installed the way it says (after cloning it from Git, say).
• Put in products from your library, later: Downloads opens in Select mode for this project, with nothing to do there but Add to project or Cancel. What's chosen is shown before it goes in, with what it needs. Nothing already in the project is replaced: a file that's there (with the same asset ID, or at the same path) is left as it is. From your library shows what Hoard has put in the project, each product as its library tile, with the files that went in and when (rest the pointer on a file for the folders it added); choose a tile to see the product in your library.
• What went in, and where. Each time Hoard puts products in a project (making it, or later), it adds them to Hoard imports.md, beside the project's Assets folder: each product, its file, when, and the folders it added (or the package, in Packages), with anything left as it was because the project already had it. Unity doesn't use that file, and deleting it changes nothing. Hoard also adds them to ProjectSettings/Hoard/imports.json, the list Hoard for Unity keeps of what it imported, so it knows they're in the project.
• Open in Unity, with the version the project uses; when that one isn't installed, another you have (which may change the project to its own version).
• Open folder, and Back up: everything in the project but what Unity makes again by itself (Library, Temp, Logs, obj) in a zip, in your backups folder. Packages from repositories can be left out, since they're downloaded again.
• What Hoard for Unity reports about it: the products it uses, as their library tiles (with how each is in it, and which have updates), and its credits. Choose a tile to see the product in your library.
• Delete from this computer...: the project's folder is deleted, and it's taken off the list. It's backed up into your backups folder first, unless you untick that (without a backup, it can't be restored), and only once you've typed its name. Hoard won't delete a project Unity has open, or one that holds its own folders (the downloads folder, or your backups folder).

Every change to packages is shown before it's made: what's installed, what's removed and why, and anything old the new packages replace. It's made as a task (see Projects' tasks); Stop puts everything back as it was. If Unity has the project open, Hoard says so: close it first, so nothing it has open is replaced under it.

Each package download is checked against the SHA-256 its repository lists for it, and downloads are kept where ALCOM keeps them, so neither downloads one twice.

Projects' tasks

Making a project, changing its packages, putting products in it, backing it up or deleting it, and refreshing the repositories are Projects' tasks, and they run on their own, beside the rest of Hoard's: a project's change never waits behind a sync or a download, and they never wait behind it. Projects' tasks wait their turn after each other. What Projects is doing shows at its top, with Stop, and in Tasks. Stop stops a task at its next step, and puts back what it was changing; it never closes a store's browser that a download is using.

Repositories

Where packages come from: VRChat's own (Official and Curated) and any you add, the same list ALCOM and the Creator Companion use. Add a repository, at the top, takes its address; for a private one, For a private repository takes the headers it asks for, sent only to its own address. Refresh them all fetches the newest listing of each.

Unity and folders

The Unity versions Hoard found, the way ALCOM finds them (the ones Unity Hub installed or was told about), and the folders new projects and backups go in. Offer prerelease versions of packages lists packages' prereleases too. These are kept in the Creator Companion's settings, so ALCOM and the Creator Companion use them too.

Backups

Backups (beside Repositories) lists every project backup in your backups folder, newest first, with its size, and how much room the drive it's on has left. A backup is old when it's past the newest few of its project (3 unless you choose 1, 2, 5 or 10) and older than a month (or a week, 2 weeks, 3 or 6 months, or a year). Delete the old ones, or Move the old ones... to a folder on another drive with more room; or tick the ones you want, then Delete Selected or Move Selected.

• When the drive your backups are on runs low on room (less than 10 GB, or a tenth of the drive, free) and there are old backups, the top of Projects says so, with Delete or move them.
• Moving copies each backup, checks the copy is whole, and only then deletes it where it was, as a task. The ones you moved are listed under Moved to, to delete later too.
• Only zips named as a backup is (<project>-<date>T<time>.zip, as Hoard and ALCOM name them), directly in your backups folder or the folder you moved them to, are ever listed, deleted or moved. Anything else there is left as it is.

Logs

Logs shows what Hoard did to your projects, packages and repositories since it started, and what went wrong, as ALCOM's Logs page and the Creator Companion's Logs tab show theirs: each entry's time, its level (Info, Warning or Error) and what happened, the newest at the bottom. That's every step of Projects' tasks and how each ended; a project opened in Unity, put on the list or taken off it; a repository added or removed, or one that couldn't be read; Unity and folders saved; presets saved or deleted; backups deleted; and anything Projects couldn't do.

• Find in the log finds entries by their words. Untick Info, Warnings or Errors to leave those out (which ones you show is kept, in this browser).
• New entries come in as they happen. Follow new entries keeps the newest in view; turn it off to read back without being moved.
• Each time Hoard starts, Projects' log is written to a file of its own, projects-<date>_<time>.log, in Hoard's logs folder (Open logs folder), beside Hoard's own logs; the newest 30 are kept, as ALCOM keeps its own. Logs shows this run's; earlier runs' are in those files.

ALCOM and the Creator Companion keep logs of what they do: ALCOM's in vrc-get/gui-logs in the Creator Companion's folder, the Creator Companion's in its Logs folder. Hoard leaves those alone.

Where it's kept

The project list, repositories and these settings are the Creator Companion's, in its folder: %LOCALAPPDATA%\VRChatCreatorCompanion on Windows, ~/.local/share/VRChatCreatorCompanion on macOS and Linux. Hoard reads the Creator Companion's database there (vcc.liteDb) and never writes to it. Favourites, folders and tags, when you opened a project from Hoard, and what you put in each from your library are Hoard's own, in vpm-projects.json, with which backups count as old and where you last moved some; presets are in vpm-presets.json (see Where Hoard keeps things).