Your Home Base in Unity
The Creator Dashboard is the editor window where everything happens: setup, the one-click tools, project checks, and publishing. This page covers the window itself, keeping your template up to date, and the guided Setup tab that gets your account, creator name, and connections in place.
The Dashboard Window
Open the dashboard any time from Unity's top menu: U3D → Creator Dashboard. It also opens automatically whenever Unity starts, so it's waiting for you when the project loads. If you'd rather it didn't, uncheck Show dashboard when Unity starts at the bottom of the window; the menu still opens it whenever you want it.
Next to that checkbox is a Reset Startup Setup button. It re-runs the first-time template setup, so the startup scene loads again the next time the project opens. You won't need it in normal use; it's mainly there for testing the fresh-out-of-the-box experience.
Template Updates
At the top of the window, under the logo, the dashboard shows your current template version and quietly checks whether a newer one is available. You'll see one of four states:
The Four Tabs
The dashboard is organized into four tabs, in the order you'll use them. A checkmark appears on a tab's name once its work is complete.
- Setup is the guided walkthrough covered on the rest of this page: account, creator name, PayPal, and GitHub.
- Project Tools holds the one-click tools for adding interactivity, media, and game systems to your scene.
- Optimize audits your textures, audio, and meshes so your experience loads fast in a browser, and includes cleanup tools for migrated projects.
- Publish takes your finished scene live at your unreality3d.com link.
The Setup Tab
Setup is a guided sequence, not a settings page. It shows you one step at a time, in order, and moves you forward as each one finishes: log in, reserve your creator name, optionally connect PayPal, connect GitHub, done. If you close Unity partway through, it picks up where you left off. Every screen in the sequence also has a Logout button, which signs you out and clears your stored credentials from the machine.
If you'd rather understand what these steps are for before doing them, How Publishing Works explains the why behind each one.
Login and Creating an Account
The first screen asks for your email and password. If you don't have an account yet, click Create New Account, enter an email, and choose a password of at least 6 characters (you'll type it twice to confirm). A Stay logged in checkbox on both screens keeps you signed in between Unity sessions, which saves you retyping your password every time you open the project.
Reserve Your Creator Name
Your creator name is how you're known on the platform, and it's permanent, so this step is worth a moment of thought. Capitals, spaces, hyphens, and underscores are all fine; a URL-safe version is created automatically for your web address, which follows the pattern unreality3d.com/yourname/.
Type the name you want and click Check Availability. If it's free, a Reserve Name button appears; click it and the name is yours, with a confirmation showing your new URL. If it's taken, the dashboard offers suggestions you can pick with one click, or you can edit the name and check again.
PayPal Monetization Setup
This step is optional. It exists so the monetization tools can send earnings to you: when someone supports your work, 95% goes directly to your PayPal account and 5% covers platform costs, with payment notifications going straight to you.
If you want it now, enter your PayPal email and click Save PayPal Email. The email must match the one on your PayPal account, since it's where your money goes. If you'd rather decide later, click Skip for Now (Add Later); you can add or update the email any time from the Setup Complete screen, and skipping doesn't affect your ability to publish.
Connect to GitHub
Publishing puts your finished build into a repository you own, on a free GitHub account, so this step connects the dashboard to yours. The connection is a token: a code you create on GitHub, one time, that authorizes the dashboard to manage repositories and publishing workflows on your behalf and nothing else. It stays private and secure on your computer.
The dashboard walks you through the whole thing, and it takes about 2 minutes:
Click Open GitHub Settings in the dashboard. It opens GitHub's token page in your browser with the important choices already filled in. (New to GitHub? Create a free account first, then come back and click the button.)
Click Generate new token at the top right, then choose Generate new token (classic). If GitHub took you straight to a form instead, skip to step 3.
Name it "U3D" or anything you'll recognize. Set expiration to 90 days (recommended). Under scopes, check repo and workflow: the two permissions that let the dashboard create your repository and keep your published pages updating.
Click Generate token at the bottom, copy the long code that appears, and paste it into the dashboard. Then click Test Connection.
🔒 Why the 90-day expiration?
An expiration date on your token is a security good habit: if the code ever leaked, it would stop working on its own. GitHub emails you before a token expires, and regenerating an expired one takes moments and gives you a duplicate with the same permissions. Your published work is never affected by an expired token; you just need a valid one the next time you publish.
When the test succeeds, the dashboard confirms which GitHub account it connected to, and an All Set! Ready to Publish button finishes the step. If the test fails, the message tells you what went wrong in plain terms, whether the code was copied incorrectly, is missing permissions, or GitHub is just busy, and the fix is almost always creating a fresh token with the steps above.
Already have a token saved from before? Paste it in and test it. If you didn't save it, just create a new one; your published products aren't affected.
You can also postpone this step with I'll Set This Up Later and explore the rest of the dashboard first. Just remember to come back before you publish.
Setup Complete
Once the sequence finishes, the Setup tab becomes your account summary: your display name and email, your creator name and URL, your PayPal email if you added one, and your connected GitHub account. From here you can:
- Update GitHub Token, for when your token expires and you've made a fresh one.
- Update PayPal Email, or Connect PayPal Account if you skipped it earlier.
- Connect to GitHub, if you postponed that step; the tab reminds you it's the one thing standing between you and publishing.
- Logout, which signs you out and clears all stored credentials from the machine.
If You Skip Steps
The sequence lets you skip PayPal and GitHub, and it's honest about what each skip costs you:
- Without GitHub, you can't publish. Everything else works: build your scene, use every tool, press Play. The Publish tab will ask you to connect GitHub first.
- Without PayPal, you can publish freely, but the monetization tools and U3D Market uploads stay disabled until you add a PayPal email.
Neither skip is permanent, and nothing is lost by waiting. Both connections are a couple of minutes in the Setup tab whenever you're ready.
🎨 Setup done? Go build something
The Project Tools guide is your next stop: the one-click tools that make your scene interactive.