Hi! It is a common issue to want the dark theme in Unity Engine but cant afford / not wanting to pay the PRO version.

For this tutorial I will explain how to setup the dark theme in Unity Engine personal edition without much effort for those who don't know how to do it.

NOTE: THIS TUTORIAL IS ONLY USEFUL FOR VERSIONS BELOW 2019.4.8f1 AND 2020.1.3f AS UNITY NOW OFFERS DARK THEME FOR FREE.


What do you need?

- Unity Engine 2019
- A hex editor, in this case HxD.

Step 1: Setup the needed stuff.

- First of all, download and install Unity and open it. If you setup the personal license, it will show the light theme. Close it.
- Download and Install HxD: https://mh-nexus.de/en/hxd/

Step 2: Modifying Unity.exe

- Copy unity.exe from the path-to-unity-folder/unity.exe to a folder with permissions like the desktop or documents.
- Open the unity.exe with your hex editor.
- Press ctrl + F and look for the hex values:

- (in 2019.1): 74 04 33 C0 EB 02 8B 07 and change the 74 for a 75 resulting in: 75 04 33 C0 EB 02 8B 07
- (in 2019.2, 2019.3 and 2019.4 (LTS)): 75 15 33 C0 EB 13 90 and change the 75 for a 74 resulting in: 74 15 33 C0 EB 13 90

- Save it.
- Copy the modified unity.exe to the original folder.


Step 3: Resetting the reg keys

- Windows + R > regedit
- Delete the folder HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Unity Technologies
- close regedit window

Step 4: Dark theme

- Open Unity by Unity Hub or .exe
- Enjoy!



Can I use this in other versions?

- Yes, you can, but you need to find the needed hex values:


(2018.1, 2018.2 and 2018.3): 84 C0 75 08 33 C0 48 83 C4 30 > 84 C0 74 08 33 C0 48 83 C4 30
(2018.4): 74 04 33 C0 EB 02 8B 03 48 8B 4C > 75 04 33 C0 EB 02 8B 03 48 8B 4C

Is this Windows Only?

No, here you have some codes for MacOS:


2019.1.0: 74 03 41 8B 06 48 to 75 03 41 8B 06 48

2019.2.3+: 00 75 15 33 C0 EB 13 90 to 00 74 15 33 C0 EB 13 90

2019.2.11 (by Jagi): 74 04 8B 03 -> 75 04 8B 03

2019.3.13f1 (By Player_One) and confirmed working on 2019.4.4f1: 06 00 0F 84 D5 00 00 00 -> 06 00 0F 85 D5 00 00 00

And now we have Linux hex values:

2019.2.12 (by Rodders): 74 02 8b 03 48 83 -> 75 02 8b 03 48 83

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If you know more codes, please share them in comments so I can add them to this post.
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If you can afford it, please pay the pro version.

 

[Manurocker95]

Anyone know anything about doing this for Linux builds? I've done this before on Windows and Mac but never before tried Linux. Currently trying using vim as a hex editor. I can see lots of things related to it like "get_skinIndex" and things but can't seem to quite find the correct codes to edit. Firstly, let's just clarify that the correct binary to edit would be

~/unity/2019.3.0b10/Editor/Unity

right? I've installed using the Unity Hub.

I'm currently trying using 2019.3.0b10 but I have installed 2019.2.11f1 and 2019.1.14f1 as well. (No joy on either)

I'm going to keep trying and will post here if I find anything but if anyone can give me any tips on what to look for, that would be greatly appreciated.

I've never done it on Linux but a friend wants it too, so if you find a way out, tell me and I will post it in OP

 

[rodders]

I've spent a few hours on it now and I haven't found too much

 

[rodders]

Success

For Linux change: 74 02 8b 03 48 83 to 75 02 8b 03 48 83

or you could just use aevitas patcher on github (Search for it, I can't post links yet)

Tested working on 2019.2.12f1 on Ubuntu 19.10

 

[Manurocker95]

Awesome

Success

For Linux change: 74 02 8b 03 48 83 to 75 02 8b 03 48 83

or you could just use aevitas patcher on github (Search for it, I can't post links yet)

Tested working on 2019.2.12f1 on Ubuntu 19.10

awesome! Added to first page!

--------------------- MERGED ---------------------------

Success

For Linux change: 74 02 8b 03 48 83 to 75 02 8b 03 48 83

or you could just use aevitas patcher on github (Search for it, I can't post links yet)

Tested working on 2019.2.12f1 on Ubuntu 19.10

btw, on linux what file do you need to modify?

 

[Manurocker95]

Exact same codes for Unity 2019.2.13 (Windows)

 

[rodders]

btw, on linux what file do you need to modify?

Same as Windows but without the .exe e.g:
~/unity/2019.3.0b10/Editor/Unity

 

[Brouzouf94]

Anyone know the hex values for 2019.2.17f1? Seems like they've been changed again. 74 04 8B 03 is there but changing them doesn't seem to do anything.

EDIT: Nevermind reinstalled unity and 75 15 33 C0 EB 13 90 seemed to work now. So much nicer. Thank you so much

 

[Manurocker95]

Anyone know the hex values for 2019.2.17f1? Seems like they've been changed again. 74 04 8B 03 is there but changing them doesn't seem to do anything.

EDIT: Nevermind reinstalled unity and 75 15 33 C0 EB 13 90 seemed to work now. So much nicer. Thank you so much

nice. I was gonna tell you the code worked for me. Remember to delete the register key ig the theme is not applied

 

[Manurocker95]

Confirmed same hex values on 2019.3.0f5 (Windows)

 

[MadBro]

Looks like they changed something for 2020.1a20 -.-

Edit: It's working until 2020.1a17 -> Checked

 

[Manurocker95]

Looks like they changed something for 2020.1a20 -.-

Edit: It's working until 2020.1a17 -> Checked

2019.3.0f6 working without issues. Same goes for 2019.2.19f1. Did you get the 2020.1.a18+ hex value?

 

[MadBro]

No access to the 2020.1a18/19 so I couldn't check that.

 

[Manurocker95]

No access to the 2020.1a18/19 so I couldn't check that.

it should be the same as 2020.1.20 so if you get it, tell me and I post it on first page

 

[CaDev]

Yesterday my dark theme changed to light by itself, WHILE I was using the editor... It was quite strange and confusing lol
But since then, I've been trying to set my hex values back to dark theme, with no luck.

I'm using 2018.4.15f1, and 2018.4.16f1, their hex value is 74 04 33 C0 EB 02 8B 03 48 8B 4C.
I change the 74 to 75, and everything should apply. However it does not.

I did the same with 2019.3.0, with the code: 75 15 33 C0 EB 13 90, replaced it, and nothing happened again.

The funny thing is, I had 2018.4.13 installed, and it was edited to use dark theme. But once I opened it again after 2018.4.15 broke, it also changed to light theme.

I saw that you mentioned:
"nice. I was gonna tell you the code worked for me. Remember to delete the register key ig the theme is not applied"

So I tried looking through the registry editor, and found nothing related to Unity and it's theme.
I don't know if I miss-interpreted that, but if you can help... please do

 

[Atlas_Amfistomos]

Yesterday my dark theme changed to light by itself, WHILE I was using the editor... It was quite strange and confusing lol
But since then, I've been trying to set my hex values back to dark theme, with no luck.

Same here. Happened one month ago on a MacOS system running the 2019.2.13f1 and happened today on Ubuntu 18.04 with 2019.2.13f1 as well. Installed the 2019.2.19f1, found the hex '74 02 8b 03' and swapped it with '75 02 8b 03' but no luck as well. Light theme is still active. Taking a wild guess here, might be due to an automatic license renewal via the UnityHub?

 

[Manurocker95]

Same here. Happened one month ago on a MacOS system running the 2019.2.13f1 and happened today on Ubuntu 18.04 with 2019.2.13f1 as well. Installed the 2019.2.19f1, found the hex '74 02 8b 03' and swapped it with '75 02 8b 03' but no luck as well. Light theme is still active. Taking a wild guess here, might be due to an automatic license renewal via the UnityHub?

No, that’s not the case. The only scenario I could imagine is you changed your license manually

 

[Atlas_Amfistomos]

No, that’s not the case. The only scenario I could imagine is you changed your license manually

I am 100% sure I haven't changed the license manually

 

[Manurocker95]

I am 100% sure I haven't changed the license manually

Then it is a weird glitch. Oh, did you update Unity Hub? Doing so updates the register keys and with them, the theme

 

[CaDev]

Then it is a weird glitch. Oh, did you update Unity Hub? Doing so updates the register keys and with them, the theme

I was apparently signed out of the Hub, so I signed back in, updated the license (and checked for a hub update. I'm using 2.2.2), then I made sure the Hex Code in my Unity.exe was correct, but it's still in light theme. :/

 

[Atlas_Amfistomos]

Then it is a weird glitch. Oh, did you update Unity Hub? Doing so updates the register keys and with them, the theme

Oh, it could have been a hub update... Is there a way to somehow revert the update of the keys or the theme, i.e. similar with the windows regedit? As I posted above, the hex code is set to 75, etc...