Asset Replacer & Dependency Locator

As a solo developer, I originally built the Asset Locator & Replacer to solve a recurring headache: managing the tangled dependency webs and massive file bloat that happens when prototyping environments or importing complex third-party asset packs. While standard Unity tools are excellent at showing you what a specific prefab relies on (e.g., clicking a model to see its assigned materials), they natively struggle to efficiently answer the reverse: What exactly in my massive project is relying on this specific placeholder texture? Deleting that texture blindly usually results in pink broken-material errors scattered across dozens of closed scenes. This free, pipeline-agnostic toolkit provides multithreaded utilities to execute project-wide reverse-dependency lookups, safely consolidate scattered assets into clean directories, and perform asynchronous, destructive batch replacements to swap out global references (GUIDs) without forcing you to manually open a single scene or prefab. Core Workflows & Capabilities The toolkit is divided into three primary modules: 1. The Asset Locator (Reverse-Dependency Tracking) This module is designed to safely track down how assets are being used across your entire project without loading heavy scenes into memory. - Deep Project Scanning: Assign a Texture, Material, or Prefab to execute a targeted lookup. For example, assign a normal map, and the engine will locate all materials utilizing it, and subsequently every prefab and .unity scene utilizing those materials. - Asset Consolidation: If you find a Prefab that relies on dependencies scattered across six different disorganized pack directories, clicking "Consolidate" will physically move the source asset, the found assets, and all underlying dependencies into a new target folder—automatically structuring them into clean subdirectories without breaking internal GUID links. - Package Extraction: Bundle your initial source asset, all found dependent assets, and all of their internal requirements into a localized .unitypackage. This is ideal for cleanly extracting a working subset of assets from a massive project to share with a team member. 2. The Batch Replacer (Project-Wide Rewiring) Instead of manually digging through hundreds of materials or scenes to swap out placeholder assets for final versions, this module rewires them globally in seconds. - Automated Reference Replacement: The engine bypasses standard Unity APIs entirely. It utilizes asynchronous parallel background threads to read the raw text of your serialized files, finds the unique 32-character GUID of your old assets, dynamically injects the new GUIDs globally, and safely copies your originals into a backup folder. - Sandbox Auto-Pairing: Drag your "Old" assets into the left column, and your "New" assets into the right. The tool's algorithm evaluates filenames and automatically pairs incoming targets, stripping common iteration tags (like _v2 or _new). - Simulation Mode (Dry Run): Because this process is destructive, the tool defaults to a simulation mode. It runs the scan and populates a detailed checklist of affected files, allowing you to review and uncheck specific items before committing to writing any changes to your hard drive. 3. Script Backup Utility Duplicating a .cs script inside the Unity Project window instantly causes compiler lockouts due to duplicate class names. The integrated Script Backup utility allows you to drop C# scripts, compute shaders, or JSON files into a drop zone to instantly generate safe, timestamped .txt copies. This allows you to safely maintain version history directly within Unity before a massive code refactor. Realistic Expectations & Hard Limits This is a pragmatic utility designed to alter raw project data for maximum speed. It operates within strict mechanical boundaries to protect your files. Before executing any batches, please review these technical constraints: - Strict Serialization Requirement: The Batch Replacer bypasses stand