Archive for August, 2009

Update: We have released Unity 2.6.1 on December 2nd this year, which includes an update to the Mac Unity Web Plugin, which is fully compatible with 64-bit Safari on OS X 10.6 Snow Leopard.

So, most of you have probably heard the news: Apple is going to release Mac OS X 10.6 “Snow Leopard” this Friday. This release will give Mac users plenty of new feature goodness and new technologies to play with, and brings a lot of changes under the hood. Unfortunately, I must inform you that one of these changes may cause some grief for Unity users, at least for the time being:

Read the rest of this entry »

Today is very exciting for us because we’ve just released a much anticipated update to our iPhone development platform — Unity iPhone 1.5.

Some of the highlights from this major point release include:

Significant Performance Boosts

• Up to 3x faster than 1.0.3.
• Performance critical paths rewritten to take advantage of VFP coprocessor, animation skinning is up to 4x faster.
• Automatic batching of meshes to reduce draw calls.

Built-in Anti-piracy Protection

• Identify if Apple DRM was removed from the application bundle and modify application behaviour accordingly.

More Power

• Full support for native Objective C and C++ code opens full access to the iPhone 3.x APIs and custom plugins.
• Access to video-playback, on screen keyboard support, and GPS/location services.
• Support for 8-texture shading on iPhone 3GS with automatic fallbacks for iPhone 3G.

Better Docs

• Detailed instructions on iphone-specific optimizations.
• New 150 page tutorial to get you up to speed with iPhone game making.

Further information about this release, a download link for the update, and a link to the Penelope Tutorial can all be found here: http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/iphone-1.5

This blog post is written by Ben Throop who is working on a Detonator framework to generate great-looking explosions in Unity games. The project is one of four selected projects that were selected for the Unity Summer of Code.

We’re just 9 days away from the August 31 deadline so it’s time for an update. I’ve been working on Detonator, which is a parametric explosion system. It’s supposed to make getting nice, scalable explosions into your game really easy while at the same time providing a framework for more complex effects.

Read the rest of this entry »

This blog post is written by Michał Mandrysz who is working on support for External Lightmapping in Unity. The project is one of four selected projects that were selected for the Unity Summer of Code.

What’s lightmapping?

If you’re not familiar with the terms “baking” and “lightmapping” then let me introduce them to you a little. Baking is an operation of prerendering expensive details (in calculational sense) like illuminated lightning, highlights and shadows into a texture so that it doesn’t have to be renderered at realtime. It requires some additional effort from the game designers, but it benefits hugely in performance. This solution is pretty old, but according to words of John Carmack it’s still up-to-date and will be – even in high end games.

What is the Lightmapping Tool?
It’s a tool for lightmapping scenes in external applications (yeah, I know most of you would  wish to see an integrated system, but it’s not that easy to write this kind of system; however there are several huge benefits from using an external one, especially as powerful one as VRay).
As you may have heard before, my job is to wire lightmapping process tightly with 3dsmax and VRay. The system automates the process of both external baking, and setting up the lightmaps in Unity.
Lightmapping tool manages up to 99 lightmap atlases (could be even more but the interface would have to be modded for such extreme jobs) which hold object information with resolution proportional to their size on the stage. It can start external applications (currently only 3dsmax), assign appropriate renderer or load a preset max scene which holds information about lightning and so on. I’m planning to make a short screencast video when the work is done, so you can be sure you understand everything clearly

This picture presents about 1/6 of a whole scene lightmapped with only one 2kx2k lightmap rendered with VRay on medium settings

Read the rest of this entry »

This blog post is written by Sándor Moldán who is working on a set of Terrain Erosion tools for Unity. The project is one of four selected projects that were selected for the Unity Summer of Code.

The objective of this Unity Summer of Code project was to develop a toolset for the Unity Editor which would streamline and improve the workflow involved in creating terrains for games.

Read the rest of this entry »

This blog post is written by Matthew Miner who is working on a cutscene editor for Unity. The cutscene editor is one of four selected projects that were selected for the Unity Summer of Code.

As described in an earlier blog post, the Cutscene Editor is a tool for creating realtime cutscenes without touching a script. This allows both veteran Unity developers and those new to the engine to easily toss together a scene without too much fuss. It works similar to modern video editing software like Final Cut Pro and Adobe Premiere, with a media browser and a preview window and a timeline. Anyone who has ever edited together a movie on their computer will find a familiar user interface which has been designed with ease-of-use in mind.
Read the rest of this entry »

We have a ton of people at Unity who have been or are involved in the demoscene. Assembly is one of the largest demoscene parties, and this year we were sponsoring the event, sent in some folks there and had a couple of seminar presentations. Our presentations were not directly Unity related, but still might be interesting for some of you.

Read the rest of this entry »

Submissions for the 2009 Unity Awards are now open! Our goal is to honor the very best content being made in Unity. If you’ve been working hard on a project, now is you chance to earn some recognition–and some prize money–for your efforts!

Check out the official contest information and rules page for all of the details you need to know. We look forward to your entries!

*update: We’re putting information about each of the entries that we receive in this forum post.

Hi guys & gals.

I’m giving a talk about the inner workings of immediate-mode GUIs at GDC Europe tomorrow (in Cologne). Looking forward to doing it – it’s been my main Unity development area for the past 2 years, so I guess I somehow ended up being an expert on that subject It’s Monday at 2:10 – 3:00 PM

If any of you are there, I hope you come – and if you want to meet up in Cologne, drop me a mail or a PM on our forum, and I’ll try to squeeze you in.

Today we heard that the .NET based engine Blade3D is being shut down, and dramatically at that. Blade3D was offered as a subscription service, and as such will be shut off 6 months from now.

We feel terrible about those people left in the cold, so we’ve decided to bail out any Blade3D users who want to adopt Unity.

The bailout consists in us crediting subscription fees a Blade3D customer has paid towards any Unity license, up to 50% off its full price. Just forward your Blade3D invoice(s) to blade3dbailout@unity3d.com before September 28th, along with a note about which license you wish to purchase.

Unity is of course different from Blade3D, but we think you’ll like what you find.

Since Blade3D used C# for scripting just like Unity can, anyone well versed in Blade3D will be right at home in Unity.

Also, Unity is a more professional solution, with a user community of around 10,000 developers building everything from full-scale browser-based MMOs, through online casual games, iPhone games, and Nintendo Wii games, to hundreds of simulations, training experiences,virtual worlds, the works.

Welcome to all of you who decide to accept the offer.

PS. Depending on the volume, it might take a couple of days for us to handle requests, so please bear with us and use the free trial in the meantime.