Search Unity

Web Player runtime update alert

May 8, 2013 in Technology | 3 min. read
Topics covered
Share

Is this article helpful for you?

Thank you for your feedback!

Unity 4.0 added the new release channels function to the Unity Web Player plugin; this function gives us more fine-grained control over runtime updates. Since then, we have started updating all plugins to 4.x so that release channels should be supported on all installed machines. However, we have not yet updated the Unity Runtime in the stable channel yet. Currently, all games published with Unity 3.x will still be run on a 3.x runtime.

We are planning to change this upon Unity 4.2's release: the stable release channel will be updated to 4.2. This means that any released 3.x and 4.x Unity Web Player content will be played back with the 4.2 runtime. If you have any web player content out there, you will need to make sure it runs well in 4.2.

If you have any live Web Player content authored with Unity 3.x or 4.x, please test it against the current 4.2 beta runtimes - and please tell us if you run into any problems.

We try hard to ensure that no regressions exist in new runtime versions, and we have a lot of test coverage - but, when we miss something, we'd prefer that you find it, and that we correct it, before we ship!

To test your content against the 4.2 runtime:

  1. Go to http://unity3d.com/webplayer/setup/
  2. While holding the alt/option key, right-click on the Unity Web Player Content. (In older versions of the Web Player Plugin, the release channel menu would appear when right-clicking without holding down the alt/option key. This will change in 4.2.)
  3. From the popup menu which appears, select Release Channel -> Beta.

When you have changed the release channel in the Web Player to the Beta channel, all 3.x and 4.x content will be played back with the current beta release. Currently, that is Unity 4.2b2.

If you do find issues with your live Web Player content, please file a bug, and make sure to mention it's a web player regression in the bug report. It is also a good idea to subscribe to our new web player update announcement mailing list, where you can discuss web player regressions and where we will announce future updates.
In the past, we have received questions about which runtime will be used for each channel. To clarify the Web Player channel feature, here's exactly how it works:

 

The Unity Web Player will always use the available release channel with the oldest runtime version which meets two criteria:

  • The runtime version is not older then the Unity version the content was built with.
  • The runtime version is not older then the channel selected in the Release Channel popup menu

 

By default, the Unity Web Player uses the Stable channel.

For example, assume the Stable channel is at 3.5.7, Release is at 4.1, and Beta is at 4.2. If the channel selected in the Release Channel popup menu is Stable, then:

  • 3.2 content would play with the Stable channel (3.5.7)
  • 3.5 content would play with the Stable channel (3.5.7)
  • 4.1 content would play with the Release channel (4.1)
  • 4.2 content would play with the Beta channel (4.2)

If the same setup is used, but the channel selected in the Release Channel popup menu is Release, then:

  • 3.2 content would play with the Release channel (4.1)
  • 3.5 content would play with the Release channel (4.1)
  • 4.1 content would play with the Release channel (4.1)
  • 4.2 content would play with the Beta channel (4.2)
May 8, 2013 in Technology | 3 min. read

Is this article helpful for you?

Thank you for your feedback!

Topics covered