Today is an exciting day for all of us here at Unity Technologies as we’re now shipping pre-release beta builds of Unity 3.0 to the first 100 people that pre-purchased the licenses since they went on sale earlier this year (reference)! These folks are the first public users (those not on our staff or in our private alpha/beta test groups) to get their hands on the new release, but they’ll soon be followed by everyone else that has pre-purchased a Unity 3.0 license as those will be rolled out in the next few weeks. But what does that mean in terms of a final ship date? Well, it means that we’re closing in fast and we’re now within a month or so of our launch date. So let this be your call to action if you haven’t yet pre-purchased a Unity 3.0 license, on launch day the prices go back to their normal list rates instead of the pre-purchase discounted rates we’re offering now. Get ‘em while the gettin’ is good!
If you’re not up to speed on what to expect from the Unity 3.0 release then please take a look at this:
When you’re done with that have a look at the following blog posts our engineering team has made that describe some of the new features in more detail:
Unity 3 Feature Preview – Asset Management
Image Effects Video
Introducing some of the new Image Effects
3.0 Upcoming demo
Unity 3 Feature Preview – Snapping & Marquee Selection
What’s more is that we’ve lifted the embargo on public discussion about this new release. What that means is that those who have been testing beta builds already can now talk about the coming features openly so the Unity Community Forums, Twitter, Facebook, etc. are all afire with chatter about the coming coolness that is Unity 3.0. And with that, let the countdown begin!
Tom Higgins
agosto 30, 2010 a las 5:42 pm@Pete: sorry for not getting to your comment sooner! In the 3.0 release itself we don’t have any specific improvements on offer, but we do plan on having some nice new features on the 2D front during the 3.x product release cycle as a whole so look for those in the near future.
Pete
julio 23, 2010 a las 5:04 amTom, I’ve tried the evaluation version of Unity IPhone 2.7 and I’m not convinced about 2D rendering. I know there is a third-party Sprite-Management API in the forums to be used freely but it is not a built-in solution. What’s being done in this regard with the upcoming v3? Will it offer a performing built-in solution for sprite management? Thanks.
Tom Higgins
junio 30, 2010 a las 6:10 amYup, as Aras said we’re sending out build information to a new batch of people on a regular basis, it’s just that we’re not doing a press push and making noise about it. That type of activity is really best used for that first group only… :)
Aras Pranckevičius
junio 30, 2010 a las 5:45 am@Danilo: we’re sending it to about 100 pre-order customers each day
Danilo Nishimura
junio 29, 2010 a las 11:35 pmNice job guys, but.. how about to open it to the next 100 betas?? ;)
Pete
junio 24, 2010 a las 11:37 pmThanks, I will.
Tom Higgins
junio 24, 2010 a las 10:35 pm@tino: as Bart said, that’s why we have a tiered license system, start with one and upgrade when necessary.
@Pete: nothing yet but as I understand it we should have an update soon, as always keep your eyes here on the blog for information on that front
Pete
junio 24, 2010 a las 9:16 pm> Like everyone else who preordered, I can’t wait! I especially can’t wait to see what improvements were made to iPhone/iPad. Unity for iPhone already rocks.
Speaking of the devil, I’d love to pre-order the Unity IPhone but I’m hesitating to do it because there’s been no official confirmation that Unity3D is safe.
Any news about this, Tom?
Aras Pranckevičius
junio 24, 2010 a las 8:46 pm@Kevin: yes, you can use GLES2.0. The preferred way in 3.0 is actually to write shader once in Cg/HLSL, and it will be compiled for all platforms (we cross-compile it into GLSL ES for iPhone/Android, and that works). The cross-compiler is continued development from ATI’s HLSL2GLSL library; we have open sourced our patches/fixes/improvements here: http://code.google.com/p/hlsl2glslfork/
Kevin
junio 24, 2010 a las 6:40 pmLike everyone else who preordered, I can’t wait! I especially can’t wait to see what improvements were made to iPhone/iPad. Unity for iPhone already rocks.
Are OGLES 2.0 shaders now available? I really want to do bumpmapping!
tino
junio 24, 2010 a las 4:32 pm@Bart Libert, I know, I’m just eager to play with unity 3 :)
And if I make some money Unity will be one of first company’s that I will invest into…
Martijn Dekekr
junio 24, 2010 a las 3:51 pmArghh the waiting begins… :) hope all other people get v3 soon!
But nerveless Good job on the new version! love the new features!
gamking
junio 24, 2010 a las 3:20 pmHope to have a beta copy to play with soon!
Thanks!
Lars Steenhoff
junio 24, 2010 a las 11:46 amYes I listened to the call for action and pre ordered unity iphone pro upgrade, Hope to have a beta copy to play with soon!
Thanks!
Bart Libert
junio 24, 2010 a las 8:37 amOh, And I just forgot to nominate the unity crew for the name “THE U-TEAM” :)
Bart Libert
junio 24, 2010 a las 8:36 am@Tino, that is why there is the FREE version too. Pro really has nice features, thats true, but a good gamemaker can make their first steps (even profitable ones) with free too.
If you really want to make money with unity, then consider this. I prefer to pay $1200 and never having to worry about royalties anymore. If you have to pay a percentage of your earnings, then this complicates a lot and if you really mean to earn nice money with your software, you will pay a lot of times your $1200 instead of just 1 time
Arthur
junio 24, 2010 a las 4:30 amAwesome! I’m waiting my time! :)
tino
junio 24, 2010 a las 3:40 amNice work guys, i wish i could afford it :(, maybe soon…
It would be cool if you could have some sort of contract that if someone can’t afford unity pro, can use it and if they make any money, first revenue goes straight to unity… that would be cool…
Danilo Nishimura
junio 24, 2010 a las 12:33 amCongrats guys!!! We can’t wait to get our hands on this release!!!
Steve
junio 24, 2010 a las 12:02 amAlready pre-ordered. Hope I am not to far down the list…
Haru
junio 23, 2010 a las 11:59 pmargh, I preordered but I guess I wasn’t fast enough :(
Wenceslao Villanueva
junio 23, 2010 a las 11:55 pmFirst!
Congrats to the Unity team! As a reward, I just pre-purchased. I look forward to working with this wicked awesome tech.