unity windows announced

looking cool:

http://unity3d.com/unity/coming-soon/unity-2.5

Wow! That looks cool. When does it come out?

I got this info from their forum:

"I know everyone is cringing for a specific date and we still don't have anything more for you on that front other than we're aiming for a release prior to GDC (which occurs in late March). "

so hopefully in 2-3 months we should be able to get our hands on it :) I got indy version on Mac but it's sitting there, I'm not used workin on Mac

It was said to be released in Q109.

Which also means, before March. Let's hope so.

@Gabriel
I just asked and the assets will be imported/updated automatically on windows like on osx.

So no more excuses, huh?! ;O)

@Mortiis
History has shown that earlier announcements were too strict and they couldn't finish them in time. They've learnt from that and used a bigger buffer this time. My guess would be that they either release it a few weeks before or polish as much as possible and release it shortly before/at GDC.

..Yup..windows version will be nice...one nice rig with 9xxx waiting for it :)

I wonder what you'll make your game with now...Unity, Xors3D, Max3D, ???3D, ...

By the way does something like this exist, a game which is made with different 3d dev tools?

Well i've been inbetween dev for a while but when unity arrives I think i'm gonna get the indie version seeing as max3d didn't turn out to be anything close to what I had vision.

It's a great app from what i've seen and will be a great release for game dev on pc.

How much is it cost to buy?

@taumel
Im kind a 'sick' to have all possible engines out there so dont look at that as a reference regarding my choice :) hehe..anyway, for game it will be prototype B3D and final version will be Flow3D as i can see right now since folks are more than supportive and giving nice help/suggestions/solutions..Max3D is a dead cow for me, Xors3D looked nice but i just dont know when it will be released and thats BIG question mark if you have some deadlines and I do have..bottom line is this
-Prototype 100% B3D
-Final stuff Flow3D and in case something happen(eg, im unable to get full version) Ill go back to Unity..thats final and ill know pretty much soon (end of this month) with what im going with..Unity or Flow..

Well, i'm curious to see what the final solution in your case will be, till then i'll wait what else you will come up with in between. ;O)

well..personaly I do like Flow 3D more than Unity just and only because of hardcoding feel, what I do not have with Unity(thats the only my personal 'negative' thought about lovely Unity)..other than that is okay and nice..and yes..I have some stupid problems with cut scenes setting in Unity (I do have it a lot in game), but I guess Ill give it a go again after i know with which one im going by the end of this month..

Strangely enough, I still stand behind them (the Unity team). Been using Unity for over 5 months now and I must say it really does have the best of all worlds.

The windows ver will be nice as I am really sick of using a Mac at this point. I needed unity portable, and without the extra grand or two to spend on a macbook/pro I had to settle with an older mac mini. does the job, but just so sick of using VNC, and no true right mouse button support....

I will be very happy when I can throw Unity on my regular HP laptop and do what i need to do.

Yes i'm also happy that Unity finally shows up on Windows. I waited over three years for this to happen. OSX is really nice but i just don't like Apple's hardware restrictions and the lack of flexibility in quite some of their products. When looking at the current lineup the hardware benefits of the PC mean more to me than the software benefits of OSX.

Maybe this will change again in the future but at the moment i feel this way. If a.o. they just would care more about gfx cards, quality displays and expandability in the less expensive products all would be fine.

Damn. So many good 3D options.

How do you Unity users feel about that scripting system? I don't have Unity, but I have looked at the docs and followed the forum a bit, and my impression is that which Alien stated: liking Flow3D more because of the "hardcoding" feel.

If you just want to play around use whatever you want but if you want to get things done then Unity is the better option. Coding in Unity is less fun than in BlitzMax but on the other side the results are much better and the whole IDE is way more advanced.

What is the main differences that seperate Indie licence and Pro licence. There is a huge price difference of 1300 USD.

I know there is no dynamic shadowmapping in indie version but I don't think that's worth another $1300.

-> http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses

In 2.5, Indie and Pro will allow you to publish for both platforms but the Indie version will come with a splash screen experience.

I have no use for the visual world editor currently. That's why the slight weirdness of the scripting system is a bit of a put off for me.

I will try it when it comes out.

It's a very good balance between 'hardcode' and world editor/artist layout.

The whole OO thing feels more OO when your actually dealing with 'objects' in a scene. You can lay things out visually, and go into the objects and add the scripts to get down and dirty.

I find that doing the same thing I would in blitzmax takes far less time in Unity because I can visually see what's going on as I modify things.

At first the scripting was a bit strange to me however after a bit of playing around it grew on me very quickly to the point of preference. It's like that time you finally got used to Blitzmax and then had to move back to Blitz3D and sat there wishing it had this or that because it was such a big help in Blitzmax....


There's a big difference. Asset bundles being one of them. To dynamically load things as the user progresses through your world is a huge plus. The use of an asset server. Removing the splash screen of course. The use of advanced shaders and shadowing.

To give you a good idea:
We started with Indie, worked with it for a few months. We were able to accomplish what we wanted however with quite a few work arounds ( so the advanced stuff is still possible, you just need to be creative).

Then recently we picked up a few lic of pro. And it was like the clouds parted and the sun shined down on the project. Streaming in asset bundles (complete with their own scripts attached to them, hell whole worlds in asset bundle format, precompressed) was a huge help. Not sure why we didn't just spring for the pro version right from the get go (oh yeah, money hehe).

I'd love to say what we are using it for however it is against the NDA. As soon as it's released I'll be glad to share as Unity really is a great product!

If anyone wants to get a hands on free try out of the Windows 2.5 of Unity 3D - pop over to Global Gamer Jam next weekend - London UK.

Unity3D - v2.5 is both Mac and Windows (XP and Vista) compatible, and you can legally have it on both machines as long as you only operate one version at a time - it is a one seat license. As for how it 'feels' to code with - the beauty of Unity is that the IDE allows you to get into making your game very, very quickly.

I have been a full time user since about the end of November 2008 - my first commercial game on iPhone will be released in the next week or so.

That shows a pretty good learning curve in my book.

IPete2.

Dammit, I've just finished working/living down in Essex last week and if I'd known I would've delayed my stay until after then. I don't fancy driving all the way back down for a weekend with loads of people programming my butt of 24/2, as fun as it might be.

When Unity is out im moving all my work onto that. Blitz3D has been great for me over the years but I think the whole programming from scratch, although great, isn't as good or productive as having a tool like unity for making games, even though there are/maybe some limits.

I noticed in the side by side comparison it says with the Pro version you can make a windows executable. So...what does the indie make? A non executable? seriously. What use is indie if it can't make a complete stand alone game? I'm sure I'm missing something but that is a deal breaker.

How about informing yourself properly first before ranting?

@Doggie,


The Indie version of Unity3D 2.5 (coming very soon) will bring with it Windows publishing side (this will be an upgarde if you purchase Unity3D 2.1 - the current version).

Currently the Indie version creates Web and Mac games, and the Pro version does Windows too - but as I say that is all about to change.

IPete2.

I have been waiting for this.

Very exciting.

I wish it come out now ..so that we can try it :)

Basically, when 2.5 is out the whole pro version only deploying win exe's will be removed and both the win and mac version can create exe's for both systems using either indie or pro.

Just pop over to their forums, they're great for all the info and any questions.

Unity changes everything ...

Really? How?

I'd like to have a look at Unity for Windows but it may not be worth while for me - I use SoftImageXSI 5.0, and there is no longer a FBX exporter for SoftImage XSI 5.0 (Foundation) that I can find anywhere which basically means - if I cannot create content for it there is no point in even looking at it.

This looks interesting- not sure what it is though. How does this work with BlitzMax or Blitz3D?

Export out of XSI using [whatever format works best for you] and use the Autodesk FBX converter (free on their site) to convert it to FBX. A working pipeline might take a bit to set up, but...

@Tachyon
No, it's a different tool.

It's really interesting to see how people are changing their minds.

All the years i spoke about it, people were more bashing it, now with a soon to be released win version in sight some have changed their minds quite a bit. What a difference it can be if something is available for your platform as well.

I've been waiting patiently for years to buy this without buying a mac. Too me this is the best way to dev games. I played about with it when it was at 1.5 or earlier and loved it but and things are even better now. The guys who aren't to bothered or hyped about it should give the demo a run on release.

There are a few blitz converts using unity, some who have posted here and they all know how good, infact how great it is.

ps I think I remember mark posting in his log about unity and not trying to create a competing product. I wonder what his thoughts are on in it and how much play time he has had with it.

From 1.2 to 1.5 it was a huge step and made Unity actually much more useable.

Anyway i just thought it's interesting as beside of those who waited for a win version to be released and knew what Unity is, surprisingly also some of the "i don't like click and build engines" crowd are now interested in.

@taumel. I wasn't ranting. I actually did look on the site and it distinctly says only the Pro version will make an executable file. I didn't check the forums mainly because I posted my reply just before heading out to work and also I don't believe half of what speculating outsiders on forums have to say anyways, well, at least until I have a feel for how reliable the content of a particular forum is. (a good reason I visit this one on a regular basis)

Just wanting to make clear I didn't mean that as a rant. I tend to value opinions expressed at this forum. it's all good.

Dog

Agreed, but not as big as the 1.5 to 2.x leap!

@Doggie
With Indie version it creates a 'web app' which requires a unity client to run. Think of it like flash, once you have the flash player installed, you can play flash files.

Pro IS really worth the money for what it does though. Sure, it's a big price tag, but it opens a lot of doors. You CAN create a GREAT game with indie version, but pro gives you that extra tool set you will actually use once you have something worth other peoples' time!

Looks cool, maybe finally something as easy to use as Blitz3D and visual candy & coolness Max3D has not yet been able to deliver. If coming indie does Vista (sounds like a pOrn title...) I sure will be tempted to buy it to play with.

Unity is the first step in a standardization process for video game development. Unity is like Photoshop for games. It's a nearly complete solution rolled into one slick package. For a while I've been envisioning my perfect tool which would have been somewhere between Blitz and Torque. I love Blitz for the ease and flexibility of it's high level code with low level access. I enjoyed Torque's built in editors and a lot of the automated processes it contained. Unity has the best of both worlds. It contains all the built in stuff but also allows simple and fairly low level access to everything. Finally, the documentation rocks once you get the gist of it. I've been developing games for a long time but there's a slew of new tricks in there which make reading them worthwhile.

I could imagine far better docs than those in Unity but i guess it strongly depends were you're coming from.

The unity creators posted the latest information regarding 2.5 and are regulars on the unity forums answering questions and being helpful.

The unity forums theselves have alot of helpful folks and actually have a welcoming, friendly and helpful community.



100% Agree.

Heh.

I'll be checking out the win version when it arrives. Blitz is great, but its low level, 'do everything yourself' nature is a bit clunky and labour intensive. On the other hand, my programming skills are still very noobish, etc and Jeremy's description of Unity as 'like Photoshop for games.' is intriguing.

That is until specific users from this community go over there, then the hospitality of those forums will diminish as well :-P

Which would make the soup more spicy if there weren't only pacifistic tree huggers around. ;O)

What? Then it's an all out 'blitz'? =p

Unity3d is an excellent engine, no point but I wonder also whether they are also smart marketing people
I have never read a negative comment on this engine
Mac users never complain, of course...they have no other choice
On the other hand statistic show that only less than 5 % of the people own a mac
I suppose that most of the Unity3d enthusiastics have never played with the engine
Nowaday the engine is probably stable but if you go through the list of the bugs of the previous editions, well any other windows engine would be razed to ground
A part from that
Even the next 2.5 release lacks some essentisl features : Scene mnangement ( portals and all thehose stuff..) - LOD - Pathfinding - advanced lighting and shadowing only for the 1500 usd pro edition

C4 for example offers all these features for 250 usd

That is until specific users from this community go over there, then the hospitality of those forums will diminish as well :-P

Thats funny i cracked a rib reading that.woot :)