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Unity (game engine)

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Unity
Developer(s)Unity Technologies
Stable release
3.5.2 / April 11, 2012
Written inC++
C#[1]
Operating system
Creation and Deployment
Deployment
TypeGame engine
LicenseProprietary
Websitewww.unity3d.com

Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations [2] or real-time 3D animations. Unity's development environment runs on Microsoft Windows and Mac OS X, and the games it produces can be run on Windows, Mac, Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii,[3] iPad, iPhone,[4], Android, and coming to Linux[5]. It can also produce browser games that use the Unity web player plugin, supported on Mac and Windows. The web player is also used for deployment as Mac widgets. Unity also has the ability to export games to Adobe's Stage 3D functionality in Flash, but certain features that the web player supports are not usable due to limitations in Flash. Unity is used by over 500,000 game developers.[6]

Unity consists of both an editor[7] for developing/designing content and a game engine[8] for executing the final product. Unity is similar to Director, Blender game engine, Virtools, Torque Game Builder, and Gamestudio, which also use an integrated graphical environment as the primary method of development.

Unity won the Wall Street Journal 2010 Technology Innovation Award in the software category.[9] In 2009, San Francisco-based Unity Technologies was named one of Gamasutra's "Top 5 Game Companies of 2009"[10] for Unity. Unity was a runner-up for the best use of graphics on Mac OS X in the 2006, losing the modo 201. Apple Design Awards.[11]

Major features

  • Integrated development environment with hierarchical, visual editing, detailed property inspectors and live game preview.[12][13]
  • Deployment on multiple platforms:
  • Assets loaded into Unity and are automatically imported, and are re-imported if the asset is updated.[18] Unity supports integration with 3ds Max, Maya, Softimage, Blender, Modo, ZBrush, Cinema 4D, Cheetah3D, Photoshop and Allegorithmic Substance.
  • Graphics engine uses Direct3D (Windows), OpenGL (Mac, Windows), OpenGL ES (iOS, Android), and proprietary APIs (Wii).[19]
  • Support for bump mapping, reflection mapping, parallax mapping, Screen Space Ambient Occlusion, dynamic shadows using shadow maps, render-to-texture and full-screen post processing effects.
  • ShaderLab language for using shaders, supporting both declarative "programming" of the fixed-function pipeline and shader programs written in Cg or GLSL.[20] A shader can include multiple variants and a declarative fallback specification, allowing Unity to detect the best variant for the current video card and if none are compatible, fall back to an alternative shader that may sacrifice features for broader compatibility.
  • Built-in support for Nvidia's (formerly Ageia's) PhysX physics engine,[21] version 2.8.3 (as of Unity 3.0) with added support for real time cloth on arbitrary and skinned meshes, thick ray casts, and collision layers.
  • Game scripting via Mono.[22] Scripting is built on Mono, the open-source implementation of the .NET Framework. Programmers can use UnityScript (a custom language with ECMAScript-inspired syntax), C# or Boo (which has a Python-inspired syntax). Starting with the 3.0 release, Unity ships with a customized version of MonoDevelop for debugging scripts.[23]
  • The Unity Asset Server - A version control solution for all game assets and scripts, using PostgreSql as a backend.
  • Audio system built on FMOD library, with ability to play back Ogg Vorbis compressed audio.
  • Video playback using Theora codec.[24]
  • A terrain and vegetation engine,[25] supporting tree billboarding.
  • Occlusion Culling with Umbra (only in Unity >= 3.0 Pro).
  • Built-in lightmapping and global illumination with Beast (only in Unity >= 3).
  • Multiplayer networking using Raknet.
  • The Unity Asset Store - An in-editor repository with thousands of Unity-ready assets, including models, characters, code, audio, etc.
  • Built-in Pathfinding. Navigation meshes, as they are called, can be utilized in Unity Free, but require the Pro version to be created.[26]

Version control

The Unity Asset Server was a version control solution for all game assets and scripts.[27] It is now superseded by the version control system in Unity 3.5. Import settings and other metadata are stored and versioned while updates, commits, and graphical version comparisons are performed inside the Unity Editor. A shortfall with Unity's built-in version control is its lack of support for branching, tagging, or any DVCS features found in modern systems such as Git or Mercurial.

Unity have recently made it possible to use alternative version control software, so larger, more complex projects can be managed using branches or decentralized workflows.[28]

Licensing

There are two main licenses: Unity and Unity Pro,[29] with the Pro version being available for a price and the non Pro version being free. The Pro version has additional features, such as render-to-texture, occlusion culling, global lighting and post-processing effects. The Free version, on the other hand, displays a splash screen (in standalone games) and a watermark (in web games) that cannot be customized or disabled.

Both Unity and Unity Pro include the development environment, tutorials, sample projects and content, support via forum, wiki, and future updates in the same major version (i.e. buying Unity Pro 3.0 gets all future Unity Pro 3.x updates for free).

Unity for iOS and Unity for Android are add-ons to an existing Unity purchase.[4] A Unity Pro licenses is required to purchase an iOS Pro or Android Pro licenses. The regular Android and iOS licenses can be used with the free version of Unity.

Source code, PS3, Xbox 360, and Wii licenses are negotiated on a case by case basis.[30]

Educational licenses are provided by Studica with the stipulation that it is for purchase and use by schools, purely for education.[31]

Future platforms

Linux

There have been several indications a Linux port is in the works. Specifically, an end-user discovered an option for Linux as a runtime platform in Unity itself[32] and work on a Linux port was later confirmed by a Unity Technologies developer.[33] A prototype of a web-plugin for Firefox on Linux was also blogged about on Unity's corporate blog[34] and another Unity Technologies employee has publicly indicated that work has been done on a Linux port.[35] Game developer inXile stated that a port exists in an alpha version and will be licensed to provide a Linux version of the upcoming game Wasteland 2.[36] However, while there has been spare time work done on a Linux port, Unity Technologies have indicated that they don't intend to support Linux unless they see a greater demand for it from their customers who develop games with their engine.[37]

With support for Flash in Developer Preview,[16] Linux users are able to play Unity-authored content with a Flash browser plug-in. Adobe has announced that they are discontinuing support for their Flash plugin on Linux-based operating systems.

As of version 3.5, Unity can publish to Google Native Client,[38] a form that can be run by any recent version of Google's Chrome browser (including Chrome for Linux).

The upcoming Unity game Wasteland 2 is confirmed to have Linux support, and Unity has given the company a beta version of a Linux export function. Prior to this agreement, the company making Wasteland 2 had wanted to purchase a license to Unity's source code, from which they'd make a port themselves.

Roku 2

On September 28, 2011, it was announced that Unity will provide content for the streaming box top set, Roku 2 through its Union initiative.[39]

Uses

See also

References

  1. ^ Meijer, Lucas. "Is Unity Engine written in Mono/C# or C++?". Retrieved April 26, 2011.
  2. ^ "Revit to Max to Unity". Technical Architecture.
  3. ^ a b "Unity to Support Wii Console as Authorized Middleware Provider". Gamasutra.
  4. ^ a b c "Unity Game Engine Coming to iPhone". Macworld.
  5. ^ "Mass-Market Games Engine 'Unity3D' To Support Linux". OMG! Ubuntu.
  6. ^ Unity Technologies raises $12M to push game development tools in Asia
  7. ^ "Unity 3 Editor Features".
  8. ^ "Unity 3 Engine Features".
  9. ^ Totty, Michael (27 September 2010). "The WSJ Technology Innovation Award Winners, Category by Category". The Wall Street Journal.
  10. ^ "Gamasutra's Best of 2009: Top 5 Game Companies". Gamasutra.
  11. ^ "Apple Design Awards 2006 winners". MacNN.
  12. ^ "Tale of Tales: The Graveyard post mortem". Tale of Tales.
  13. ^ "Unity 1.5.1 review". Creative Mac.
  14. ^ "Unity Announces Support for Android". Gamasutra.
  15. ^ "Web Player". Unity Technologies.
  16. ^ a b "Adobe Flash Player". Unity Technologies.
  17. ^ http://blogs.unity3d.com/2011/03/25/union-and-rim-bringing-games-to-playbook/
  18. ^ "Technicat: Asset Importing". Technicat.
  19. ^ "Features: Graphical Fidelity". Unity Technologies.
  20. ^ "Features: Shaders". Unity Technologies.
  21. ^ "Features: Advanced Physics". Unity Technologies.
  22. ^ "Companies Using Mono". Mono Project.
  23. ^ "What's New in Unity 3.0".
  24. ^ "Features: Audio and Video". Unity Technologies.
  25. ^ "Features: Terrains". Unity Technologies.
  26. ^ "Features: Built-in Pathfinding". Unity Technologies.
  27. ^ "Features: Unity Asset Server". Unity Technologies.
  28. ^ "Using External Version Control Systems with Unity". Unity Technologies.
  29. ^ "Unity License Comparison". Unity Technologies.
  30. ^ "UNITY". Unity Technologies.
  31. ^ "Unity Pro 3 - Education - Academic Software Discounts for Students -".
  32. ^ "Linux Runtime Option Discovered".
  33. ^ "Unity Technologies developer confirms Linux Port In-Progress".
  34. ^ "NinjaCamp III: Foxes and Penguins Unite".
  35. ^ "Linux Support on Unity Answers Site".
  36. ^ John Alvarado. "Unity Chosen to Drive Wasteland 2". Kickstarter.
  37. ^ "Unity3D and Linux – The Quest Continues".
  38. ^ "Unity game engine embraces Google's Native Client".
  39. ^ "Unity Technologies and Roku Announce Agreement to Bring Union Game Titles to Roku".
  40. ^ "Tiger Woods PGA TOUR online built with Unity". Groundswell Games.

Template:Unity engine games Template:IPhone video game engines

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