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Unity (game engine)

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Unity
Developer(s)OverTheEdge
Stable release
1.6.1 / January 30, 2007
Operating systemMac OS X (creation and deployment), Microsoft Windows (deployment only)
TypeGame engine
LicenseProprietary
Websiteunity3d.com

Unity is an integrated authoring tool for creating 3D video games or other interactive content such as architectural visualizations or real-time 3D animations. Unity is similar to Director, Blender game engine, Virtools or Torque Game Builder in a sense that a graphical environment is the primary way of authoring the game.

Although the editor only runs on Mac OS X, it can produce games for either the Mac or Windows platform. The lack of a Windows-compatible editor is also one of its often discussed shortcomings.

Unity has a hierarchical, visual editing environment with detailed property inspectors. Assets are created externally, in various 3D modeling, graphics, and audio software. These assets are then imported and assembled into a game using Unity. Although many of the most popular 3D modeling applications are supported by Unity, its integrations with Maya and Cinema 4D are the most complete. Scripting is built on Mono, the open source implementation of the .NET Framework. Because of this, programmers can use JavaScript, C#, or Boo (Python-inspired) syntax.

Unity uses AGEIA's physics engine for dynamics, OpenGL for graphics and OpenAL for sound. Deployment options are Microsoft Windows executable, Mac OS X executable, Web page (via the Unity plugin for Windows and Mac OS X), or a Mac OS X Dashboard widget. It is also possible to adapt Unity content as a Mac OS X screen saver. Unity is generally used for rapid development and prototyping. It includes some graphical contents with it. Unity can detect the graphics power available and use lower quality graphics to fall back on when too little power is available.

Unity is targeted at small-team development, with an optimal size of 3-4 people. The main reason for this is that it lacks any kind of built-in source control, maintaining the latest assets from multiple people can become a burden with large teams. A programmer could fix this problem by integrating source control software. Serious Games Interactive is an example of a company which has chosen to develop internal source control software.

Unity was a runner-up in the Best OS X Graphics category in the 2006 Apple Design Awards.

Major Features

  • Integrated development environment
  • Support for Bumpmapping, Reflection mapping and Parallax mapping.
  • The ShaderLab language for using shaders, supporting shaders written in Cg. Render-to-texture and full-screen post processing effects are also supported in the Pro version.
  • Support for the PhysX physics engine.
  • Scripting via Mono.
  • Automatic asset importing - assets load into Unity and automatically imported, and are re-imported if the asset is updated.

Drawbacks

  • Currently there is no Windows version of Unity's IDE, sometimes requiring studios that intend to use Unity to buy new hardware.
  • Studios that use Unity are reliant on Over The Edge to provide software updates to keep their games up-to-date with modern features (unless they get source code license). For example, as of Unity 1.6.1, dynamic shadows are not a built-in feature, but can be implemented with manual effort.
  • Unity's IDE has limited tools available for debugging scripts; for example, there is no way to stop execution of scripts in the event of an infinite loop.
  • Unity has no integrated source control and is therefore not optimal for teams of more than a few people. Further, it is not compatible with some external source control management software, causing corrupted project files.

History

Before commercial release, Unity was in several years in development. Gooball was released in March 2005 with a pre-release version of Unity.

  • June 2005, Unity 1.0.1 was released.
  • August 2005, Unity 1.1 release added building games for Windows, C/C++ plugin support and more.
  • December 2005, Unity 1.2 added image postprocessing effects, ragdolls, blob shadows, built-in first person controller, ability to extend editor with custom scripted wizards and more. Unity 1.2.2 release in March 2006 added support for building Mac Universal Binary games.
  • June 2006, Unity 1.5 release highlights were web browser plugin for Windows, new character animation system, Universal Binary editor, car physics and lightmap support. 1.5.1 release in September improved support for old graphics hardware and added Unicode support.
  • November 2006, Unity 1.6 added support for browser-to-game communication, streaming of levels in web games, Windows Vista support and more audio effects.

Full release notes can be found here.

Games

Some of the released and in-development games created with Unity are:

More projects using Unity can be found in Unity's gallery.

Licensing

There are two main licenses: Unity Indie ($249) and Unity Pro ($1499). The Pro version has additional features like render-to-texture, postprocessing effects, ability to build standalone Windows games. Unity Pro is also required for businesses with over $100,000 turnover/year. There is a free 30 day trial of Unity Indie.

Both Indie and Pro licenses include the development environment, tutorials, sample projects and content, support via forum and future updates in the same major version (i.e. buying Unity 1.2 gets all future Unity 1.x updates for free). Source code and educational licenses can be negiotated on a case by case basis.

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