United3dArtists Archive

Hey guys,

3DVD told me about the Unity game engine about a month ago and I just wanted to spread the word. I know that there is a thread in the Game Engine topic, but Unity is really more than a game engine. It's almost everything that I wanted tP to be. They have a free webplayer that allows you to build interactive 3d scenes/games and embed them into a webpage. This was something many of us were trying to get Caligari to do with tP for years! It works really well too.

Here's a simple game that I started building (just working on the player controls right now):
http://www.delevincistudios.com/GameTes ... lTest.html"

I did use tS to make the butterfly BTW. I think tS works nicely with Unity since the real-time view gives a good preview of what the objects will look like in Unity.

Anyway, for anyone that was into building interactive 3d objects/scenes in tS, you should check out Unity. It uses Javascript, so transitioning from scripting in tS to Unity is quite easy. Plus, since they focus solely on interactivity, they have all kinds of very useful functions to make scripting WAY easier than in tS. There is a LOT of good documentation as well. You can expose variables on scripts and drag and drop objects right onto them. Separate scripts can also share information. It's much like tS, but without the 2d link editor.

It's free, so I highly recommend taking it for a spin. I was very surprised by how simple it is to use, yet it is still very powerful. It has networking capabilities so you can make Multi-player environments. You can really make any type of game or virtual space that you can imagine with Unity.

I've been working with it for about a month straight and have not had a single crash, so it is very stable. The interface is very clean and simple. It's a very intuitive application IMO. I can honestly even say that it's the most pleasurable application that I've ever worked in. I give it very high praise! It's the first time since MS ruined everything that I feel really excited about interactive 3d again!

Anyway, I just wanted to share my experience in case any other folks are looking for a tP alternative. tS/tP did have the collaborative authoring, which was cool, but I believe Unity is leaps and bounds ahead of tP when it comes to interactive 3d online! Definitely worth a look.

Thanks for the info. I've been watching the free unity videos at 3dbuzz and it does look like a very nice system. I didn't know about the web player till now. Very interesting...

Soooooo.....

This looks like the thing I and many others have been looking for!


How is it on large models?

Downloading it now......

I find the features Unity offers to be quite encouraging ... my little personal debate now is whether to pursue Unity or Unreal ...

oh the things I will get done once I grow up.... lol

Also Dele...

Can you load stuff into the free webplayer from TS?

Or are you using the trial version of Unity to do it? Or did you buy the program?

I'm using the free "Indy" version. They do have the pro version for $1500 that I would like to get, but is out of my price range right now. The free version still has a LOT of power though, and can deploy to the web, or stand alone. The pro version just has some nice bells and whistles, like real-time shadows, post-process effects, etc.

As for loading stuff, it supports many import formats. I'm using OBJ format exported from tS and it works well. No troubles thus far, though I haven't tried anything too complicated. Of course Unity has it's own shaders, so you'll have to re-texture the models in Unity. For animation, FBX looks like the way to go. I haven't tried that yet since I don't have any programs that support FBX. I'm thinking of getting UU3d just for the conversion from tS COLLADA. Messiah Studio is supposed to get an FBX export soon too though, so I might just wait and do animations with that.

It does support a lot of formats though, including Blender. So that could be another way to convert stuff.

There is a lot of info here:
http://unity3d.com/unity/"

I'm not sure about large models yet, I haven't tried anything large or complex. I've seen some impressive stuff on the forums though. You can make some really nice stuff, if you have a program that can create light maps. I'm not sure, but I think Blender can do that. I'm also thinking of trying Giles. So there is still a lot to test, but I think there is a lot of potential there.

Edit: I should clarify a bit...the webplayer is like truePlay, it just allows people to view Unity games/scenes on the web. You use Unity itself to build the file that you upload. It's a lot like 3d flash. You create the scene/game in the authoring program (Unity), then upload the Unity build to the server and embed it into a webpage.

v3rd3 wrote:my little personal debate now is whether to pursue Unity or Unreal ...

I looked into the Unreal engine a bit too. It is certainly a VERY powerful engine. It looked pretty complex to me though. The thing that immediately caught me with Unity is how simple and fast it is for a single person, or small group to use. Plus the one-click web deployment.

Yup! Seems that I'll export my tP scenes to that, about the scripting power.

Which kind of game we can create (In the web based plataform) or it's just a walk around in the scene? About poly counts, there is some limitation? And there is a LOD (Level of detail, close things are detailed and when they are far they don't appear or are just basic forms/static images?

Thank you very much!

yeah very cool indeed.
Hopefully by end of February / start of March I can investigate Unity more seriously.

Would this be any good for a regular animated film? I try to wrap my head
around this concept, but keep feeling I'd rather have the control over
the film editing and camera angles.

PS: wait...I just read this thread about Unity over on CGtalk:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread. ... ight=unity"

Do you have to know programming to use this? Oh no.....I don't
do code. Not for me.

Darn, I was hoping that I could get scene to the free player without have to spend the $1500 for the whole program.

Sort of like Adobe Reader vs Adobe Writer.

leonregis wrote:Which kind of game we can create (In the web based plataform) or it's just a walk around in the scene? About poly counts, there is some limitation? And there is a LOD (Level of detail, close things are detailed and when they are far they don't appear or are just basic forms/static images?

You can create any kind of game/interaction that you can think of (first person, third person, 2d platform, mmog, etc.). As for the poly count, there are always limits, it depends on what you're trying to do. Unity does do better with one big mesh rather than a lot of little meshes. And yes, you can use LOD with Unity. I haven't tested that yet, but I did notice mention of it in the documentation.

tylerzambori wrote:Would this be any good for a regular animated film? I try to wrap my head
around this concept, but keep feeling I'd rather have the control over
the film editing and camera angles.

PS: wait...I just read this thread about Unity over on CGtalk:
http://forums.cgsociety.org/showthread. ... ight=unity"

Do you have to know programming to use this? Oh no.....I don't
do code. Not for me.

Yeah, Unity is for creating interactive 3d content and immersive 3d environments. You wouldn't need to know any scripting to create simple environments, that would just involve dragging the first person controller into your scene. Anything else would require scripting though.

Rhino169 wrote:Darn, I was hoping that I could get scene to the free player without have to spend the $1500 for the whole program.

Sort of like Adobe Reader vs Adobe Writer.

No, no...you do NOT need to buy anything. I didn't. There are two versions.

1. Unity - This version is completely free and allows you to build all kinds of interactive scenes or games.
2. Unity Pro - This version is an enhanced version of Unity and costs $1500. It just has some nice bells and whistles added like SSAO, real-time shadows, post process effects, etc. You do NOT need to buy the pro version to make interactive content or games. You can do a LOT with just the free version.

The web player is free and is just way for others to view your scenes or play your games online. This is similar to truPlay or a Flash player. It simply allows people to play the games you built with Unity or Unity Pro in a web browser.

And that demo game where you are in a kind of island ther is a lake a lot of mountains, etc. That was created with the Unity Pro, right?

I think the Island demo was created with Unity Pro, but that could have been made in Unity just the same. I have the Island demo in the free version and the only thing that is different is that there is no blur effect when you go underwater. Other than that, it is exactly the same. So you could create something just like that Island demo (blur excluded) using the free version.

Here is a link to the documentation and some tutorials. I'm only a month into learning Unity, so my ability to answer questions is limited to what I've experienced so far. I would recommend reading through the documentation and tutorials to anyone interested in Unity. There is a LOT of info in there. Much more than I have in my head.
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/"

Oh I thought the free version was only a 30 day trial....NO?

Rhino169 wrote:Oh I thought the free version was only a 30 day trial....NO?

I thought it was free but when i install I saw that we need to register for a 30 day trial, is that truth?

When you download, you can choose to install a 30 day trial of Unity Pro, but Unity is completely FREE and does not expire. I never did install the trial myself, I just installed the free version.

Unity is completely FREE. Unity Pro costs $1500, but is NOT necessary to make interactive scenes or games. It just has some extra features. I don't know how to say it any more clearly than that.

Here is a comparison chart for Unity, and Unity Pro:
http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses"

As you can see, Unity Pro just has some extra bells and whistles. The FREE version can still do a LOT! I hope that clears things up.

Ooooh!....well that is different!

Unity is absolutely fantastic.
I realize how truePlay was a baby toy compared to this !