Advanced/Intermediate Unity Books?

I having been looking for a Unity book thats targets an advanced or intermediate audience. Almost all the books I have found are targeted for beginners and don't go to far in depth. I have allot of books, but no Unity books just because I can't find anything more advanced than beginner level. I know there are some advanced online videos, but I prefer reading more. Preferably, I'd like the book to cover mostly Unity and not much c# (I already know c#). Any suggestions?

 

I'm not aware of anything. Exactly what are you wanting to get out of such a book? Once you know the basics, the manual and the scripting reference are pretty solid (though... not perfect). You'll also want a solid understanding of the underlying principles of real-time computing, rendering, game engines, and of course software engineering in general - and there are good, advanced books on those things.

Books on those topics aren't specific to a tool, though, so looking for an "advanced Unity book" might be barking up the wrong tree.

Off the top of my head I'd recommend the latest editions of Real Time Rendering by (can't remember the authors) and Game Engine Architecture by Jason Gregory* as great starting points.

* More than one author has used this title.

 

I considered writing an advanced Unity book at one point. By the time I finished one for Unity 5 then Unity 6 would be out.

Plus the fact is that Unity doesn't really get that advanced. There is not much to it beyond what's already existing in the manual and scripting API.

It you want to look at advanced topics, look for a book on the appropriate topic of interest. Find an advanced book on AI programming, UI design, game design theory, physics, lighting ect.

 

Have you seen the text-based tutorials on Catlike Coding?

http://catlikecoding.com/unity/tutorials/

 

You are a member for just 11 months and already a cool asset on Asset Store! I am left behind

 

A simple Google search gave me this book:
http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B00DOB5EPI?d=f&pd=1
I am using my phone so can't go into details if if it actually covering advance topics or not
Edit- What about Printable version of Documentation?

 

Youtube got some nice chapters on Unity

 

Thank you and also, you shouldn't feel to far behind. My asset has yet to get its first sale, lol.

Thanks for the suggestions, not quite a book but I guess all that really matters is what you learn. I think for now I'll follow angrypenguin and BoredMormon's advice, thats probably the best way to go about the situation.

Thank you for the advice everyone!

 

Wow I can't believe I haven't heard of that website before. Very useful stuff! Defiantly going to go through a few of those tutorials. Thanks!

 

I'm not personally a user of technical books but there are plenty of intermediate/advanced topics that could be covered. Unity's docs are pretty weak in some areas, but even thorough documentation can be supplemented by technical information and examples (animator controller overrides, storing baked GI data on prefabs).

There's also the case of topics which are general game development topics, but which it can be nice to have well implemented Unity examples (efficient destructible terrain, multiplayer with nice prediction implementation, path finding with large number of agents, etc).

This type of stuff can often be found by browsing the web of course, but having it all pulled together in a nice format, with consistent style, good examples, support, etc, could be pretty handy.

 

To give a better answer...

Books on software are often getting outdated before it is written because of how fast the market moves.

On the other hand basic programming techniques/principles and algorithms are not getting outdated, and for that there are some brilliant books that covers stuff better than most online tutorials. And to some extend books on different programming languages also stays relevant over time.

So what i do is using books/academic papers for 'universal' elements and youtube/online tutorials on software most of the time.

 

A "design patterns" book specific to games with Unity would be pretty nice I think.

 

No I haven't. Thank you for pointing this out. I would much prefer this to the video tutorials I'm used to seeing.

 

Also looking for an intermediate-advanced book. The catlike coding tutorials are perfect. It's just a pity that there isn't much more like it! Personally I'd love to see a well-written book which covers topics I haven't seen in the beginner literature, such as serialization of complex level data, efficient event and messaging systems, mission scripting, custom editor stuff, creating flowchart editors like for a dialog system, techniques for optimizing a complex level, networking, adding a voice chat, LINQ, ECS, the new pipeline things, shaders, and so on...

 

Best not really, all known published ones are currently outdated. A book coming out tomorrow, would be heavily outdated. All books based on engines go out of date before they're printed - that's how fast things move.

You mentioned intermediate-advanced. This means ECS. ECS is something that is constantly evolving.

Instead of that, I would focus on learning C# (which you get anyway by doing) and techniques (which are engine-neutral for the most part).

Everything you mentioned - literally everything - is available in the Learn/Unite videos on youtube / documentation.

 

Call me old fashioned, but I vastly prefer reading a good book than some video tutorial. That is why I am posting here, asking for a good book.

 

Only up-to-date book I'm aware of is this one. There might be something intermediate in there.

https://www.manning.com/books/unity-in-action-second-edition