Any complete beginners using Unity ?

I am interested in game development but have little programming experience, done some C years ago and am more interested in gfx and 3d modelling.

Is unity a good beginner platform to get started ?

I had a read of some other 3d engines but it seems you need to be a C++ pro just to get anything done.

Just wonderd if there was any complete beginners to development in Unity and how are you getting on ?

Once I brush up my moddelling skills im thinking of getting some javascript books and giving it a try.

 

You'll have to get back into programming, but Unity is a good way to do that. I had a lot of Lingo and ActionScript experience and not much else when I started with Unity this year, and it was fine. Unity was my first 3D game development environment (at least, that I've used seriously and productively). There was a learning curve (still is) but nowhere near as daunting as I would have thought, for the power Unity delivers. And there are lots of tutorials and documentation.

I would say it's no worse getting into Unity than getting into Flash and ActionScript the first time. From what you say, it sounds like a good choice for you--give the free trial a shot!

 

I'm in the same boat as you eccept I have never done any programming. I plan on learning though. I wanted to focus more on learning the game art aspects of games and Unity is the most versitile and ridiculously easy to use app. I had a friend who bought Torque and it just seamed way to difficult to do even the simplest things. If it wasn't for unity I would have given up on thinking that I could do this stuff.

I made this as my first project.
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=2381

Take the plunge. You won't regret it.

 

Yep. I hadn't touched Javascript before, and my programming skills were getting pretty rusty anyway, but so far I've been able to do everything I want with Unity. Granted, sometimes it takes several hours of wrestling with the code, and I'm sure some of my solutions are less than optimal, but it's all a learning experience, and at least Unity makes it fun. Plus the forums here have helped a huge amount.

--Eric

 

Not only is Unity a choice good for beginners, I believe it _the_ only choice for beginners.

With that said, it is also powerful enough for pros.

 

In the last half-year with Unity, I have pushed through the basics of how to model, texture, animate, code, and every other skillset necessary to create a game. Now I've finally started feeling comfortable with the pipeline and am having a blast creating material for it. I couldn't have done it without Unity, because Unity brings them all together so easily.

You'll find the community one of your greatest resources. Someone will always have an answer for you.

 

I thought I was being followed!
At the beginning of the year I'd never heard of Unity, didnt know how to use Maya and would never have imagined myself writing code. But now I am getting the first successful mods of generic javascripts, thanks to this forum and the people who use it. I am getting better with Maya and Unity, well Unity is like a portal to another world. If you want to get started with scripting, look up all my posts and youll see how quickly you can get up to speed.(There are a few moments when I throw my toys out of the cot)
Unity (and this forum and the Unify wiki)gives the user enough starting tools in scripting to suprise yourself. Even yesterday I had a major breakthru.

Start small, look at and mod all the examples once or twice and youll have a feel for it.
AC

 

Cool looks likes theres a few noobs about

Nice project Garen looks cool.

Going to learn more about modelling and will work through my javascript book once it arrives then I'll give the trial a spin.

 

ditto on all!
(emphasis mine)

definitly try out the demo ; )

 

A JS book is a good idea--the Web-page-specific stuff you can skip if you want. Then browse the Script Reference in the Unity manual to see that 3D tools your scripts have available. (A lot!)

 

I'm pretty much a programming noob myself, aside from html/deciphering php and AS I don't know a whole lot. That's why Unity is so attractive to me, it doesn't force me to learn programming right off the bat, I have the choice to gradually emerse myself in it.

With that said I have a question regarding the programming languages. I initially was led to believe JavaScript was mainly for web dev, but nothing spectualar with gaming in general, this is obviously not true since I see it mentioned quite a bit here and elsewhere. How does javaScript compare to the big players like C++ or C#?

 

I believe than in .NET/Mono/Unity, C# and JS are equal citizens.

JS is normally interpreted by a Web browser, which is slow and suitable only for lightweight tasks. But Unity is different: it compiles JS to native code, same as if you use C# or Boo/Python. So JS in a Web browser may be slow, but JS in Unity is FAST.

So JS isn't common in game development... but neither is Unity... yet

 

I have bought Unity just two month ago and i had just a little modding- and no real programming experience.

And even with no skills in programming it takes just a few hours to get things moving on the screen. It wont save you from learning to programm, but you can start right over.
You also dont need to worry about data-formats. Mostly its just dragging your 2D / 3D Art, Soundfiles and whatever into a folder and its instantly ready to use. I have done some modding/skinning for Call of Duty / UO and Quake before and it was a nightmare to get even a single modell or texture into the game... with Unity it takes just minutes.

I have tested and watched many engines in the last 4 month, but I cant think of any better dev environment than unity. And its excellent to do your first steps... and proceeding further with ease.

 

Or, the way I see it, it will HELP you learn programming, and at the same time not require you to ever get into programming as burdensome as other engines require.

 

I'm new here in the forum and must be one of the biggest noobs here. The only programming experience I had was a rather meager understanding of Actionscript and one or two things. I was very enthusiastic about making games but I never dreamed of making a proper 3D game.

However once I gave the Unity trial a spin I was absolutely blown away! I couldnt believe how easy it made it, and the tutorials were simple but very in depth, and so I basically learned everything from them.

In about the last ten days of the trial I managed to create my own FPS (with just onelevel and the graphics were horrendous but it worked like a charm).

Unity really has to be the simplest mac 3D engine out there and one of the most powerful. It is definitely worth trying it you'd be suprised how much you can get out of the trial. Plus the indie version is also very cheap considering what it is.

 

My intro to game creation was Torque, :x , then Blender, , and now Unity. . I've always had game ideas running in my head, but they always required programming experience in the past. TTYTT ("to tell you the truth"--I think I just made that one up), computer languages scared me. But both Blender (Python) and Unity (JS) have eased me into scripting, and it's gratifying to see my scripts working (though they're still pretty basic and totally plagiarized, which is ok!). Unity is perfect for getting started. I say, take the plunge and have a great time!

 

Learning Maya at the moment while I save up for a Mac

Not used a Mac for years prob need to get up to speed with the OS first

Hope to get Unity soon.

 

Mac Os will make you feel at home in minutes. So will Unity. So you can simply concentrate on improving your modelling skills...