Back to 3 tech stream releases

The blog post states we are going back to the model of 3 tech stream releases: https://blog.unity.com/engine-platform/2023-3-coming-april-2024-with-updates

with 2023 tech stream 3 releasing in 2024 April, meaning 2023 LTS would be at the end of 2024.

What are everyone's thoughts and opinions on this backtrack to the former structure?

 

Damn, 2023 LTS will release in Q4 2024, that's late.

I think his change might be somehow related to the new dotnet. As far as I remember unity wanted to release a new .net in the 2024 release cycle.

Or maybe they want to support fewer unity versions at the same time. With this change, in the second half of 2024, they will only have to support one LTS and one Tech release.

 

At this point, maybe it just makes sense for unity to do a windows 9 and skip a "year" and just call it what it is, unity 2024

 

I think the main reason is that starting next year they plan to release LTS and Techstream 202X.1 at Unite in the fall.

 

We already were on 1.5 year cycles since early LTS is not reliable + LTS delays. Now we're adding another 6 months at a minimum. Leaner Unity was supposed to cut costs and increase development velocity. I guess it only did one of those.

 

One per year, or one per 2 years perhaps is more than enough, knowing state of Unity engine.
Slowing down perhaps is a good things.
Either way, early adopters alpha and beta versions are always options for developers.

And perhaps, Unity reduces investment on the engine itself.

 

Why not just call it unity 3000?

 

Conspiracy hat on. According to Unity people on twitter, forced return to offices is happening around this time. I wonder if that's a contributing factor to the news. They must have lost at least some talent with this decision, which is by design, I'm sure.

 

Or just go full-1998, where everything was Unity Turbo Pro Gold Deluxe 3000 NT.

 

Sounds good to me. The 2 year support clock on the LTS version starts later, and thus ends later.

Unless they're changing that, too?

 

We'll reach xianxia level this way

Unity Turbo Pro Gold Deluxe Supreme Return of the Urban Immortal Reincarnating Jade Emperor 3000 NT.

 

I'm not sure how is that beneficial. It's not like they are doing too much new features so it would endanger any one release...

Just look at the DevBlitz day today and the last one. No new information, same mantra "we can't talk about it", "not in a year" for anything well-known and needed new feature.
No, I don't recognize the reworked project window context menu an LTS-shattering new feature.

 

Are you planning to maintain a project that's likely to ship on that major version? If so then the cut-off date for support is further out. That's all, but it's nice.

If you don't need to do that then it makes zero difference.

 

At the very least they're talking about the engine and the features of this engine.

The frequency and naming conventions of updates don't really concern me. I want to know: do you have a plan? Do you have thirsty developers wanting to do awesome stuff executing that plan?

There are more red flags than things to be excited about in these updates.

For some perspective, here's an example of an update that would inspire confidence, make many of us think you know your engine and are providing development to features that are going to make this tool relevant into the future:

"We have a fresh vision and revitalized talent in our offices. We are excited to push our engine forward, we're pumped, we know what we're doing and we have the resources in place to migrate our engine towards a brighter, cohesive future.

WE WILL be competitive in both the mid and elevated graphics departments and you'll be receiving bells and whistles on our journey forward. But our focus is deeper than light bakes and render passes. We're also building out the digital DNA that makes it so enjoyable to develop experiences in the Unity framework. We're streamlining every elements of the engine to allow for better, faster development of each and every facet of gamedev. You'll be able to conjure particles with greater ease through our tools and interacting through script, easier animation calls, quality of life improvements to Quaternions functions. We want your projects to not only look next-gen, but to excel in performance, function, and FUN.

Both our URP, and HDRP are getting extensive work, we're taking these feature head on, and these core toolsets are going to be more ergonomic and powerful than they've ever been. You can be excited for a quality, out of the box lighting setup that runs on anything, and exciting high end polys synergizing with blazing fast, entity components to materialize experiences you've never dreamt of before as these core feature sets become UNIFIED.

Expect quality of life improvements to all of our tools that are going to have you opening your projects with excitement."

Update announcements like this require a roadmap full of exciting features, it requires teams firing on all cylinders with an understanding of the workflows of the engine with oil under their fingernails from endless engine tooling.

Reading this over felt like reading a book report from someone who put off reading the source materials. Buzz words and jargon. There is no substance here, not a single feature someone knee deep in unity will read and think, "damn, that's a great idea".

There's some hotkeys for a few graphical benchmarks and we're supposed to believe these are remarkable new tools and pipelines for artists? It's not impressive.

8 years ago we were frustrated with the slow and incomplete light baking, and it's FINALLY getting some more base functionality implemented? Can we expect this to continue? Are you guys having positive breakthroughs with these core tools and their usability internally? If so we need these positive developments better communicated.

The purpose of these updates is to give us an idea of the game plan, but it appears that plan is to distract and use smoke and mirrors to mask a lack of meaningful features on the horizon.

You guys have spent many many years getting DOTS and ECS online. It's time for you guys to announce a revolutionary feature you're all in on that you're sure is going to demonstrate why all this stagnation is going to be worth it. Like literally anything. Throw us a bone. If you guys can't be excited about adding single DOTS/ ECS fueled feature that's going to make your engine better. That's not a great endorsement of the wrench that's been thrown into this engine.

We need to see some ambition, we need to see a creative spark and vision here. Picking up where you left off, fumbling the ball getting a bare bones, low-end lighting system that was lacking 8 years ago doesn't inspire confidence.

But again, at least they're talking about the feature set, a baby step is better than nothing...

Ultimately we want to hear excited, capable members of your team talking about the kick ass things you have in production, people with the confidence and know-how to get cool, ergonomic, powerful sh*t in your engine after all these years of stagnation.