Is Unity Worth Learning???

How exactly are complete noobs like myself supposed to learn Unity when it never stops changing? Of course, I understand this is a complex piece of software and must evolve, but give us noobs a break.

Here is a wonderful set of tutorials that are absolutely worthless now:
https://forum.unity.com/threads/tut...tformer-with-touch-buttons-for-mobile.291780/

There are many, many more like them that are much newer (some just months old). I hate to speculate, but I think the problem with Unity is job security. I feel like the programming team at Unity is trying to justify its existence by "improving" (screwing up) everything. The upside is they all get to keep their jobs. The downside is they put Unity beyond the reach of people like me -- people trying to get a foothold with the engine.

I haven't found a single, "unbroken" video tutorial that has to do with coding the basics in Unity.

THIS SHOULD BE THE RULE for Unity's program team:

If you're going to make a change, you have to create a complete video tutorial set for it or commission one. You can't just post a write-up and call it instruction. It must be a thorough tutorial (set) that explains the deprecation, why it was necessary, and how best to use it in a basic, real-world coding scenario.

That'd slow 'em down.

Apologies!

Sincerely, I'm just deeply, deeply annoyed. Gamemaker Studio 2 was an absolute breeze compared to Unity. But Unity wouldn't be so bad if it wasn't getting in its own way. All the tutorials I've found are amazing, clear, and wonderfully concise. The only problem, again, is that Unity broke them. I'm a visual learner and rely on video tutorials. I'm about as close to done with Unity as I can be. If anyone can help me source some video tutorials that will work with 2019.1, I'd be very grateful.

 

Can follow tutorials using the same (old) version that it was made with, its still good information, even if few things have changed in the future versions.

I used Unity 5.6 for one project until late last year, so you can also keep working on certain version,
like those LTS releases, so then you don't have to worry about things breaking with updates.
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2018/04/0...g-the-tech-and-long-term-support-lts-streams/

 

None of the tutorials are "broken", you're just using the wrong version of Unity while running the tutorial. Use the version of Unity the tutorial was written for.

Unity uses their blog posts for that.

For example, here is about everything changed in 2019.1:
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2019/04/16/introducing-unity-2019-1/
https://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new/2019.1.0

And the most important changes generally have their own standalone blog posts, or even a series of posts.

Obviously they aren't going to make videos on every single thing which changes. There isn't enough time in the day to do so. But they do a thorough job as it is.

I'm sure experienced MS Paint users have a similar experience when trying to learn Photoshop.

 

Joe-Censored:

I like what you're saying and appreciate it. And I understand using different versions of unity to get results are the way it works with Unity (though it makes Unity itself clumsy and cumbersome), but once a person experienced with MS Paint learns Photoshop, they're good to go practically forever. Can't remember the last time anyone had to use an older version of Photoshop to get something done. Adobe adds to what they have. They seldom change, deprecate, or entirely do away with anything. But I got it, man. And thanks.

 

How is the tutorial broken? It doesn't look like any new Unity feature would mess with it.

 

Start by asking yourself if you are defining "learn Unity" the correct way. Having no Internet access (and at least three power outages during that time) left me little more to do than read advanced programming books and The Pragmatic Programmer made the point that you will never stop learning technology because it will never stop changing.

Computer science for the most part is less than a century old and it's a safe bet that we've yet to discover the majority of the concepts that exist for it let alone achieved the level necessary to even make use of them. By comparison there are works of art that date back tens of thousands of years and that's only the ones that have survived.

Art has had time to mature and be well understood. Computer science is very much in its infancy with most of our current advances based primarily on improving performance, but as that continues to slow we will see advancements in different directions and it's entirely possible that programming will change in massive ways.

 

Just grab a LTS version, and do everything in that. You'll find that's what most of the tutorial makers do anyway.

 

Just quit right now! You got the exact wrong attitude.

Doesn't know the tools, telling people who made them what they outta be doing.

Use the eyes first, then the brain, then the mouth.

Who benefits from taking massive amount of time and effort to make things easier for you? You ask too much for free. The rest of us are learning. Frustration and all. Just ask questions, learn to problem solve, and keep going. Doesn't take genius.

 

here be dragons

 

Tons of tutorials sprung up for Unity 5, because it was a huge change to the engine, but it also needed a lot of smoothing out and reworking in the coming years and that made a lot of tutorials defunct.

The real problem though is that you're trying to use tutorials from 2015, and it's 2019. Four years is a lot of time for the benchmark of game engines to move along. Accept that in software you can't be four years behind anything and expect to be effective. Hopefully you're not reading all about how the mobile market is the next big thing

 

Ask again after 10,000 hours.

 

Yeah, 10,000 hours, teutonicus. That's really attractive to new developers. If that's Unity's aim, they're closing in.

Billy4148, I could do without the cheap sarcasm. It's easy to take jabs at someone's accent when they're not native to the language. Both of you have been with the program for years. Neither of you know what it is to start fresh today.

Here's an example:

I've built a basic character controller, plopped him in a starter scene, and have parented a simple sprite on my player object. So far so good. Now I'm hoping to animate the sprite. I found a great 2018 Unity-sponsored video here:

Problem:

Unity no longer has the Animation 2D package to install. It's under a different name or altogether gone. Found a way around that, but now the Skinning Editor is gone. A 2019 Unity tutorial talks about an Animation Rigging system, available for 2019.1 version, but that's nowhere to be found -- neither in packages or in the asset store.

Here's the info link:
https://blogs.unity3d.com/2019/05/1...ion-rigging-preview-package-for-unity-2019-1/

So, how do I animate my sprite? You guys are the masters. Any insights available?

I have a simple eggplant-shaped body to which I'd like to add a mesh with at least two bones to deform it. The body will appear to turn side to side when the player presses left or right. Sounds simple enough, I'm sure.

Ultimately, perhaps I just can't find my way through this maze of deprecation and new releases. And that's really my only gripe with Unity. They're quickly making it inaccessible. So wow me with your genius! I'd love to be wowed.

 

It looks like these animation features are still in preview. I've never heard of any of them.

So far, people usually do animations using other software and import them into unity.

 

Here's a perfect example:

Found a video that answers one issue above -- the Skinning Editor.

This video directs new users to click "Window," then "Package Manager." If you "2D Animation" isn't showing (which it won't for new users), click "Advanced" and uncheck show preview packages (it will likely be checked). Then re-check "Advanced." The package "2D Animation" will then be visible. Click and install the package. (Side note, you will also have to do with 2D IK.) If not already in "Sprite Editor," click on your sprite, open the editor, and then click the dropdown in the pane to find "Skinning Editor." It still WON'T be visible (Not shown in the tutorial, since we're actually working with a later version of Unity already, even though the video is only a little over a month old). To see the "Skinning Editor" option, save your work and restart Unity.

Yeah! That sounds like a program with zero accessibility issues.

Thanks for all your help, guys and gals, and your understanding. Does it help for you to know that I'm nearly blind and everything I do is performed through a keyhole of remaining vision? Does it also help you to know that my retinas are only about 11 percent as sensitive to light as are yours? And the clock is ticking. So, if I'm curt with you, it's only because time is of the essence. Game development, as odd as this sounds, is my last shot at purpose.

My first gripe was about a week ago, regarding the reservation of Dark Theme for Pro users. Dark Theme isn't just cool; it's like a wheelchair ramp to me. It helps me see. To address some of your points, previous posters, I can't just quit. Moreover, I wasn't this abrasive in the beginning. I was hopeful and very excited. I only became this after blowing a month just getting started. In Gamemaker, I already had several test games built. So, that's my comparison. All I'm saying is that Unity is unnecessarily complicated.

 

Thank you for that useful comment, kdgalla. It doesn't forgive the apparent rip-shop organization of essentials, but it explains a lot.

 

"Preview" features are still in development and are not finished yet. That's why they change so fast, I guess. These are made available for people who are excited about new features and want to look at them and test them out before they are finished, but they're not necessarily ready for serious projects.

Regular engine features, on the other hand, are much more stable and do not change as frequently.

I tend to ignore preview features since I prefer to wait for the dust to settle. Also I like to keep my project as simple as possible. Unity has been introducing a ton of new features lately and it is easy to get bogged-down and distracted trying to learn them all. Sooner or later, I just have to say "Okay, I've already got everything I really need. I'll just stick with that for now, and worry about these other things later."

 

Roger that.

 

To be fair, to get started with basic bone animation, you also need the 2D PSD Importer, which also won't show up for installation until you follow the above procedure (which includes a Unity restart). But . . . once you have these items, you are at least ready to actually do something.

And for those who had posted who've been with Unity for a while and have lost perspective, only now does learning Unity become way less complicated. But that is my point.

 

Have we lost perspective? We have a section dedicated to people getting started for the first time and other than them using an extremely old tutorial or downloading the latest alpha by mistake we haven't really had any of these problems come up to my knowledge.

Most people seem to understand that you start with the basics and don't just try to immediately replicate what you already know with another engine. I had experience with other engines (eg Unreal Engine 3) when I came to Unity and the first game I made was a pong clone. I didn't start making a game that I would have made with UE3. Unity was simply too new to me.

 

Teutonicus is referring to the “10000 hour rule” in which obtaining mastery of a subject requires 10000 hours of effort from the book “Outliers.”

“Based on studies in elite performance, Gladwell contended that it's "an extraordinarily consistent answer in an incredible number of fields ... you need to have practiced, to have apprenticed, for 10,000 hours before you get good."”

 

I think this criticism should be taken to heart at Unity as the complexity of Unity has gown it's stability has suffered along with the issues of trying to develop a game on a changing platform.

Making it even more important for any and all learning materials to be updated regularly.

Has Unity considered writing update/migration guides that show how to take deprecated code and get it working on the latest working API?

Or tapping into the community with a tool that would monitor errors detect code changes and build up a database of code migration steps that can then be forwarded to Unity for addition to it's code migration dataset.

Also the UI and modules subsystems could be massively improved to automatically update to the latest stable version.

 

Yes, when I say lost perspective, I mean lost perspective. And I'm aware of the 10,000-hour rule. How presumptuous.

ANYWAY, here's another perfect example:

Once I got the skinning editor up and running, for some reason I began getting a class/compiler error (as if my player controller script suddenly changed its name). This came with the very interesting error related to "Burst" about there not being a file for "X86". I'm deploying the fix now, and here it is:

You need to follow these steps: 1. Go to your Unity project. 2. Go to the Package Manager in the Window tab. 3. Downgrade your 2D Animation package to preview 5 of 2.1.0 4. Now upgrade the Burst package up to 1.0.4 (i think it was 1.0.4) 5. Upgrade 2D Animation back to 2.2.0!

Yeah!!! No accessibility issues here.

And, as I'd mentioned, I'm not using extremely old tutorials. 2015 may be dated (my original post), but the 2018/2019 are NOT ancient history. You're just defending your position, tooth-n-nail.

By the way, thanks Arowx for not instantly assuming that I'm just a bitch complainer. My feelings and impressions about Unity ARE warranted. And this issue of accessibility does need to be addressed. The software is not getting more streamlined. Adobe went bananas with options and features, but became infinitely more user-friendly, especially for beginners.

Take a note, Unity.

 

Oh! And the compiler error for class???

Gone with no other change.

As if it was related to the Burst X86 issue.

See?

Interesting.

 

Right, your opinion is clearly more accurate than what has been actually observed. To be blunt this is right up there with people who believe the world is flat and that they're being lied to. Somehow Unity is to blame when in reality it's just your own limitations.

Programming is not for everyone. It requires mental training that is contrary to the way the human mind works. If you are struggling to go from a toolset that held your hand at every step to a toolset aimed at professionals both willing and able to learn then it might be best to go back to Game Maker.

 

Hardly, Ryiah.

Accessibility issues aside, Unity is a breeze and C# even breezier. I challenge you: Delete unity, install the latest version, and then start a bones animation from scratch, and just see what pops up.

Presume much, or are you just in love with yourself?

When a noob (like myself) starts with the latest version, apparently, a number of elements essential to functionality haven't been carried over as native to the new version. Yourself, having started with whatever version was available in 2012, perhaps you have everything. And so, it just works. Read the above and note the setup issues.

It's not rocket science. It's more of a scavenger hunt.

 

I have multiple releases installed. I'm frequently switching releases because my projects (both professional contracts and hobbyist projects) are not all with the same release. When I encounter problems I typically have them fixed within minutes to an hour worst case scenario. It's part of being a professional.

Just to be clear you're not referring to a release with an "a" or a "b" in it are you? You are downloading the "f" releases, right?

Because the only real problem that has been occurring lately is people downloading alpha (the "a" releases) and beta (the "b" releases) by mistake thanks to a very stupid design decision in the hub.

 

Understandable, and you are obviously very, very great because of it.

Now just imagine, if you can, someone being 100-percent new to a program and having to sort that out. Or, better yet, imagine if Windows or Word or Adobe Photoshop worked like that. That's what I meant by "lost perspective." But that was only after you attacked me for being annoyed.

 

How are you defining "100-percent new"? Are you referring to people that have existing experience with other similar game development tools? Or are you referring to people that have zero experience? Because there is a very big difference between the two. Starting with the fact that I'm constantly trying out new software I have zero experience with.

We're not attacking you. We're pointing out that this problem is solely yours. If it were a common problem we would be getting thread after thread about it. What we are getting is threads where people have a minor problem that they need assistance with.

 

Actual millions of people do think Unity is worth learning, for what it's worth.

 

Never said my issue was huge. I said Unity has an accessibility issue and that it's growing, not diminishing. The only real problem seems to be showing annoyance at Unity, which you feel must be defended at all costs, Ryiah.

And hoppocoder, I think Unity is worth learning too. Again accessibility is a stumbling block, and there are countless threads out there about these exact issues. And yes, there are fixes. But, again and again and again, I'm talking about accessibility issues and the fact that they're growing. And I'M SO, SO SORRY I have a difference of opinion with respect to Unity. Didn't know so many identities hinged on its existence.

Jesus Christ! You'd think the program died on the cross.

Talk about fanning the flames.

 

Honestly, I have experienced this problem aspect of Unity often, from working on new projects and updating Unity and it's modules to trying to update old projects to take advantage of new Unity features. That is a complete nightmare as Unity game development often requires bringing in assets to solve problems and those assets are not always updated to the latest versions of Unity.

This aspect of Unity can make creating and maintaining games a problem in Unity as even small bug fixes can mean you have to have the Unity version and Modules and Assets you used for your game build in archived or else you can end up spending more time getting your project working and building than you do fixing bugs.

Could Unity 'archive' Editor/Module/Tool settings every time you make a full release build therefore allowing a restore point you can move back to when you need to work on an old project?

Note: Unity does have Long Term Support versions that aim to provide a stable platform games can be maintained on.

 

As per my posts above, I'm solving some of the startup issues with 2019.3 by reverting to previous versions of some packages. It's working. Although the Bone Editor is not showing up under my Sprite Editor dropdown. Someone asked this question directly -- about their Bone Editor having disappeared upon upgrading. They were instructed to reinstall the 2D Animator package. I followed that, but the bone editor never appeared. This was six days ago. Six days ago, I was on 2019.2. Today I'm on 2019.3. Think this happened automatically somehow, and perhaps that's the problem.

Is the Bone Editor somewhere else? Does some other package or feature need to be reverted to get it back?

 

No, I'm more than willing to point the blame at them when they make a legitimately stupid decision, and they've had plenty of legitimately stupid decisions like having Unity Hub list the alpha and beta releases on the latest release list above the actual stable releases. Or the Interactive Tutorials that break constantly.

What I'm not willing to do is point the blame at them when it's not their fault. In one of your threads you pointed to problems you were having following a tutorial series with the latest release of Unity, and you were pointing the blame at Unity. Except Unity didn't make the tutorial series. It was completely third party.

If Unity creates a tutorial series, and it isn't up-to-date and you have problems with it, I'm willing to point the blame at them. But if you choose a tutorial series they don't make, and it isn't up-to-date and you have problems with it, it's not Unity's fault because Unity isn't the one making the decision to not update it. Blame the author of the tutorial series. It's their fault.

https://forum.unity.com/threads/where-is-my-dynamic-character-avatar.694633/

 

Unity 2019.2 is a beta release.

Unity 2019.3 is an alpha release.

While it's most definitely Unity's fault for stupidly listing it at the top of the latest release list, it's definitely not an automatic process. You have to manually click on the release you want installed. Incidentally I reported the mistake to the actual hub developers and it's queued up to be fixed with a future release.

Spoiler

 

I agree. However, stronger backward compatibility would be great. For example, Visual Studio shows the deprecated code and provides previews for possible solutions, which has been a godsend help. But is this Unity or Visual Studio making the accommodation? And I have come across some Unity text and Unity-sponsored videos that aren't exactly on point, if you'll forgive me. I can build you a small list if you like.

 

Well, I definitely did not change from 2019.1 to 2019.3 myself. I'm a noob, remember. Until yesterday, I didn't even know how or where to find any version other than what I have. I'd heard of reverting to 2018.4 to use UMA, but I'm into 2D. 3D was just a temporary fascination.

 

Unity is almost always the one making a recommendation when you are editing a script made for Unity. Visual Studio is little more than a fancy editor for Unity.

You would have had to click "Installs", followed by "Add", followed by "Next" once the actual list of available releases popped up. Like I said Unity is to blame here for listing the latest alpha and beta releases but it's not like it will do anything behind the scenes without any interaction from the user. You have to click things to make it do it.

 

Can you help me find the Bone Editor?

As mentioned: I uninstalled the 2D Animator package and reinstalled it. Skinning shows up but no bone editor, which is apparently crucial for any 2019 tutorial on bone animation, except for Brackeys, who uses Skinning but neglects to follow up this tutorial with how to then use this to create animations. I was hoping a tutorial on the bone editor would help me figure this out. But, alas, no bone editor.

 

Yes, upgrading a project made with an old release to a new release can introduce problems, but that's not the problem being described in the thread.

 

By the way, so what you were saying about being a professional and having to have several version installed to get the job done, then you wouldn't take issue if you had to have several version of Windows loaded or Adobe Photoshop, or any other program? Accessibility was first and foremost for them.

I respect your expertise and understand your pride. I'm just asking you to respect my novice and understand my pain.

 

No, I wouldn't take issue with having multiple releases of Windows. I have apps and games that no longer function with newer releases of Windows whether because functionality was stripped out or because 64-bit turns off 16-bit. One of the my future upgrades is going to be to a system that can easily run multiple OSes at once.

Then I can once again play Castle of the Winds which was made for Windows 3.1.

While we were discussing I was looking up how to find and use the bone editor having never used it before. It appears that they have renamed it to the "Skinning Editor". You open it by opening the Sprite Editor (Windows -> 2D -> Sprite Editor) and then clicking the upper-left dropbox in the Sprite Editor and selecting "Skinning Editor".

In the spoiler is my first attempt at creating bones in the editor and moving them around to distort a comic strip (first image I saw in my pictures folder).

Edit: Almost forgot to mention that this was done with Unity 2019.1.

Spoiler

 

I'm sure if you could convince Unity executives that there is money in implementing all these exhaustive measures to make joe-blow beginners self-learning experience as pain-free as possible, they'd be right on it.

In the meantime, just do like you are doing. Work, find a problem, take the time to find a solution. Keep going like this, in a year you'll be the one answering questions for other beginners. That's what all the rest of us are doing. Then put the passion for streamlining the beginning self-learners path to good use by making some tutorials or collection of useful resources or something. Maybe if you get real good at that you can try to sell your service to Unity itself for maximum distribution. You know, be the change you wanna see.


BTW, we all respect your novice and understand your pain. That's the only reason anybody is replying to you in the first place. But the stuff you are griping about is outside all of our control. Got to stay focused on what you can control. Talking of "should-bes" is generally useless. Talking about what is and what to do about it to accomplish our goal right now is useful.

 

BIGTIMEMASTER, despite your sage style, you're a bit of a drag.

And BTW. There's no way this takes me a year.

Another month or two, maybe.

Ryiah, thanks for the info on Skinning. That makes sense, but that's more to my point. As far as my Windows comment, you wouldn't mind because you are precisely so minded. But someone above gigged me on the idea that I would start learning Unity by using the latest and greatest. My argument is . . . the Unity website is setup to deliver just that. You don't realize other versions may be necessary until afterward. Moreover, someone stated that millions of people use Unity, and no one complains. Aside from being untrue; there are plenty of people threading such issues; I would contend that millions have also tried Unity and quietly abandoned it. But we don't have those numbers.

I'm a tiny bit exhausted but thank you to those who provided solid info.

I'm out.

 

He said millions think it's worth learning. He never said they don't complain.

 

Alrighty then. Another month or two I'll be looking out for a lot of answers from @GOD-sSs-END. Sure will be nice to have someone around who knows what the hell is going on. All's we got so far is just people like @Ryiah who is real smart but not smart enough understand our own personal dilemmas, commiserate, and then provide exhaustive answers so we don't gotta do the work of learning.

I mean, she was instrumental in helping me build my first computer, understand the hardware I am working with, and learn how to research that sort of thing when I knew nothing, but... that's not really good enough for me. I still had lots of frustrations. There should have been more learning content catered specifically for my weird personality. It's really an injustice that I had to spend so much time figuring things out on my own at all.

 

Thank God that's not true, eh? You wouldn't need all these old versions of Unity.

I gotta go. I gotta download an old version of Windows so I can view a different Unity support community. Oh! And give you space so you can have the last word. Wouldn't want you to be up all night concocting some new cat poster philosophy.

 

accessibility is what we do to enable people with disabilities to conform with the rest of society. Its not hand-holding lazy people who can't do the same work everybody else has done without griping about it.
everybody here sticks around to help others. Why are you complaining? What could that possibly accomplish here?

There is channels to submit complaints you know.

 

Whether you are developing solo, in a small team, or on a large team, the proclivity to call out other peoples failures (real or percieved) isn't going to do you any favors. If you think something could be improved, learn to communicate that with useful tact. If everybody is fighting against you, you're likely doing it wrong.

 

Please don't try to learn Unity on the 2019.3 alpha test.... That's insanity. There's 6 more months of bug fixes to go before it is considered stable for normal use, and even then with something as complex as Unity it is still a bad idea to jump on any 20XX.X.0 release. You should be using the version your tutorial was written for, or the latest 2018.4.x LTS release while learning.

After you have all the basics down, then if you want to play with a broken version of Unity to get a look at what is coming out in 6 months, knock yourself out on an alpha test version. Expect major features to be entirely broken though obviously.

 

I agree, Unity can be very frustrating to work with, and I've been using it for 7 years now. But that goes for almost every game engine out there. The systems they design are sometimes not very intuitive or they don't communicate/document the systems or changes very well. It just comes with the territory.

Also, you happen to be starting to learn Unity during one of the biggest transition periods I've seen Unity go through in the years I've been using it. That is BIG. The new HDRP and LWRP are probably going to replace the old renderer Unity has been using for years and years -- which was one unified system. Now Unity is not only branching, it's completely reworking major systems as well.

Any person new to Unity will be having a pretty tough time right now, unless they have a previous coding or game dev background. Just keep trying to learn. Keep asking questions. And I hope the Unity community doesn't become to elitest -- a few people are. But some aren't. I'm not naming any names, but the game dev community in general can be very needlessly elitest for some reason.