Speculation: Autodesk Scaleform = New GUI system?

Time for some fun speculation! Here's what I know:

1. Unity 3.5 was supposed to ship with a great new GUI system, but it didn't, and it hasn't.

2. Autodesk Scaleform is used to make UI, GUI, HUDs, etc. for many video games. I gather that it's essentially a special Flash Runtime that integrates with all the big-name game engines, except Unity, but...

3. Autodesk has announced that Scaleform will integrate with Unity soon. See here: http://gameware.autodesk.com/scaleform/usage/integration/unity

4. Scaleform is already bundled with UDK, which has generous terms for indy developers. See http://gameware.autodesk.com/scaleform/support/faqs and http://www.udk.com/licensing.html

5. Unity Pro already includes Beast for high-end lighting calculations. Beast is part of the Autodesk Gameware lineup. So is Scaleform. In other words, Unity Technologies already has a working licensing relationship with Autodesk / Autodesk Gameware.

Speculation: Unity Technologies and Autodesk are negotiating a deal to include Scaleform in all Unity Pro licenses.

What do you think? Crazy? Plausible?

 

Yes. I don't believe that particular solution makes any sense.

 

What little info has been released so far makes it pretty clear they aren't integrating Scaleform, and there would be no reason for Autodesk to be implementing their own plugin if it was just going to be included with Unity anyway.

Only global illumination is not included if you don't have Pro. Other than that anyone can use Beast.

--Eric

 

Sounds like a stretch however I hope. The only problem is that it would definitely be Unity Pro only.

 

It was already mentioned in the past that it will NOT be the new UI solution.
Scaleform is a 3rd party plugin developed and supported by the Scaleform team with a per title platform license (first platform $750, addition platforms not known as far as I'm aware)

 

Unity already includes 3rd party plugins which would be quite expensive to buy on their own, e.g. Umbra Software, Beast. That's part of what makes Unity so awesome.

If someone at Unity Technologies once said that the new UI solution won't be Scaleform, well, I'll note that someone at Unity Technologies once said that the new UI solution would ship with Unity 3.5. Things can change. Such is life.

As an aside, Unity isn't the only toolkit promising a revamped UI system. Marmalade SDK will soon include "a standard UI markup rather than [their] proprietary markup. In the 6.1 release [due in July, they] plan to support a standard UI markup, meaning that developers can leverage multiple 3rd party tools (including free tools) that support that markup. "

I can only guess what "standard UI markup" they intend to use. Possibilities are Qt, Microsoft's XAML, Mozilla's XUL, and Adobe's MXML.

 

Just to fire up the thread, the question that won't shut up:

If they are already pre-selling Unity 4 and there is no information about a new GUI system, what happened to it?

I have a feeling a new GUI in Unity 3.x was a big vaporware.

R.

 

The new gui system is still in works. It might make it into 4.0 but it seems that they don't expect it to make it into 4.0 at the time from the wording on the postings related to it

 

It's definitely not Scaleform. 100% guaranteed.

Read the Giant 4.0 Thread, there's a fair amount of info about it now.

--Eric

 

Jam tomorrow? Maybe it will be ready someday.
But that's why I said it's a vaporware. I don't plan buying 4.0 for a long time so I won't have it as a 3.x upgrade. That's annoying, I prefer they don't promise me anything than that kind of .... thing...

R.

 

I see somebody have this trial version scaleform unity,and can use before 7/31/2012.WHO CAN SHARE THAT?Thanks in advanced~~~

 

I'm not understanding your question at all.

 

https://gameware.autodesk.com/scale...ownload?auth=4c62434341829ea8de25dd50cc1723f8

 

I don't think you have the permission/right to do this, @dreamerflyer

 

Everyone's scaleform this or scaleform that. Have any of you guys got any experience in using flash at all? lets see some website front ends for your games then? No? oh wow could it be that you suck at flash and you might actually get better results with a few textured quads?

I understand a lot of folks think scaleform is the holy grail but you need to know flash very well to get decent results out of it. Or hire a proper flash gui developer.

In our case we're combining ex2D with unity animation pipeline and its pretty much scaleform, and works very well. Cheap. Easy for artists to understand (just need to learn unity's animation). All properly integrated.

Time to sort of think about this, guys.

 

This. Everybody thinks Scaleform will make their GUIs for them, hey don't KNOW that it's basically a bridge to bring in Flash content.

 

And another this.

 

I doubt he does.

 

why not try ??FLASH make UI is so easy to do and so pretty~

I test the demo, it can work in PC,but can not run in web player.Anybody meet this??Can fix it??

 

Why are you so abrasive all the time? Relax dude.

ex2D + unity animation is nothing like Scaleform.

I know Flash, very well. Use to make flash games for a living and then moved onto using Scaleform with AAA titles released on PC/Xbox/PS3. Scaleform would open up a lot more hiring options for people, and add a lot of flexibility for professional indie studios. Flash is the defacto standard in the industry as far as animation/rich interfaces go. Most "designers" at University/college are taught how to use it. The Unity animation pipeline is ok in a pinch, but it's not something I'd choose to work with if I had any other choice. As someone who's used both, I have to say that Flash is vastly superior.

Of course this all depends on your needs, but just because you don't need/want something doesn't mean everyone should adopt the same opinion.

Scaleform isn't something most Unity Free users will benefit from though, if you can't afford Unity Pro chances are you can't afford Flash either.

 

you can't
webplayers don't support plugins and thats the very base on which Scaleform runs.
so no plugin = no scaleform.

If you want webplayer, look at UniSWF on the asset store
its not as complete as Scaleform but on the other hands it costs you only a fraction of it either

 

Camron, Do you can run the scaleform demo on web player?

 

It's a hippo thing. You're right to tone me down though, so apologies to the forum

 

God... It is so bad.So,make 3A GUI in web game with unity still like a dream.... ONLY CAN DO is hope UNITY4 can improve itself's GUI to make so powerful just like SCALEFORM CAN DO...

 

https://gameware.autodesk.com/developer/public/register:roll:

 

oh,god....scaleform unity can not visual in unity editor???need clik "run".....WHY???No visual No useful....,WHY NOT THE SAME AS UDK SCALEFORM???

 

actually, it's $295 per platform for Scaleform for Unity

 

Actually, Flash is ~$1/month, with the Creative Cloud subscription ($30/month gets you the entire CS6 Master Collection, full downloads, 25+ software). Even if you can't afford Unity Pro, you can probably afford Flash...

 

Cost is one factor should be considered,But, now I can not use UNITY scaleform just like UDK scaleform,,Even pay the money,i can not make the powerful 3D UI efficiently in unity ,this is big problem.

 

AnyBody Know how to let unity scaleform visual in Editor.Give mony to autodesk,They can let the unity scaleform do the same with udk scaleform??

 

Hey guys,

Just wanted to chime in about some things here. We are currently working to continue improving the Scaleform Unity plugin to make it a better tool for you guys. But please, let us know what you want to see here: http://scaleformautodesk.uservoice.com/forums/168291-unity-development

Although Scaleform's current implementation does not support displaying the UI in the Scene window. Like most game objects, you will have to press play, and enter game mode to see the UI. I'm not really sure why having the UI visible in the Scene window would be needed, but if this is a feature you feel Scaleform should support, please use the link above to post that.

Otherwise, the Scaleform plugin has full support for all the features available, just like UDK has. The only major (currently) missing feature at present would be RendertoTexture support.

Thanks!

 

Hi,

Does any one know how to draw Unity GUI stuff on top of scaleform?
I'm trying to play a video using GUI.DrawTexture

Thanks in advance

 

For those wondering what's the page of the Scaleform plug-in for Unity, this can be found here:
http://gameware.autodesk.com/usage/casual

We have been investigating a similar product called Iggy (by RAD Game Tools), and has written a blog post about it which can be found here:
http://www.previewlabs.com/using-iggy-for-flash-animation-in-unity3d/

We'll probably try out Scaleform as well in the near future, now that there seems to be an evaluation version available...

 

Unity's just hired the nGUI author to work on gui stuff so perhaps that'll happen at some point.