The first Unity 3.0 pre-purchase betas are now shipping!

From my blog post today:

Today is an exciting day for all of us here at Unity Technologies as we’re now shipping pre-release beta builds of Unity 3.0 to the first 100 people that pre-purchased the licenses since they went on sale earlier this year (reference)! These folks are the first public users (those not on our staff or in our private alpha/beta test groups) to get their hands on the new release, but they’ll soon be followed by everyone else that has pre-purchased a Unity 3.0 license as those will be rolled out in the next few weeks. But what does that mean in terms of a final ship date? Well, it means that we’re closing in fast and we’re now within a month or so of our launch date. So let this be your call to action if you haven’t yet pre-purchased a Unity 3.0 license, on launch day the prices go back to their normal list rates instead of the pre-purchase discounted rates we’re offering now. Get ‘em while the gettin’ is good!

And so yes, this marks the start of that final push to release the awesomeness that is Unity 3.0. With that, those in the private beta have been given the green light to discuss the coming features publicly so look for chatter across the forums and online universe, and as always let me know if you have any questions, rock on!

 

That's definitely the best news I've had all day

 

Hi, How do we know if we were one of the qualifying preorders to expect the beta? I pre ordered a few weeks ago. Would it be sent to my email address I used? I purchased the iphone version with Unity free. Would I still be eligible for the beta? We will be working mostly in windows, just switching over to mac to compile and test.


-John

 

So, Unity 3 will cost money?

 

There will still be a free version.

 

Congrats... If we don't upgrade to Unity 3 yet... will there be a quick update to iPhone 1.7 for the new 4.0 OS ?

 

So what will the free version have that the pro does not?

 

Nothing.

However the pro version will have things that the free version doesn't - just like it does right now.

I imagine that the beast lightmapping and the new post-effects will be pro-only... among other things.

 

Just pre-ordered 8)
Waiting BETA into my hands

 

The absence of a price.

 

Oops, typo.


Well, I might just have to save up for the pro version...

 

I'm likely the only one that's going to say this, but... bummer. I was really hoping it wouldn't come out until mid/late August. That's about when I get my property tax refund and I think I would have had just barely enough to buy Unity. When it goes back up to $1500, it will be just out of my reach again. 'doh

It looks great though! I hope to get my hands on it before too long. I'm sure the free version will still have some nice new features that I'll enjoy. I look forward to it!

 

Nah... I had the same hopes... now I'm just rushing to scrounge up enough money to buy the upgrade from pro 2.x to 3.x at $500 (I'm a starving artist student). I figure I'm going to buy it at some point no matter what, so I'd may as well get it while it's cheap.

 

By the way... I noticed that there is a new demo for beast posted on the coming soon page: http://unity3d.com/unity/coming-soon/unity-3

However, it doesn't seem to load... maybe it's still being uploaded?

 

The more I see of Unity 3 the more excited I get. I hope my preorder isn't too far down the list.

Amazing work UT, congrats!

 

just passer by,cheers!!!
hope we can get the beta soon!!

 

Hi all.
How can I use Mono Develop in order to debug a project ?

 

the documentations contain information on that part

User Manual -> Advanced - Debugger

 

Thanks, I guess I have to look up the manual better next time.

 

I love you Unity3d!
Will be the Lightmap editor in a free version? It's standalone or a part of the Beast Lightmapping?
It looks very good!

 

The free version will have lightmapping but without global illumination.

In both the Pro and the free version the Beast lightmapping is completely integrated into the Unity editor.

 

Let me say I'm especially happy about the fair upgrade cost for Unity iPhone (Basic). €75 made me put it in even though I was thinking about leaving iPhone out as I don't really do much with it.

 

Great news!
Just upgraded to iphone pro (unity 3) , when are the public beta's released?
I guess some before the final release to allow some feedback from the public beta.

 

This is all great news, especially the fact that light-mapping is going to be in the free version. Sadly, I can't afford unity pro because I'm a student with hardly any income, so I'm wondering if you guys could release a list of features that are pro exclusive? Or is it too early to reveal that?

 

Will there be some kind of official full detailed list of all new features, from Unity Technologies, rather than us trying to pick at and guess what might be new, supported in each version, etc?

 

hi
i have a question
does the pro have some descent real time shadows ?
i mean for the point lights .
the 2.6 have a realy bad one
waiting my beta ...

 

Even though we're in beta and technically feature complete something can still be changed at this point due to unforeseen circumstances so releasing a full list of new features is not something we're going to do quite yet.

 

Real-time shadows haven't really changed as far as I understand.

You're better off making some kick ass light maps and normal maps.

 

As far as I can see, real time shadows look the same as in 2.6. There may be an issue w/ the shadow shaders because I can't see ANY difference between hard and soft shadows on point lights now, but I figure that will get fixed before release (if it's actually a problem and not something I'm doing wrong).

The good news is the lightmapped shadows look AWESOME and the mapping between Unity and Beast was really well done so the lightmapped shadows line up perfectly with the real time shadows as far as shadow intensity/position/etc. So it's almost seamless other than going from nice smooth shadows to slightly chunky ones.

Using narrow, soft shadowed spot lights instead of point lights when possible makes it look a LOT better, and it becomes almost impossible to tell where the light mapped shadows stop and the real time ones begin.

All in all I'm extremely impressed. People who know what they're doing (not me) are going to be releasing some amazing looking things in Unity now.

Huge props to the Unity team for this amazing release.

 

thank you niosop
im afraid thats the same thing as in 2.6
its obvious , unity team did nothing about real time shadows :cry:
how can you guys charge 1200$ for future thats useless ...
lightmaps are fine but you cant use them all time
some times you need the REAL ones , you know ?
imo lightmaps was a ""work around"" to get a nice scene without needing good hardware , but as i see it unreal use it because it cant handle real time shadows well (im talking of experience) .
by the way crytek 2 dosn't have lightmaps .
=====
all we want is just to make a descent dynamic shadows from point light please :cry: let games makers change shadow map textures :cry:

 

Aras made a post about the point light shadows here:
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=55897&start=45

 

Yeah, Aras is still working on the point light shadows and in fact greatly improved them since the pre-release build that went out.

 

aah
thank you soo mutch , you just gave me hope

 

Aras = Awesome

 

This is very true. If you look at some of your favorite games that you think look "awesome" try and spot any scenes where dynamic point or wide spot light shadows are actually used. It's all smoke and mirrors. We're trying to make the lighting as intuitive as possible but there is a certain artistry involved in every game to make the lighting more visually appealing than is actually "computationally" possible in realtime. Making great looking interactive art is all about accentuating the focal points in a certain fidelity and approximating the rest within the given limitations.

 

Everyone that pre-purchased/purchases a 3.0 license will get a pre-release drop, the only exceptions might those who buy in the days leading up to the release (there's a simple timing issue there). Otherwise if you bought a few weeks ago then the email address you entered when making the purchase will get a mail filling you in on the needed details.

I'm not sure that's been decided yet, I'll have to ask but my gut says that it's not on the schedule (again, I'm not sure about that so don't take that as golden word just yet).

Check the docs. And at this point let's not put technical questions in this thread as it's the wrong place for them (they're hidden from view/searching). Instead, start a new thread in the appropriate forum section and we'll get them answered there.

What he said. Once we have things fully baked in and documents prepared (like an updated license comparison sheet, etc) we can start posting them, but for now things are still in flux.

AFAIK we're not planning on a general "public beta" outside of the existing program to give pre-purchasers build access. We have a large and active beta group and now in addition an even larger and hopefully more active semi-public beta group coming on board.


We too are excited about this release and can't wait to get it out the door. Keep the questions coming if you have them!

 

admins here,

hide the booze!



Lol, I can't wait to try out 3.0!

 

I pre ordered months ago, but there was no Android Option then just the Unity 3, is there an add on to buy now or do we early birds get the worm.... (wink wink, nudge nudge) ))

Ps. no beta download email

 

We aren't offering Unity Android pre-purchases at a discount as it's a new platform. Early birds with Android get the free phone offer, at least those who are among the first 500 will...

As it says in my first post starting this thread, the first 100 got their email yesterday, everyone else will be getting theirs in the coming weeks. It's a roll out over time, wait for it.

 

Ohhh, pretty. Is is possible to let us know if the first 500 are sold out yet? I'm really tempted, but only if I get a phone.

 

Have you read what nicholas says here:

http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=56013

 

Crumbs!! Unity Pro cost me a fortune!!!! I'll have to save up for the Android Plugin.... Time to roll out another game )

Hurrah Unity!

 

I bought my upgrade last night - is there any chance i'll get the pre-release?

What's with the gradual roll-out? It's a cute gimmick and all but it doesn't really serve a purpose that I can see.

Indeed the fact that pre-ordering states that you get access to the pre-release makes this decision somewhat of an insult - it never said you may or may not get it far earlier or far later than others based on when you purchase the pre-order!

 

The files are hundreds of MB
Without the gradual rollout the wait time would likely skyrocket as I assume that it runs through a private download place not the regular akamai backed up one where you get the unity 2.x downloads

Guess that might have had an impact on the decision to make it gradual

 

Yes.

Our QA team has a mighty task as it is with the private beta program, now we're going to slowly add a lot more testers into the mix as folks get their builds so it's a means of ramping up the volume of reports they deal with instead of a sudden onslaught of emails. And yes, as dreamora noticed there are bandwidth concerns to be noted as we don't host beta installers on the same CDN as we do our public installers, thus having so many people hit it at once would cause issues there as well.

Nor did it say you're all guaranteed to get it at exactly the same time. It said you'll get access and you will, nothing false or misleading there at all.

 

I'm in. I ordered 58 seconds ago. What are my chances of getting the beta Higgy? huh huh ?

 

Thanks for the info, HiggyB! As usual you are on top of things.

now go ahead and send me my beta download link

 

I bought Unity iPhone basic... am I out of the beta? :cry:

 

Zero!

Everyone that pre-purchases a license for 3.0 will get the beta, but those are being provided over time (those that bought first get the beta first), so you may have to be patient and wait a bit.