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Unity 1.6 is out!

Discussion in 'Announcements' started by David-Helgason, Nov 28, 2006.

  1. David-Helgason

    David-Helgason

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    From the press release:

    Unity 1.6 has just been released as an update to the 3D web-and-standalone game development tool. With this release Unity brings increased power, better usability, and more integration possibilities.

    The Unity Web Player browser plugin can now fully interact with DHTML web pages that it's embedded in. Unity supports Internet Explorer, Safari, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape and Camino on Mac OS X and Windows.

    Also added: New collaboration tools. Support for Windows Vista. Searchable docs. Video tutorials (online or on your iPod). Pitch and doppler audio FX. Loader screens in the web browser. Drop-in support for .NET libraries. The ability to paint textures.


    More details can be found at: http://unity3d.com/whatsnew-1.6.html

    Enjoy!

    d.
     
  2. Samantha

    Samantha

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    Congratulations, all!

    Now go have a beer and get some sleep!
     
  3. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

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    Congrats folks! Well done :) Don't even think of relaxing too much...we want MORE! ;) Just kidding ya...........


    Thomas
     
  4. pete

    pete

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    another wowzer of an update! great additions... thanks all!
     
  5. forestjohnson

    forestjohnson

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    Looks awesome! I really like the video tutorials although they aren't much use to me now, they would help people learn the basics faster and are really nice.
     
  6. CoherentInk

    CoherentInk

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    Great work guys! This update is huge! You've added a number of fixes that I've been hoping would come along - this is truly impressive! Now as soon as I have enough money I'll send it to you for Pro!
     
  7. Joe ByDesign

    Joe ByDesign

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    Woot woot! Yeah it took me several minutes just to read the change log alone!

    Now I'm making excuses to uses these great new features in my current project... heh.
     
  8. Marble

    Marble

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    Bravo! Unity and its team are the best ever. No other place like this in the world.
     
  9. Alpha-Loup

    Alpha-Loup

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    WOW! I just read through the new features and i am really impressed! Cinema R10 Support is what i needed (and wanted) most... there it is. The new audio features are also great! I cant really wait to check out all the new stuff. Yet another great step toward a full complete game development tool.

    Thanks Otee!
     
  10. taumel

    taumel

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    I like the picture of TikiMagic on the top of the What's New section.

    Videos:
    The video section is good. I only think that it would be better if a) the vidoes would be at a higher resolution (doubling the size) and b) they would show topics more bundeled. Especially the first videos are way too short and could be put together topic related. By the way who is speaking there? :O)

    New features:
    What i would find very interesting for users who visit the site and want to inform themselves or just want to have a sneak peak at some stuff would be if there would be a link to a unityweb file which shows the example to each new feature where it does make sense (others could be videos or nothing). This would be a much more intuitive way to experience new features in my opinion.

    Quality Settings:
    How can i set the AA-Level via scripting? I've searched the docs but i couldn't find a command to switch between the AA-Levels.
     
  11. Aras

    Aras

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    FSAA level is not currently switchable at run time. Maybe in the future!
     
  12. taumel

    taumel

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    Is this a technical problem?
     
  13. aigam

    aigam

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    I like the unitron autosearch documentation!
    It saves me time ^^
     
  14. tbelgrave

    tbelgrave

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    This is an awesome update. I can't believe what you guys do in point updates! Much thx for C4D 10 support ;)

    And the vids are great, but I agree with T-man there about doubling the res, or at least have options for hi and lo quality versions. I know compression is a b**ch, but yeah :)

    Cheers!
     
  15. Aras

    Aras

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    In some way, yes. Switching FSAA level is quite hard (esp. on windows), because the whole application window has to be recreated. Some graphics cards/drivers take like 5 seconds to actually do the switch, during which the game appears to be stuck. Some cards/drivers can crash when doing the switch. And we did not have too much spare time to properly implement this feature and all required workarounds :)
     
  16. taumel

    taumel

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    So it's a practical problem due to the hardware/driver reality. I remember the call is quite simple. I'm really looking forward to this one!
     
  17. NicholasFrancis

    NicholasFrancis

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    Hint: Download the iPod versions and just watch them in iTunes...

    But yeah, I'll do another compression batch one of these days
     
  18. nafonso

    nafonso

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    Very nice update! Don't ever loose this approach that you have towards these minor updates :wink:
     
  19. drJones

    drJones

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    woo! great update guys : )
     
  20. nafonso

    nafonso

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    Just out of curiosity, what programs did you use to create these videos?
     
  21. taumel

    taumel

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    >>>
    Hint: Download the iPod versions and just watch them in iTunes...
    <<<

    But then it's not streamable anymore. If prefer watching such content as a stream in order to sneak into if this is what i'm looking for/interesting to me.

    Modo videos for instance come in a much bigger resolution. It doesn't have to be this big but doubling it and maybe tweaking some compression parameters would help that it's actually readable. I'm also not using a fast connection here but i can deal more than these movies need, so it should also be okay for others who don't have such a fast connection then. So if you have the bandwith... :O)

    And still a secret about the voice acting...who is it? :O)
     
  22. David-Helgason

    David-Helgason

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  23. NicholasFrancis

    NicholasFrancis

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    We shot them with Snapz Pro, editied in final cut and then used Apple Compressor to make lossless versions.

    The lossless version, I then fed into compressor generated the MP4s. I used Quicktime PRO to make the iPod files (file->Export -> iPod)

    The whole process was being quite annoying as FCP cannot edit at ANY framerate. Hence, I had to upsample our 12FPS capture to 24FPS and edit it there. (Which gets annoying when you have to do it for 8GB of source clips)
     
  24. taumel

    taumel

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    Once i've tried out Snapz Pro i got not this fast results on my mini. Maybe it's the best on osx but there also were a few quirks with the program in my opinion. There are better ones on pc...
     
  25. NicholasFrancis

    NicholasFrancis

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    We ran it on a G5 - worked a charm.

    We could shoot on a PC, of course - only then we could not shoot Unity ;->
     
  26. taumel

    taumel

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    Digital Videograbber hardware... ;O)
     
  27. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

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    I think there is nothing wrong with the way you record your videos. There is also nothing wrong with using Final Cut to put it all together and do certain effects like you did. However, the final result needs to be compressed and made available in higher resolution as the current videos are somewhat blotchy. I just talked to Nicholas and David and I am currently helping them finding the right "settings" :)

    I think it's nice that you offer the ipod version but I don't think that this is really necessary. If people want to carry it around with them then they can get one of the many free converter programms out there or just use Quicktime to convert it themselves.

    I think the videos should be at least 640x480 in decent quality. That way I can still see the details.

    Thomas
     
  28. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

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    Well since nobody is online right now I will post my results here. I just took the first video (128MB) and used the 3ivx codec to compress the file. I now got a 6.3MB video in 640x480 in good quality (you could even watch it fullscreen if you wanted although it get's a bit blurry but you can still read everything).

    Thomas
     
  29. Morgan

    Morgan

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    Thanks! Big update! I'll be dopplifying all my projects shortly.
     
  30. taumel

    taumel

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    @Thomas
    Where can i watch the result?
    Why did you choose this codec?
    What are the settings for it?
     
  31. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

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    Hi Taumel,

    I am talking to Nicholas tomorrow so the current videos will all be redone and uploaded.

    The 3ivx codec produces small file sizes with awesome quality that's why I usually choose it. Quicktime (6 and higher) can open the 3ivx movies without the need of a plugin/codec so that's another plus. I am sure Nicholas will let you guys know when to expect the videos.

    Thomas
     
  32. bigkahuna

    bigkahuna

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    Two quick (probably stupid) questions: I just installed Unity 1.6, but because I was testing the Beta I also have versions of Unity 1.52 and 1.6 in separate folders.

    Can I:

    1. Safely delete the old versions? No major issues with 1.6 I need to worry about, right?

    2. Remove the old versions by simply deleting the application folders, right?

    Sorry if this is obvious, but I've got a couple projects I'm working on and the last thing I want to do is to bugger up my Unity install...
     
  33. Aras

    Aras

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    A "yes" to both.
     
  34. bigkahuna

    bigkahuna

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    Thanks! :D
     
  35. taumel

    taumel

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    @Thomas

    Cool!

    I wouldn't mind if you could say some words about the quality/size improvements which you get when choosing 3ivx instead of h.264 and which settings you have used then. :O)

    Regards,

    taumel
     
  36. Snoodleberg

    Snoodleberg

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    WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOT!

    LOAD ASSETS AT RUNTIME!!!

    Sorry, for the spamming... :oops:
     
  37. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

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    Hi again Taumel,

    The H.264 codec is surely not a bad choice but the video "colors" seem to be a little washed out everytime I use it. Don't know if that is a common thing or not. However, it produces good results no doubt and I just did another test with the H.264 codec to compare the two.

    The H.264 encoded final video size in MB is: 11.5
    The 3ivx encoded final video size in MB is: 6.3

    When you compare those two you will notice that the 3ivx encoded is almost twice as little in MB as the H.264 encoded one.


    I used the following settings in Quicktime:

    3IVX
    Compression: 3ivx D4 4.5.1
    Quality: High
    Framerate: 12
    Bitrate: 6400 kbits/sec
    Dimension: 640x480

    H.264
    Compression: H.264
    Quality: High
    Key frame rate: 12
    Bitrate: 6400 kbits/sec
    Frame reordering: yes
    Encoding modeL multi-pass
    Dimension: 640x480


    Have a look at the attachments to see the "color" difference.
     

    Attached Files:

  38. taumel

    taumel

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    Hi Thomas,

    thanks for your explanation and the insights! :O)

    Hmm are you german? I remember an article i've overflown in a c't magazin some time ago. If i remember right they also came to the conclusion that h.264 looked a bit washed out compared to a divx6(?) - i suspect that 3ivx is a divx derivate.

    Also the filesizes were a bit longer with the h.264 but not this much longer.

    Beside of the keyframes the animations are also compareable in your examples?

    I'm really surprised by this huge difference...i would have suspected something around 7.x MB for the h.264 but almost 12MB?
     
  39. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

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    Yep I am German ;) Interesting that I am not the only one with the impression that H264 looks washed out! Guess Apple has to fix something in that direction.
    I was actually quite dissapointed when I did my first tests with the H.264 codec.

    I guess you can tell why I am using the 3ivx codec instead :)


    Thomas
     
  40. Venkman

    Venkman

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    The doppler effect will make audio environments much much more realistic. You might be surprised how much better it makes things.

    When it was implemented in Unreal (the first one) I was blown away.

    It will make racing games really cool, like passing by crowds, or machinery, or other vehicles.
     
  41. hsparra

    hsparra

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    Very nice update :) One thing on the documents. When I try to look at the "How to lightmap and environment" from the Unity Manual I get what amounts to is a page with no information. It is also this way on the Unity3d site. Was this left off or should it be blank?
     
  42. KarelVR

    KarelVR

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    Awesome update ! Thanks a lot !

    About the codecs, wouldn't the techsmith codec be a better option for this kind of videos ? I mean, if Gnomon uses it on their training dvd's there has to be a reason for it, right ? ;)
     
  43. Mindless_Soul

    Mindless_Soul

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    Not sure if it's just me, but don't you have the bitrate for the H.264 way too high?
    If I was encoding at H.264 640x480 multi-pass I would use something more like 2100kbits/sec; maybe even ~1850. :?:

    As for it being whased out, I had never really noticed it before; That's kind of dissapointing.
     
  44. DocSWAB

    DocSWAB

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    This just came up in this article: http://www.macworld.com/weblogs/editors/2006/11/washout/index.php

    The solution is to create a proper monitor profile rather than using the automatically generated one. For cheap, high-quality monitor profiling, I highly recomment SuperCal: http://www.bergdesign.com/supercal/. It does a better job than Apple's stock calibration tool.
     
  45. taumel

    taumel

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    This whole video compression thing is a wide field where experience and playing around with different codecs and settings and so on is the key to a good movie in length and quality.

    Once you got this out you can get out surprisingly good results.
     
  46. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

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    The thing with Techsmith is that you need to install their codec on your computer. With 3ivx you won't need to install anything. Techsmith is used in Camtasia which doesn't offer a OS X version as far as I remember.

    As for the colors being washed out. I calibrate my screen on a regular basis (part of my job) and I familiar with the process for many many years (I used to work in an advertising agency). I find it hard to believe that my monitor settings are the problem since every other codec gives proper results but the H.264. Sounds rather like a lame excuse to me.


    Thomas
     
  47. DocSWAB

    DocSWAB

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    The discussions pointed to in the links I posted about monitor calibration and H.264 mentioned that there appeared to be some sort of conflict between the sRGB color space and the monitor calibration, which I don't fully understand.

    I just pointed to those discussions because there does seem to be some wider recognition of the issue and a few workarounds suggested.

    BTW, for streaming or progressive download video, the ON2 codec used by Flash Player 8 is pretty awesome in terms of image quality for a given bitrate. And it's handy to be able to play video through the Flash Player instead of downloading another plugin or codec.
     
  48. terransage

    terransage

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    You OTEE guys blow me away! I can't wait to get home to start downloading. At the rate you're going, pretty soon you'll have Unity accurately predicting the stock market, reading peoples' minds, and putting an end to all war and hunger. 8)
     
  49. Bampf

    Bampf

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    I'm pretty sure it's already reading people's minds. Check out this recent thread:
    http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=3658

    I know you guys don't publicly discuss timetables for new features, but I REALLY would like you to tackle the hunger one next. Make it a 2.0 feature if you must.
    :)
     
  50. StarManta

    StarManta

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    Ending war should come first. Then the US would have a couple hundred billion dollars to spend curing hunger.

    /end political rant