Unity 3.1 part 2

From the release notes. It might be kind of a reality check for some...

Personally i would have hoped for way more bugfixes and a few more enhancements on a more reasonable integration of already existing features.

*snip*
Additional Improvements Fixes

As usual, we added a couple of improvements and fixed some things...
New Features:

* Managed .NET DLLs can now be placed in the project folder and can contain script code, including MonoBehaviours, EditorWindows and ScriptableObjects. This allows you to move any code into a DLL, making code sharing between projects easier, and making it easier for middleware developers to create libraries without sharing the source code. This was introduced in Unity 3.0 but was not mentioned in the release notes.
* Scripting: Added GL.InvalidateState() to flush the internal renderstate cache in Unity. This is mostly useful when writing native code plugins that access the 3D device.
* Audio: Added AudioSettings.outputSampleRate. Returns the mixer's output rate; use this to calculate the precise hertz range returned from GetSpectrumData().

Fixes:

* Editor: Fixed out of memory errors when editing very large terrains due to the Undo system.
* Editor: Fixed "too many open files" error when reimporting a large project with many shaders on Mac OS X.
* Editor: Some textures would not say "Texture not yet compressed" when importing with the "Compress Textures" preference turned off.
* Editor: Fixed a bug where upgrading a Unity 2.x project with normal maps would leave some normal maps not marked as Normalmap type properly.
* Terrain Engine: Unity 2.x Soft Vegetation tree shaders had lighting upside down
* Shaders: fixed Surface Shader compilation errors with large custom output structures.
* Shaders: wrong syntax in UnityCG.glslinc file (for GLSL shaders).
* Graphics: fixed Projector crash in some circumstances.
* Graphics: fixed tangent vectors not bound correctly with GLSL shaders on some GPUs.
* Graphics: fixed dynamic batching corrupting vertex colors on Direct3D.
* Graphics: fixed GL.TRIANGLES rendering with large triangle counts on Direct3D.
* Graphics: fixed some hiccups when changing non-uniform scale of meshes.
* Graphics: Fixed dynamic batching index overflow.
* Audio: GetOutputData/GetSpectrumData API changed so it accepts an pre-allocated array instead of allocating on every call. Old API is deprecated and marked obsolete.

Unity iOS Fixes:

* Fixed render texture support on iPad with OS 3.2.
* Fixed video autorotation. Pinch zoom gesture now disabled during video playback.
* Fixed stripping of GUI scrollable area.
* Fixed OpenGL ES 1.1 cache invalidation, which was sometimes causing visual artifacts.
* Fixed render texture memory leak.

Unity Android Improvements Fixes:

* Plugins folder is moved; it now uses Assets/Plugins/Android to scan for plugins.
* Plugins now support standard Android project layout; /assets, /bin, /libs and /res will be merged with the final package.
* Added 'update necessary' notifcation dialog for Samsung devices running pre-2.2 OS firmware.
* License Verification Library (LVL) no longer causes a crash.
* Added iPhoneUtils.isApplicationGenuineAvailable() to be able to determine if application integrity can be confirmed or not.
* Ignore .meta files (with external version control) when packaging the .apk.
* Assign DefaultImporter to platform specific plugin assets.
* Custom manifests are now merged with the properties from the editor (like Bundle Identifier, Version and permission flags).
* Ship UnityPlayerActivity as source code template for writing plugins with custom activity classes.
* Added support for translucent (RGBA 8888) rendering surface.
* com/unity3d/player/UnityPlayerActivity.currentActivity field is now found at com/unity3d/player/UnityPlayer.currentActivity.
* iPhoneKeyboard is now displayed on top of the application; it supports the basic soft keyboard layouts (URL, Email, Phone, etc).
* PlayMovie is now displayed on top of the application (instead of in a separate activity); fixes the screenCanDarken issue while playing movies.
* The editor now checks for device specifications before trying to deploy in Build&Run.
* The editor will try to locate the JDK based on information stored in the registry on Windows.
* Fixed C# assemblies being loaded from the wrong thread; was causing crashes if external classes were loaded late at runtime.
* Fixed render textures on OpenGL ES 2.0.
*snap*

 

They're just learning from 3dsmax at this point. Max has assets purchasable from the actual editor so its not a bad idea. Doesn't work at the moment but its the first day of launch

Since I haven't even scratched the surface of unity yet, 3.1's apparent lack of new functionality doesn't affect me at all. 3.0 still has me suprised and impressed.

 

It does feel like it should be a 3.0.1 release.. Or 3.0a or something.

When they actually add useful things and fix bugs what are they going to name it? Unity 6.0f2 ?

 

I am disappointed, too. So , what was the next big thing ? The Asset Store ? Well ...

--
oxl

 

Yeah, thats nothing I find important (or useful for me). A big announcement would have been something like 64 bit version (so it can actually build large games without running out of memory), or Unity being able to deploy on Linux, etc. Basically all the things "under review" on the wish list would have been bigger.

 

Thanks for the good work Unity Team,
but I can't hide that I'm disappointed by what I imagined "the next big thing" would be, too.

The Asset Store is a good idea, for sure, but it's really not the big thing most users were waiting for (i.e. a real 2D engine).

Well, it's a free update, so better than nothing, at least

 

It really should have been called 3.0.1 if it's just some bug fixes. I won't be getting as excited for 3.2
Also oddly they didn't say but does this mean they're working on a Nokia version?

 

I had to smile, when i read the description for the asset store:

The Deal

It's a standard web-store 70-30 split: You set a price and recieve 70% of the money people spend.

Because as far as i know a) it's not a standard split and b) the 70:30 split, you are familiar to from the iTunes-Store, is rumoured to be based on the game Breakout Jobs got offered once writing for Atari and where he was offered $1000. To Wozniak, who did the game, he told they only got offered $600 which he wanted to share 50:50 with Wozniak. But with cheating on Wozniak it actually was a 70:30 split, giving Wozniak only $300 out of the $1000 and Jobs keeping $700. A swindle right from the start.

 

It's standard since the iTunes App Store. Android Market is 70/30, Microsoft does 70/30, Amazon does 70/30, etc.

--Eric

 

Really disappointed with this release, none of the things I'd hoped for were fixed.

Still no support for System.IO.Ports which is the main annoyance for me. Back to 2.6 I go.

 

@Eric5h5
It isn't considering all the gaming portals out there but i know what you mean.

 

This looks more like a 3.01 release to me... disappointed...

 

What? That's it? Major disappointment. I was hoping that 3.1 would reassure me that my $500 upgrade fee wasn't wasted. This does nothing of the sort. Time to look at other engines in earnest I'm afraid.

 

Disappointment here as well.
Thats a 3.0.1 to me, not 3.1 as not even the bugfix side got hammered considerably as the major gamestoppers are unhappily still present like the texture2d.loadimage = 10x the memory of actual texture gone and alike

Also where is substance which both sides of the deal mentioned as Nov 2010 thing in their press releases on the "work together", UT commonly doesn't offer this precise dates if they don't intend to hold to it.

The Store is a nice thing. It will definitely help spreading things and the easy import possibility especially for 3rd party code extensions, if free or not, will help that end.

Guess this release again proofs that my request for splitting Editor and Engines / Deploy in distribution is valid, as this one is an editor enhancement thats "major" (3.1) but the engine side at best qualifies as a bugfix release (3.0.1)

 

A bugfix release would somehow imply that the already known bugs have been fixed which with this release isn't the case at all.

 

Does wind work on terrain trees yet? Somebody was just asking about this, and I suggested they wait for 3.1 as it was a known issue and I assumed it would've been fixed.

 

I think a viable third-party ecosystem is important for the health and image of Unity; certainly people have bugged UT about this before, including me (before I ever wrote any Unity utilities myself, so I'm speaking as a user here). I would have been happy with a page on the Unity site actually, so an actual built-in store is unexpected but nice. To be sure I would also liked to have seen more substantial bugfixes/"core" features..."3.1" seems more marketing-speak than reality. But I don't know how viable that really would have been so soon after 3.0...it took something like 3 months to go from 2.5 to 2.5.1, and another 3 months for 2.6.

--Eric

 

In principle, an Asset Store is cool, but in practice, we all know how easily assets are pirated, too.
Is there a piracy protection on these sold assets ?
(which would maybe make the thing bigger than it seems to be)

 

*edited - makes no sense heating up, nothing will change*

 

The asset store is a nice idea, but I agree with many others here. It was WAY over hyped this time. This should have been a 3.0.1 update.

 

From the bugfixes and enhancements 3.1 is a clear dissapointment, not worth the version number.

As for the asset store, you can sell code by this as well right? @Eric5h5 Maybe i buy Vectrosity once you got the edge issues solved, although it bugs me that Unity is unable to provide such fundamental features. As for models, textures and such media, i personally don't see a general usage beside of industrial assets where it can be a real benefit because games are more unique and the requirements for each game can differ a lot. Cheap games might buy this or that model but almost every game with a reasonable budget will more likely get its own assets done. Maybe some assets can help you saving some time beeing used as a prototype from which you start on. So, it really depends.

 

I can't see how that would be possible; you're importing UnityPackages. Anyway, worrying about piracy is a waste of time...all protection is cracked, so anyone who's going to pirate, is going to pirate, regardless of "piracy protection", so you might as well not annoy the actual paying customers in the process. The only way DRM works at all is on something like the iPhone, where you have to jailbreak it to get around the DRM, which most people don't bother to do.

Edge issues?

--Eric

 

There are always pirates, and there will always be issues!

(no idea what he's talking about, just wanted to be smart...)

Back to topic, got to agree not much of a full point release...would almost have been better to hold back on Unity 3 GM and release the lot together at Unite in one big fanfare.

Extensions and such as nice, but I'm not sure Turbosquid has done anything to help improve my appetite for buying 3rd party assets.

 

I'd just like to chime in to say that I'm actually happy with this release. It's a .1 release people; I think it would be unrealistic expect anything major but bugfixes. Given this product's history, I think we're still in for some awesome treats in the 3.x roadmap. Keep your hats on.

 

@Eric5h5
Glowing lines look different and you have to take care of such corners.

 

Also, United sounds interesting, but I'm not sure I need another aggregator to aggregate to other aggregators. Maybe they've got a smart solution that will let me go to the pub instead of chase loose ends, but I'm getting a little wary of being boxed-in.

Boxed-in might sound a bit strong since it's opt-in, but I'd feel a lot more in control if there was more visible effort put into embedding advertising and other monetisation features into Unity - be they iAds or Adwords or whatever. More layers of profit sharing... not a very exciting thought. But hey it'll be good for some.

 

But we didn't get any bugfixes, that's the problem. If the release notes had the asset store, plus two whole pages of fixes for everyone's pet bugs, I think most people would be happy, regardless of what they think of the asset store.

 

Nothing much to add to the comments here, other than to say that in all honesty the only change or fix here that is of any interest to me is the crash while editing terrain, and that was only added in the last few days after people were nagging about it on the forum. Of the three items listed under "New Features:", the first is not a new feature at all and the second two could've just been put in an "API update" list.

Always great to see updates and bug fixes, but.. meh. I can't even be bothered to download it.

 

Yeah I understand, but this would have put some added value, I mean.

 

Union sounds interesting but to me it also sounds a bit like where GameSalad is going so I'm looking how that works out.

If it means that nonfunded devs can get games onto the consoles, its great.
If it means that its there so new platforms are offered as targets only through Union or not at all, basically making it a royality based model with no control, then I'm seriously more sceptic about the situation

 

Come on guys. What do you expect? Mayor new features so shortly after 3.0 release? Just give the guys some time to implement the way cooler features. Or did you really want them to RUSH because november 10th was approaching ?
Unity releases features "When they are ready" TM

Agreed, there is little new functionality in 3.1 , but I'm pretty sure that there is a lot to come in the 3.x timeframe. (and after all the new stuff in 3.0 its very normal that 3.1 seems minor)

 

No we expected that something thats label 3.1 is 3.1 and not 3.0.1 with a typo in the version

 

The asset is store is underwhelming. There, I said it as nicely as I could manage. Most of the assets people offer on this forum are not very good anyway. This will just encourage more people to try and sell piss weak assets. The extensions are great, if it were just extensions, sample projects, and scripting packages I would be much more excited. The idea itself isn't the problem, I just have no faith in the execution and the offerings now justify having no faith.

Union is a good idea, it should help link publishers and developers quite nicely. Those relationships are really hard to get started for indies.

 

Nobody in their right mind would use assets from the asset store in a game, unless they really wanted their project to look just like some other team's game.

 

I wouldn't likely use any models or model packs, but I suspect a few will. I am however interested in good extensions, scripts, and prefabs. I'm sure there will be some good stuff over time. Again, it's nice... it just doesn't merit a whole point upgrade IMO.

 

We expect things that deserve a .1 bump and being called "the next big thing". And I quote from the newsletter :

So yeah, we had higher expectations because UT was doing all they could to actually raise them. And they want to hear our thoughts. Here goes : we are disappointed.

 

That's the problem with asset stores/exchanges in general. Even with reviews and ratings they're not particularly reliable for quality. Sadly the people spending the most money in them will be the ones with less resources in the first place.

If the goal was truly collaboration and "unity" in the community then I'd have been a lot more impressed to see something for outsourcing and project collaboration, a kind of rent-a-artist/rent-a-coder portal.

Throw in an update to the Asset Server (hell, make it free and integrate it!) and now you're talking innovation. I guess it's harder to cream off 20% for that though.

 

That though isn't bound to unity releases (AS 2.0 happened totally outside of anything else) but I agree.
Got a U2 AS client license and upgraded it to U3 and am expecting to see a real AS version somewhen soon as the progress done the past 2 years is laughable on this end. Still no branching, no support for scene / prefab merging ... the two major things one would consider on this especially since VCS was added to pro, not only AS licensees

 

The asset store is a great idea. Not everybody has the ability nor the time to make a full game and therefore it's impossible for some people to earn anything using Unity. With the asset store it will be possible for folks to make a bit of cash from creating and selling assets in their spare time. So ultimately it helps to add motivation for using Unity.

I just hope they don't integrate it too tightly with Unity, as with a 30% fee this can also be an opportunity for them to create a marketplace that could compete with Turbosquid etc.


I can see why some people would hate the idea of a store because it may mean an end to free scripts.

 

It is integrated fully tightly with unity. no unity with internet - no asset store (as you add the bought stuff to unity through going to your owned stuff and clicking import. you don't receive download links)

As such though it also forms some basic form of DRM as its bound to your account, you can't happily distribute the link or downloaded package


Questions that I have on it though are:
1. How to get on it
2. Do you, if you release something on it, have the possibility to issue free licenses to users (for example to transfer people who previously bought something outside over to the Asset Store exclusively?). I'm also asking this out of interest as licensee of some stuff that now popped up there commercially

 

I rather have things as they were. Unity created by coders, not marketeers....
Still on 2.6.1 here...

 

Hmmm haven't we always been told that people using Unity are real winners. I'm unsure about the motivation behind the asset store, for sure Unity doesn't want to make more money. I just can't help myself but i always have to remember a very special email David Helgason once sent to me, whenever the topic money comes up. Anyway wasn't it Aras who some time ago wrote about all those Unity millionaires? I have my doubts why we, the Unity millionaires, need an asset store now but multimillionaire seems to be the next logical step.

If assets are free or not doesn't depend on a store in the first place, it more depends on the community, how generous or greedy it is. Obviously it's also fair to charge something for your work, if that's what you're living from.

 

Well, 2.0 -> 2.1 was pretty major, and so was 2.5 -> 2.6. UT created some big expectations for a .1 release which aren't really met here. I think the release is fine for what it is, it's just not numbered consistently with what they've done in the past. To me the Asset Store is a really nice editor feature, but it's not an engine enhancement.

There's an option for filling in joins with 2D lines; does this help?



I wasn't able to figure out a good way to do that for 3D lines. In any case, true, 100% accurate glows would have to be done with a post-process filter. (Which you can still do with Vectrosity, just needs Pro of course.) If you look at e.g. Vector Tanks on the App Store, you see the exact same effect, so at least I'm not the only one who wasn't able to figure out a better way. I think for many purposes the speed vs. accuracy tradeoff is acceptable.

--Eric

 

I'm a little disappointed that the asset store doesn't have a music section. Music is an important game asset that I think would work well in the store. There would of course need to be a music player to sample the music, but I think it's the type of asset that many people would certainly purchase for their games. I've been considering making some game music packs and it would be nice to sell them in the asset store.

 

http://unity3d.com/unity/editor/asset-store (Button in lower-right.) It's not automated, so I assume there's some quality control involved.

I'd also like to know this. Obviously I'd be interested in having Vectrosity etc. on there, since it's a much more convenient delivery mechanism for upgrades and so on, but as there are quite a few people who already bought it, it's not fair to expect them to buy it again to get newer versions. At worst I'll issue manual refunds for customers who buy it on the Asset Store, but I'd rather avoid that if possible, since it's a hassle for everyone.

I think that could go in "Art packages".

--Eric

 

As far as the whole "this is not worth a 3.1 release", I would have to disagree. x.x.x releases are for meant for just bug fixes. x.x releases are meant for bug fixes with new features. x releases are meant for major features upgrades. While it might not be great feature in your opinion, the Unite Store is a new feature to unity which alone warrants a x.x release (maybe people are spoiled from some of the past x.x releases).

As far as the Unity Store, I have mix feelings about this right now and will have to wait to see how it takes off. I think the extensions/prefabs/scripts portion will be good, but the 3d models and assets like that may be a mixed bag.

While I don't agree with the "Next Big Thing" in their newsletter, I am happy with the upgrade considering it only been a month since Unity 3.0 was released.

 

Hmm... possibly. It would be important that people be able to sample the music though. Since you can select the files in the package, maybe it would play in the preview window??? Otherwise being able to link to an external audio file sample would work too.

 

It's not an engine feature, it's something else entirely. Actually it's a feature of their website.

The correct way about it would be, open an asset shop on their website and then release a plugin that integrates it with unity for those that want the integration.

 

@Eric5h5
Nah the joints don't look convincing. I think there are a few solutions but they indeed cost more performance. Anyway there should be a quality vectrex mode. Actually what you want should more look like this - picture below - but i might just buy it anyway because it's you and i bugged you more than once with it and all updates are free right? Btw can you feed it with a turtle mode as well?

 

In the past, x.x meant new engine features and that makes sense as Unity is an engine, not an editor for a 3rd party engine.
As such I've to disagree that x.x really qualifies here, the engine changes are x.x.x only

But optimally, due to the unified editor etc, UT should consider seperating editor version and platform builder / player versions and updating them on their own to adress bugs on acceptable timescales, especially if unfinished stuff gets pushed out like Unity iOS which is worse than 1.7 and still has major problems in memory handling, loading of external data and stripping. It makes no sense to bind it all to the editor version as otherwise one platform will dominate another one and just complicate the deployment process, not considering the massive file sizes we are talking about here for stuff that if it happened as platform player update would have taken a few mb

None the less the Asset Store is a quality and interesting thing be it only to have all plugins / engine enhancements finally in one place, a thing that was long requested (though not expected / wished in such an editor enforced form)