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UNITY 3 beta preview

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by nikemerlino, Jun 23, 2010.

  1. nikemerlino

    nikemerlino

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    It's fantastic !!
    A milestone in game engine
     
  2. kenlem

    kenlem

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    Have you tried Beast yet? Post a screen shot.
     
  3. fallingbrickwork

    fallingbrickwork

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    Yeah, Beast us up baby!! I wanna see the first pic from a beta user...
     
  4. nikemerlino

    nikemerlino

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    WOW!
     

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  5. EricJ13

    EricJ13

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    Thanx for the screenshot nikemerlino. I did my pre-order this morning, looking forward to seeing 3 for myself. Accourding to the email from Mr. Helgason the rest of us should get beta build links in the next few weeks.
     
  6. Hesham

    Hesham

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    Pretty sweet
     

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  7. SquiggleDome_2

    SquiggleDome_2

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    Does this include building to iPhone? I pre-ordered Unity + iPhone last week and I haven't got the beta.

    Or is this for Pro only beta?
     
  8. br0kenp0ly

    br0kenp0ly

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    Unity 3 is indeed awesome! I made a quick scene for a Beäst walkthrough/tutorial we`re planning on making very soon. Supersimple scene, but good for showing off some of the powerful features of this excellent lightmapper :) Will post more stuff later, so stay tuned!
     

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  9. kenlem

    kenlem

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    I'd love to see the unlit version of that model to compare.
     
  10. Lokken

    Lokken

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    So if we pre-order now we can get the beta?
     
  11. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    not yet but at a later point as mentioned in the announement thread on 3.0 etc (right now the first 100 preorderers got their mail, the others will get it on first come first serve base over the coming weeks from what mentioned on the unity 3 preinfo page)
     
  12. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Wow .......... Wait .. that's fracking impressive.

    Actually i'm working very hard on setting nice lightmaps, but I just can't imagine how Beast will boost the overall visuals.

    *in before the appstore flood of "wow it's beautiful !!" comments on every new Unity game*

    :D
     
  13. EricJ13

    EricJ13

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    If you've not yet gotten the email from Mr. Helgason, here's some info:

     
  14. br0kenp0ly

    br0kenp0ly

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    A little comparison. You can`t really see some of the color bleeding and lightbouncing here, but I could try to post more shots showcasing these features tomorrow :) I know the lightmapped version is a tiny bit burnt out at the moment, but as Beäst stores the lightmaps as high dynamic range .exr files,I could have easily toned down those burnt out areas in photoshop or another image application after the baking process.
     

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  15. n0mad

    n0mad

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    :eek: :eek: :eek:

    Holy fracking one-eyed flying CHICKEN.
    The enhancement is absolutely awesome !


    One question though : How does it overlay with existing "manual" lightmaps ? (= black white texture put in a 2nd pass under the shader)
    Does it blend ? (no pun intended :D )
     
  16. defjr

    defjr

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    Holy crap! Very impressive.

    I preordered about two weeks after the initial announcement so hopefully I'll have my hands on this soon! :D
     
  17. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    it will not like it cause you run on 2 UVs, either you sacrifice yours, or beast can't generate its.
     
  18. seon

    seon

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    Thats not quite true... you can use your own lightmaps on your 2nd UV's (or Unity generated UVs) via Beats lightmapper implementation, without needing to actually bake a beast lightmap.

    It's a very cool system... can be done in editor, or via script at runtime. (Thanks Aras for heling me see the light) :)

    The 2.x lightmap shader we are all use to using wont be needed anymore, as any shader that ships with 3.0 will be able to work with the lightmapping system.

    Beast and the lightmapping implementation really ROCKS!
     
  19. br0kenp0ly

    br0kenp0ly

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    If you really need to use your own manual maps too, I guess you could always open up the lightmap created by Beäst in Photoshop and paste/blend/replace your lightmap with that one. Haven`t tried it myself, but it should work.
     
  20. seon

    seon

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    Yes have done that a few times too... so long as you put your map or Beast's in the correct slots in the lightmapper tool, and make sure your object lightmap index is pointing to that slot, Unity is happy :)

    I have to say, when I first heard about Beast being implemented in Unity 3.0, I was excited for everyone else, but never through *I* would move away from my existing workflow of baking LM and AO in a 3d app, but I have to tell you... UT have done such a wonderful job of getting Beast into Unity and making it work seamlessly... and the Lightmaps it generates are AMAZING!

    Sure, there are more things to add in future 3.x updates, but overall, its simply such a fantastic tool, the UT guys should all be very proud of themselves.
     
  21. Dreamora

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    I understood the question as being targeted at using beast + his own already generated ones and then blending the two. Perhaps a missunderstanding on my end as non-native english speaker

    Agreed :)
     
  22. n0mad

    n0mad

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    YES !
    That's perfect if we can access the lightmap in an editable picture format :D

    @dreamora : that's true, 2 lightmap UVs would not be good.

    @Seon : Thanks for the tip ! would there be an advantage to use a handmade lightmap with beast renderer instead of a 2nd pass ?
     
  23. Joachim_Ante

    Joachim_Ante

    Unity Technologies

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    We write out lightmaps in the .exr format which is an HDR format, so you can easily edit the lightmaps afterwards in hdr. Unity then takes care of picking the right compressed HDR format for different target platforms.
     
  24. br0kenp0ly

    br0kenp0ly

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    A little testscene showcasing colorbleeding, a tiny bit of AO + self-illum shader as the only lightsource :
     

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  25. n0mad

    n0mad

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    Ok, thank you Joachim. Are you sure that Photoshop does import EXR format ? I can't see it anywhere here ...

    Plus, this plugin site seems to mean that format is not "really" supported by the imaging software.

    @brokenpoly : And now I'm blind :roll: That's really exciting stuff.
     
  26. antenna-tree

    antenna-tree

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    Yes, you can open EXR in Photoshop (at least I can in CS4).
     
  27. br0kenp0ly

    br0kenp0ly

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    Photoshop has no problems opening that format. The latest Photoshop-versions have a built-in importer, but for older versions you can download free importers.
     
  28. fallingbrickwork

    fallingbrickwork

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    What are the deferred shadows like??? Shadows and the 'Moire' artifacts have been the bain of my life in 2.6... What are the realtime shadows like in 3.0? Can we add 10's of point lights, all with shadows, with very little overhead (apart from the initial deferred overhead)?

    Regards,
    Matt.
     
  29. Girl + Robot

    Girl + Robot

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    Silly question, but can any part of the Beast Lightmapping workflow translate over to being used for iPhone/iPad development, I wasn't sure if it was in engine or it just generated a lightmap ( which then I can use for iPhone/iPad work ).

    Sorry if this has been asked previously.
     
  30. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    Beast works on the iphone though you would likely disable dual lightmap and switch to single lightmap as you don't want to waste double vram
     
  31. antenna-tree

    antenna-tree

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    The overhead for realtime shadows does not go away with deferred rendering. And as much as I hate to be the bearer of bad news shadows have not been updated that much in 3.0 regarding artifacts such as rings around point lights.
     
  32. fallingbrickwork

    fallingbrickwork

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    :cry:

    So what is the 'deferred renderer' actually bringing to the mix? I realise Beast is a great addition regarding lighting, but nice lighting can be got in 2.6 with a modelling package... i was counting on realtime shadows being bumped up!
     
  33. defmech

    defmech

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    How does Beast do outdoor GI lighting? One direct light for sun, of course, but what about the "skylight"?
     
  34. seon

    seon

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    At the moment, Beast doesn't use your skybox for lighting, but does give you a "sky colour" with intensity option to use for general sky light scatter.

    I believe at some stage we will also be able to us our skyboxes to light with.
     
  35. antenna-tree

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    Cost of a fully per-pixel light (without shadows) is only proportional to the number of pixels it illuminates on screen. So you can have lots of point lights just fine without additional overhead. Shadows require unique depth maps for each light source which produce overhead of course.

    Since deferred rendering already produces depth normals textures for it's own needs... if you need them in post-processing, they come for free. That means there's no extra cost to render depth and/or normals for advanced fog effects, soft particles, SSAO, etc.
     
  36. antenna-tree

    antenna-tree

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    Yeah, you can do this at the moment by editing the XML file, but it would be nice if it was built into the GUI.
     
  37. defmech

    defmech

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    I just went back to the screenshots and saw that part in the menu. I was too excited to take my time and pick it apart before posting :) Single color is a fine approximation and I imagine in most cases you wouldn't tell much of a difference when supplemented with a few other lightsources.
     
  38. fallingbrickwork

    fallingbrickwork

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    Thank you for the feedback aNTeNNa trEE.

    Regarding the Moire (rings around point lights) artifacts etc, where are we (meaning UT) with a fix on these? will we honestly see these going anytime soon or are they a by-product which is part-and-parcel of rendering?
     
  39. br0kenp0ly

    br0kenp0ly

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    As Ethan said, you can also light your scenes with an hdri-map, but that setting is found in the beast .xml file which you can choose to use if you want some more control/options. Hopefully, in the future, you will be able to view these hdri-maps in the background of the viewport. Will try to post some scenes lit with hdri-maps during the next couple of days.
     
  40. GeneralGrant

    GeneralGrant

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    I believe this engine, has finally exceeded the UDK engine IMO.
     
  41. antenna-tree

    antenna-tree

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    PhysX has been updated to 2.8.3. The highlight for Unity 3 is cloth physics on arbitrary and skinned meshes.
     
  42. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    To me the highlight is, aside of it being upgraded and thus faster and more stable, the fact that physics layers were added.

    Physic Layers >>>>>> Cloths :)
     
  43. defjr

    defjr

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    Post more screenshots!

    I loved the colorbleeding shot from the previous page. It makes such a huge difference.
     
  44. Lab013

    Lab013

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    Does this mean you guys now have a set license for indie and pro? Or are you only giving demos out to pro?

    Looks awsome btw.
     
  45. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    There is no demo

    These are the prerelease versions the pro preorderers who payed for it get access to.

    Users who use (and only want to use) the free unity must wait until the release till they get a release to work with as mentioned in the original announcement
     
  46. •BTM

    •BTM

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    Does anyone have any screenshots of the cloth effect?
     
  47. SquiggleDome_2

    SquiggleDome_2

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    And what about those who preordered Unity + iPhone basic? Don't they get beta too?
     
  48. deram_scholzara

    deram_scholzara

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    I rendered out a similar scene in cinema 4d just for reference:
     

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  49. Filto

    Filto

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    Ahh what a shame :(
     
  50. jcarpay

    jcarpay

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    Bummer indeed :(