UNITY 3 beta preview

Eric: Dynamic typing etc are all going to vanish with Unity 3.
With .NET 3.5 under the hood, var bla = GetComponent(...) will work just as well in C# as it does in JS, just with the difference that C# also has GetComponent<MyClassy>()

 

so unity3 is using .net 3.5? is this confirmed?

 

Its using Mono 2.6
Which supports up to .NET 3.5

 

Can anyone comment further on any additional low-level audio support besides the nifty new filters and reverb-zones?

For instance... will we finally be able to do really seamless audio transitions in 3.0?

 

has anyone got anything to say about the Occlusion Culling system Umbra?

I'm really excited about this as I do a lot of virtual city builds and presume this will really speed up may over sized scenes.

 

Its trivial: Click build, wait and be happy

 

Any updates on Unity3 <--> Objective-C integration beyond possibly unlocking that feature for the basic Unity iPhone license?

I have iPhone pro and waiting on my beta note but was wondering what's new (if anything) in this area.

 

What about inline ObjectiveC support?

 

What could there be?
The idea of the plugin support is that you can add whatever you want without any problem and that you can do now.

 

yes. Play() is now in perfect sync per frame. And Play(int64 delay) is added to sync seamlessly over time. Transitions eg. crossfade you have to handle yourselves. But it's now possible to do seamlessly with a combination of .timeSamples and Play(delay)

 

@dreamora - I was wondering if there was any update on the quote below, in particular the underlined section.

iByte

 

For those still awaiting their Beta of Unity, here I take a look at the Occlusion Culling in Unity 3.

http://www.burgzergarcade.com/blogs/petey/unity-3-occlusion-culling-could-it-be-any-easier

Enjoy!

 

thanks for the new video preview Still waiting on my beta, but enjoying the videos and info coming out so far.

 

thanks!

Anything in particular you wanted to see?

 

I have to say I really appreciate you taking the time to upload videos for everyone.


Have a Gold Star:




*





You'll have to imagine its gold though......

 

well... since you mention it. ;-)

I'm interested in seeing how the new "real" debugging looks in action.

I also was wondering if there are noticeable artifacts when the beast-light-mapping is "faded" to real-time local lighting? This is probably something a video would show best.

And any videos on tweaking the new image effects to minimal or extreme settings would be cool too.

Just a few things off the top of my head. Anything you decide to record and share is appreciated, be it these subjects or others. Thanks again.

 

LOL!

I will try to get another out later today if my little one has a nap.

I am taking requests.

 

those things were always exposed since the editor capabilities were expanded with 2.5
The graph beta editor has existed since the early 2.5 days for example (search showcase board for it)

 

One feature I'd like to see sometimes is the ability to have more than one project open in the editor at a time and be able to assemble the editor to show panels from different projects alongside each other .... cus often I have stuff in one project that I want to re-use or use as a reference and it's a pain having to go back and forth, completely unload/reload projects just to do that. It'd be easier for me if it were just a matter of clicking on a tab or something. But know Unity 3's feature list is probably pretty much locked in at this point.

 

Just a quick note: The Bitdefender Antivirus problem still occurs with the current beta. If anyone has frequent freezes, just start the Bitdefender Game Mode. That fixes the problem (same way for V2.6).

 

Forgotten Memories,
Our current project.
An entire level, fully baked with Beast.
Notice the shaders nicely blended with Beast lightmaps.

Baked:



Real time:



Baked:



Real time:



Baked:



Real time:



Baked:


New normal map encoding in Unity3:
Notice the compression quality, it looks exactly like an uncompressed RGB but is 4 times smaller. Less than 5 MBs for a 2048*2048 texture! The small triangles on the left side of the character are point light self-shadowing on the character.



I really like the new build window. It looks quite sweet the platforms logos, specially the console ones.
Unity3, will be a monster release. Fully loaded with next gen features, more stuff to reduce game dev time/budget and boost your team creativity to it maximum. Unity competitors are now eating their fingernails. Unity is now one of the best game engine on earth!

 

@tatoforever

thanks for the images of the realtime engine interaction with baked beast lightmaps

great visuals for the game too!

 

Beast is surely my new favorite. Unity Tech. did a great job implementing it into Unity. I am currently using it in a real production environment and I am very satisfied with the results.

Thomas P.

 

And here is also a little video showing the same scene of our game completely baked in Unity 3.


CLICK TO WATCH VIDEO




Thomas P.

 

@Thomas Pasieka
the visuals of your game look GREAT!
and the beast lightmapping is looking good, cant wait to get my beta email download link!

 

Thomas....Do you find you need to use your own 2nd UV for the lightmapping or does it work well enough to let Beast / Unity do all that for you?

 

I let Unity handle the second uv channel and so far it does handle it very well in most cases. If you don't like it you can always use your own. I guess you will have to judge for yourself on a per project basis.

Thomas P.

 

As far as I can see:

- Single point light for all the candles (and floating above them actually) is not appropriate -> attach point light with small amount of photons emmitted to every candle -> scale up diffuse interreflection

- Light on the right side of the image has no physical sourse -> should be replaced with diffuse reflection from the wall (-> scale up diffuse interreflection) or physical sourse should be added

- Scale down ambient light and let diffuse interreflection to do all the job for making beautiful level beautifully lit

Sorry for the rant

 

I think I can judge the lighting very well on my own. What's appropriate or not is a matter of personal perception/taste. There will always be somebody who doesn't like the lighting.. and always somebody who doesn't like the monsters, textures or the whole game. I can't satisfy them all. That's the nature of the "game".

Thomas P.

 

Is there any feature that was included in Unity 2 Pro and Unity 3 free will get it?

 

Not stated yet, there is no feature list and wont be until release.

 

Unfortunately, incorrectly rendered static lighting is not a matter of one's personal taste - it's a matter of artist's skill...

There is a difference between disliking one's game because its monsters are too scary and disliking one's game because it makes the one of the best lightmapping solutions look wasted. :evil:

I'm really sorry for offtopic and hurting your feelings - just cant pass by.

 

Sounds like good advice though. Can't wait to start riding the Beast myself.

 

I really don't know what makes you think you are right with your opinion. Lighting is about being "artistic" and you come on here telling me that it's technically incorrect and later on you're telling me its artistically incorrect. If you think my work sucks then fine but don't waste my time with YOUR opinion. I regret having posted this in public now.

I have a bunch of very respected artists around me who have been working in the game industry for a very long time and none of them told me that my lighting sucks.

I always make sure more than just my eyes look at the work I am doing. I take critique and hints and I try to please my core group of people that I respect because they are great artists.


Thomas

 

@Thomas and Ricardo - chill out

 

@Thomas don't regret it, I love it. It is a great Unity beast showcase. When is the estimated time of completion for that game?

 

@Thomas
please dont regret it, I feel you did a great job on the lighting. I love the feeling and the atmosphere. Not sure where that whole critique game in, look forward to the release of your great-looking game.

 

Hey, you work doesn't suck. It's the usage of Beast that needs different mindset, different approach and a little bit more time and will to unleash its true power.

While your lighting looks pretty sweet from artistic point of view (mood, tone, cold/warm, etc...), it's clearly noticable that you use the same approach for static lighting as everybody uses for dynamic one (and for a good reason - performance!). But thats not the case with radiosity being precalculated! :wink:

For example, shadows on the floor... How did they manage to happen if there is no distinctive light sourse on the right side?

P.S.: Ok, sorry for critics, good luck everybody! :wink:

 

It looks fine to me, but games should not have scientifically perfect lighting, they should have lighting which facilitates presentation and gameplay. My opinion doesn't count for much, but I like the lighting in the demonstration.

 

exactly!
for anyone who has ever done any compositing: a director can OFTEN (ask for)add new lights or change the entire lighting of a scene in post that doesn't have much(or anything) to do with the actual lighting of the real-world environment.. all for aesthetic. Just one example, eye of the beholder and all that stuff ;-)

 

Well it sounds like Ricardo has had some experience with using Beast, or perhaps knows his way around non-real time scene rendering. I for one would like to hear what he has to say.

 

exactly!
for anyone who has ever done any compositing: a director can OFTEN (ask for)add new lights or change the entire lighting of a scene in post that doesn't have much(or anything) to do with the actual lighting of the real-world environment.. all for aesthetic. Just one example, eye of the beholder and all that stuff ;-)

 

It looks good but I think the lighting could be more strong (if that is a good word to describe lighting). I mean the shadows etc, I can't really see any shadows on the static items.

I haven't used beast yet so I can't comment on usage etc... I'm looking forward to replacing my modo lightmaps with beast to do a comparison.

All that said, I am loving this project....

Regards,
Matt.

 

yep directors of photography always develop complex lighting schemes but no single sourse of such "placeholder" lighting is shown in the frame - they are always off the frame borders! :wink:

Beast + UDK was awesome!
Can't wait to try in in Unity...

 

Everyone have a cookie, some iced tea ... or maybe some Latte, finally summer is here, time to celebrate (no, Unity 3 is still in beta ;-) )

I liked both the screenshots and think they do look awesome - but also found the comments interesting even though obviously feedback wasn't asked for. I actually noticed in one of the previous screenshots (which I also found awesome) that there was one neon light model obviously lit with a point light which did look a little odd to me.

Personally I think it I can be quite interesting to discuss such things and potential solutions (like "how to simulate area lights in Unity for the sake of realistic light maps") as long as everyone feels comfortable with it.

 

Give us the reason to celebrate Unity 3 already!

Yep, screens from Shattered Memories could also benefit from feedback on static lighting.

Regarding area lights - I assume, emitting photons from texels with self illumination channel is basic Beast's functionality, isn't it?

 

I guess the question would be then, whether Unity exposes that feature of Beast, yet?

 

I think I saw a scene like that few pages back. IMO, radiosity should always be baked with emitting surfaces, not points. The closest real world light source acting as a point light would be a microscopic LED with the intensity of a flashlight. And that, TBH, just looks unpleasant to the eye.

Also, what is art without criticism?

 

You can emit light from objects that have a self-illum shader right, and then control the illumination with an an alpha-map.

To quickly show this, I did a quick rebake of the cornell box scene:

Edit: Wrong image posted.. stay tuned