Unity 5.2.0 Beta 4

I am on the edge of my seat for this update. Currently, breaking a scene in to bits and trying to render a light map is resulting in very poor results. As in either the scene is done in 8 hours and the resolution is too low or it renders for 32 hours and hangs with multiple types of errors. Radiosity core is corrupt. Missing GI files.. Stuck on job 30 of 76 in Light Transport!

When I heard about the public roadmap I was so happy, but it was just a feature planner. If you mark an issue in issue tracker to fixed can you also place this bug as planned to be released in a certain version on your roadmap so that the people who are trying to work within bug fixes between multiple platforms can be informed so that we can plan for or around your plans. If every feature was stripped from the roadmap and replaced with bug fixes with detailed fix briefs, the world would be a much better place. We are actually considering to view the source code.

Can someone please tell me if and what GI and Light bugs are being fixed in the near future? With regards to any 5.1 release, which I am currently keeping my company on as 5.2 develops, and any 5.2 updates.

We need to know!

 

We aspire to connect release notes to issue tracker, and that's something we'd like to fix. We just aren't set up for that right now.

In the meantime, I suggest perusing the release notes for the GI updates and fixes:

http://unity3d.com/unity/beta/unity5.2.0b1

 

That should've been a goal along side the roadmap release, I know that's easy for me to say but realistically, come on. Features are nice when you want to outperform Unreal but we are happy with what our game looks like now we need to push a build that runs. That's where the editor is holding us back.

And I'm already following you as well as every other Unity rep on the forums, I check for your posts daily, for patches daily, the forums, daily. I'm on top of my work here Alex.

I don't want to point any fingers but damn dude, lightmapping was fine in 4. If consoles wouldn't have forced me to update to 5, I wouldn't even be here complaining... but at the same time, if the editor was as stable as 4.6, which is what I thought the money I gave Unity was for, I might also not be here...

 

Thanks for the feedback, though I would request you hold back on your implied barbs.
Constructive feedback is very much appreciated, and we are working to improve processes step by step.

 

Historically, Unity finds.... its ... "Groove" in roughly the .3 releases.

You can't compare the most mature 4.x version to the newer 5.x version.

It happened with 3.5 as well. It was so stable and mature (plus we had learned all its kinks by that time), that early 4.x felt like a bit of a mess for a while.

With that said, enlighten (and the rest of the lightmapping features), while cool, is not quite there yet.

 

Enlighten has quite a few rather awesome benefits - but it also was a huge change and not everything went the way everyone would have hoped. That's not that uncommon when you build on a new technology but I'd rather have Unity sometimes take a bit of a risk than get stuck in the past. Also, while sometimes maintaining two different technologies does work (particles, GUI system ... there's probably more examples), sometimes it would just be a huge waste of time - even though that theoretically would mean in this specific case that you could still use the old (more or less stable) approach in Unity 5.x. But it might also mean that 5.0 would have been released next year ;-)

And interestingly, as developers, we are kind of in a similar situation: We have to make choices whether we use an older version of Unity where certain features may be more stable/reliable, or a newer version that has its own set of benefits. And sometimes, that's a really difficult choice - and sometimes, we end up not being happy with the results.

I think UT came a long way with the public bug database and voting system, the now public roadmap. There is, of course, always room for improvement - and I think they're doing a pretty awesome job on filling that room (but the glass is always half-empty or half-full, and in more complex scenarios, you might even argue whether it's just 1/8th or 7/8ths ;-) ).

 

I'm sorry Alex, I think I should have left that part out as well, I removed it and then added it back because I didn't think I was conveying my frustration properly. I agree jashan, enlighten feels like it could be great. 5 is looking good, but removing beast and not shipping an equally stable system isn't ok. There's not even a fallback if enlighten fails, if I could switch lightmap renderers such as the rendering engine in a few modelling suites, this would be no problem. I know writing the logic for this isn't like flipping a switch, I feel I need to say this so no one tells me.
I would just like simple things in order to move forward with production confidently, they don't need to be at the same time but for some one in my position I hope that they are in this order.
-Relevant information
-Relevant updates
We are totally invested in Unity and we will be waiting. I just want to know how long so we don't go bankrupt, you know? What if you responded to indiviual bugs on issue tracker that has over 50 votes, obviously these are the big problems and when I see issues with over 100 votes and no comment from a unity rep it really makes me worry.