Unity First Impressions - :(

I wanted to give Unity a try and my first impressions are less than stellar. My first task was to start the learning process with the Karting Microgame tutorial. I'm using 2019.4.19f1 and my first hurdle was trying to figure out how to download the tutorial. 20 minutes later after searching the forums and the internet it wasn't until I quit the Unity Hub and restarted. Then the download link appeared under the tutorial.

When I started the project, it took 7 minutes before the editor was active - during this time I got to watch all of the importing and package manager progress bars open and close.

Once in the tutorial, things were looking good. I was able to play the first step. After that, I made a change to a speed property and went to play again. It crashed. So I submitted the bug report. The QA team did respond real quick saying that the bug was a "won't fix" because the Burst version 1.3.3 and newer fixes the problem.

I restart the tutorial from the beginning again. Queue the 7 minute "warming up" period to load the editor. I get the Burst version 1.4.4 (that Importing process is another painfully slow process) and try again.This time it now crashes on the first step when pressing play. I'm not submitting a bug report.

I did take a look at the console. 50 errors and 8 warnings. Here's the last entry:

Code (CSharp):

1. System.InvalidOperationException: Burst failed to compile the function pointer `Int32 DoGetCSRTrampoline()`
2.   at Unity.Burst.BurstCompiler.Compile[T] (T delegateObj, System.Boolean isFunctionPointer) [0x00186] in /tmp/dedeb3ccb292ca312847eef5dfc833d8/Library/PackageCache/com.unity.burst@1.4.4/Runtime/BurstCompiler.cs:222
3.   at Unity.Burst.BurstCompiler.CompileFunctionPointer[T] (T delegateMethod) [0x00008] in /tmp/dedeb3ccb292ca312847eef5dfc833d8/Library/PackageCache/com.unity.burst@1.4.4/Runtime/BurstCompiler.cs:119
4.   at Unity.Burst.Intrinsics.X86.CompileManagedCsrAccessors () [0x00001] in /tmp/dedeb3ccb292ca312847eef5dfc833d8/Library/PackageCache/com.unity.burst@1.4.4/Runtime/Intrinsics/x86/Csr.cs:245
5.   at Unity.Burst.Editor.BurstLoader..cctor () [0x00184] in /tmp/dedeb3ccb292ca312847eef5dfc833d8/Library/PackageCache/com.unity.burst@1.4.4/Editor/BurstLoader.cs:206
6. UnityEditor.EditorAssemblies:ProcessInitializeOnLoadAttributes(Type[]) (at /home/bokken/buildslave/unity/build/Editor/Mono/EditorAssemblies.cs:118)

I would have expected the LTS version and their suggested tutorial to just work out of the box.

I don't think I can continue this. It's just too painful.

 

Hi and welcome.

Unfortunately it looks like, you have picked up bad tutorial to start with Unity journey.

https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/templates/karting-microgame-150956#reviews

The reviews speaking for itself.

And just read some comments in there, to get a glimps of it.

I suggest to pick up different tutorial, which reviews are much more positive.

 

Unity's microgames are frankly terrible for learning because they're far too easy to break. What you want are the simpler tutorials and YouTube. Brackeys recently stopped creating new content but their content is still valid.

https://www.youtube.com/user/Brackeys

One would expect that but it's just not the case with Unity, and the majority of us that have been here for years learned not with the tutorials but with the reference manuals. I don't know what the long term future holds but I worry that we may stop seeing an influx of hobbyists if they don't get their act together.

Check out Unreal Engine and see if the tutorials for that work better for you.

 

I really don't like any of the tutorials which start with their own project. They seem to be an endless source of threads complaining about issues. They are also a relatively new addition to Unity, so it is probably just growing pains of adding a new feature.

I'd really recommend skipping any tutorials that need you to download or import anything. Just follow a tutorial which has you writing code and doing stuff in the editor from a blank project. Everyone who is any good with Unity either learned this way, or just dove right in with little more than the manual. Learning the basics of C# first, before getting into Unity, is also something I would recommend.

 

I think my first time last year was very similar to your experience.

I agree about the brackys videos being really good.

I believe i followed your steps almost exactly, and then ended up on this brakys series.


https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPV2KyIb3jR53Jce9hP7G5xC4O9AgnOuL

Follow it step by step through 10 videos, it gives a great base knowledge of unity editor and creates a great demo game.

Infact I've seen games on the play store that im pretty sure are just a skinned versions of it.

 

I wouldn't use brackey for code tutorials though. Not the best standard of code.

 

You again completely ignore beginner levels. Everyone need to start from somewhere. Brackley made things functional, without talking crap in the ether. That his strong point.

Anyone wanting pursuing further learning, can always reach various resources and books.

 

Thanks everyone for the beginner tips and the encouragement. I think I'll try this again with a blank project and dive right in approach.

 

I have seen much of Anders code. I am not impressed with it's lack of clarity and it obtuse usage of enterprise based code styles. I do not think you or Anders has any room to criticize code as you do not use Unity paradigms. Hence the months it took you to write a trigger pull system when it could be done Unity style in a week or less and easily expanded to any weapon.

 

Doesn't matter if your new or senior, wrong way is wrong way.

 

Sorry but this is none constructive.

To know wrong and good way, both need to be experienced. Or at least be aware about differences.
And only real application and results will show, which way was correct way for given scenario.
Forcing one and only single way, for every given scenario, is definitely wrong way.

It Is like me being advising starter to use DOD, or even DOTS form beginning. Maybe would be right for a given application. But without solid OP background, it is just waste of my effort and bringing confusion. So need to be recognized, when need to step down with advising things.

If you think you got good resources for beginners, to learn from and in an interesting way, please do share with community by all means.

 

Undergraduate science courses literally teach "the wrong way" to do things because it's a simplification that makes the work easier to understand for people who aren't specializing. Getting people started with simplifications that work is more important. PV=nRT is a simplification. There are multiple definitions for what an acid or base is. The model for an atom you learned in school was probably wrong. Multiple explanations for how bonding works. AM1 is a "wrong" quantum chemical calculation that's close enough.

This is how the real world works.

 

Probably best not to try the work-in-progress alpha parts of Unity though for first impressions. DOTS and Tiny are very much the Unity in the future, so some rough edges are expected!

For excellent present-day Unity and a great dev experience you want to make a new project and select URP, HDRP or built in pipelines and sally forth. These are well-oiled at this point and have no multiple minute start ups.

Thanks for trying Unity and having the patience to feed back! And I hope the first impressions won't last because you picked a pretty good area of heavy development to dive in

 

I can agree with that to an extent, but that's not what's wrong with some of brackeys coding tutorials. There are some that are plain wrong, I will see if I have time to find those I think about

 

2019.4.19f1 is an LTS version of Unity, not alpha. And you do realize they're following an official Unity tutorial, yes? If official tutorials use alpha features, that's on the tutorial, not the brand new users.

To the OP, I can second everyone else's advice here to avoid the official Unity tutorials and find a 3rd party tutorial to follow. Unity tends to use experimental features in their demos and tutorials and doesn't support them past the first release.

 

I always point people to https://learn.unity.com/course/create-with-code as its high quality and provides a great introduction to everything you need to start making games on your own. OP should give that a go instead if they have not yet.