Search Unity

  1. Megacity Metro Demo now available. Download now.
    Dismiss Notice
  2. Unity support for visionOS is now available. Learn more in our blog post.
    Dismiss Notice

unity without coding?

Discussion in 'Getting Started' started by yajat, May 18, 2017.

  1. yajat

    yajat

    Joined:
    May 18, 2017
    Posts:
    3
    can I assign movements, actions, and all those events WITHOUT coding in unity?
    if yes, then how? please tell me!
     
  2. JoeStrout

    JoeStrout

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2011
    Posts:
    9,859
    Basically, no. That's not how Unity is designed.

    Now, there are some third-party assets that let you do some of this... PlayMaker is popular, and there are others. But I've never used them, so I can't vouch for them.

    But why are you resistant to coding? Programming is one of the most deeply satisfying activities I can think of. Perhaps you should give it a try.
     
    DocJ and Schneider21 like this.
  3. Thomas-Pasieka

    Thomas-Pasieka

    Joined:
    Sep 19, 2005
    Posts:
    2,174
    Ryiah, JoeStrout and Schneider21 like this.
  4. Schneider21

    Schneider21

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2014
    Posts:
    3,512
    I think a lot of people shy away from learning to program because it's perceived to be difficult. And don't get me wrong, it can be. And it can be very frustrating. But I also think that learning a visual scripting engine can be difficult and frustrating as well. That is to say, it's not necessarily the "Easy" route.

    Add to that the fact that learning to program is a transferable skill while using PlayMaker or GameFlow aren't, and that you may find yourself wanting to do something the visual scripting tool can't do (but can be done if you know how to write code) and I can make the case that it's worth the time to learn how to program. Oh, and learning to program is free!

    Some people love their visual scripting tools, and like Joe I simply don't know enough about them to say one way or the other. But in any case, you'll have to spend some time learning.
     
  5. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    Programming is difficult.

    With asset store, you can make and publish full games without coding. It will cost you though.
     
  6. JoeStrout

    JoeStrout

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2011
    Posts:
    9,859
    Except that visual programming is still programming.

    Programming is all about taking a complex, vague problem, and breaking it down into small, specific steps. That's the difficult part of any nontrivial program. And that's the part visual scripting tools don't really make any easier. Learning to program is really learning to think clearly, and visual scripting can't do that for you.

    What they do do for you is mostly remove the need to learn syntax. People new to programming often think syntax is the difficult part. But really, it's not. Syntax you can learn in a couple of days. But learning to think, that takes years.

    So, I'm a fan of visual programming environments (like Scratch) when they get people started who otherwise would just give up right away due to syntax. At least that's one less hurdle they have to jump! But it's important to recognize that it's not the only hurdle, nor the biggest.
     
    kajes, Ryiah and Schneider21 like this.
  7. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
    Hate quoting myself.
     
    Thomas-Pasieka and Schneider21 like this.
  8. Schneider21

    Schneider21

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2014
    Posts:
    3,512
    I read it the same way Joe did initially. Perhaps the text emphasis should have been in the original post. :p
     
    hippocoder likes this.
  9. hippocoder

    hippocoder

    Digital Ape

    Joined:
    Apr 11, 2010
    Posts:
    29,723
  10. Deleted User

    Deleted User

    Guest

    Coding is the most interesting and fascinating part in making games...
     
    DocJ and JoeStrout like this.
  11. JoeStrout

    JoeStrout

    Joined:
    Jan 14, 2011
    Posts:
    9,859
    So you guys take "coding" to mean "typing code in a text editor" (and not, say, dragging code blocks around and snapping them together)? (I think of "coding" and "programming" as synonyms.)

    Just trying to understand what social faux pas I have committed here...
     
    Last edited: May 18, 2017
  12. Schneider21

    Schneider21

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2014
    Posts:
    3,512
    As a programmer, I take programming and coding as synonyms as well. Which is why I read hippo's post the same way you did.

    But like you alluded to above, there's programmer mentality, and then there's syntax (code). Visual scripting tools are like programming without the code. Which doesn't mean programming is simpler, necessarily, but you can technically program a game without coding, assuming that coding in this context means writing code.

    No huge faux pas. Just a mild and pedantic discussion. :p
     
    Ryiah and JoeStrout like this.
  13. LaneFox

    LaneFox

    Joined:
    Jun 29, 2011
    Posts:
    7,462
    After a certain point in complexity, visual scripting is still just as hard as coding, imo. There's nothing wrong with using it and it's often more convenient to use vs - even some circumstances are more favorable with vs such as when facilitating non-coding developers with interfaces to work in - but it still gets hard when you're getting low level with things.

    Anyway, you can get out of coding by using visual scripting addons. There's plenty on the Asset Store.
     
  14. PRABHBIR123

    PRABHBIR123

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2017
    Posts:
    72
    I am not a game developer but a maths lover so in contrast to that I can tell you unity without coding is somewhat like maths without numbers.
     
  15. Kiwasi

    Kiwasi

    Joined:
    Dec 5, 2013
    Posts:
    16,860
    Pretty much all advanced math abandons numbers. The purest maths has no numbers at all.
     
  16. PRABHBIR123

    PRABHBIR123

    Joined:
    Apr 9, 2017
    Posts:
    72
    Ah great. I think you are right. But I was talking about arithmetic.
     
  17. yajat

    yajat

    Joined:
    May 18, 2017
    Posts:
    3
    so are programming and coding different things?
     
  18. Schneider21

    Schneider21

    Joined:
    Feb 6, 2014
    Posts:
    3,512
    Not strictly speaking, no. But if you want to get pedantic about it, coding would be defined as the act of writing code. Meanwhile, programming would either involve coding, or using a tool that can generate the required code for you, like a visual scripting tool we were alluding to above.

    It's not uncommon to see the words 'developer', 'programmer', and 'coder' used interchangeably. But generally, when you see any of the words used, it's assumed that person knows how to write code.
     
  19. AntFitch

    AntFitch

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2012
    Posts:
    243
    Hi, with HeroKit (Easy Game Maker) you can do this. It's a next-generation visual scripting tool that is in beta. It should be on the asset store next month.

    It has several actions for movement, animation, etc. If you want to learn how to program, you can modify these or create your own.

    Link to WIP:
    https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/herokit-easy-game-maker-in-beta.440703/

     
    Last edited: Jun 27, 2017
  20. FrankenCreations

    FrankenCreations

    Joined:
    Jun 14, 2017
    Posts:
    326
    To the op......

    You seem very new at this, completely inexperienced and just ready to start. So let me, another complete noob in this world, speak to you from your level instead of from the perspective of a seasoned user.

    It can be hard hearing all of the experienced people here full of knowledge and writing code like its their first language. It can make it seem like you need years of university and a 160 iq to even keep up. Sometimes when a task seems insurmountable we as humans look for the easy way out. I do it myself. Dont let the easy way hold you back. I'm not knocking visual scripting in any way, just suggesting you explore deeper. I used scratch for a little while when my daughter was younger trying to teach her the idea of programming and it helped. It will give you an idea of how it works, what a for loop is, what variables do, and the basic idea of how programming works. It can be a good starting point for someone who has never written a program before. Don't stop there though. If you plan to develop games as a lifelong passion you will need to get serious about it and go headlong into programming/coding at some point. Visual scripting is good for a hobby, its fun, its productive, its fast to learn but at some point you will find it only takes you part way to complete game dev guru. I don't say that because I believe visual scripting is less powerful or in some way substandard because I'm not experienced enough with it to know. I say it because every professional game development operation employs people that write code. They may still use visual scripting for certain quick n dirty prototype cases or other situations they deem it fit but in the end they use a written programming language heavily. If you get good a visual scripting you are almost there anyway. To me it seems the big difference is syntax and proper wording. I think C++ and c# are the most common but I'm sure someone else more knowledgeable can chime in on that.

    Dont be scared of c#. I have found it much easier to get into than the turbo pascal I learned on. I took a nearly 2 decade break without writing a line of code loosing all but the basic concepts of programming along the way. Its not like the old way of doing things at all. You dont have to manage an enire encyclopedia of code to get a program working. Instead of having one large nearly mind boggling program you have small chunks of program that just do specific tasks. To get started all you need is a few basic keywords and how they operate. A great deal of the hard stuff is done for you behind the scenes. C# has a ton of available help recources, tutorials, and people on forums who know it thoroughly. If you actually give it a shot you can have a script up and running in a few minutes. With a bit of practice and no fear of breaking things you can be functional in no time.

    When I started in on unity I felt a bit overwhelmed, it is a daunting path. Go through a few of the tutorials and follow along with the c# script and you can get it. Its not too bad. Dont be afraid to try new things or make mistakes. Dont get discouraged when something dosent immediately work. After the first few weeks it will all kind of congeal and you will find that you are remembering how to do things off the top of your head. Finally and definately high on the list of importance, use google. There are a billion examples of code doing all maner of different things. Reading someone elses code can be a good way to figure your problem out. I have always found it easier to read a program than to write one.
     
    Last edited: Jun 28, 2017
    Schneider21 and Kiwasi like this.
  21. AntFitch

    AntFitch

    Joined:
    Jan 31, 2012
    Posts:
    243
    I would like to point out that HeroKit was built to help someone who's never programmed before become a novice programmer and eventually an adept programmer. I've thought about this a lot when I designed it. I was where the op was a few years ago and I wanted to make sure that whatever I created could empower a developer to learn the basics and to eventually cut off the training wheels and kick some serious a** as a developer in the future. So, if you've never coded, it will teach you how to structure your stuff (it looks nothing like PlayMaker). When you're feeling brave, you can build simple to very complex actions (c#). And when you're ready to dive deep into development, you can explore/edit the code of the engine itself to better understand how to set up large systems (useful for games and beyond).
     
    JoeStrout likes this.