Using older learning resources, and then jumping to up to date unity.

Hi All,

I'm looking for some advice if I may

A few months ago, I picked up a Group-on deal for a Unity programming course...(it's possible some will know the one I'm talking about). Now I've dived into it, its apparent its using Unity 5.1.0, with Monodevelop, which is obviously fairly out of date.

I think I've got three possible courses of action here :-

1. Install the relevant version of Unity to the course and proceed as if this is the current version.
2. Install the latest version of unity and progress through the course as best I can
3. Abandon all hope and look for a modern course for Unity.

after doing the course, I intend to use the latest version of Unity.

I'm concerned that the time I spend learning on 5.1.0 would be wasted in either options 1 or 2, primarily with 'relearning' new syntax/methods etc for Unity 2018, or with figuring out when the course content differs from 2018's functions.

Am I worrying over nothing, and the versions are similar enough not to cause major issues?

I'd appreciate some thoughts on this!

Regards,

Steve

 

I feel like it depends on the course and your experience, but if you are starting to learn Unity or the concept that the course covers, downloading the same version it's a good idea, just to follow the tutorial as smoothly as possible.

 

5.x isn't much different, you may run into minor things. If it was 4.x then I'd complete steer clear

 

Anything in the 5 series should still be relevant. There haven't been a major scripting overhaul since then.

For some individual features you can even go back further with no problem.

Also https://unity3d.com/learn. Its likely better, and definitely more cost effective, then any paid tutorial.

 

I posted something similar a few months a go. Saying why Unity wouldn't upgrade their tutorials to newer versions of Unity, and the answers that I got made a lot of sense. If you want to be a good Unity Developer, you should know how to optimize the problem that older version have against newer approaches. Meaning that you should build those unity prototypes with the newest version of Unity you can get .

 

Thanks for the input so far all!

I'll use the appropriate version of Unity for the course unless someone comes up with a compelling reason not to!

Steve

 

Yeah you'll eliminate any potential problems using the same version as the course uses. You can have multiple versions of Unity installed just by installing to a different directory, so you don't need to uninstall your latest/greatest. As already mentioned, for pretty much everything you learn in a 5.x tutorial will work just fine in 2017/2018. Assuming the course uses c#

 

Unity Hub makes this even easier

 

I was going to mention that as well, but I have no idea if Unity Hub has compatibility all the way back to 5.1.

 

Oh yeah, you'll have to manually add it for a version that old but can still access it via unity hub

 

Just downloaded Unity hub. It hasn't. It only have from Unity 2017.1.5f1 to the newest.
I encourage you to use the newest one and then KNOW how to resolve and fix deprecated and obsolete components

 

One step at a time. It's easier to learn how to handle errors if you've already got first principles firmly under your belt.