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Question What kind of book should I buy for my version (2021.3.24f1)?

Discussion in 'Editor & General Support' started by EijiPro, May 28, 2023.

  1. EijiPro

    EijiPro

    Joined:
    May 12, 2023
    Posts:
    2
    I can't consider which book to buy. Unity 5 or the book that published in 2021.
     
  2. EijiPro

    EijiPro

    Joined:
    May 12, 2023
    Posts:
    2
  3. spiney199

    spiney199

    Joined:
    Feb 11, 2021
    Posts:
    7,606
  4. halley

    halley

    Joined:
    Aug 26, 2013
    Posts:
    2,364
    We're pretty much past a "buy a dead-tree book about technology" ecosystem. None of the old publishers are going to make good books on a complex software package like Unity because things change too much within the timespan it takes to write all of it in original text. As @spiney199 was hinting, start with official documentation. There's also the Unity Learn site for people just getting introduced to the whole world of Unity.
     
    Kurt-Dekker likes this.
  5. Kurt-Dekker

    Kurt-Dekker

    Joined:
    Mar 16, 2013
    Posts:
    38,519
    In 2023 reading books isn't how it's done. By the time the book comes out the software has changed! Even websites can't fully keep up.

    A far super approach to learning software is to ask yourself, "Can I ...?"

    Start small, build up. Before you realize it, you'll have yourself a game.

    Check it out:

    Imphenzia: How Did I Learn To Make Games:



    Tutorials and example code are great, but keep this in mind to maximize your success and minimize your frustration:

    How to do tutorials properly, two (2) simple steps to success:

    Step 1. Follow the tutorial and do every single step of the tutorial 100% precisely the way it is shown. Even the slightest deviation (even a single character!) generally ends in disaster. That's how software engineering works. Every step must be taken, every single letter must be spelled, capitalized, punctuated and spaced (or not spaced) properly, literally NOTHING can be omitted or skipped.

    Fortunately this is the easiest part to get right: Be a robot. Don't make any mistakes.
    BE PERFECT IN EVERYTHING YOU DO HERE!!


    If you get any errors, learn how to read the error code and fix your error. Google is your friend here. Do NOT continue until you fix your error. Your error will probably be somewhere near the parenthesis numbers (line and character position) in the file. It is almost CERTAINLY your typo causing the error, so look again and fix it.

    Step 2. Go back and work through every part of the tutorial again, and this time explain it to your doggie. See how I am doing that in my avatar picture? If you have no dog, explain it to your house plant. If you are unable to explain any part of it, STOP. DO NOT PROCEED. Now go learn how that part works. Read the documentation on the functions involved. Go back to the tutorial and try to figure out WHY they did that. This is the part that takes a LOT of time when you are new. It might take days or weeks to work through a single 5-minute tutorial. Stick with it. You will learn.

    Step 2 is the part everybody seems to miss. Without Step 2 you are simply a code-typing monkey and outside of the specific tutorial you did, you will be completely lost. If you want to learn, you MUST do Step 2.

    Of course, all this presupposes no errors in the tutorial. For certain tutorial makers (like Unity, Brackeys, Imphenzia, Sebastian Lague) this is usually the case. For some other less-well-known content creators, this is less true. Read the comments on the video: did anyone have issues like you did? If there's an error, you will NEVER be the first guy to find it.

    Beyond that, Step 3, 4, 5 and 6 become easy because you already understand!

    Finally, when you have errors, don't post here... just go fix your errors! Here's how:

    Remember: NOBODY here memorizes error codes. That's not a thing. The error code is absolutely the least useful part of the error. It serves no purpose at all. Forget the error code. Put it out of your mind.

    The complete error message contains everything you need to know to fix the error yourself.

    The important parts of the error message are:

    - the description of the error itself (google this; you are NEVER the first one!)
    - the file it occurred in (critical!)
    - the line number and character position (the two numbers in parentheses)
    - also possibly useful is the stack trace (all the lines of text in the lower console window)

    Always start with the FIRST error in the console window, as sometimes that error causes or compounds some or all of the subsequent errors. Often the error will be immediately prior to the indicated line, so make sure to check there as well.

    Look in the documentation. Every API you attempt to use is probably documented somewhere. Are you using it correctly? Are you spelling it correctly?

    All of that information is in the actual error message and you must pay attention to it. Learn how to identify it instantly so you don't have to stop your progress and fiddle around with the forum.