What the heck is ironSource?

It took them something like15 years, though. I'm not sure which was the first version I've used (2.74? 2.47? I forgot) back t hen it wasn't exactly impressive.

Which is C++ for me. Lack of certain C++ features in C# is incredibly annoying.
The problem is - Unreal is using a dialect with some other important features disabled, and a truckload of custom macro that break some of the IDEs..

You need to study more modern C++ to get the picture.

It is a language that allows almost functional programming level bug prevention to there point where you can work with it without unit tests. The only problem is long learning period.

And like Murgilod said, it has been defacto standard for gamedev for a long time due to being close to metal while also allowing high level programming. And yes, unity is written in C++, Unreal is written in C++, Godot is also written in C++.

So C++ is the default language you write games in. Now you normally also add a scripting language to the engine.

One thing I"d really want unity to do is to add C++ bindings to the engine.

 

https://www.barrons.com/articles/unity-stock-ironsource-deal-51657747745

Is history repeating itself?

 

It seems AA/AAA developers didn’t get the memo as the vast majority of code they write is C++, even for gameplay, lmao

 

Flax has a royalty license. You pay 4% after the first $25,000 per quarter. I would have to look close to see what the features are (the website doesn't say much of anything useful) but glancing over the documentation leaves me with the impression it's just copying Unity like everyone else without improving upon it.

 

@2:37 - The layoffs were also 'somewhat blown out of proportion' by some of the press.

 

"Riccitiello returned to EA to serve as CEO from February 2007 to March 2013,[10][12][13] when the board of directors accepted his resignation because of the company's financial performance."

Excellent choice there for CEO...

 

Eric Seufert wrote a good piece on why they are merging...
https://mobiledevmemo.com/why-are-unity-and-ironsource-merging/

 

Nice the read a more sobber review of the merger for once.

On the C++ topic: There's a difference between what the engine itself needs to be written in (for performance reasons) and what we (especially as smaller studios) program gameplay in. Twist it all you want, but for the later, C++ simply is rare and not "the standard"...

 

I would argue that outside of Unity, C# is even less of a standard.

 

Not true. I've worked on a ton of games now (since I'm porting/co dev programmer in AA/AAA space) and C++ is everywhere, including for gameplay logic. It's THE standard.

 

You're mixing up programmers and scripters here.

I'm a programmer, so I'd want access to C++, so I get my all time favorite deterministic lifetimes, const correctness and const references, RAII and GC-less code. Those are important tools and I NEED those BADLY. C# does seem to be trying to borrow good features from other languages, so in time those might arrive, but this is not certain thing at all, as mainstream C# seems to be heading towards immutability everywhere, and thus all those features, even if proposed, can be shut down as "there's not point in having that" by the language devs.

In a game engine, C# is neither simple enough for scripting nor powerful enough for programming. It sits on an awkward middle ground. The only reason unity is trying to keep it at all cost is their insistence of using IL to recompile to other platform. However, the thing is you can do exact same thing in C++ with clang, and that's how people compiled OpenGL C++ code into javascript using Emscripten...

 

Interesting what he has to say about recession and games industry. Gaming has done ok in the past with regards to recession but from personal experience Ad revenue tanked so if you have all your eggs in that basket it might not be so rosy.

 

Interesting, maybe the layoffs combined with these news just made the perfect storm and the issue is not as simple as "oh no! malware in our games! Unity is dying! I need to drop everything and change right now to Unreal/Godot or whatever is been promoted right now to Unity users!" (of course, that depends on this article being accurate).

It's still not good that Unity doesn't really care much about devs like me (or maybe you) because we don't make them as much money as ads so I think they need to move and make a good announcement/damage control to deal with people panicking in social media (maybe throw a bone to us, regular Unity users while at it).

 

It's nothing new that people come telling they will be moving to engine x after some change they don't like. But IMHO this situation is nowhere near the same as in past. In past it's been about Unity doing things that don't align with the users own interests and they feel that engine is going in wrong direction (and how many actually moved on after these claims is also a different thing).

But now they are merging with a company that has very questionable past and you can't just swipe that under the rug or call people they are panicking if they have moral issues with this.

 

It's just the latest in a long string of bad decisions for me. It would make sense that they'd do what's right from a business perspective but they're not doing that either. Nothing Unity does these days makes sense from any perspective whatsoever.
When your livelihood depends on a company that is so clearly being run into the ground, it only makes sense to start looking for alternatives. Even if it's just a backup.

It has some improvements. I won't go over them in depth. But I like the Unity engine, just not the company. If Flax is similar enough for me to port my code, then that's a very good quality in my opinion.

 

People tend to forget that an established engine like Unity offers far more than just being an editor..

1.) It's builds have been battle tested over many years on many different platforms, many bugs have been fixed.
2.) Pretty much every 3rd party SaaS or ad network offers a Unity plugin.
3.) There is a knowledge base that has been built up over many years, usually if you run into a problem, an answer can be found online.
4.) Loads of companies use Unity, so if you're looking for a job, it makes sense to stick with an engine with a high adoption rate among employers.
5.) Even though its not proftable, its not going anywhere or shutting down anytime soon.

If you want to sacrifice all the above for another little-known, little used engine just because they have a few extra features or better pricing, be my guest. But the points above are the real meta, and why Unity and Unreal are still your best bets today, and in the likely future.

 

This mentality is the exact reason Adobe and Autodesk have been able to spend nearly a decade changing icons and letting their software stagnate while still remaining in business.

 

Adobe and Autodesk have been getting away with this because they have had no competition.

 

Just in case people missed it, here's an official thread:

• https://forum.unity.com/threads/unity-announces-intent-to-join-forces-with-ironsource.1308219

 

Professionally, yes. But there might come a point where Unity crosses a line and I would like having a backup when the time comes. So I will explore different options with my personal projects.

Back when I started using Unity it was some fringe hobbyist thing as well. I know what that means.

 

Adobe is actually being severely hit by Affinity / Serif in the design space, and I can't be happier for it. (I really recommend Affinity and Serif software for 2D work over Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator or Indesign. No subscription bullshit, lots of features and fair prices. (even though I find Serif old apps are actually better than newer Affinity versions, but they will eventually catch up))

Autodesk and all other 3D suites are being severely hit by Blender. Like BADLY: the only reason they are still used is because of old users inertia. Once the current youth that grew up learning Blender hit the market, nobody will be using 3D Studio or Maya anymore.

If it continues its current trend, Unity will be kicked out of the market in favor of open source alternative engines. That's a fact.
But high execs don't care about Unity's future: they'll jump ship when this happens.

The problem with open source 3D engines is console support:

Although this would create business opportunities for third parties, so it could become an ecosystem like it is with Linux for enterprises.

 

I was anticipating someone mentioning this one but in my opinion it's only in the past few years that it's happened.

 

Some open source engines do have console support.

 

Even LinusTechTips is concerned about this...

 

Yes, Unreal Engine for example LOL
I mean, "open source" is a very broad concept.

 

MonoGame, Flax, FNA. It's quite strange Godot doesn't have official console support yet.

 

Lumberyard has Amazon's "as is" license and supports consoles.

https://github.com/aws/lumberyard/blob/master/LICENSE.txt

 

People are complaining about this ad company acquisition/merger, but i'm confused why. I'm not putting ads in my game. I'm using a later 2019 unity version for my project without much trouble, as i'm an indie and therefore not looking for the latest gen features or to relearn older ones from scratch. All the features i require work as needed in that version of the engine. Why switch or worry about other platforms when you simply got what you need. All i care about are the licensing terms.

 

I guess the problem lies in Godot not being an actual company but more of a community thing. This could change in the future or even third party companies could make their own forks with extended support like with Linux distros (RedHat and the like)
Anyhow, I'm happy the open source community exists to fight against Adobe / Autodesk dystopic future.
Software as a service, free to play and game monetization schemes are CANCER and must be eradicated.

 

https://www.pcgamer.com/unity-is-merging-with-a-company-who-made-a-malware-installer/

 

Because in the very very near future, you will not have a choice and everything you compile with Unity will be bundled with ad serving garbage and data harvesting analytics. Specially if you don't have a Pro subscription, and even with that, I'm not sure you will be able to completely opt out of it.

 

Someone should make this comment a sticky in the forums:

 

Yeah, yeah and Epic will bundle Tencent's spyware with Unreal Engine in the near future. Any time now...

 

So...what's next for Unity now?

Replacing High Definition Render Pipeline with High Monetization Pipeline?

 

Some areas of the world have laws against this and Unity complies with them. That alone leads me to give them the benefit of the doubt.

 

I think you are jumping the gun and should preface all of this with 'speculatively and in my opinion'. Please don't spread assumptions as if they are factual today.

 

I wonder what percentage of people actively using Unity right now would rather short Unity stocks than buy them, if asked to decide between the two.

 

Well, of course this is 'speculatively and in my opinion', I'm not the CEO, I can't know.
What I do know is the trajectory of Unity, and it sure as hell looks like it is going this way.
But you, as a Unity Legend, could correct me if I'm wrong and assure us this is not going to be the case.
Would you?

 

I was also "jumping the gun" when I said John Riccitiello was BAD NEWS for Unity users, back when he was hired as CEO.
That he wouldn't be changing "something that already works" and wouldn't be disrupting it.
And then subscriptions happened, but I was jumping the gun because it was "just another payment option" "not mandatory" and blah blah.
I'm being SO negative!

 

The CEO's recent video interview seems to give some vague clarity if you read between the lines. Basically everyone's games will push consumers from unity game with ads -> to unity game with ads.

This is bad for dev retention (you are bleeding players to a game that's not yours) and brilliant for Unity, because they ensure the game the consumer is pushed toward also has Unity's ad network instead of something like google.

But for someone doing single or multiplayer in the classic sense, like a 'real' game (sorry if anyone's in mobile space, but you know what I mean) - it explains why DOTS has taken 4 years, why silly things like decals took a year to even be usable on URP, or why the ocean and sky in HDRP still can't play nice with each other or anything else transparent all this time later (and probably still won't till sometime in 2023 or 2024).

Unity's graphics teams are so small they are little more than satisfying higher end mobile, or video while lacking the resources to support higher end mobile or competitive performance.

Then there are terrain tools, tooling in general, various STILL persisting editor woes, a plastic integration that still melts down and forces users to use standalone clients, a totally abandoned Linux editor and more.... that just isn't the priority.

I don't need to belabour.

But firing 200+ people, firing an entire game dev team and paying 4 billion to merge with an ad company with a sketchy past that now controls OVER 25% of Unity? Sure thing.

Maybe that direction isn't good?

 

Be careful! you should preface all of this with 'speculatively and in my opinion', as the Unity Legend said.

 

I dont work at Unity so I can not give an official statement.

I just think there is a big difference between saying something like "I think you will not have a choice..." and "You will not have a choice...".

Personally, I am not happy about this move either. Im not defending it at all. I just think people shouldnt mix speculation with fact.

 

I'm not staff, and just speaking my mind. It is their mistake to make to knock down a community member of my history with Unity, and someone with as much support as me.

I'll shut up... happily when I know two things:

• Unity guarantees to their staff that their work matters, that they are more than another adtech company
  
  
• Unity guarantees that their non-ad focus also gains proper funding and support (SRP teams, DOTS, tooling)

I just want a future for Unity and their staff that isn't just another adtech company. I want to know what Unity is doing about real games, not just adtech vehicles.

 

Oh, I would love that.

 

Unity as a library is not useful?

https://unity.com/features/unity-as-a-library

Probably not.

 

Since they changed that awful UI, keymappings is what made me jump from 3ds MAX to blender after 10 years use. It's been a breath of fresh air and is a pleasure to work with now.

 

lol

Just keep digging that grave Unity.

 

He's not wrong that monetization is extremely important.

 

Ignoring the "F***ing idiots comment..."

You literally lost your last job as CEO for how poorly you ended up handling EA, John.

 

I'm gonna hazard a guess: ads are their main revenue stream right now, so they're cutting down dev teams and getting themselves an ad networking system to maximize that revenue.
We all want them to earn by licensing revenue of great "best seller" and triple A projects, pushing the game engine to the top by developing its features, but it doesn't seem to have ever worked for Unity. There are too many competitors and the mobile game market is still the one where Unity maintains the best position.