Why i'm starting to hate unity.

As a solo dev, i was drawn to unity for its simplistic approach to multiple platform development. Yet unity is trying to catch up to unreal as a AAA engine and pushing indie devs to the side.

A 3 year LTS means nothing when you have to either have a current project, watching all the class name changes/deprecations, added 'features' that few unity users need and general lack of consideration for the solo/small studio devs.

At the end of an LTS, if you haven't had a project up to date, you are completely lost when your code throws up 1000 errors.

Next Unity Hub. T-H-E W-O-R-S-T thing that has happened to unity. Sure you can manage the unity stream your using more easily, but who remembers when unity editor used to throw up a dialogue saying "there is a newer version of the unity editor, click here to install"? Now we are expected to randomly click on the 'Version' button to check where we are at, LTS INCLUDED.

I mean LTS should JUST WORK its the fourth iteration for the year, you mark a version LTS it should be fine. 2019.4 was not the case and needed a patch for people to build their projects with IL2CPP and ARM64 (If you're a google dev you'd know 64 bit builds are now compulsory), other users marked complaints about this as 'RESOLVED' by rolling back to 2019.3......NO.....A ROLLBACK IS NEVER A SOLUTION and it only took 8 of these idiots to close a thread as resolved.

If you're using unity hoping for more AAA features, simply put, you're doing it wrong.

Just go and click on unreals new features page. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH API, I'ts already solid, what are they adding? New water /ocean features, better ways to animate (mechanim avatar system is a joke).

Whilst unity tries to CATCH UP as a AAA, the AAA they are competing with has simply added multi platform deployment and become superior for indie devs.

 

I've built my own tools in Unity and feel apart from some omissions making shadergraph too weak for adventurous purposes, Unity provides everything - and more, that any Indie would ever need. At decent prices (or none if you are under a threshold). SG matters to indies a lot because you practically need a wizard or a team to manage Unity's lit shaders, and Unity occludes that behind SG.

AAA is closer to URP than HDRP. Everyone thinks ... AAA is all high tech and so on but really most of it is actually behind Unity but with some seriously, seriously top end art and skill.

I've been here a while and I'm really not seeing what you're seeing. If by AAA you mean they're courting NON-game markets then you'd be right.

I'm not sure even what Indie means in this context. Game dev doesn't get easier than this, surely?

 

You skipped over the fact that API changes make any release for a solo dev, that makes use of the 3 year LTS, has to come back to an API that has changed so much it is unrecognizable.

By AAA i mean, An API with 20 years of experience. An API that doesn't need to change class names every iteration.

"Just go and click on unreals new features page. IT HAS NOTHING TO DO WITH API, I'ts already solid, what are they adding? New water /ocean features, better ways to animate (mechanim avatar system is a joke)."

Unreal don't need to change the API they are just adding user friendly features that don't affect existing code. Only enhancing new code.

With unity trying to catch up to this API they are making it harder for solo/indie devs.

Sure update your API, but consider working AROUND class changes, than simply breaking unity per iteration.

 

I hated UnityHub at first, too. Not sure if it got better or if I finally learned to read it, but now projects are displayed with the version of Unity used to make them.

I was so accustomed to having Unity come up with the last thing I worked on that I didn't love having to click an extra button with UnityHub. But the last thing is at the top, _and_ it nicely shows old projects, in order. I vaguely recall having to dig a little bit in the old Unity to find older projects. Not a big deal either way.

My biggest gripe is I don't know how to tell someone how to download Unity anymore. You used to...download Unity. Now I think you basically use UnityHub as an installer. But it reminds me of those scummy PC games where you have to do everything through the company/s master portal.

 

Personally I don't mind unity hub. It serves its purpose.

One thing I will say is the API changes from version to version are an exceptional headache to deal with. I cannot stress this enough: if you want to complete anything stick, double stick to a version and don't move from it till you have shipped, bug fixed it to shipped again your app.

This version jumping is something I do, and it always ends up a de-motivational experience that leads me to days of limbo regarding Unity.

 

Hub has been very useful to me, I typically run multiple versions, often for different code bases, and sometimes I'm just upgrading a lot. I hated it at first, because it sucked at first. Now it works well.

 

I'm not seeing that in the slightest. I'm contracted to a group that started developing a game with Unity 5.6 and is now on Unity 2019.4. Every upgrade was at least a one year jump and the API changes have always been minor.

If you still have them I would love to see screenshots of some of the errors you've run into upgrading Unity.

 

Worth pointing out that you can right-click the hub icon on the taskbar and bring up your project, so it's as fast or faster than before. Veeeery useful when dealing with rogue threading or memory leaks or anything requiring frequent shutdowns and startups.

 

Unity actually does good job keeping archived documentation available. If you go to manual/script reference you can currently view documentation for old versions - all the way back till unity 5.2.

They also rarely change class names.

Speaking of Hub, it is EXTREMELY convenient when you need to launch some project with a VERY specific unity version. I currently have seven version installed simultaneously. Without hub, dealing with this kind of situation was extremely unpleasant.

 

And properties. I don't think the unused ones for monobehaviours will ever die.

 

This post reminded me that I need to update an iOS app that was three years old. Original project was from 2015, and he last update was 2018, so yes, it's old. I decided to go ahead and update to the latest 2021 beta.

There were a handful of errors, easily resolved. A number of warnings about deprecated API changes, that I decided to go ahead and fix. I was horrified looking at my old code, and fearful that the few asset store pieces would break. But, I have to say it upgraded pretty easily. Took maybe an hour or so, which isn't bad for a complex game and it compiled and is now under review by Apple.

So, I would say I'm actually impressed! I didn't try to switch to URP, but the fact that the engine is able to deal with a 2015 project is a great thing, IMHO.

 

I'm not a programmer. When I get a console error it's like a caveman trying to understand the stars. I moved one of my projects between a few versions, ranging from 2018 up to 2020.

There was a few errors to solve but it wasn't even a full day of work.

 

The hub wasn't like that at first. It could only install the latest patch version of the selected major version, so we still had to go through the archives to find the exact version used by a project and hope the rest of he team did the same.

It's much better now since you can install the required version directly from the project list with no room for error. I have to work with several different projects using different versions and this is a lifesaver.

 

2018 to 2020 isn't that hard. 5.5 to 5.6 was a pain. Some physics problems when moving through the versions after that (don't remember which versions). Also deprecation of built in substance materials didn't migrate as fluent as it should have done.

But all in all nothing as been as a pain as that 5.5 to 5.6 move.

But it depends on your game and which features you use. We are still on built in so need to move to URP when it's production ready

 

Whine fest, closed. Sigh.., game development requires effort, no tool is perfect, learning is hard for some people. If it is too tough... consider something simpler. As others have said, the API rarely changes, and when it does it's not that much effort to deal with. And the HUB is frictionless and has its value, if you struggle with... well things only get harder.