Unity (game engine)

Unity
The current logo used for Unity
Developer(s) Unity Technologies
Initial release 1.0 / June 8, 2005 (2005-06-08)
Stable release
2018.2.12 / October 12, 2018 (2018-10-12)[1]
Written in C++ (Runtime)
C# (Unity Scripting API)[2]
Operating system Windows, macOS, Linux (experimental)
Platform IA-32, x86-64, ARM
Available in English
Type Game engine
License Proprietary software
Alexa rank

Increase 1,157 (July 2018)

[3]
Website unity3d.com

Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies,[4] first announced and released in June 2005 at Apple Inc.'s Worldwide Developers Conference as an OS X-exclusive game engine. As of 2018, the engine has been extended to support 27 platforms.[5] The engine can be used to create both three-dimensional and two-dimensional games as well as simulations for its many platforms. Several major versions of Unity have been released since its launch, with the latest stable version being Unity 2018.2.11, released on October 4, 2018.[6]

Overview

Unity gives users the ability to create games in both 2D and 3D, and the engine offers a primary scripting API in C#, for both the Unity editor in the form of plugins, and games themselves, as well as drag and drop functionality. Prior to C# being the primary programming language used for the engine, it previously supported Boo, which was removed in the Unity 5[7] release, and a version of JavaScript called UnityScript, which was deprecated in August 2017 after the release of Unity 2017.1 in favor of C#.[8]

The engine has support for the following graphics APIs: Direct3D on Windows and Xbox One; OpenGL on Linux, macOS, and Windows; OpenGL ES on Android and iOS; WebGL on the web; and proprietary APIs on the video game consoles. Additionally, Unity supports the low-level APIs Metal on iOS and macOS and Vulkan on Android, Linux, and Windows, as well as Direct3D 12 on Windows and Xbox One.

Within 2D games, Unity allows importation of sprites and an advanced 2D world renderer. For 3D games, Unity allows specification of texture compression, mipmaps, and resolution settings for each platform that the game engine supports,[5] and provides support for bump mapping, reflection mapping, parallax mapping, screen space ambient occlusion (SSAO), dynamic shadows using shadow maps, render-to-texture and full-screen post-processing effects.[9]

Since about 2016 Unity also offers cloud-based services to developers, these are presently: Unity Ads, Unity Analytics, Unity Certification, Unity Cloud Build, Unity Everyplay, Unity IAP ("In app purchase" - for the Apple and Google app stores), Unity Multiplayer, Unity Performance Reporting, Unity Collaborate and Unity Hub.

Unity supports the creation of custom vertexes, fragments (or pixels), tessellation, compute shaders and Unity's own surface shaders using Cg, a modified version of Microsoft's High-Level Shading Language developed by Nvidia.

Supported platforms

The Unity editor is supported on Windows and macOS, with a version of the editor available for the Linux platform, albeit in an experimental stage,[10] while the engine itself currently supports building games for 27 different platforms. The platforms are listed as the following: iOS, Android, Tizen, Windows, Universal Windows Platform, Mac, Linux, WebGL, PlayStation 4, PlayStation Vita, Xbox One, Wii U, 3DS, Oculus Rift, Google Cardboard, SteamVR, PlayStation VR, Gear VR, Windows Mixed Reality, Daydream, Android TV, Samsung Smart TV, tvOS, Nintendo Switch, Fire OS, Facebook Gameroom, Apple's ARKit, Google's ARCore, and Vuforia.

Unity formerly supported seven other platforms including its own Unity Web Player. The Unity Web Player was a browser plugin that was only supported on Windows and macOS via Chrome, Internet Explorer 11, and Firefox,[11] however it was deprecated in favor of WebGL.[12] Since version 5, Unity has been offering its WebGL bundle compiled to JavaScript using a 2-stage language translator (C# to C++ and finally to JavaScript).[13][14]

Unity is the default software development kit (SDK) used for Nintendo's Wii U video game console, with a free copy included by Nintendo with each Wii U developer license. Unity Technologies calls this bundling of a third-party SDK an "industry first".[15][16]

Licensing model

During its first ten years as a product the paid versions of Unity were sold outright; in 2016 the corporation changed to a subscription model.[17]

Unity has one free and three paid licensing options:

License Name All Engine Features and Platforms Revenue Capacity Splash Screen Multiplayer Cloud Build Queue Dark Theme Performance Reporting Premium Support Access to Source Code Price
Personal Yes $100,000 Made With Unity and optional Custom Animation 20 CCUs Standard No No No No Free
Plus Yes $200,000 Custom Animation and/or Made with Unity 50 CCUs Priority Yes Yes No No $35 Monthly
Pro Yes Unlimited Custom Animation and/or Made with Unity 200 CCUs Concurrent Builds Yes Yes Yes No $125 Monthly
Enterprise Yes Unlimited Custom Animation and/or Made with Unity Custom Multiplayer Dedicated Build Agents Yes Yes Yes Yes Negotiated Pricing

History

In 2012, VentureBeat said, "Few companies have contributed as much to the flowing of independently produced games as Unity Technologies. ... More than 1.3 million developers are using its tools to create gee-whiz graphics in their iOS, Android, console, PC, and web-based games. ... Unity wants to be the engine for multi-platform games, period."[15]

For the Apple Design Awards at the 2006 WWDC trade show, Apple, Inc. named Unity as the runner-up for its Best Use of Mac OS X Graphics category, a year after Unity's launch at the same trade show.[18] Unity Technologies says this is the first time a game design tool has ever been nominated for this award.[19] A May 2012 survey by Game Developer magazine indicated Unity as its top game engine for mobile platforms.[20] In July 2014, Unity won the "Best Engine" award at the UK's annual Develop Industry Excellence Awards.[21]

Unity 5 was met with similar praise, with The Verge stating that "Unity started with the goal of making game development universally accessible.... Unity 5 is a long-awaited step towards that future."[22]

Following the release of Unity 5, Unity Technologies drew some criticism for the high volume of quickly produced games published on the Steam distribution platform by inexperienced developers.[23] CEO John Riccitiello said in an interview that he believes this to be a side-effect of Unity's success in democratizing game development: "If I had my way, I'd like to see 50 million people using Unity – although I don't think we're going to get there any time soon. I'd like to see high school and college kids using it, people outside the core industry. I think it's sad that most people are consumers of technology and not creators. The world's a better place when people know how to create, not just consume, and that's what we're trying to promote."[24]

In December 2016, Unity Technologies announced that they will change the versioning numbering system for Unity from sequence-based identifiers to year of release to align the versioning with their more frequent release cadence.[25]

Marketing

On December 16, 2013, Unity Technologies Japan revealed new screenshots for an official mascot character named Unity-chan (ユニティちゃん, Yuniti-chan), real name Kohaku Ōtori (大鳥 こはく, Ōtori Kohaku) (voiced by Asuka Kakumoto), with exhibit of the character in Comic Market 85 event in the Tokyo Big Sight between December 29 to the 31st, where themed goods would be distributed and her voice actress would be present at the event. The character's associated game data were to be released in spring 2014.[26][27][28] The character was designed by Unity Technologies Japan designer "ntny" as an open-source heroine character.[29] The company allows the use of Unity-chan and related characters in secondary projects under certain licenses.[30] For example, Unity-chan appears as a playable character in Runbow.[31] The popularity of the character also led to her appearance in VOCALOID adaptions, including her own sound library for VOCALOID4 and a special adaption of VOCALOID designed to work with the Unity Engine 5.0 version called Unity with VOCALOID.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "What's New in Unity 2018.2". Unity Technologies. July 10, 2018. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  2. ↑ "Is Unity Engine written in Mono/C#? or C++ - Unity Answers". answers.unity3d.com. Retrieved 2018-09-11.
  3. ↑ "unity3d.com Traffic Statistics". Alexa Internet. Retrieved 2018-07-21.
  4. ↑ Riccitiello, John (October 23, 2014). "John Riccitiello sets out to identify the engine of growth for Unity Technologies (interview)". VentureBeat (Interview). Interviewed by Dean Takahashi. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  5. 1 2 "Unity - Multiplatform". Unity. Unity Technologies. Retrieved June 27, 2018.
  6. ↑ "2018.2 is now available – Unity". Unity Technologies Blog. July 10, 2018. Retrieved July 10, 2018.
  7. ↑ "What's new in Unity 5.0". Unity Technologies. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  8. ↑ Fine, Richard (August 11, 2017). "UnityScript's long ride off into the sunset". Unity Technologies Blog. Retrieved September 18, 2017.
  9. ↑ "Using DirectX11 in Unity 4". Unity Technologies. Archived from the original on March 12, 2013. Retrieved February 19, 2013.
  10. ↑ Bard, Na'Tosha Bard (August 26, 2015). "Unity Comes to Linux: Experimental Build Now Available – Unity Blog". Unity Technologies Blog. Retrieved June 28, 2018.
  11. ↑ "Unity Web Player".
  12. ↑ "Unity Web Player Roadmap". Unity Technologies Blog.
  13. ↑ "Unity Manual: Getting started with WebGL development".
  14. ↑ "Verge3D versus Unity WebGL".
  15. 1 2 Helgason, David (November 2, 2012). "Game developers, start your Unity 3D engines". GamesBeat (Interview). Interviewed by Dean Takahashi. VentureBeat. Retrieved July 13, 2014.
  16. ↑ McElroy, Griffin (August 20, 2013). "Unity for Wii U opens up GamePad hardware and more to developers". Polygon. Retrieved August 4, 2014.
  17. ↑ "Subscription! Why? Joachim Ante".
  18. ↑ Smykill, Jeff (August 9, 2006). "Apple Design Award winners announced". ArsTechnica. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  19. ↑ "Unity Technologies Celebrates Five Years of Continual Leadership and Innovation in Making Cutting Edge Game Technology" (Press release). San Francisco, CA: Gamasutra. June 7, 2010. Retrieved January 18, 2015.
  20. ↑ "Mobile game developer survey leans heavily toward iOS, Unity". Gamasutra. May 24, 2012. Retrieved July 14, 2014.
  21. ↑ "Winners". Develop Online. Retrieved February 8, 2015.
  22. ↑ "Unity officially releases its new game engine: Unity 5". The Verge. Retrieved November 26, 2015.
  23. ↑ "Unity - does indie gaming's biggest engine have an image problem?". The Guardian. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  24. ↑ "The chaos of democracy". Develop Online. Retrieved August 14, 2015.
  25. ↑ Batchelor, James. "Unity dropping major updates in favour of date-based model". GamesIndustry.biz. Retrieved 18 March 2017.
  26. ↑ "ユニティ・テクノロジーズ・ジャパン、開発者向けに無償利用可能なキャラクター『ユニティちゃん』を発表 コミックマーケット85にも出展、３Dモデルデータなどを来春提供予定".
  27. ↑ ""Unity"開発者向けに無償利用可能なキャラクター"ユニティちゃん"が来春デビュー！".
  28. ↑ "Meet Unity-chan, the Unity Engine's New Mascot in Japan".
  29. ↑ "Unity Japan Introduces Their Mascot, Unity-Chan, And How She Was Made".
  30. ↑ "DATA DOWNLOAD-Guideline - UNITY-CHAN! OFFICIAL WEBSITE". UNITY-CHAN! OFFICIAL WEBSITE. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
  31. ↑ "Exclusive: Check Out Runbow's Complete Cast of Colourful Crossover Characters". Nintendo Life. Retrieved November 27, 2015.
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