Tag: Unity

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Unity and Snap Inc Announce New Partnership

Unity Technologies and Snap Inc (parent company of SnapChat) have announced a new partnership. The partnership is a two-fold endeavour, advertising and technology integration.

Details of the advertising partnership from Business Wire:

Starting today, Unity Ads, which reaches a highly engaged mobile gaming audience on both Android and iOS, is now included in the Snap Audience Network (SAN). Snapchat’s SAN advertiser campaigns will now include video inventory from Unity’s extensive network of mobile gaming titles, helping advertisers extend beyond Snapchat. Unity Ads1 reports 22.9B+ monthly global ad impressions, reaching 2B+ monthly active end-users worldwide. In 2020, mobile ad viewers have converted at higher frequencies, with install conversion rates up by 23%2, and mobile gamers installing 84% more apps3.

“Snapchat is all about staying connected with your closest friends, but friendships aren’t just about conversations. They are often also based on shared experiences, which today includes gaming,” said Ben Schwerin, VP of Partnership, Snap Inc. “As gaming has increasingly become a visible part of the Snapchatter journey, it’s also an area that we aim to make easier for retailers and brands to reach Unity’s action-orientated gaming community through their Snapchat campaigns.”

From the same article, we get details on the new Unity integration of Snap technologies:

Available today in the Unity Asset Store, mobile game developers can also now leverage select features of Snap Kit to enhance gameplay and the game discovery experience:

– Snap Kit’s Login Kit allows gamers to use their Snapchat account as a quick way to sign up and log in to games.

– Snap Kit’s Creative Kit extends the experience by allowing users to share their gameplay, decorating still shots or 15-second videos with branded stickers, or attaching an AR lens that has been created with game branding to share with their Snapchat friends. The shares also include referral links back to the game, amplifying discovery and user acquisition for Unity developers to Snapchat’s 249 million daily active users4.

A Bitmoji integration will also be coming in early 2021, and will add a new level of personalization to gameplay. With Bitmoji for Game’s Unity SDK, developers will be able to leverage 3D Bitmoji to create a more immersive experience in games made with Unity. They will be able to bring players’ Bitmoji avatars into the center of gameplay, enabling players to be themselves in games like never before.

The SnapKit integration is already live on the Asset Store. For game developers utilizing Unity Ads, this should be an immediate win as a large group of advertisers are now going to be able to target their ad units, hopefully leading to an increase in revenue. You can learn more about the Unity & Snap partnership in the video below.

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Unity 2020.2 Released

Unity Technologies have just released Unity 2020.2, only the second tech release in 2020. This is part of a new focus on quality over quantity as described on the Unity Blog:

We had plans for 2020. We were going to do things better to make Unity better for you. And we did. We reexamined our priorities. We listened to you. We committed to improving performance and quality of life for all users – so you can bring your vision to life faster.

Unity 2020.2 TECH Stream is packed with all the latest features for those with projects in pre-production, or simply for those who want to leverage the most cutting edge tech to achieve a competitive edge. This version of Unity also ensures a smooth upgrade path forward. To get started, download it here today.

Following up on our promise to improve your development experience, in 2020 we shifted our release philosophy. We prioritized quality over quantity and reduced the number of releases to two per year, giving our engineers an extended stabilization phase. 

Even with the increased focus on Unity 2020.2 there are several improvements in a number of different categories:

There is also an updated schedule of future Unity releases:

Unity Release Schedule
Unity Release Schedule Through 2022

There are more details on the Unity 2020.2 release available here. You can learn more about the Unity 2020.2 release in the video below. In related news, Unity also have a 50% off sale on the Unity Asset Store with an additional 5% off on > $120 purchases with the code GOODBYE2020.

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Unity Make MLAPI Official Networking Library for GameObjects

Way back in 2018 Unity announced the official deprecation of the UNET networking solution, which consisted of the low level (LLAPI) and high level (HLAPI) networking solutions. The reasons for the deprecation were:

Through our connected games initiatives, we’re revamping how we can make networked games easier, more performant, and multiplayer-ready by default. To make these important changes, we need to start anew. That means existing multiplayer features will be gradually deprecated, with more performant, scalable, and secure technologies taking their place. But don’t worry – games with impacted features will have plenty of time to react.

At this point in time the future was clearly DOTS (Data Oriented Technology Stack) which included a new solution called Unity NetCode. In the end the migration to DOTS hasn’t gone as smoothly as expected and recently Unity have started back-filling support for GameObject based development. One recent example was the acquisition, then subsequent free release of the Bolt visual scripting solution. Today Unity have made a similar move, by adopting the open source MLAPI networking project as the new official Unity networking solution. Details from the Unity blog:

One of Unity’s top priorities for 2021 is to expand the Unity ecosystem with a first-party multiplayer networking solution for GameObjects that is easy to set up and extend, scales to meet the needs of high-performance titles, and is seamlessly integrated into the Unity ecosystem.

The existing UNet HLAPI architecture is not well suited for the in-depth evolution that is required to support games at scale. Rest assured, we don’t want to reinvent the wheel. The ecosystem currently offers multiple strong solutions, and the best path toward providing you with the scalable framework we envision is to build on the amazing work that already exists in the community. 

We considered various open source software (OSS) alternatives and found a framework that fit our needs. We’re thrilled to share that the OSS multiplayer networking framework MLAPI is joining the Unity family, along with its creator, Albin Corén.

As of today, we’re already working on integrating and evolving MLAPI into what will become Unity’s first-party GameObjects netcode solution. We plan to continue the development fully open source. Developing in the open and welcoming community contributions. If you are interested, you can join us on the GitHub MLAPI repo.

You can learn more about MLAPI and the ongoing saga of networking on Unity in the video below.

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Unity Closing Unity Connect

Unity Connect was first launched back in 2016 as a sort of social hub for Unity developers. Due to declining interest Unity have announced Unity connect will be closing by February 4th, 2021. Users were sent the following email announcing the closure:

Hi User,

Today we’re announcing that on February 4, 2021, Unity Connect, our dedicated talent and sharing marketplace, will shut down. We’re proud of the community that rallied around Connect and we are inspired by the great sharing and discovery that came from it.

We want to make this transition as smooth as possible for everyone who uses Connect. If you are an active user on the platform, click here to learn more about the alternatives that will be provided for some Connect features. If you would like to download any part of your profile, please feel free to do so before we delete your information on February 4, 2021.

If you head on over to the Unity Connect website you will see a notice of the upcoming closure with the following details:

We launched Unity Connect almost four years ago in an effort to provide a free community tool for all users, of all experience levels, to connect with each other. While the product has a loyal following, over the years usage has declined. So, on February 4, 2021, we will retire Unity Connect. Some features, e.g. posting new content, creating job posts, will be locked prior to this date.

We understand that these changes might cause inconvenience, therefore, we have made sure to provide alternatives for some of the most popular Connect features, please read on to learn more.

You can learn more about the Unity Connect closure and the alternative services available for Unity Connect users in the video below.

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Unity Super Sale On Now Until Dec 4th

Unity are running their annual Super Sale just in time for Black Friday, with 700+ assets 50% off as well as daily specials that are 70%+ off. Additionally if you purchase Unity pro or Unity Enterprise, you currently get an additional license, such as Unity Build, MARS, ArtEngine, Reflect or Pixyz, a heck of a deal if you were going to get a pro subscription anyways!

The daily deals are as follows:

The above items are only for sale on the date listed, so if you click a link on any other day you will see regular pricing. All of the above links contain an affiliate code that pays GFS a small commission if used (and thanks if you do!). You can learn more about the sale in the video below.

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Unity MegaBundle X Racing Game Assets

There are only a few days left in Unity’s 10th Anniversary MegaBundle X that we previously discussed here. Taking a quick look through the assets in the bundle it becomes clear that there are a number of assets that would be perfect for people looking to create a racing game. Today we are going to look at the following assets from the bundle:

Edy’s Vehicle Physics

This asset contains the logic you need to control your cars, from fast drifting sports cars to city buses.

EasyRoads3D Pro

Quickly and easily create and populate road networks using a simple spline based approach, both in the editor and dynamically at run-time, with a terrain aware system.

Toon Racing

A collection of toon shader styled racing cars, rally cars and monster trucks. It also contains several props, track pieces and more for creating a full racing game with a consistent art style.

UniStorm

Add dynamic weather systems, day/night cycles, pouring rain and more to your racing game with UniStorm.

Oak Trees Pack

They’re trees. Oak trees. There are 5 of them, enough said.

The above links contain affiliate codes that pay GFS a small commission if you purchase anything (thanks so much if you do!). Of course be sure to use the Bundle Link and not individual asset links to get the savings, at least until November 12th. You can learn more and see all the above assets in action in the video below.

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Exporting From Unity To Other Game Engines

With the recent Fantasy 3D Models humble bundle there were a number of questions about how assets can be extracted from the Unity game engine for use in other engines such as Godot, Unreal, Lumberyard, Stride, CryEngine or basically any other 3D game engine. That is exactly what we will look at in this tutorial, as we have in the past in this tutorial for Unreal Engine. Fortunately assets in the Unity game engine are generally stored as FBX files and textures are stored in image file formats, making this process a fair bit easier than it was in Unreal.

First and foremost you need to download the assets. Unfortunately to do this you will need to have Unity installed to perform the download process. (If you know a way to download unitypackage files from the command-line or outside of Unity, please let me know and I will update!) First you are going to need to purchase an asset from the Unity Asset store (or one of the several available free options). Once you have one or more assets on your account, fire up Unity and create a new project (type doesn’t matter). Next select the Package Manager in the menu Window->Package Manager.

Package Manager Window

Next in the Package Manager, in the top left corner drop down the menu and select My Assets option.

Package Manager My Assets selection in Unity

This will load your assets. If you have several assets, you may need to click Load More and the bottom to find your asset. Once located, select your asset in the left hand list, then select the Download button on the bottom right menu.

Downloading assets in the Package Manager in Unity

Repeat this task for each package you want downloaded. Once you have all of your assets downloaded you can close Unity. Now (on Windows at least) go to Windows Explorer and enter %APPDATA% in the location box.

APPDATA in Explorer

This will automatically expand into the relevant folder name. Next navigate into the folder Unity, then Asset Store-5.x. In my case the full directory is C:\Users\serap\AppData\Roaming\Unity\Asset Store-5.x. In this folder will be a list of companies, these are the creators of the assets as named on the Asset Store, pick the one you downloaded earlier, then open up the asset within that directly. You should now see one or more files with a unitypackage file extension. Copy the asset you want to use to a directory of your choice.

Now we are going to need Unity Package Extractor, download Unity Package Extractor. Extract the zip file to the same location that you copied your unitypackage earlier. Now open a command prompt and CD into that directory, in this example lets assume c:\temp. Run the commands:

cd \temp

extractor ‘packagenamewithextension.unitypackage’

This will extract out all of the assets ready for your use. Tada, done! You can learn more about this process, step by step in the tutorial video below.

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Humble Ultimate Fantasy Game Development Bundle

There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, this one is the Ultimate Fantasy Game Development bundle. It’s a collection of fantasy themed models, full rigged, textured and animated with tons of modularity and different texture packs. Even more impressive, the package is available as keys for both Unity and Unreal Engine asset stores and the models and textures are in a format that can be used in any 3D game engine with ease. As with all Humble Bundles, this one is organized into tiers:

1$ Tier

  • Plant Monster
  • Rock Monster
  • Mushroom Monster

15$ Tier

  • Giant Worm
  • Minotaur
  • Mimics & Chests
  • Medusa
  • Locks and Lockpicks

25$ Tier

  • Spiders
  • Dragons
  • Humans
  • Armor Pack 1
  • Weapons & Armor 1
  • Character Accessories
  • Trolls
  • Demons
  • Magic & Melee Sounds Library
  • Devils

As with all Humble Bundles, you get to decide how your money is allocated between Humble, Charity, the publisher and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GFS purchasing through this link. You can get additional asset packs in the same art style created by Infinity PBR on the Unity Asset Store. You can learn more about the asset pack in the video below.

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Unity Mega Bundle X 10th Anniversary Sale On Now

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of the Unity Asset Store, Unity are running the Mega Bundle X sale. This is a collection of assets organised into tiers, very similar to a traditional Humble bundle. If you buy a higher dollar value tier you get all of the assets in the lower tiers as well. The tiers of this bundle consist of:

10$ Tier

25$ Tier

36$ Tier

Be sure to use the bundle link and not the individual links above, as the sale pricing is only on the bundle itself, individual assets are all still full price. You can learn more about the bundle in the video below. Links to the bundle, including this one, contain an affiliate code that pay a small commission to GFS if used (and thanks if you do!).

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Oculus Quest 2 Game Development Options

October 13th is the official launch date of the Oculus Quest 2, and with millions of Quests now in gamer’s hands, some are no doubt going to want to figure you how to develop games for them. This is a quick overview of the various different technical options and tools for developing games on the Oculus Quest 2.

The very first thing you are going to want to do is visit the Oculus Quest Developer Portal, the central repository and jumping off point for Oculus VR development. You are also eventually going to have to register to get your developer keys, which are required to deploy your completed game onto a headset. We will cover this in a later tutorial. For now let’s look at some of the options available for Quest 2 game development.

Native Development

Oculus release a set of low level C++ development tools for creating your own game or application basically from scratch. Native development is ultimately Android NDK development and requires Android Studio to be installed, as well as the Oculus Mobile SDK. There are a number of C++ code samples to get you started. Only take this option if you are an experienced coder and want to work at a very low level.

Unity Game Engine

The Unity game engine is perhaps the most commonly used game engine for VR development today. The Quest 2 is fully supported and you get a huge amount of starter content and tutorials to get you going. Oculus have getting started with Unity guides available here.

Unreal Engine

After the Unity game engine, Unreal is probably the next most commonly used game engines for VR development. Like Unity, Oculus have getting started materials for Unreal Engine available as well. If you are having trouble deciding between Unreal and Unity, check out this video comparing the two.

Godot Engine

The open source Godot game engine is another option for Oculus Quest development. There is a Oculus Mobile plugin available here as well as the Quest specific Quest Toolkit for Godot, which ships with tons of examples to get you up and started.

Other Engines

CryEngine can be used for Quest 2 development, as evidence by The Climb. Unfortunately CryEngine mobile and VR support is only available in a private beta currently. Additionally the Lumberyard game engine supports VR development, but currently only desktop platforms. You can run Rift and Vive games on the Quest, but using Lumberyard you can’t currently do native development.

WebVR

One of the easiest and quickest to get up and running is creating browser based VR games that can be run on the Quest 2. Here one of the easiest options is A-Frame where you can create 3D worlds using simple HTML-esque markup. Three.JS is the technology A-Frame is built upon and is another option, while the higher level PlayCanvas game engine has VR support as well.

You can learn more about the Oculus Quest 2 and the development options available in the video below.