Unity 3.5 Update

I want to take a moment to give you all an update regarding Unity 3.5.

This is shaping up to be a massive release (even by Unity standards), and is packed full with new features and improvements. Most of these features were first outlined back in June, with our 2011 roadmap. Many of them were demoed live on stage at Unite. We are excited to see what you will create with all the new stuff in 3.5, and we can't wait to get it in your hands.

Let’s see what’s new in Unity 3.5:

• Shuriken, our awesome new curve- and gradient-driven modular particle system.
• Automatic navigation mesh generation, path-finding, and crowd simulation.
• Occlusion Culling has been rewritten from scratch to make baking reliable and much faster. Gates can be opened and closed at runtime.
• Built-in level-of-detail support.
• Cache Server – massively decreases import times when working in teams or switching platforms.
• Google Chrome NaCl support – the Unity Web Player plays automatically in Chrome without requiring an install.
• High dynamic range rendering with built-in tone mapping.
• Linear space (gamma correct) lighting and shading.
• Light probes for lighting dynamic objects and characters with high-quality baked lighting.
• Directional (RNM) lightmaps which enable bump and specular effects on surfaces lit by direct and indirect light.
• Area lights for lightmap baking.
• A brand new multi-threaded renderer. Unity will offload rendering to a separate core on your CPU, which can be up to 2x faster depending on the scene.
• Inspector finally supports multi-object editing.
• The profiler reports how much time is spent on the GPU on a per-object basis.
• Low-level audio buffer access which supports real-time sound generation.
• Webcam and microphone support.
• Text based scene and prefab formats make it possible to merge scene files.
• Prefab connections are no longer broken when adding or removing components!
• Find References of assets within your current scene
• Builtin iAd, Compass and Push notification support on iOS.
• Fully pluggable Social API with out-of-the-box iOS GameCenter support.
• XCode 4.0 “Build Run” support.
• Quality Settings can now be specified per platform and are more flexible.
• Much improved MonoDevelop auto-completion.
• A ton of low level optimizations across the board, including a brand new memory allocation framework that reduces memory usage.
• A ton of small bugfixes.

Some of you will notice that the re-written GUI system that we mentioned in our roadmap isn't on this list. Unfortunately, it still isn't ready to be released. We know this is important to you, and we are working very hard to get it done, and make it truly awesome... but it just isn't Unity quality yet (I'm the lead developer of it, so blame me). We don't want to delay access to all the other incredibly cool stuff we've been working on because a re-written GUI isn't ready.

We are also going to be shipping Unity 3.5 with extended VCS support, but without the integrated GUI that was mentioned in the roadmap and in the Unite keynote. This means that Unity 3.5 will bring huge improvements when working with Subversion and Perforce, and at some point in the future it will be even better.

Because we have decided to postpone these features, Unity 3.5 will be coming soon. We'll have some more details to share in the near future, so stay tuned.

 

Nice,cant wait for it!

 

Thats great, is there going to be any video of updates that are included in 3.5?

 

Only thing we have right now is the Unite keynote

 

Nice list, but I rather would have the new GUI system instead of all the features from the list combined...

 

So much awesomeness! Can't wait!

 

Awesome features! Can't wait

 

Waiting on the GUI system is holding up two titles, but if they aren't going to be in 3.5, it's better to know sooner rather than later. I'll have to rework some iAd and GameCenter code as well, but that's not a big deal. Previously, I was using a Prime31 plugin.

The proper text-based scene files are a huge improvement as well.

 

*implodes*

So excited!

 

It's a shame that the new GUI system didn't make it in time but it's also understandable. I rather wait for a "solid" solution than a half baked one. In any case, all the other mentioned new features are awesome so let's not forget that

 

Agreed

 

Exactly, shame for the gui but it's better to wait a little bit more and have a solid solution Nevertheless, I'm really looking forward for that release and all these awesome features!!!

Thanks Santa!

 

Will it make things go faster if I keep spamming refresh on the home page?

 

Great news! I hope we'll have it for Christmas!
What about Flash support? Has it been delayed too?

 

that is just awesome!, great job Nich and Unity guys!!

 

best update yet

 

Looks good. How much do we scroungers get? Heheh. I'm relying on LOD support mainly.

 

Simply awesome!
I can live with the postponed GUI system, better release something functional than more headaches.
Can't wait to try out all these features and make some Performance tests

Damn, i have to change my pants now!

 

ROCKS MY WORLD

Since my next game is going to use the following and use it HARD: navmesh, crowds, gamecenter, probes AND shuriken! The prototype is done already and I cannot wait to utilize the experience we had making Physynth, and apply that to a real crowd-pleaser rocking game!!!

I'm excited. I'm psyched. And its down to Unity. Once again I'm putting the unity logo in it. I think it's actually the best release unity have done. I'm expecting a 2-3 month dev time for this baby, since it's target is the mass market arcade crowd.

I just hope that navmesh/crowd support will work with 10-20 enemies at a time on iOS! Hopefully I can specify how much processing it takes up since our target is 3GS and above.

Don't forget to put 4S detection in guys, we will always tailor the graphics experience based on the device (and if we get access to android unity, we will have low/med/high detail option there instead of detection).

 

Every single new thing is awesome, let us know what about flash that another really really great new support, we have been waiting for it with so much expectation.

 

Oh!! and I'll be tickling steam and mac appstore with this title too! So make sure its all fabulous!

 

Really awesome!

Thank's for this update is very appreciated.

Now the Unity3D 3.5 countdown is started!!!

 

awesome update!!!!, shame on the gui , but im right now using a cool third party solution.. so keep up the good work

 

Wait! what about flash publishing?

 

I was about to ask the same GFX47. I've said that already on Twitter, if Unity takes much longer to release its Flash deployment it's best to simply redirect its focus to HTML5 deployment - isn't that what Adobe itself is doing?

I'm not saying that's an easy thing to do right by the way, on the contrary - exactly for being hard and taking long is that it's probably best to focus your efforts on the longer term technologies. Just my $0.02

Other changes/updates that I absolutely loved:
- Linear space (gamma correct) lighting and shading. (good looking 3D even with intense lights)
- Area lights for lightmap baking. (now we're talking about pro radiosity/GI!)
- Inspector finally supports multi-object editing. (O-M-G-finally! That's all)
- Text based scene and prefab formats make it possible to merge scene files + Prefab connections are no longer broken when adding or removing components + Find References of assets within your current scene (Completely, utterly game changing for any production scenario)

 

I remember FMOD Designer support in the 3.5 roadmap, any status update about this ?

I didn't use Unity since 2.6, all these new features will make me explode...

 

so...will version control work in 3.5 or not...i didn't completely understand what the post meant.

 

No thats not what adobe is doing.
Stage 3D can't run in webbrowsers directly nor can unity (html5 has no 3d at all! And webgl which you potentially misslabel as html5 is 2+ years away from market usability on a scale where unity could use it).

Adobe is actually droping AIR (announced at the summit along the move of AIR to open source) and dropping flash on android (a useless slow trashy thing since its day 1 so no lose) to focus much stronger on flash and its feature and replace the 'business app side' over time through HTML5 for webapps. It has only little to mid interest to replace the rest (Edge is a research project to see if simple banner stuff etc can be done on it and the results are mixed)

 

Yes it will work but as previously mentioned on the related blog, all the new team features will require the team license (currently called Asset Server License, an addon for Unity pro). they will not work with free or pro

 

Awesome news guys! This will surely be the best Unity update yet!

Just a quick question: will the in-app purchases be included ?? (assuming that feature will be a part of the out-of-the-box iOS social/game-center support ?? )

 

It is a shame that the new GUI isn't ready, but I'm glad that everything else isn't being held up for it. Hopefully the GUI will be in 3.6, with a release not too far into the future.

One question about the Prefab changes. Will we be able to break a Prefab connection when we want to? The only way I see of doing it at the moment is to add / remove components, an option which will be gone.

 

SWEEEEEET! Can't wait for this now! I wish the new GUI was going to make it into this version, but it's better to wait for great new GUI system than a rushed GUI system.

 

All I have to say is...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P3ALwKeSEYs

It's funny, that's the second time today I've had reason to post that video...

I'm especially happy about the light probes, HDR and gamma, and the pathfinding, can't wait!
I wonder what all will be available in Unity Free :/

 

Great. Now I don't have to consider buying several plugins or jump through hoops to take advantage of some things. The LOD is great.

I guess regarding the GUI there is a well known plugin that I'll use until Unity's is released and I can drop it.

The way I see it when Unity develops a GUI such that I don't have to worry about native code access, forking by platform or taking some work outside of Unity and still publish my work to all the big platforms it will have arrived.

 

I too, am concerned about the original post not mentioning the Flash port in 3.5. Can someone from Unity confirm whether or not the Flash port will be in 3.5? I have been expecting and counting on it.

 

I think it's safe to assume a big thing like flash will come with it's own hype and splash with paid-for license.

 

Great list of updates. Keen to start playing with Area lights and glad to see Multi Object editing now added. Not phased about the new GUI being delayed, prefer it to be solid when it does.

 

Sounds Awesome!

Is there anything in this update that will allow serializing of scenes so that they can be saved and loaded?

That's great news about low level access to audio. I have a 64K Text to Speech System that I'd love to port to Unity. Will we be able to position the resulting audio in 3d space?

 

I don't think I've ever waited more eagerly for a release as this one. That is an incredible list of features.

Can't wait for this new particle system. We have all our particle fx on hold here waiting for it.

Cheers

 

Where did people read that Flash Export was ever going to be in 3.5? I've only ever seen it in the roadmap as being in the future, but with no specific release version in mind.

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2011/06/16/unity-roadmap-2011/

 

Adobe is dropping Flex (AIR is still going strong) and the flash player for mobile devices.

 

Thanks! Really appreciate the update - so I'm thinking NGUI in the current project and the new Unity GUI in the next project. Glad to finally be able to check that decision off

You guys do awesome work nicholas - thanks for all the effort you put in.

 

No Flash export?
Anyway, pretty excited for all those features.

 

Sweet. Wish we could see some demos of what the GUI will look like when done, even if it isn't ready for release. But we all want something.

I will just have to play with the goodies that come with the next version.

 

...
Here I go again, buying another plugin... Good about the Lprobs and Lod...
But the GUI was the main thing for me, anyways I will never ever pay 200$ in a spaguety bugged weird system -.-
I will take a look in Ngui.
Now I dont even care about 3.5 anymore, just hope the new GUI comes soon next year cause the new in'house project is very GUI intensive with lots and lots of pages on the menus with tens of elements and a lot of HUD objects in'game. Still I can use OnGUI for the menus, but theres no way to use it on the HUD. sigh

 

Great stuff, I can't wait!
I think most of us already implemented ezgui/alternate gui methods in our projects, but I guess we will very happy with:

"Shuriken, our awesome new curve- and gradient-driven modular particle system. " - how much is this optimized for mobile? will be different particles batched somehow?

I also like google chrome full implementation, improved batching and auto LOD sound also cool, cant wait !

we agree, 4S detection is a nice addition, btw, on android market you can choose what Apk is downloaded for what device, so I guess autodetection or quality option would be

this is something I expected fixed in 1.7 but hell! better late than never!

great work guys, this list is a good answer to some bashing.

I agree 100%

 

@Nicholas, Thanks for the update! It all sounds awesome

 

support CJK is very hardful now.
and it's impossible to using my freetype dll in webplayer
please add api and implement full freetype dll

 

i'm also excited about some of the new stuff. but i miss a word about nested prefabs. in the unity roadmap 2011 following is mentioned:

in the list of features in this thread you say:

So can i expect nested prefabs to work in 3.5 or not? this would be really essential to me.