Unity 4 Details

[MattCarr]

Details Page (Click here for basic details page if you have problems loading)

Announcement Thread

Introducing Unity 4 video


Features

• Mecanim animation system
• DirectX 11 support
• Linux deployment

• Shuriken particle system supports external forces, bent normals and automatic culling
• 3D texture support
• Navigation: dynamic obstacles and avoidance priority
• Major optimizations in UnityGUI performance and memory usage
• Dynamic fonts on all platforms with HTML-like markup
• Remote Unity Web Player debugging
• New Project Window workflows
• Iterative lightmap baking
• Refined component-based workflows
• Extensible inspectors for custom classes
• Improved Cubemap import pipeline
• Geometry data improvements for huge memory and performance savings
• Meshes can be constructed from non-triangle geometry - render points & lines efficiently
• Search, live preview and buy Asset Store assets from the Project Window

• Shadows support on mobile

With DirectX support, Unity 4 games should see increased shader capabilities and smoother models and environments (via tessellation). The company says mobile platforms will also see a boost of fidelity thanks to new features and optimizations. Promised improvements include real-time shadows, skinned mesh instancing, normal map baking, and a refined GPU profiler.

The release also finally brings Flash deployment, introduced in beta form last year, to a fully functional release. It also adds a preview of deployment to desktop Linux machines.

The biggest change Unity is touting for this latest release is the addition of Mecanim, a suite of animation tools the company acquired last year. Mecanim allows developers to create animation blend trees and state machines within Unity itself.

Preorder Details on Store Page

Unity Press Release
Gamasutra Article
Develop Article
Gamesindustry.biz Article

DX11 Demo (Click to see large version)




Mecanim (Click to see large version)




Project Browser and Add Component System (Click to see large version)




Mobile Shadows (Click to see large version)

[UNITY3D_TEAM]

when is 4.0 releasing?

[MattCarr]

when is 4.0 releasing?

Sometime after or around Unite in August I suppose.

[fallingbrickwork]

No mention of a 64bit editor, or is this to just be expected?!

[n0mad]

Ok I'll be the first to jump the gun I guess

Major optimizations in UnityGUI performance and memory usage

... ?

Additional features to be available in Unity 4.0, according to a list provided to us by Unity

Additional features to be available in Unity 4.0

?

Reminder :

http://unity3d.com/company/news/unit...orm-press.html

Unity Technologies' iPhone product, Unity iPhone, is also getting a number of major improvements for version 3.0 including streaming audio support for smaller build size, Bluetooth multiplayer support, faster in-game GUIs and a very fast 2D sprite engine as well as numerous performance improvements to provide faster frame rates.

[janpec]

a preview of game deployment to Linux

Wait does that means Linux support?

Promised improvements include real-time shadows, skinned mesh instancing

Sounds great.

[n0mad]

what explanation?


That the current UnityGUI would get an additional push (in the range of 2-10 times as fast) has been mentioned some time ago to perform better.

This does not impact the new system basing on the informations back then as for 64bit editor: since 3.5 umbra and beast are 64bit removing the need for a 64bit editor seriously as those were the two common reasons for it to fail outside the build pipeline problems (which I hope will be addressed in one or the other form and don't doubt that this will be the case with the push for tripple A which simply needs to be able to handle 10-30gb projects)

[kenlem]

Man, Unity better have one hell of a special for upgrade pricing on Pro and mobiles or I'm going to just use free and basic.

[maxfax2009]

no

Texture streaming
We’ve been working on a texture streaming solution. Unity will load the textures at the necessary resolution just before it needs it. You have a texture memory budget which Unity will fill with the most important textures necessary. Unity automatically analyzes your scene but you can also manually specify the needed textures & resolutions at specific locations in your game.
This means you can have more textures at a higher resolution, especially on mobile devices and consoles. Unity automatically analyzes your scene to allow for prefetching of textures. Even on iOS we’re able to stream textures in the background at 60FPS.

SAD face

[MattCarr]

Man, Unity better have one hell of a special for upgrade pricing on Pro and mobiles or I'm going to just use free and basic.

Considering the Gamasutra article says "A release date for Unity 4 has not been set, though interested developers can pre-order it here." and links to the store page, I'd say there's a chance that the press release/info they received said preordering would be available there and it's just not setup yet. If so then we'll probably see pricing soon enough when the Unity site is updated.

[kenlem]

In the past, they have pretty good pricing for upgrades. I'm a little grumpy at not getting a GUI in 3 and would like a better deal this time around. Probably won't happen so I'd better get over it and get back to work.

[Morning]

Search, live preview and buy Asset Store assets from the Project Window

I don't like this, sounds intrusive. I like how asset store is a separate window that stays separate if I don't use it.

[Metron]

Sooo... features that we awaited in 3.5 are now in 4.0... this means that I have to lay down some more more to get improvements to realize my project... since I also purchase the Unity Pro version of Unity for my graphic artist, this means twice the money...

Well... let's see... I'm surely think twice before spending another $1500 for licenses to Unity...

[MattCarr]

In the past, they have pretty good pricing for upgrades. I'm a little grumpy at not getting a GUI in 3 and would like a better deal this time around. Probably won't happen so I'd better get over it and get back to work.

I haven't used Unity's GUI system for years in anything beyond prototypes so it's not something that bothers me, but it does suck that it was originally slated for 3.X. These things happen though.

I'm pretty excited about a bunch of these features. All the rendering stuff is great. DirectX 11, 3D texture support, etc will allow me to do some really cool stuff in Advanced Surface Shaders.

I'm also glad they're adding dynamic obstacles to the pathfinding because I think it's pretty useless in it's current state.

[AdmiralAckbar]

Guys, while we don't want to not give you answers to your questions, this article was published earlier then it was supposed to be. For this reason I have had to remove details about the release from this thread and close it for now. The press release will go live in a couple of hours and we'll be able to respond to any and all concerns you guys have then.

Sorry for the confusion.

[antenna tree]

Ok, it's official

[MattCarr]

Ok, it's official

Ah, didn't need to make that second thread then . Didn't realise this one would be brought back. Sorry about the early post, didn't know the Gamasutra news was early .

[David Helgason]

@MattCarr: no hard feelings, you couldn't know that you hit in the middle of a time wormhole

[dead1ock]

Ok, it's official

Yay

[VeraxOdium]

The conspiracy is now complete They did what we feared they were doing.