Unity for Absolute Beginners

Hi all,

It's me again, Sue Blackman, and I am pleased to tell you that my second Unity book is now out! The title is Unity for Absolute Beginners (Apress, publishers). Don't be mislead by the title, this is not a 'dummies' book. But this book does assume that you may have little or no experience with game development, scripting, 2D or 3D assets.

As with my first book (1st and 2nd editions) the book is project based. This one is more mainstream, however, and takes you through the process of creating a querky little third person shooter game featuring a 'modified" garden gnome. It's full of key concepts, functionality and mayhem. It uses C# but if you prefer Unity's javaScript, we can help out here on the forum if you get stuck on converting code.

For those of you new to Unity, you will soon discover that Unity tends to make changes in each release that can make authoring for this great game engine, well, challenging. Bookmark this first post- I'll be adding errata, clarification, and later, changes required by new Unity releases. The book should be pretty solid from the start as I had a top-notch tech reader this time around, our very own 'Dreamora', from the Unity forums. Thanks Marc!

Anyway, drop in and let me know if you find errors or confusing bits and I'll be happy to help if possible. And I always enjoy hearing how readers have taken the next step and have used what they have learned to create their own games!

Enjoy!
-Sue

 

For the lazy: http://www.apress.com/9781430267799

Looks really good. Been trying to spend more time learning Unity3D myself. Going to recommend it to a few friends and put it on my wishlist. Glad you are also doing it in C#.

 

When will the Downloads be available, apress.com does not seem to show them (alpha program)

Looking forward to this.

Mike

 

uploaded them a few days ago, not sure how long it takes to make them available to all
hopefully, it will be soon!

 

The question was asked because the publish date it 6/19 and I think that has passed . Sent query to apress.

 

@sue

Would the book: Unity for Absolute Beginners also be available through Amazon.com or would it be better to order through appress.com?

I'm asking as I'm based in the UK and saw the price in dollars.

Thanks.

 

@memiles- haha- I had the assets uploaded along with the regular chapters mid April- I wasn't told to upload them to the ftp 'til last week...<sigh>
re publish dates...publishers are always optimists and most tech-book authors have day jobs, so add Unity's propensity for making changes that require re-writes throughout the authoring process and I think we are all relieved whenever the book is finished

@Nicholas- no idea which is best for you. I know Apress has gone to 'print on demand' with Amazon, but not sure what that means for cost or speed of delivery

 

I downloaded the pdf version a couple of days ago, didn't think about assets. Will they be available on the Apress site - currently there's no Source Code tab on the books page.

 

@sue,

Thanks for the reply. I'll look into it in detail.

 

publisher says the downloads will be available no later than Wed. morning

 

A "modified" garden gnome? That just makes me afraid.

Congratulations on getting another book out. I really enjoyed your "Beginning 3D Game Development" book.

Amazon says the print isn't released as of July 3, but the Kindle version is available already. Both are located here.

 

Just bought the book a few days ago. Really loving it so far. esp the static batching parts.

Glad its in C# also.

 

Hi,

Really enjoying this book, I have others, but so far this the best introduction to unity so far.

I'm as far as the chapter 5 and 6, and in both chapters I've run across a problem : -

in chapter 5 : -

void onCollisionEnter .....etc

and in chapter 6 : -

void OnTriggerEnter ..... etc

in both cases, I'm warned I cannot use 'void' in this manner, I've written everything out word for word, but monoDevelop will not compile the code, has Unity changed this functionality and if so, how should I rewrite these types of functions ?

Thanks

 

check to make sure you have not put them inside other functions?

 

Hi, thanks for getting back to me : -

I've copied and pasted the following code, based on how far I got in chapter 6 with it : -

The error message was : -

Keyword 'void' cannot be used in this context when referring to void OnTriggerEnter, expanding the error message I get, Unexpected symbol `(', expecting `,', `;', or `='

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

using UnityEngine;
using System.Collections;

public class SensorDoors : MonoBehaviour {

public AnimationClip clipOpen; // The open animation
public AnimationClip clipClose; // The close animation

// Use this for initialization
void Start () {

}

// Update is called once per frame
void Update () {

// open the gates
void OnTriggerEnter (Collider defender) {
if (defender.gameObject.tag == "Player") {
animation.Play(clipOpen.name);
}

// close the gates
void OnTriggerExit (Collider defender) {
if (defender.gameObject.tag == "Player") {
animation.Play(clipClose.name);
}

}
}



---------------------------------------

Same problem with the void code in chapter 5 also, copied it word for word, but won't compile and get same error message, I jumped forward to chapter 6 assuming it was something I had done, I've even tried the code you provided in the downloadable source files, same thing... :/

 

ahhh ! I just figured out what I've been doing wrong, based on the previous scripting introduction in chapter 5, I was adding my code 'within' the void Update function, and not outside of that, in your book you clearly say : -

1. Below the Update function, add an OnTriggerEnter() function:

Which is just interpreted as 'within', not below, so I've fixed it now, apologies for wasting your time, still love the book !

 

no worries

I try to be careful about how I write instructions, but sometimes things just get confusing <sigh>

And thank you so much for your kind words about the book, could I ask a favor?
If you've got a moment, could you do a review for it on Amazon?

thanks,
Sue

 

Hi,

Just picked up the book this afternoon and loving it! I am currently on page 82, where I've added the light, but I am not getting any shadows from the trees. I've rechecked the steps and can't find anything I've missed. What should I look for to fix it?

 

Ok, I've found that I do have shadows if I am in very close, but the radius seems very small and I can't find a setting that enlarges it. How can I make the draw distance for the shadows larger?

 

hi pitbldr,

from the Window menu, select Lightmapper & you will get an inset in the scene view- it will allow you to adjust the Shadow Distance

also, you can set them in Edit, Project Settings, Quality

if the distance is too great, you will be using a lot of resourses
if you have pro, you can use the dual lightmaps where the baked shadows show outside of the dynamic distance zone

hope that helps!

Sue

 

yep, that did it! Thanks for the help Sue!

 

Hello!

In Chapter 9, page 441, step 7.

7. Add the following to the Start function:
transform.parent = bundle.transform; // move the baby zb into the bundle group

When I do this, the baby zbs don't visually appear when they move inside of the bundle group. I've commented this line out and I can see them but they don't fall with the group and keep moving on towards the left of the screen. I do see them generate and appear/disappear from the hierarchy view but the sprite just isn't visible. Any idea what I'm missing? I've copied and pasted the code from the game files just in case I had some silly typo but I am getting the same result. I've been on this for 5 hours now and, as the last of my hair falls out, I wanted to seek some advice directly from you.

Any ideas?

 

Hello, its my second book i buy from you, i really like them!

I just have start this one, and at page 136 , when i clip play,the "Flap" go
through the ground and disappear?

 

Hi, i find it, i forgot to check Auto Configure Anchor..

 

@sue: I love this book - its pedagogical style is really great.

I've been using it with Unity 4.6.2f1 on the Mac rather than Unity 4.5 on Windows, and it works pretty well. Most of the differences are pretty minor and easily handled by someone who's reasonably GUI-literate.

But I'm running into a few differences that I can't figure out so far:

1. When I do the "search filter" sequence (starting around figure 1-23), I don't see everything grayed but the pipe; I see everything in "normal" display colors, with the specific selected pipe highlighted. I can see where it would be handy to see what's described in the book.

2. When I do the "Mipmap" sequence (around figure 1-29), I don't see what's described, where the mipmap levels are displayed by color. Instead, I see everything in "normal" colors.

If there's some way to see what the book says for these using 4.6.2, I'd love to know it. Otherwise, I may switch to using 4.5.

 

Hi Sue,

In chapter 7 (p315) you list the following steps:

1. Open the SensorDoors script.

2. Add the following variable below the existing ones:

public SmoothFollow follow; // the camera' SmoothFollow script


After following every step so far this wont work as its a script not a gameObject, should there be a previous step that is not listed? Or a Using statement?

 

After a long search I found my answer, nothing to do with what I previously posted, its a flaw with Unity itself and its inability to interoperate with C# and JS found a nice link that gives a C# copy of the camera smooth follow script though its at
https://gist.github.com/Hamcha/6096905
hope this helps anyone else that stumbles into this issue.

 

Unity for Absolute Beginners walks you through the fundamentals of creating a small third-person shooter game with Unity. Using the free version of Unity to begin your game development career, you'll learn how to import, evaluate and manage your game resources to create awesome third-person shooters. This book assumes that you have little or no experience with game development, scripting, or 3D assets, and that you're eager to start creating games as quickly as possible, while learning Unity in a fun and interactive environment.

 

hey sue love your books have all three and learning. working on this new book in chapter 7 page 323, I am trying to get the bunnies to spawn in the zone. have verified the code with what is in the book, but the zombie bunny clone seems to spawn in space not in the zone. I have even tried to move the zone out of the garden and same results. the first part of the code seems to work without the zone.. any hints..