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A minor point that is quite awesome with Unity 4

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by runonthespot, Jun 21, 2012.

  1. runonthespot

    runonthespot

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    Did you all notice that low level GL / Graphics class access is now included in the free version.

    This of course means that if you are at all GL inclined, you can roll your own rendertextures among other things!

    Hooray!

    Of course, when the profilers creep into the Indie / Mobile Basic versions, then we can all truly celebrate ;)
     
  2. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

    Volunteer Moderator Moderator

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    Well...this is the Unity GL class, which has no rendertexture-like functionality that I know of. It doesn't mean that there is actual OpenGL access, since Unity doesn't use that, it uses some custom system which translates to OpenGL/Direct3D/whatever as necessary. The Graphics class does have some rendertexture-related functions, but I'm not sure those could be used if the free license still doesn't have actual rendertexture access. I kind of suspect that the move is largely related to being able to use Graphics.DrawMesh/DrawTexture, which would be quite useful for various utilities that could be sold a lot more widely on the asset store if you could assume that everyone had access to those.

    --Eric
     
  3. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    Yeah you only get the higher-level `fake GL` commands which are not real opengl commands, which represents GL's `immediate mode` instructions, so you can create geometry, draw some points/lines, etc, draw some textured triangles, etc... but not a whole lot else.

    Some of the commands in the `Graphics` library really depend on RenderTexture support and I haven't seen anything saying v4 will give render textures to Unity Free? Although IF that were the case I'd be extremely happy because it's the one feature of Pro that can have major benefits for doing 2D stuff.

    Saying that, it would be a bit `weird` to put Graphics and GL support into Unity Free and only support half the features due to relying on RenderTextures without including RenderTextures as well... cus then it's like the documentation would be half-baked and partly irrelevant, thus confusing. ??? So doesn't that mean RenderTextures MUST be in Unity Free?

    Can we gave RenderTextures in UnityFree please please please?
     
    Last edited: Jun 21, 2012
  4. MarigoldFleur

    MarigoldFleur

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    They'll never give render-to-texture in free because that'd open up a world of possible post-processing effects that are exclusive to pro.
     
  5. SevenBits

    SevenBits

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    And that is a major reason why many people buy Pro to begin with.
     
  6. MarigoldFleur

    MarigoldFleur

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    That's kinda my point, yeah.
     
  7. Jessy

    Jessy

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    It was decided these were Pro features what? Five years ago? You can't expect them to stay Pro forever.
     
  8. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    Not forever but obviously at least for another 30 months or so
     
  9. SevenBits

    SevenBits

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    Yes we can, and with good reason.


    Well, yeah. If all Pro features were in Indie, then there would be no incentive to buy Pro. Think about it.
     
  10. Jessy

    Jessy

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    Great. You want to explain why that's obvious?

    Pro gets more features, old Pro features become free. I don't see a problem with that, and that's what Unity will do to stay competitive. Schools aren't going to use Unity if the competition has better features in cheap versions, for example.
     
  11. SevenBits

    SevenBits

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    Sure. Real time shadows and post processing are going nowhere in terms of usage in AAA and AA games. Therefore, because they will always be an in-need feature, they will likely always remain in Pro.

    Just to test your knowledge, how many Pro features have recently become free?
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2012
  12. UnknownProfile

    UnknownProfile

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    In 3.5 there was one feature that became free, Low Audio Buffer access (that's the one). Also, the GL access is in the free version of 4.0.

    Edit: and as aNTeNNa trEE pointed out, the Windows platform became available.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2012
  13. Jessy

    Jessy

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    I haven't been following closely but I only remember that happening once, between 1.0 and 2.5. Are there others?
     
  14. echtolion

    echtolion

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    I can think of many things that AAA games need that aren't pro-only.
    Things like render to texture and shadows are very basic features that almost every engine on the market will have in their lowest form now.

    5 years ago? Yeah, maybe they were hot stuff.

    I know people who avoid Unity entirely because of no RTT and no shadows in free.
     
    Last edited: Jun 22, 2012
  15. antenna-tree

    antenna-tree

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    Build to PC? ;-)

    There haven't been a lot of features that have crossed over simply because it is such a careful balance of making the free version useful and keeping the pro version valuable.
     
  16. Dreamora

    Dreamora

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    Unity can't add dozens of new features to pro just to justify offering half a dozen to indie, especially not when parts to large parts of new features end in Indie too like mecanim and likely DX11
     
  17. SevenBits

    SevenBits

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    FYI, 4.0 isn't out yet. And the fact that you can't remember a feature doesn't exactly convince me of anything.

    Alright, you win on that point. For now, anyway... (duh duh duh)

    Exactamundo.
     
  18. TylerPerry

    TylerPerry

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    But these are free in alternitives, say when new UDK comes out and is actualy usable there is nothing to keep me here as it has a much nicer renderer, now Unity has DX11 it is ok but real time shadows are something that is required for some kinds of games, so without them there is nothing to keep me using Unity free and therefor nothing to keep me using Android Basic and IOS Basic, wich cost money.
     
  19. SevenBits

    SevenBits

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    Yeah, people always play the UDK card. But luckily I have an ace, which beats everything (unless there's a joker in the deck).

    But that option doesn't apply to all. Say, Mac users. Or those who can't afford to buy a new computer to fulfill UDK's high system requirements. Or those who work for Unity.

    pwned