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It's "Unity" Not "Unity3D"...

Discussion in 'General Discussion' started by SteveJ, May 29, 2013.

  1. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    ...and it's driving me mental that people still keep calling the product Unity3D. I thought a dedicated thread might help to finally clear it all up. I figure if you're using a product, you should at least know what it's called.

    From the official Unity Technologies style/identity guide:

    What:
    Unity, our base product
    Unity Pro, an enhanced version of Unity
    Unity Asset Server, an add-on product enabling easy collaboration
    Asset Store, a feature available in all versions of Unity
    Unity iOS, an add-on license allowing deployment to iOS devices
    Unity iOS Pro, an enhanced version of our iOS add-on license
    Unity Web Player, our browser plug-in
    unity3d.com, our web site
    Unite, a conference held for Unity users
    Union, a business unit of Unity Technologies


    Avoid:
    “Unity Free” — our base product is “Unity”
    “Unity3D” — use “Unity”
    “Unity Browser Plug-in” — use “Unity Web Player”
    “Unity iPhone” — the relevant add-on is “iOS”
    “Unity Union” — “Union” should be used alone
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2013
  2. ColossalDuck

    ColossalDuck

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    But unity3d is the best game engine evar, why would I use Unity Free or Unity instead of unity3d?

    Deal with it.
     
  3. nipoco

    nipoco

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    Hey Steve! That really bugs you huh?

    I guess most people think it's called Unity3d, because of the url.
     
  4. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    I know this makes me a grumpy-old-man. I can live with that :)
     
  5. dtg108

    dtg108

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  6. Unknown86793241

    Unknown86793241

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    Maybe we should just consider it synonymous?

    You could use it as your own lil IQ test if it bugs you that much?

    I would just try not stress too much over it, did you see that xbox one reveal?
     
  7. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    Also, there's an actual "Unity 3D" engine, which is not related to Unity. It's only used for WWII Online as far as I know, but it predates Unity and is still around. Unity Technologies licensed the trademark from Playnet so it's all above-board.

    --Eric
     
  8. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    That's pretty interesting. Never knew about that.
     
  9. Unknown86793241

    Unknown86793241

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  10. UnknownProfile

    UnknownProfile

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    I generally don't mind when somebody says Unity Free when distinguishing between Unity and Unity Pro. I also don't mind Unity 3D, as the URL is bound to cause some confision for newcomers. Any other time, both of those are a bit unneeded. What I'm surprised didn't make it to your list is something that even I'm guilty of saying occasionally: Unity Indie.

    (I'm also guilty of Unity iPhone, but it used to be called that, and old habits die hard)
     
  11. angrypenguin

    angrypenguin

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    I don't mind "Unity Free" or "Unity Indie" at all, since sometimes you need to make it clear that you're not using Pro.
     
  12. nipoco

    nipoco

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    Nah, it's not that bad :p

    Interesting why they choose Unity instead of Unity3d btw.
     
  13. khanstruct

    khanstruct

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    cuz...

     
  14. SSG

    SSG

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    Unity3d is better, right away it implies graphics.
     
  15. Jake-L

    Jake-L

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    I'm quite sure if I say that our plugins work with "Unity" I will get tons of questions if they work with the free version as well. Everyone considers "Unity" to be the brand/product name while "Unity Free/Indie" and "Unity Pro" are the versions. Imho, sometimes it's easier for marketing to adapt to people's habits instead of the opposite. To make it worse - if I remember right - "Unity Indie" was an official product name in the past.

    Jake
     
  16. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    "Unity3D" sounds less professional to me. Toy-like.

    And why would it matter that it "implies graphics". The Unity product isn't about graphics.
     
  17. nipoco

    nipoco

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    @Khanstruct

    Yeah I know. I guess you did misunderstand my weird wording/english.

    I meant, it is interesting why they chose "Unity" over "Unity3d"
     
  18. shaderop

    shaderop

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    So from now on I'll always use "Unity" instead of "Unity3d" when googling for stuff, because the mental well-being of someone's inner mad librarian is far more important than the small, practical matter of actually finding relevant information.
     
  19. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    Sarcasm noted. You'll pretty much get the same results if you do though.

    Perhaps I should have been more specific, but it's primarily seeing things like posts in the jobs section where people are saying "I'm a Unity3D expert. I have 5+ years experience in Unity3D"... and all I can think to myself is "5+ years, and you don't know the name of the product you're an expert in?".

    Anyway, not looking to change the world. Just wanted to rant to get it off my chest :)
     
  20. SpaceMammoth

    SpaceMammoth

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    I have to say, I manage to confuse people I work with when I start talking about "Unity" because in my non-gaming day job we still use the Microsoft Unity Application block (its a dependency injection container framework for .Net). So I have found myself referring to Unity as Unity3D. The Microsoft Unity is not so popular now, there are better more modern alternatives, but a few years back, its what many c# developers would think off when they referred to "Unity".
     
  21. yuriythebest

    yuriythebest

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    when it comes to general usage Unity3D is much more better understood than just "Unity" - both for people and search results - so I'll keep on referring to it as Unity3D thank you very much :)

     
  22. shaderop

    shaderop

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    Thank you for being such a good sport about it :)

    Though I beg to differ about getting the same results. Cisco's Unity communication doohickey and Ubuntu's Unity UI whatchamajig in particular tend to pollute the search results for me when searching for anything networking- or graphics-related. So even if I were to share your pet peeve, the 3D suffix would remain a necessary evil.

    Unless it's "irregardless" or "could care less." Then usage can go frak itself.
     
  23. VIC20

    VIC20

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    Overall the lighting models available at unity.com are far superior compared to unity3d.com
     
  24. Tiles

    Tiles

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    http://unity3d.com/

    The url contains 3d, so it shouldn`t be this wrong to call Unity also Unity 3D. Especially since there are several other Unity products out there. For example the Linux desktop Unity for Ubuntu.
     
  25. TylerPerry

    TylerPerry

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    If I'm searching for something I type in Unity 3D, though it is just to get better results, if someone asks me what engine I use I would say Unity as there is no need for that extra info.
     
  26. BrUnO-XaVIeR

    BrUnO-XaVIeR

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    +1 to this topic. Ppl calling Unity "Unity 3D" because of the url is no fun.
     
  27. Metron

    Metron

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    Relevance of this thread: None...

    Unless you try to get a job which requires the usage of Unity, it doesn't really matter if you name it Unity or Unity3D... Personally I tend to say "Unity 3D Engine" when talking to people. As long as you know what you're talking about...

    All others will learn via the splash screen...
     
  28. PrimeDerektive

    PrimeDerektive

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    shaderop is right... search results are nowhere near as relevant if you just use unity.
     
  29. Kelde

    Kelde

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    Ehm so...yeah....

    Im always gonna use Unity3D when i talk about this. If u search for tutorials on youtube u kidna have to use Unity3D since most uploaders use it as titles...or else u get alot of weird stuff as results.

    Remind me why this is even a problem?
     
  30. Moonjump

    Moonjump

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    Unity is the product, with 2 main versions, Unity Pro and Unity. If you talk about Unity, are you talking about the product or the version of the product?

    The free version of Unity does need a more descriptive title. It doesn't matter if it is Unity Free, Unity Indie, Unity Open, Unity Unlocked, or anything else.
     
  31. Raigex

    Raigex

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    I also think people use Unity3D because when you look for Unity on google you usually find the Ubuntu Desktop (Unity) and questions about it. At least that is what I kept finding in the beginning.
     
  32. Kelde

    Kelde

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    and i found alot of black people singing in a choir....putting 3D at the end fixed that. Oh and football teams
     
  33. Raigex

    Raigex

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    lol.
     
  34. SSG

    SSG

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    If somebody mentions Unity they could be talking about anything. A social movement, guerrilla rebels, who knows. Unity3d makes it apparent.
     
  35. imaginaryhuman

    imaginaryhuman

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    Unity is called whatever the community decides to call it, right? Who's laying down rules here?

    The whole Unity Free/Indie thing was confusion caused when they came out with the `free` version of Unity and people had previously been referring to Unity Pro as `Unity` or `Unity3D`, and then needed to differentiate and the fact that it went `free` became part of its identity. It would be nice if everything launched right off the bad as a Unity and Unity Pro but the fact that money is involved influences how people think of each.

    Also there's the fairly obvious continued use of unity3d.com which does a lot to reinforce that name.
     
  36. Dabeh

    Dabeh

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    Unity are...;)

    You should respect their identity guide. They're a corporation and their identity is very important.

    Just like you can't modify their logo unless it follows their strict rules, the same goes here. Albeit people seem to think it's somehow okay because you're not modifying their logo, just their name.
     
  37. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    Using "Unity" is just as effective in searches as "Unity3d" (and it's faster to type!), unless you're literally just typing "Unity" as a search, but if so, why? ;) When you search, if you want any kind of relevant results at all, you type "Unity [something you're interested in]". I never use "Unity3d" in searches; it never occurred to me to even try since "Unity" always works.

    --Eric
     
  38. alexzzzz

    alexzzzz

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    I'm glad C# is called C# and it actually is C#.
     
  39. Ullukai

    Ullukai

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    In my opinion it does not really matter unless you are talking to someone who doesn't know what Unity3d is. Like if I was to talk about Unity in here, everyone knows what I'm talking about. If I talk about Unity somewhere else where they don't know what it is, then it would probably need to be called Unity3d.

    It is something like talking to someone who swears every 2nd or 3rd word they utter when they are talking casually. They are not mad or anything. That is just the way they talk.

    I mean who really cares if you call it Unity or Unity3d in here ? It's like who cares if I'm naked typing all this out or I'm wearing a dress right now when I'm a man. That sort of thing
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2013
  40. LaneFox

    LaneFox

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    I couldn't care less what its called.

    They could change the name to Pancakes with a pro version called Pancakes Butter and I wouldn't even notice for at least 3 weeks.
     
  41. Ullukai

    Ullukai

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    Man, it would not sound right if I had to pay $1500 for my Pancakes Butter and I told people about it outside of here then !

    looking up slang in a search on the internet gave me this :

    Moss:
    WHAT YOU'RE SAYING: It might have nothing to do with the green fluff that grows on walls, but similar to that type of moss, this word means to chill out or relax.
    USED IN EVERYDAY LIFE: "Why are you always working? You need to moss."

    looking up Unity gave me this :
    http://unity.codeplex.com/
     
    Last edited: May 29, 2013
  42. orb

    orb

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    Happens to me too. I'm a Linux user too, which Google knows. Except most of my questions are about server stuff. But Google's "Unity" association is more strongly weighted towards the desktop system named Unity than the 3D game engine, so tacking on "3D" clears it right up.

    Certain keywords give me only Unity game engine results without even using the "Unity" keyword, though. Others give me anything but. Thank goodness we have humans to read contexts figuring out what people actually mean on forums :)
     
  43. Eric5h5

    Eric5h5

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    You would think so, but every once in a while you get someone here or on UnityAnswers posting questions about the Linux desktop manager.

    --Eric
     
  44. orb

    orb

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    Heh, damn organic bots :p
     
  45. makeshiftwings

    makeshiftwings

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    I have this same problem. Every time I hear something like "Let's use Unity to make the web server backend" I get really confused for five minutes before remembering that it means something completely different in my two different programming lives.
     
  46. The Ghost

    The Ghost

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    Yeah, this annoys me too. It's not that big of deal, but the name loses professionalism.
     
  47. deram_scholzara

    deram_scholzara

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    It bugs me a little too, but at the same time, you get better results if you google Unity 3D instead of just Unity.

    KHopcraft - and you're forgetting about Unity Indie!
     
  48. SteveJ

    SteveJ

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    Agree 100% - it would never even occur to me to type "unity3d how to lightmap" (or whatever) into a search. I would always just use "Unity". In fact, typing nothing but "Unity" into Google brings back www.unity3d.com as the top result anyway. At least, it does for me on www.google.com.au - not sure if that's the same for everyone.

    Regardless, it's fine if people use "unity3d" when searching if they feel it gives them better results. Like I said earlier, it's just when people refer to the product as "Unity 3D" in conversation, that it really gets under my skin. I think it's just "bad" practice in general to refer to the product by anything other than it's actual name.

    Anyway, pleased this topic fueled some discussion. I expected people to just call me an idiot and carry on with their day :)
     
  49. superpig

    superpig

    Drink more water! Unity Technologies

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    I would notice immediately, and buy another three stacks for personal consumption.
     
  50. hippocoder

    hippocoder

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    Steady on, thats a seriously grumpy case of Hippo-itis that only old farts get. The remedy is usually a beer or a steak or something.