uniSWF vs Scaleform for Unity

How does the two compare?



FYI:

uniSWF @ http://uniswf.com/

Scaleform for Unity @ http://gameware.autodesk.com/usage/casual

 

I just noticed Scaleform for Unity is available here: http://gameware.autodesk.com/usage/casual

 

I just spent a month deepdiving Scaleform and am in the process of starting my research into uniSWF, but here's what I can tell you about Scaleform and what I've been able to determine so far about uniSWF:

Scaleform uses a proprietary library to load a Flash swf as a "camera overlay" for your Unity game. All functionality within the SWF is preserved, including actionscript functionality, and treats the Unity game as a "webpage" which can send information up to the SWF via PInvokes that the Scaleform library has wrapped into handy method calls and supported Value objects. You can also send updates down from the SWF via Flash's usual ExternalInterface calls. I found it to be rather robust and they're actively developing on it to bring it into parity with the other platforms Scaleform supports. At this point, it doesn't support using a Scaleform object as a texture, but I believe they're working on it. The devs are also fairly responsive on their forums boards.

The downside is that it costs $295 per seat per platform. So if you have 3 devs working on Mac and PC, that's 6 licenses you'll need. Eesh.

As for uniSWF, judging from the documentation I've read, it sounds as though their process slightly different (NOTE: I'm just starting an eval process on them, so this is purely from reading their materials, not from actual experience). uniSWF uses export functionality to bring individual movieclips into Unity and allows you to programmatically call, scrub, and cancel animation from a MovieClip. You attach event listeners to your Unity code as opposed to Actionscript. I can see this having an advantage of having all of your functionality code in Unity, without having to parse your logic between 2 locations (ActionScript in Flash and US/C#/Boo in Unity). The one thing I'm not sure of is whether uniSWF will accept Actionscript in the frames of your movieclips. I'd assume so (how to do you stop a custom animated button from animating past the end of a state you want to play?), but I don't know for sure and it's not references on the stuff I've seen on their site so far.

I believe the price for uniSWF was around $250 for a single seat and no per-platform costs. That does make it significantly cheaper if you code for more than one platform.

CORRECTION: As of this moment, it's 30% off so it's running $175 right now.

This is all from the point of view of a developer, mind you. My goal on this project is to find a fully functional UI solution that allows the most flexibility for my designers as well. I've narrowed down the search to one of these two and, having just received my eval version, I'm going to do some testing of it this weekend.

 

I think uniSWF doesn't support ActionScript at all, and would probably ignore any ActionScript code found in the file. That must be because it doesn't have an ActionScript virtual machine implemented, so any code, even if it's on the frames of a MovieClip, would not run. Instead, they expose parts of the Flash scene as Unity objects which I guess are then accessible through any of the supported Unity scripting languages.

Is sound supported on Scaleform? uniSWF has no sound support yet, and I'm not sure what's their plan regarding that.

 

Scaleform ships by default with FMOD sound support with Wwise hooks as well.

 

Thanks for sharing, Lethil!

Someone here looked at Iggy, a similar solution from RAD Game Tools and wrote a short review about it:
http://www.previewlabs.com/using-iggy-for-flash-animation-in-unity3d/

We'll have a look at Scaleform and uniSWF as well soon.
For our usage in game prototyping (that's what my company, PreviewLabs, specializes in), it looks like uniSWF would do great. No need for us to complicate our code by throwing an additional programming language in the mix...

 

UniSWF converts to bitmaps. Scaleform requires Flash and ActionScript usage. If you're not trying to convert an existing project and want a native vector-based Unity solution, sorry for the plug, but at least check RageTools Pro and what it can do.

 

Great, but Autodesk does not allow customers outside UK and Europe to buy it. WTF???

 

any updates, more thorough reviews?

 

@Lethil - After such a great initial review of ScaleForm i'd be really interested to hear what the results of your eval on UniSWF were. An update would be great, if you have time.

 

I agree with Calx, I'd love to hear your stance on uniSWF now that you've had some more time to evaluate it.

 

Scaleform has been great. I can leverage all of my existing Flash knowledge with Unity development. Creating simulations using complex user interfaces is so much easier, now.