| Q&A |
 Unity
3D,
W. Thomas Grové, Marketing Communications Manager, Unity
Technologies
January 2010 |
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“
In just over a month since releasing the free version
we've nearly quadrupled our user base! ”
<Unity
3D in action |
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| Q1 |
Unity
(standard edition) is free, even for commercial uses. What are
the reactions of 3D developers? |
| A1 |
The
reaction has been overwhelmingly positive. In just over a month
since releasing the free version we've nearly quadrupled our
user base! |
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| Q2 |
What
would you say for developers that want to create a 3D web games,
and who hesitate between different engines? |
| A2 |
For
those who want to make console quality 3d games on the web,
there is no reason to hesitate; the only real choice is Unity.
It has a larger install base than any of our competitors and
It has been adopted by brands such as EA, Cartoon Networks,
Disney, Warner Bros, and LEGO to drive their premium online
content. Furthermore Unity is probably the most user friendly
3D engine out there, web or otherwise. |
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| Q3 |
Flash
3D engines become more and more sophisticated. Is Flash a menace
for Unity? |
| A3 |
Since
Flash has already established its market share, and since we're
still expanding ours like crazy, we're probably the "menace".
I think 3D Flash engines still have a ways to go, especially
in terms of performance and usability, but it is something that
we understand as a potential competitor. It's probably worth
noting that John Grden, one of the lead programmers behind PaperVision3D
(the leading Flash-based 3D engine) spoke at our conference
and when he wants real 3D — with physics and custom shaders
— he uses Unity. |
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| Q4 |
Realtime
3D rendering can now produce nice shadow. What can Unity achieve
in the field of shadowing ( Ambient occlusion, soft shadow,
deferred rendering)? |
| A4 |
Unity
allows for dynamic shadows. We currently do not have a solution
for generating ambient occlusion maps, but they can be imported
as light maps from a modeling application. In our latest release
we added screen space ambient occlusion for dynamic AO. We allow
for full screen post processing and you can write your shaders
in CG, so if someone wanted to then they could do deferred shading
in Unity. We do not have a deferred renderer built in, but we
are currently considering adding some sort of deferred lighting
system into Unity (although it would only be enabled for higher
end systems because of the upfront memory cost). |
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| Q5 |
Flash
is often used for creating HUD (ScaleForm, Hikari...). Can Unity
use Flash for creating nice UI and HUD? |
| A5 |
No,
but people are making very elegant solutions for seamlessly
switching between Flash and Unity in browser. Check out U3DObject,
an open source framework for this type of integration. It is
made by a Brazilian company called Aquiris — they're doing
great work with using Flash for loading screens and game menu
screens while using Unity for the actual game content. |
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| Q6 |
Unity
has a good workflow with 3ds max and maya. What about the other
DCC softwares (Softimage, C4D, Lightwave,...)? What is the "strategy"
of Unity regarding assets importing, do you believe in "cross
DCC" formats such as FBX and Collada? |
| A6 |
We
support assets from all of the packages you just listed (3DS
Max, Maya, Softimage, Cinema4D, Lightwave), in addition to Blender
and any other application that supports FBX export. We're a
big fan of formats like FBX which have allowed us to build an
asset pipeline that is best of class when it comes to ease of
use. |
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| Q7 |
DX11
introduces new tessellation capabilities, as Unity is rely on
an OpenGL API, do you plan to add such effects? |
| A7 |
Unity
runtime displays on OpenGL on Mac OS X but defaults to Direct
X for Windows — unless Unity detects a particularly buggy
card/driver combination, in which case it will automatically
use OpenGL instead. We're always improving our rendering and
have some of the brightest minds in that field working at Unity,
so anything is a possibility. |
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| Q8 |
What
is the repartition of Unity users according the different usages
(serious games, web3D, iPhone)? |
| A8 |
The
most popular use of Unity is for creating web games and iPhone
games, some of which have gained the top selling game spot such
as Mika Mobile's Zombieville USA, or even the top selling app
spot in the case of Graveck's Skee-Ball. But there have also
been a number of serious games, simulations, and training applications
developed in Unity as well as architectural visualizations and
interactive installations for store fronts or art museums. I
think we will continue to see the adoption of Unity for these
non game applications as people in those fields learn about
Unity, what it is capable of, and how easy it is to use. |
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| Q9 |
Unity
offers a nice learning curve for beginners, but is this engine
ready for building advanced games? |
| A9 |
Unity
has been adopted for full scale MMOs, Wii games, and rich online
experiences such as Tiger Woods PGA Tour Online. Unity is ready
for prime time. |
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| Q10 |
iPhone
are very popular, is it possible to create augmented reality
Apps using Unity? |
| A10 |
Yes, in fact it has already been done. It does however require
the user to write their own access to the iPhone camera through
our plugin architecture. |
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| Q11 |
Unity
is now available on Windows and can export to iPhone : what
is the next milestone? |
| A11 |
The
Unity editor run on OS X and on Windows but Unity can publish
to a variety of platforms including OS X, Windows, Web Browsers,
the iPhone, and the Wii console. We announced Xbox 360 support
at our user conference in October and we're always experimenting
with other consoles and mobile devices. |
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| Q12 |
It
seems that the differences between expensive solutions such
as CryEngine, UDK, Emergent and affordable engines such as Unity
is becoming less and less visible. What is your feeling? |
| A12 |
From
a technical stand point there isn't much of a difference at
all, but from a standpoint of public perception, that's where
we're really seeing the gap narrowing. One of the reasons for
this is that when you're spending a million dollars on your
engine you're probably going to be spending at least a million
dollars on art too. Since the art budgets of early adopters
of reasonably priced engines was often times nearly to zero,
the resulting game visuals are more likely to look amateurish.
Now that we're seeing professional studios adopt Unity we're
starting to see contend made in Unity that is on par with the
other big engines. That's going a long way towards narrowing
the perceived gap. |
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| Q13 |
The
web is becoming a key component of the game industry (online
gaming, MMORPG, Steam, OnLive...). But there are still few games
that can be played inside the browser, why ? |
| A13 |
There
are tons of games that can be played inside the browser; even
if you only look at casual gaming portals, the number has to
dwarf the number of board games, current generation console
games, or current generation handheld game. If the question
is "why are there so few AAA web games" then I think
that the answers is a combination of budget and technology.
Ad supported games just don't generate enough revenue to pay
for AAA production values, but I think that will change very
quickly now that monetization methods are becoming more sophisticated
and developers have access to Unity's powerful development tool
and web deployment technology. |
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