Comments on: Unity3D For Free

By: drwr

drwr — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 02:09:40 +0000

Panda3D is fully Free/OSS, cost-free, runs on Windows, Mac, and Linux, and is weeks away from releasing a feature-complete browser plugin system with full download management. It’s a system geared more towards coders than artists; you can use it in any Python (or C++) authoring environment you like.

By: Eplekongen

Eplekongen — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 20:05:02 +0000

What the hell?! This is huge news! I demand caps in title!

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 18:18:41 +0000

You can import assets from pretty much anything, including blender. The scripting is in Mono, JS, or Python (Boo). You can use OpenGL or DX. Plug-in support requires the Pro version. There is no Linux version, but you can deploy to PC, Mac, Web plugin, iPhone, Wii and (soon) 360.

I’m not sure what file format lock in you’re speaking of. Your art assets will certainly be reusable, but you will not be able to easily remove Unity from the game that you have written for the Unity engine. I suppose that’s the lock-in that you’re apprehensive about? Locking you into a mere six platforms?

By: MrTambourineMan

MrTambourineMan — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:40:39 +0000

Nice, I’m gonna make Doom5 in the next couple of weeks(Doom 4 is being developed by some lamers I thinks), stay tuned.

By: jph wacheski

jph wacheski — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 16:25:36 +0000

I will be trying it out now too,. looks like it has some rather niffty features, even in the now free version.

If you want a Free/Open Source IDE that does openGL with shaders and generates single .exe files of under 64k as well as slightly larger OS X and Linux then you should have a look as the Z Game Editor [ zgameditor.org ] it is an amazing and powerfull app,. not nearly as full featured as Unity, but in many ways better as well,. so most definetly an interesting option.

By: mrrobsa

mrrobsa — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:45:31 +0000

Aha yes! This is the engine where shadows cost extra. I giggled the first time I heard that.
(Realistically I am pro-Unity as it lowers barrers of entry for practicing game designers)

By: pepper

pepper — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:44:21 +0000

It is a great way to prototype, stuff that takes you a lot of time in other packages(converting from one coordinate system to another(local> world etc)) doesnt take any time at all, functionality that is built in the engine as a standard.

By: Flimgoblin

Flimgoblin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 10:00:55 +0000

Plus Unity iPhone is still 400 dollars so if people want to publish on the iphone they get a share.

By: Flimgoblin

Flimgoblin — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 09:41:31 +0000

@LionsPhil I don’t think it’s just an attempt to get market share so they can do vendor lock-in. But you’re right that it’s definitely to their benefit. This isn’t altruism – it’s going to benefit them almost as much as it benefits people who want to experiment with it and build something. But that’s just business…

Take a look at the terms. The indie version is only for use if you have a turnover of less than $100k.

So, you can experiment with it, put a game together and get it out there – but if you’re successful you’ll need to get the Pro version for the next game (by which time you’ll be quite happily successful and more than willing to pay for the license).

In the mean time it gets them a much bigger user base of indies which makes their dev community that much more attractive – if you’re able to post on a forum and get an answer about why networking XYZ thingummy isn’t working quite right without having to buy a support contract that makes things much more attractive.

They don’t need to cripple their software and sell it back to you in pieces to benefit from this. The changes from Indie -> Pro (apart from maybe the realtime shadows) are all pretty much stuff you’d only need if you were working as a studio rather than a small indie single dev/small team.

By: Stringycustard

Stringycustard — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:25:38 +0000

I’m glad they are doing this, hopefully it will start to take away the monopoly of Flash in the online market. The latest few Flash IDE iterations are a horrible mess and this might spark Adobe into either creating a real product through competition or releasing their own lite version of Flash to the market in a similar manner. The only way to currently learn how to use incredibly expensive tools legally is through companies that can afford them – 30 day trials do not give one enough time to become skillful at a product. Maya has a similar thing, all of which encourages new designers and developers without them having to pirate or spend vast amounts of money and then realise they don’t actually want to develop in X program.

By: pepper

pepper — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:22:08 +0000

The demo is the compleet indy version, except with a timer. So i presume they removed it. The pro version is also the demo, only those futures are locked.

By: pepper

pepper — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:20:42 +0000

Awesome! Been working a lot with Unity3D and i must say it is one of the best 3D engine packages out there. Not because of the graphics but because how easy it is quikly develop games with it.