Shiny: Unity Demo's Screen-Space Raytraced Reflections
Download the demo
Fancier, more realistic reflections will come as standard in Unity's next major version (screen-space raytraced reflections, if you want to get technical), and we should probably pay more attention to the engine considering it's almost everywhere nowadays. So here, let's come coo over how nicely light reflects around a bedroom in this newly-released tech demo. You can download it to have a fiddle on your own computer, if you'd like, or just watch this:
The demo's showing off the difference SSRR would make to architectural visualisations (which Unity is often used for), but you can imagine shiny things in games too, can't you? To simplify it massively, SSRR renders reflections more accurately than many other common techniques, so lighting seems more realistic. Look, I won't pretend to be an expert, just check out this close-up comparison:
Unity hasn't invented this idea, of course, but it's a major engine used by squillions of devs so improvements to it go a long way. Not that every Unity game will use it (most won't), but it's nice to have the option. Anyway, look I just wanted to point out something shiny and pretty because I know people coo over shiny things. You can download the demo for Windows and Mac and have a fiddle yourself, changing colours and textures of objects in the bedroom to see how it changes the room. Shiny things!