Is Unity 5 really a good idea?

[Old Skool Raver]

I mean i follow Gary Newmans Rust blog and read his dev diary every week, not cause i play Rust but because game development interests me and its a chance to read some technical info about the challenges faced by game developemnt.

One recurring thing i have noticed is the Rust team seem to encounter bugs with U5 on a really regular occurance, like at least one every week. They had issues with the tree plugin, issues with LODs, issues with shadow mapping, issues with Unitys default networking protocols, issues with Unitys sound plugin and loads of other various U5 specific issues. It seems like every week he is having to talk to Unity support to log bugs and get fixes, he is always talking about 'dirty hacks' to overcome some of U5s issues and TBH U5 seems to just be nothing but a headache.

I don't understand the logic in moving 7DTD over right now. OK i get thats its the ideal time due to its alpha status, sure, however when other devs are reporting so many issues with the new version of Unity (which i think is still in Beta right?) what would make TFP decide they have to switch over to it now?

[BloodDeacon]

Just a FYI -- Rust was ported to Unity 5 during the midst of a Beta release with MANY LOD/shadow bugs. I don't know that you can really compare a switch last August to one over 1/2 a year later...

Also -- it's possible that your interpretation is different from mine, but from what I've read back in November/December Newman doesn't regret the switch a single bit. (Has his tune changed since then?)

[Dragorin]

My guess would be the 80% performance increase they saw when testing U5.

[Fabiolus]

I see where this is going I bet they want Oculus Rift to be supported and Unity 5 is just it and also SteamOS is launching sale on the Oculus Rift soon.

I think directX 12 was introduced to Unity 5 which might create problems for gamers with out dated system.

[FuzzyAnimator]

As far as I know, dev teams using Unity 4 were given the opportunity to start the migration into Unity 5 with a beta, but it's not in beta now. It's out.

As BloodDeacon points out, they ran into some bugs in an earlier beta version of Unity 5, but I haven't heard anything about the release version being buggy. Could you post links to the recent blogs where you read this?

Originally posted by Goldorak:

I see where this is going I bet they want Oculus Rift to be supported and Unity 5 is just it and also SteamOS is launching sale on the Oculus Rift soon.

I think directX 12 was introduced to Unity 5 which might create problems for gamers with out dated system.

Actually, Valve is releasing their own VR headset. It's not the Oculus Rift. Also, most games allow for the use of older directX systems. You'll see that newer games usually give you the option of using directX 11 shaders or not. Some are even backwards compatible to 9. So I wouldn't be too worried about that.

[Mr. Moustache]

Every version of Unity has had its fair share of problems. U5 is, obviously, no exception..... and neither will U6. Using Unity is still, generally speaking, a lot easier than writing your own engine from scratch..... potentially saving months / years on development time.

[53bload53]

Answer: Yes.

[Mr. Moustache]

As an aside, the Steam / HTC Vive appears to be leading the charge in the VR HMD world. It would be somewhat funny if Oculus became a B-list player in a field it almost single-handedly helped resurrect from the dead.

[Absolver]

Having played around with Unity5 for the better part of a month now, the upgrade in not only performance but the possibilities with PBR materials and the lighting improvements are enormous, with relatively little effort needed to start taking advantage of them. So yes, I definitely see why they'd make the shift over to U5.

I'm currently sitting here drooling over just how good PBR mats can make a 30k poly gun look. Sooo shiny.

[Jᴧgᴧ]

Originally posted by Mr. Moustache:

As an aside, the Steam / HTC Vive appears to be leading the charge in the VR HMD world. It would be somewhat funny if Oculus became a B-list player in a field it almost single-handedly helped resurrect from the dead.

That's true, and it would be humorous. But then it has taken entirely too long to get to market. How many years has it been now?

[Ashkorne]

Originally posted by Jᴧgᴧ:

Originally posted by Mr. Moustache:

As an aside, the Steam / HTC Vive appears to be leading the charge in the VR HMD world. It would be somewhat funny if Oculus became a B-list player in a field it almost single-handedly helped resurrect from the dead.

That's true, and it would be humorous. But then it has taken entirely too long to get to market. How many years has it been now?

Oculus has one of the biggest, richest companies in the world behind it. They have seriously deep pockets. Over thirty three BILLION of them. Compare that to Valve's "paltry" $1.5 Billion.

To be honest I'm glad so many companies are jumping into VR, since we as consumers are ultimately the ones to benefit.

Plus, if the computer/console/tech wars have taught us anything; it's that it's not always the best technology that ends up winning the race.

[Mr. Moustache]

Originally posted by Grip Chimp:

Plus, if the computer/console/tech wars have taught us anything; it's that it's not always the best technology that ends up winning the race.

Of course, but -- as of this writing -- I'm still giving Valve the edge in this field as they can heavily leverage Steam to move HMDs. Effectively "owning" a huge slice of the PC gaming market has got to be worth something.... especially if you believe that PC gamers are going to constitute a significant percentage of VR "early adopters".

But, yeah, only time will tell. Edit: in the end, whatever company gets the most developers on board, with quality titles on the horizon, is going to "win" this race. In that respect Oculus does have an advantage, as their SDK and prototypes have been in the wild for 2+ years now.

[Tux]

I am pretty sure this is what the Fun Pimps did.

Check in the Unity 4 version of the update which was almost complete.

Work on Unity 5 upgrade on a diferent branch if to many problems come up then deploy the Unity 4 version.

Sounds to me they havent had any issues as of yet.

[Ashkorne]

Originally posted by Mr. Moustache:

But, yeah, only time will tell. Edit: in the end, whatever company gets the most developers on board, with quality titles on the horizon, is going to "win" this race. In that respect Oculus does have an advantage, as their SDK and prototypes have been in the wild for 2+ years now.

If any company can make my manbits moist it's Valve, especially with a big tech company such as HTC behind them. It certainly won't be the technical abortion the Nokia NGage was, for example. Indeed, most tech sites are saying that HTC's implimentation is by far the best even at this stage, so that's extremely encouraging.

The only "problem" I can see is if Valve decide to lock down the SDK, effectively cutting it off from outside redevelopment. Something I can't really see them even wanting to do. They're not EA or Activision, for example.

The future (of VR) is looking very rosy indeed.

[Skull Punch]

Originally posted by Grip Chimp:

Originally posted by Jᴧgᴧ:

That's true, and it would be humorous. But then it has taken entirely too long to get to market. How many years has it been now?

Oculus has one of the biggest, richest companies in the world behind it. They have seriously deep pockets. Over thirty three BILLION of them. Compare that to Valve's "paltry" $1.5 Billion.

To be honest I'm glad so many companies are jumping into VR, since we as consumers are ultimately the ones to benefit.

Plus, if the computer/console/tech wars have taught us anything; it's that it's not always the best technology that ends up winning the race.

If you think either company is going to dump anywhere close to a billion on VR your crazy. Valve is more focused on gaming too. Anywho your right competition is good. I hear Sony has a very good VR set also.

[Fabiolus]

some good reading for the geeks.

http://www.tested.com/tech/concepts/504521-htc-vive-vs-oculus-crescent-bay-my-10-vr-takeaways/