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Autodesk® 3ds Max®
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Autodesk® Maya®
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Autodesk® Softimage®
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Autodesk® MotionBuilder®
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Autodesk® Mudbox™
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Autodesk® ImageModeler™
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Autodesk® Sketchbook® Pro
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Autodesk® Smoke on Mac®
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AUGI
Autodesk User Group International
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Fresh after their latest release (2.5) AREA chats with one of the three who started the game engine. CEO David Helgason talks how Unity came to be, the latest improvements and features, and interoperability between…
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| Posted: Mar 23, 2009
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| Published by: the area
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Users comments (13)
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| Posted by Tom Higgins on Apr 03, 2009 at 09:03 PM
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@claydough: sorry but that's the choice that we've made and you can always upgrade if you feel the desire to use Pro features.
@mcarr1973: good on ya for sharing the link, there are a number of great community resources springing up!
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| Posted by mcarr1973 on Apr 03, 2009 at 04:12 AM
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A new website has launched:
unitytutorials.com
If anyone would like to help:
I have created a website for all Unity Users to come and learn absolutely free. But I'm just one person and need help in creating more Tutorials. I built this site to help myself and Others learn at a somewhat faster pace.
You can upload and share Videos, Pictures, Documents and all Kinds of Content and its all geared toward Teaching Unitys Game Engine and Maya, Max, Cinema 4D what ever your third party package.
So if you can contribute a Tutorial of any kind I would greatly appreciate it!
Sincerely,
Michael
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| Posted by claydough on Mar 30, 2009 at 09:21 PM
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Was interested when the PC port was announced. Quickly lost interest when I found out that indie developers aren't supposed to be interested in dynamic shadows like the ones touted in this article ( They are not included in the affordable indie license )
In the future, dynamic shadows will define next-gen everthing else is just along for the ride.
The shadow exclusion leaves every artist looking for a realtime portfolio distribution vehicle without a realistic solution.
The market for character artists alone who would buy Unity3D PC if it only had a self shadowing soft shadows shouldn't be dismissed $$$
This was a huge mistake.
another parallel discussion bemoaning lack of dyn shadows in indie:
boards.polycount.net/showthread.php?t=61855
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| Posted by Tom Higgins on Mar 24, 2009 at 09:31 PM
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| @Maglan: Correct. For those tools we simply make use of the fact that they (along with C4D, Cheetah 3D and Blender) support the ability for us to use the command-line to have them export your *.max, *.ma, *.mb, etc. files for you in FBX format, then we use that FBX file in the actual content. If you make any changes to the source asset Unity will notice that change and automatically re-export it and refresh the asset inside of Unity. Note that we do that refresh and reload on all assets, including models, textures, scripts, audio, video, etc.
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| Posted by Magian on Mar 24, 2009 at 09:27 PM
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@Tom Higgins. Thanks again for the response.
So there are not separate exporters for Maya/Max that smooth the transition of content through the pipeline to the game engine?
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| Posted by Tom Higgins on Mar 24, 2009 at 08:16 PM
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| @Maglan: I'm simply pointing out that we don't support any particular tool format directly (no *.max, no *.ma/mb, no *.c4d), instead we use formats like FBX, OBJ, 3DS, etc. Our support for various tools (like Maya, 3DS Max, etc.) is by a command line automated export to FBX for you, so at the end of the day I suppose it's a bit of a misnomer to call it "native support for 3DS Max" (or Maya, or C4D, etc.) as we _do_not_ support those file formats, instead we support an automated and behind the scenes export to FBX for you.
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| Posted by Magian on Mar 24, 2009 at 07:07 PM
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@Tom Higgins: Thanks for the response.
I have had trouble wtih .fbx before with Softimage. The last time I worked with it (about six months ago) there was no way to bring in the bones from an existing .fbx file. As a result, the ability to edit pre-made content in the .fbx format was severely diminished. There were also troubles with the animations that were exported from Softimage to .fbx for use in another game engine. Usually I could clean the animation up using third-party software. The thing is I shouldn't have to.
It seemed to me that the interviewer was making a push for Softimage and was hoping to get an answer regarding native support for Softimage. If it was no big deal to simply use the .fbx format then why would he/she even bring this up?
I am not knocking Unity, by the way. As a matter of fact, I will probably go ahead and purchase soon. However, I will reiterate that support for Softimage "that just works" would be welcome. Support for the .fbx format is definitely not the answer I am looking for.
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| Posted by Tom Higgins on Mar 24, 2009 at 06:57 PM
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@Magian: Keep in mind that in any case, as long as you're using an application that offers the ability to export to FBX you can use it with Unity, no worries.
@buraque: I'll beg to differ on the documentation a bit. While there is definitely plenty of room left to improve I would not call it weak. Our docs are always being worked on and there are definitely more than six videos available. I believe you're referring to six brief tutorial videos that are old and being remade as we speak (should be done fairly) soon, but along with those we have 24 videos that are recordings of technical/presentation sessions at our last two Unite developer conferences. In addition to that we are of course fleshing out more tutorials and have a range of example projects available. It's a start and a very good one, so I think "weak" is a bit unfair. More info:
unity3d.com/support/resources/
@gametech1: Please don't mis-read David about whether the product needs improving or not. He, along with all of us, are well in tune with the fact that while it's a great tool and player today, there is much more that's needed. We just released Unity 2.5 and we're already in the planning stages for what's next. We're on it, we're working hard and will continue to improve and develop the product going forward.
FYI: I'm the Product Evangelist for Unity and am quite happy to answer any questions folks have about our product. Drop by our forums (forum.unity3d.com) or ping me via email and I'll help out (tom-at-unity3d.com). Do note that we're all quite busy at GDC this week so response times may be a bit slower than normal but we'll answer you regardless. Thanks y'all!
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| Posted by Magian on Mar 24, 2009 at 04:50 PM
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| Native support for Softimage would be most welcome.
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| Posted by buraque on Mar 24, 2009 at 02:07 AM
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| I think it is a great product and its only weak point is documentation. I could find only 6 videos which are very very basic and there are 2 pdf tutorials. Other than that 3 reference manuals which are weak.
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| Posted by jydog on Mar 24, 2009 at 02:05 AM
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| Looking forward to trying it out.
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| Posted by gametech1 on Mar 23, 2009 at 09:30 PM
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| Nice interview, I would like to the CEO to be a little more humble with regards to wether things could be improved , mainly because I think there is still massive room for improvements, still as it's now it's a nice product, while not totally artist friendly as it may appear to be. Just my experience as an artist.
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| Posted by RedCobra on Mar 23, 2009 at 08:56 PM
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| Thats amazing!
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