Unity aiming for world domination?

I just saw their newest blog entry.
Seems like soon you will be able to build your unity projects directly to Flash so you don't have to use the Web Player anymore:

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2011/02/27/unity-flash-3d-on-the-web/

That's just awesome, it will spread like a (positive) virus

won't this be kind of slow? they will have to compile their engine to actionscript.

i am more looking forward to engines that use google's native client. unity has plans for this too.

upcoming flash player has 3d hardware acceleration support, directx and opengl for windows, opengl for other platforms afaik.

yes, it exposes opengl but they won't be able to add their c++ engine to the flash player itself. the unity engine (and physx?) will have to be compiled to actionscript.

how fast is actionscript nowadays? i haven't checked in a while but i can't imagine that it reaches the speed of c# for example.

But the actionscript itself will still be slow. EDIT: ventilator got it. I don't know how slow it is, but I imagine slower than what Unity programmers are used to.

Still, I'm tempted to try a simplified flash KarBOOM during the Summer and see if its worth continuing exclusively in that direction to reach a larger audience. EDIT 2: That's actually extremely unlikely to happen. I keep forgetting how comfortable I am with A8 and Lite-C.

Jibb

I'm not sure, but it looks like you forgot the "Flash" part =/


Oh and Actionscript is almost the same as JavaScript, JS runs out of the box and both share the same past (although AS does not run in JS interpreters). But hey, you know how fast JS interpreters can be nowadays, so it won't be too slow (not saying that it would be too fast either).

But still... its flash. I wouldn't mind a native client port, but flash?!
Der Dreck ist echt wie Fußpilz, wenn man glaubt man wäre es los kommt es wieder.

Yeah like they already mentioned, they don't know if all Unity features will be available and how the performance will be in the end.

I didn't forget the "Flash" part, i personally don't like Flash either. But what i mean is, it seems like a lot of companies actually want Flash for their mini/indie projects. I often got clients asking me if i can do it in Flash instead of unity web player (especially since almost everyone has a flash player).

So i'm sure many companies will switch to Unity then since they can still keep creating their flash games + release it for iPhone, mac, pc, android, etc with a single click as well.

Means more clients = more money for me 8D

well and simple 3d games are still fun. i could imagine some graphics that look like what some older/portable counsoles output

World domination ?

Now I know the guys behind Unity !

... the Pinky, the Pinky and the Brain...Brain...Brain...Brain

It is interesting. I just got a mail from the maker of Coppercube:
http://www.ambiera.com/coppercube/index.html

This engine can also create 3d flash games and already has a working demo that runs on the beta flash player with 3d hardware support.

I also wonder how the Unity guys can embrace new platforms so fast. It is crazy how they are always faster than the big guys.

In the end I see it exactly the same like Kiyaku: More users means more clients means more success for us service providers. Thank you Unity!

The next 2 versions of Unity are extremely interesting. It looks like they really try to enter the AAA market:

Unity Announcement

• Allegorithmic Substance integration (procedural textures)
• Better Shadows
• Multicore Rendering and Skinning (2-3x faster)
• Graphics optimizations, like improved deferred rendering
• Terrain works on mobile platforms also

But I am even more excited about the 3.5 features, especially directional lightmaps (radiosity normal maps), lightprobes for lighting dynamic objects, it will calculate paths from level geometry and there is a crowd simulation, better particles, visual GUI editor, better occlusion culling.

All in all it will allow me to use features that I know from UDK or Vision3d. If they implement it right, they will offer a really competitive technology. And the best: these announced features work on mobiles too, as you can see here:

http://blogs.unity3d.com/2011/06/08/advanced-shading-and-lighting-for-mobile/

Looks good! It's kind of ironic though, that the game's name is Shadowgun, while there aren't character shadows..

I'm definently looking forward for any and all Unity updates!

This is a game for mobile phones. Real-time shadows are too expensive in this case. And as far as I can see they added some slight blob shadow under characters. The main lighting is pre-calculated while the probes allow to change lighting intensity, direction and colour on characters in real-time.

They've grown fast and a lot after Unity 2.X
Before they were like other 3D engine companies just beginning, but already in the beginning when there was only Mac support lot of pople was dreaming of having such workflow on Windows, what comed to reality !
Another big point is the marketing they do is really good, like conferences, mail news on incoming new features nad updates etc ...

But i just think the thing that have boosted the engine popularity have simply been the Iphone support indeed. lot of pople jumped to Unity caus it was prooven, with lot of published games in the Store, and a
great workflow indeed.
Lot of pople have done some good money with it, some have jumped to Pro after some success on a game for the Store.

Not all indie engines have an ARMY of skilled PROGRAMMERS behind
And a strong advertising strategy indeed.

I think others engines have their own users also, specially when you see the price of the Pro version of Unity for iphone or Windows.
And not all people will spend such amount of money to have real time shadows and for making indie games !

Well i hope one day to see some A9 for Iphone !

What makes Unity (or at least on of the things that) get a lot of user is the fact that it gives you right to publish game using the free version. While it has some limitation(render 2texture mostly, splash screen on PC build, no big deal or watermark on web build that can be blended into your UI) in the feature, the free version has more than enough feature to arm your games to get released in the market. Plus they don't have to expose their assets even using the freebies.

User can make profit with the free version with the expectation that they will buy the Pro version with the profit(and I'm sure they will). Add that with the fact that Unity offers multiplatform capability. If your game make a hit on PC, why dont you publish it on mobiles with a couple hundred of bucks. And when you want to advert it online, publish a demo on the web or throw some facebook API into it and host it on facebook.

yes, if i had the xtra cash i'd def. get unity. like ratchet said "AN ARMY OF PROGRAMMERS" and that about sums it up. if they get any bigger or more powerful, the us will likely find a way to invade them, and exploit them for financial gain.

I own unity since a few weeks, but I never get the push to start learning for it. But a few days ago, I stumbled
again over the walker boys. And now it began to be a true fire to learn.
walker boys
It is not that I find the workflow so such much better then working on A8-projects... but as a harmless non programer, only a bloody scripter you can only publish for pc. Since I played the adventure Hetor , I think it is simply a key feature to have the possibility to publish on other platforms by just pressing on button.