I don't know why people are actually defending Unity Indie as a complete engine for 3D games. It isn't. The toolset is great and the Mac compatibility is great and all (I won't deny that). But the fact:

1) If using Indie, you will have to work around the lack of even basic features like dynamic shadows by having some cartoony (or radical cell shaded.. something like that) look for the game to avoid complaints (which people who play 3D CAN make even for AAA games) about shadows and all (ever heard of Resident Evil 4 port to Windows?).

2) Every "hit" game being linked to for Unity is created by the Pro version. Every tutorial and blog mentioning Unity is by devs using the Pro version. Indie version, simply put, is useless for a "proper" (not cartoony) 3D game (hell, even TGE 1.5 had shadows).

3) When you do 3D, audience expect the visuals to be of high quality or at least come with basic features like dynamic shadows, which games from 6 years ago had. I would like to see Fusion Fall use Indie version. Even NOW lot's of devs have complained about average visuals in the game (and it has nothing to do with art style).

It seems like the Indie version is just a learning version in the end. Good luck creating games like this without the usual features (unless you like placing "cookies" everywhere). Personally, I will invest in Unity only after a proper game has been released using A7 when I can at least afford a Pro version.

BTW, biggest plus A7 has (as far as I am concerned), free Lite-C version to learn. While people trying to learn Unity without UnityScript seem to be struggling thanks to all tutorials written in UnityScript (and few C# compatible), according to the forum goers there (not making this up, just read around).

I don't see anything in the Kubus video that unity-indie can't do...

^ What is funny is that Kubus wasn't even made with A7 and still looks better than what Unity Indie demo showed (just imagine the A7 boost in visuals).

If you base an engine's capability on what a demo you downloaded could do why did you ever start with A6 / A7? I also don't get what should be shown by that Kabus example just as for the visual boost when using A7 (A6 and A7 currently are quite comparable raw feature wise)...

I really don't know why this tends to turn into a bashing thread. Sure - I also think that the lack of shadows of the Indie version is a rather harsh feature to cut out. At the same with a pricing between A7 Extra and Com the feature set is quite fair and also includes a working multiplayer part which you won't find in A7 except for the Pro version. While I'd like to trade multiplayer for shadows - meh that's a decision the devs made plus as I think Machinery Frank said: Right now the Indie version is a great start for pretty much any game to start with and when things turn out great you upgrade to Pro for the final eyecandy features...

In the end Unity is the much more mature engine in my opinion - most certainly because of the manpower behind it (look at the big dev crew it has). At the same time it probably isn't a good solution for lone wolves or beginners in general because of the scripting language(s). I had no in-depth-look but I didn't really hear much about an "easy accesibility" for bloody newbies via Unity...

Having Unity for Windows still is an insane thing though as especially for teams with some experience it's a fantastic engine to work with. I don't see it as real "danger" towards 3DGS although it might take a nap from its pool of really experienced devs who are / have experienced programmers which will love the much deeper access they have to the engine while artists also will have their fun and don't have to deal with the scripting side...

Enjoy your meal
Toast

the same thing we've been talking about the whole thread.........

dynamic shadows.

I didn´t really look at the Kabus demo but if it really got done with A6 then the shadows can´t be that great. A6 stencil shadows were really crappy and A7 stencil shadows aren´t much better. They are slow, the mesh must be closed, they project through everything, they don´t react to lights correctly, they don´t support transparency, self-shadowing looks really bad,...

Even static light maps aren´t that great in A7. The map compiler is slow and produces many ugly artifacts and importing externally rendered solutions often is impossible or a huge pain.

So I don´t see how A7 is that great in the shadow department.



A7 commercial has stencil shadows and render to texture.

Unity indie has full multiplayer, PhysX instead of ODE, a vegetation system and many other nice features which are unavailable in Gamestudio.

I also don't see a problem by making a game in Indie and if you really want to make money with games, just get the pro upgrade for 950 euro. You dom't have to pay more or something. It's the same price as you would buy pro alone.

The price wasn't really different back in A6 times where you only had RTT with the pro edition.

I don't see dyamic shadows... just the old z-buffer ones für the characters and baked shadows for the level...

but it's nice, that the only complaint about unity-indie is, that it doesn't have dynamic shadows and post-processing effects... well, I have no problem with that, as long as the workflow is much better and things like the colission-system just works without workarounds.

unity is for me what I've searched for, easy, fast and useable.

zbuffer shadows are still dynamic, dynamic just means shadows that move according to the silhouette of the character base on some light (zbuffer ones being affected only by the sun angle) no one said dynamic light mapping, but at least some shadows would be nice.

No offense to those who are defending Unity or whatever, but the posts so far have been just comical.

"I didn't bother looking at Kabus example but here's a long rant on why Unity Indie is still better."

"I didn't look at the video at all but the shadows or looks can definitely not be that good if it was made with A6"


BTW, Unity Indie = 11,000 bucks here, not cheap at all for an "INDIE". So telling someone to "oh just buy the pro if you need shadows" is just.. well..

The whole point of Pro license is to start spending big when you are making money with the Indie version. Upgrading to A7 Pro brings sensible updates, like removal of logo and better MP. While upgrading to Unity Pro mean.. well, better shadows and water (and RTT.. among other features).


To all those saying how Indie version can make Kabus like game (HINT: Survival Horror genre). Please do make it, using Indie and release it for review. It'll be really entertaining, the response your game will get.

Also, I am not bashing Unity (read old posts before saying someone is bashing an engine). I just don't think that certain genres will work the same the way they work on A7 version comparable to Unity Indie. I already said it that the editor of Unity is no big deal at least for me (I can work without such editor, nothing amazing) so as far as I am concerned, the only pros is the Mac portability.

Good luck with your games people (I will obviously keep an eye out on the type of commercial games produced with Unity Indie.. so far, none, but maybe in the future).