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Unity to Flash, I kid you not

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  • Davision3D
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    Davision3D polycounter
    Holy Shit! I heard a long time ago that they would implement flash export, but never thought they would get everything working in there like in the unity player! I had imagined it would be something very dumped down. This will be huge for browser games.
  • low odor
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    low odor polycounter lvl 17
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    I've seen this before with a specific game (which may also have been unity based?) - the big caveat is that the user still has to download a shitbucket of content in order to play the game, and it still has to be hardware accelerated. The only real difference is that you're rendering in flash in a browser window rather than rendering in a dedicated game window, a lot like Quake Live does. Personally, I genuinely don't get the point.
  • equil
    It's a double-edged move as it seems like it will kill their own unity webplayer. And since they've mentioned flash deployment likely being a separate license, the effect it might have on their non-paying userbase should be interesting to see, as it might decrease the rate of penetration of the webplayer.

    I'm all for flash deployment though.
  • low odor
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    low odor polycounter lvl 17
    one awesome point is that people do not have to download the Unity web player...waiting for content to load isn't what it used to be ...where most people will wait for a game to load...a huge percentage will not install the unity web player first...just my 2 cents
  • osman
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    osman polycounter lvl 18
    @ambershee
    if you're developing games for the web, this makes it a little easier, since the install base of flash is much much bigger than that of the unity3d's plugin.
  • rollin
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    rollin polycounter
    wuhow.... /me is interested!
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    osman wrote: »
    @ambershee
    if you're developing games for the web, this makes it a little easier, since the install base of flash is much much bigger than that of the unity3d's plugin.

    If the end user has to download all the content, why run it in a browser in the first place? It's illogical. Just give them a binary that they can run whenever they want.
  • osman
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    osman polycounter lvl 18
    Not all games have that much content, there are plenty of games under 3-4mb. If you're one of those guys and you want to use unity and still have lots of potential players, then this is a very good new feature.

    Also, if I'm not wrong, you can send your games to flash portals to put it there, getting you more plays.

    So yeah, it's an optional thing, which can help a lot of developers. If you're a developer with a giant game, yes I agree it might be better to just go with a standalone.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    Yeah I think the idea is to be able to get unity games on mainstream flash game sites without them having to make exceptions or change their portals.
  • SanderDL
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    SanderDL polycounter lvl 7
    I saw this on the Unity News letter this morning. I think it's pretty cool and I'm would be interesting to see where this will lead too. I wonder however how this will preform and which of the webplayer features also apply to the flash version.
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    ambershee wrote: »
    I've seen this before with a specific game (which may also have been unity based?) - the big caveat is that the user still has to download a shitbucket of content in order to play the game, and it still has to be hardware accelerated. The only real difference is that you're rendering in flash in a browser window rather than rendering in a dedicated game window, a lot like Quake Live does. Personally, I genuinely don't get the point.

    correct me if I'm wrong but don't you have to download content for flash games anyway - that's why there's a loading bar before the game starts. You just have to design your game to have a smaller file size - less polygons, smaller & fewer textures, stuff like that.
  • gsokol
    Ahh yea.

    I remember when they said they were working on this. Its good to hear that they are still going with it.
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    correct me if I'm wrong but don't you have to download content for flash games anyway - that's why there's a loading bar before the game starts. You just have to design your game to have a smaller file size - less polygons, smaller & fewer textures, stuff like that.

    That was kind of my point :)

    It's nice that Unity is able to do this, but Unity is what I'd refer to as a 'mid-weight' 3d game engine. Sure, you can produce much smaller scale games with it, but in those cases you might just find there are better tools for the job that would result in a more efficient and less bandwidth intensive solution.
  • ZacD
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    ZacD ngon master
    ambershee wrote: »
    That was kind of my point :)

    It's nice that Unity is able to do this, but Unity is what I'd refer to as a 'mid-weight' 3d game engine. Sure, you can produce much smaller scale games with it, but in those cases you might just find there are better tools for the job that would result in a more efficient and less bandwidth intensive solution.

    Flash games get pretty heavy as well, I'm sure people don't mind waiting 5 times as long for really impressive 3d in flash.
  • osman
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    osman polycounter lvl 18
    @ambershee
    true, but no one said this is the best solution :).

    btw, care to share any of the alternatives you're speaking of?
  • XenoKratios
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    XenoKratios polycounter lvl 12
    What in the world!
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    osman wrote: »
    @ambershee
    true, but no one said this is the best solution :).

    btw, care to share any of the alternatives you're speaking of?

    The 'old fashioned way' - download it once, install it, and run it without the browser (and without flash as a middleman, it can only perform better)?
  • Justin Meisse
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    Justin Meisse polycounter lvl 18
    You can stream content in Unity, the Unity web player army demo streams data in during the introduction helicopter scene. I can't watch videos at work so maybe they specifically said "you can't stream in the flash version".

    As far as downloading and installing a game, yeah, there's plenty of people that can't be bothered to do that, especially if it's something that feels like a small casual game.

    Long story short - flash player is a GOOD thing
  • Habboi
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    Habboi sublime tool
    Hey does anyone remember that model viewer that someone made in Unity? Where you could upload your model and view it, rotate it etc? I was hoping to use as a get well card thing.
  • PatrickL
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    PatrickL polycounter lvl 9
    I always felt like the Unity plugin was one of the engine's greater shortcomings that really prevented it from dominating the web. Now that they have some crazy witch doctor program that converts their games to .swf, I don't see what is stopping them from conquering that market entirely.
  • [Deleted User]
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    [Deleted User] insane polycounter
    The user and all related content has been deleted.
  • maze
    ...now can someone do unity to jquery!
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    ambershee wrote: »
    The 'old fashioned way' - download it once, install it, and run it without the browser (and without flash as a middleman, it can only perform better)?

    ambershee I think you're grossly overestimating the majority of people who use the web. Most people do not install games. Most people have flash installed, most people do not know what flash even is.

    Also playing games in browsers is cross platform.
  • Ged
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    Ged interpolator
    hawken wrote: »
    ambershee I think you're grossly overestimating the majority of people who use the web. Most people do not install games. Most people have flash installed, most people do not know what flash even is.

    Also playing games in browsers is cross platform.

    this is very true, I used to work for a graphic design and marketing company making websites for 2 years and if we ever had something people had to actually click on and download it would send everyone into a frenzy because we just knew that the click through rate on downloads in nearly always very very bad but browser based things that just load without you needing to click are usually quite good at reaching the target audience.
  • uncle
    Remember that engines are not used entirely for gaming, fast example: realtime model viewer to showcase your shit. And guess what, nobody has to download the unity player anymore to see it, flash is all you need and everybody has it.
  • ambershee
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    ambershee polycounter lvl 17
    hawken wrote: »
    ambershee I think you're grossly overestimating the majority of people who use the web. Most people do not install games. Most people have flash installed, most people do not know what flash even is.

    I try to pretend such people do not exist :( - but I don't discount it. I'm mostly just arguing the toss really. Flash conversion for a mid-level engine just seems odd - I'm sure people will get a lot out of it though. You'll be amazed how many people ask for a browser based version of UDK.
    hawken wrote: »
    Also playing games in browsers is cross platform.

    This is only true of platforms that fully support flash and the necessary hardware acceleration (which I believe Unity is already portable to the majority of these anyway?)
  • equil
    no, the unity web plugin only works on windows and os x to my knowledge.
  • hawken
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    hawken polycounter lvl 19
    This does make for some interesting scenarios. You can now make games for the PS3, for example.
  • r_fletch_r
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    r_fletch_r polycounter lvl 9
    hawken wrote: »
    This does make for some interesting scenarios. You can now make games for the PS3, for example.

    and android, wonder how that would work
  • osman
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    osman polycounter lvl 18
    equil wrote: »
    no, the unity web plugin only works on windows and os x to my knowledge.

    Couldn't you already do this with unity? Or do you mean, without buying the special ps3/xbox360 license?
  • rolfness
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    rolfness polycounter lvl 18
    this is amazing, it would tap into the huge market that is the casual farmville crowd.

    good news indeed..
  • equil
    osman wrote: »
    Couldn't you already do this with unity? Or do you mean, without buying the special ps3/xbox360 license?

    you now support linux and every other platform with an integrated browser which supports flash, while the unity web plugin only supports two. a market penetration of 95-99% is nothing to scoff at.
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