Enlighten integration is a big thing, and it surprises me - it's always been inordinately expensive as an integration for other platforms, so for it to just magically appear as a part of Unity is fairly odd behaviour on the part of Geomerics.
Edit: Actually, maybe it does make some sense. Geomerics are owned by ARM and Unity is widely adopted in the mobile space. ARM has a vested interest in the mobile games market. Maybe it's not that stupid a move. Kick in the teeth for anyone who wanted to license it for another engine though.
Or maybe someone in Geomerics finally realised that barley anyone licenses their tech, despite it is so awesome ?
I would hope, that it would mean that there is chance it will make into Unreal someday..
In any case, I'm not sure if I would choose Unity to make game. I will probably say something heretical, but I never could get my head around coding game in Unity. Everyone say it is so simple to start creating game in Unity, it's clear and so on. For me when I started it was one big WTF. Why do I have to drag script files around, why do I even write single seemingly unrelated text files in the first place.
Why it is not organized in some project with pattern.
wow yeah thats cool, anyone here worked with enlighten before? is the workflow good? I couldnt find any videos on thier website of someone actually using the tech to light a level or anything just finished shots of games.
And a few of the features from the press release -
Physically-based Shading
Unity 5 will launch with a new built-in shader system. The new shading is physically-based, designed to cover a wide variety of real-world materials under all lighting situations, and sports a vastly improved workflow, from the art pipeline all the way to the UI. Unity 5 also introduces full deferred shading and baked reflection probes for realistic environment-based specular highlights.
Real-time Global Illumination with Enlighten
Unity has entered into a partnership with Geomerics to integrate their industry-leading, real-time global illumination technology, Enlighten, into Unity 5. Enlighten is the only real-time global illumination technology optimized to deliver fully dynamic lighting in game on today's PCs, consoles, and mobile platforms. Animate lights, materials, environment lighting and even emissive objects in real-time. Enlightens technology also brings dramatic workflow improvements, enabling artists and designers to work directly in Unity 5's editor to create realistic and engaging visuals for all games styles. The technology is the lighting solution of choice for some of todays most advanced and best-selling titles.
Real-time Lightmap Previews
In partnership with Imagination Technologies, Unity 5 will be the first-ever development platform to ship with in-editor real-time lightmap previews based on Imaginations ground-breaking PowerVR Ray Tracing technology. This exciting addition allows for near instantaneous feedback for changes to global illumination lightmaps by displaying an accurate preview in the editors scene view of how lighting will look in the final game. With this technology, artists can continue to iterate and refine the look of a level while final lightmaps update and bake in the background, dramatically decreasing the amount of time needed to make artistic adjustments to scenes.
Audio Overhaul
Unitys entire audio pipeline has been rewritten to be more efficient and flexible. The first big feature included with the overhaul is an Audio Mixer designed to allow highly complex real-time re-routing and effects scenarios. Designers can take snapshots of mixer settings for dynamic transitions between sound profiles during gameplay.
WebGL Add-on Early Access
Unitys multiplatform functionality remains one of its most valuable aspects and Unity Technologies is happy to announce its collaboration with Mozilla to bring WebGL and asm.js support to Unity. Starting with Unity 5.0, developers will be able to get early access to Unitys WebGL add-on to begin creating interactive experiences for plugin-free play made possible in supported modern browsers. Attendees at GDC can stop by the Unity booth to see a demo of Madfinger Games Dead Trigger 2 running on WebGL.
Unity Cloud
Unity 5 will also see the launch of the Unity Cloud cross-promotion network, enabling mobile game developers to run full screen interstitial ads in their mobile games, as well as exchange ad units with other Unity developers, to unlock the combined power of over half a billion mobile game installs for free.
Furthermore, Unity 5 introduces many other additions and improvements:
That's great news. I'm glad Unity will have native PBR and realtime GI support. That's exactly what I've been looking for with my project. There are a few other things though that I wish they'd implement native, such as volumetric particles and dynamic fluid simulation like oceans.
From the sound of it, current Unity 4 users aren't going to be left out in the cold. there will be at least one more major 4.x update, and it WILL include the new revision to the GUI system. (something that a lot of users have been clamoring for)
Overall, it's sounding really good. New tools and toys to play around with. I'll probably have to adjust some of the scripts I'm working on to work with the new audio system, but it shouldn't be difficult to adapt them.
Lightbake previews in realtime is a god-send. Jesus, that will be nice. 80% of my time seems to be spent with lightmaps lately
Anyone know how realistic it is to run Enlighten on a mobile device? Looks too good to be true.
You can see Geomeric's Enlighten demo that Thomas P.posted running live on a 2014 Samsung Note 10.1 in the feature preview video here - http://youtu.be/tSfakMeW0lw?t=20s
We'll have both Pro and Free versions of Unity 5.0 available on release, as always - just the details on what features will be in which versions are still in-progress
Good discussion happening here. I just wanted to share the links to our various forums for Unreal, CryEngine, and Unity. Some people may be more interested in them now as the new engines and tools get release.
They'll have to bring down that monthly price for Unity pro to compete with Unreal and CryEngine.
Unreal for $20/mo, and CryEngine for $10/mo. Unity for $75/mo....
Definitely beats the massive price tag, but $75/mo doesn't help it regarding its competitors.
Mmm, nope, they won't.
In the long run, Unity will be more profitable to the developer, while CryEngine and Unreal are easier to financially manage for those looking for a cheaper solution now.
As a quick, lazy anecdote:
If I make a game that uses Unity and a game that uses Unreal, are launched independent from any platform, on the PC, and both make $1,000,000....
...the game that used Unity: $1,500 goes to Unity for the main license (+ whatever other platforms you launch to). The draw back is you need to pay the $1,500 up front.
...the game that sued Unreal: $50,000 goes to Epic. The good thing is you only need to pay the $19/monthly, with no large up-front costs.
So now, with these 3 pieces of tools news, we have options as developers. Can we act now, or pay later?
CryEngine is now royalty free with only a $10 subscription per month. That seems definitely much more affordable over Unity. The only problem with CryEngine is that it is not as user friendly as C# plus all the already made nifty plugins on the asset store.
.the game that used Unity: $1,500 goes to Unity for the main license (+ whatever other platforms you launch to). The draw back is you need to pay the $1,500 up front.
...the game that sued Unreal: $50,000 goes to Epic. The good thing is you only need to pay the $19/monthly, with no large up-front costs.
If I make a million bucks, $50k isn't really all that much. I'd also argue that I've probably saved that $50k in iteration time over the course of development of my million dollar game
the benefit to UE4's subscription model over unity's though, is in the "addons".
UE4 is the complete package, including source code for $20 p/m.
Unity is $75 p/m for access to their tools (being able to write your own scripts does not mean full source access). PLUS, another $75 p/m if you want to develop for android, and another $75 p/m if you want to develop for iOS... it quickly adds up. Once you understand that, it quickly becomes a less attractive option.
If I make a million bucks, $50k isn't really all that much. I'd also argue that I've probably saved that $50k in iteration time over the course of development of my million dollar game
That's human nature in action, I think. The tendency is to focus on the $50,000 you have to pay out, not the $950,000 you made.
How low spec can you go with UE4, it was mentioned you can turn off PBR but how much of a hack is that? I know people get dazzled by AAA graphics without considering the AAA money & manpower that goes into that. Unity wins in that regard, showing off games that are realistically achievable by a small indie team.
Unity is $75 p/m for access to their tools (being able to write your own scripts does not mean full source access). PLUS, another $75 p/m if you want to develop for android, and another $75 p/m if you want to develop for iOS... it quickly adds up. Once you understand that, it quickly becomes a less attractive option.
You are writing off the cost of the software on your taxes, hopefully. I always add my Unity store income to my taxes, so I have a lot of writeoffs.
The royalties for Unreal can't be written off. I don't think 5% is unreasonable, but that is a permanent drain on income and needs to be considered.
Really? I stand corrected. Any info or links to this?
Why would you think that you wouldn't be able to? In the US at least there is an expenses section specifically for services, which is probably what this would fall under. I'm positive you can write it off as it is a business expense clearly, though you should probably talk to a tax specialist to find out exactly how to write it off.
speaking of dynamic GI, I suppose they mean Enlighten engine? is it based on voxel cone GI? if its not is it limited to directional light only? or its similar to voxel based but with less penalty?
speaking of dynamic GI, I suppose they mean Enlighten engine? is it based on voxel cone GI? if its not is it limited to directional light only? or its similar to voxel based but with less penalty?
Replies
Edit: Actually, maybe it does make some sense. Geomerics are owned by ARM and Unity is widely adopted in the mobile space. ARM has a vested interest in the mobile games market. Maybe it's not that stupid a move. Kick in the teeth for anyone who wanted to license it for another engine though.
I would hope, that it would mean that there is chance it will make into Unreal someday..
In any case, I'm not sure if I would choose Unity to make game. I will probably say something heretical, but I never could get my head around coding game in Unity. Everyone say it is so simple to start creating game in Unity, it's clear and so on. For me when I started it was one big WTF. Why do I have to drag script files around, why do I even write single seemingly unrelated text files in the first place.
Why it is not organized in some project with pattern.
http://vimeo.com/38857877
think its really cool..
Click me>> Unity 5!
And a few of the features from the press release -
Physically-based Shading
Unity 5 will launch with a new built-in shader system. The new shading is physically-based, designed to cover a wide variety of real-world materials under all lighting situations, and sports a vastly improved workflow, from the art pipeline all the way to the UI. Unity 5 also introduces full deferred shading and baked reflection probes for realistic environment-based specular highlights.
Real-time Global Illumination with Enlighten
Unity has entered into a partnership with Geomerics to integrate their industry-leading, real-time global illumination technology, Enlighten, into Unity 5. Enlighten is the only real-time global illumination technology optimized to deliver fully dynamic lighting in game on today's PCs, consoles, and mobile platforms. Animate lights, materials, environment lighting and even emissive objects in real-time. Enlightens technology also brings dramatic workflow improvements, enabling artists and designers to work directly in Unity 5's editor to create realistic and engaging visuals for all games styles. The technology is the lighting solution of choice for some of todays most advanced and best-selling titles.
Real-time Lightmap Previews
In partnership with Imagination Technologies, Unity 5 will be the first-ever development platform to ship with in-editor real-time lightmap previews based on Imaginations ground-breaking PowerVR Ray Tracing technology. This exciting addition allows for near instantaneous feedback for changes to global illumination lightmaps by displaying an accurate preview in the editors scene view of how lighting will look in the final game. With this technology, artists can continue to iterate and refine the look of a level while final lightmaps update and bake in the background, dramatically decreasing the amount of time needed to make artistic adjustments to scenes.
Audio Overhaul
Unitys entire audio pipeline has been rewritten to be more efficient and flexible. The first big feature included with the overhaul is an Audio Mixer designed to allow highly complex real-time re-routing and effects scenarios. Designers can take snapshots of mixer settings for dynamic transitions between sound profiles during gameplay.
WebGL Add-on Early Access
Unitys multiplatform functionality remains one of its most valuable aspects and Unity Technologies is happy to announce its collaboration with Mozilla to bring WebGL and asm.js support to Unity. Starting with Unity 5.0, developers will be able to get early access to Unitys WebGL add-on to begin creating interactive experiences for plugin-free play made possible in supported modern browsers. Attendees at GDC can stop by the Unity booth to see a demo of Madfinger Games Dead Trigger 2 running on WebGL.
Unity Cloud
Unity 5 will also see the launch of the Unity Cloud cross-promotion network, enabling mobile game developers to run full screen interstitial ads in their mobile games, as well as exchange ad units with other Unity developers, to unlock the combined power of over half a billion mobile game installs for free.
Furthermore, Unity 5 introduces many other additions and improvements:
- Unity is now 64-bit
- New Multithreaded Job Scheduler
- NVIDIA PhysX 3.3
- Easier and incremental building of Asset Bundles
- New 2D physics effectors
- SpeedTree Integration
- NavMesh improvements
- Mecanim StateMachine Behaviours
- Loading optimizations
- And many other improvements
New feature preview!WebGL!
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Overall, it's sounding really good. New tools and toys to play around with. I'll probably have to adjust some of the scripts I'm working on to work with the new audio system, but it shouldn't be difficult to adapt them.
Anyone know how realistic it is to run Enlighten on a mobile device? Looks too good to be true.
Was surprised to see Enlighten built in.
yay!
I don't think it is realistic at all. That's why it have light map baking. It's realistic on Desktop ;p.
You can see Geomeric's Enlighten demo that Thomas P. posted running live on a 2014 Samsung Note 10.1 in the feature preview video here - http://youtu.be/tSfakMeW0lw?t=20s
WebGL is great and loving all the lighting enhancements.
Unreal Tech Talk: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=63
CryEngine Tech Talk: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=64
Unity Tech Talk: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=69
And our brand new Unity Store forum: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=79
Unreal for $20/mo, and CryEngine for $10/mo. Unity for $75/mo....
Definitely beats the massive price tag, but $75/mo doesn't help it regarding its competitors.
Mmm, nope, they won't.
In the long run, Unity will be more profitable to the developer, while CryEngine and Unreal are easier to financially manage for those looking for a cheaper solution now.
As a quick, lazy anecdote:
If I make a game that uses Unity and a game that uses Unreal, are launched independent from any platform, on the PC, and both make $1,000,000....
...the game that used Unity: $1,500 goes to Unity for the main license (+ whatever other platforms you launch to). The draw back is you need to pay the $1,500 up front.
...the game that sued Unreal: $50,000 goes to Epic. The good thing is you only need to pay the $19/monthly, with no large up-front costs.
So now, with these 3 pieces of tools news, we have options as developers. Can we act now, or pay later?
These are pretty massive problems. Plus stability issues last time I used CryEngine.
If I make a million bucks, $50k isn't really all that much. I'd also argue that I've probably saved that $50k in iteration time over the course of development of my million dollar game
UE4 is the complete package, including source code for $20 p/m.
Unity is $75 p/m for access to their tools (being able to write your own scripts does not mean full source access). PLUS, another $75 p/m if you want to develop for android, and another $75 p/m if you want to develop for iOS... it quickly adds up. Once you understand that, it quickly becomes a less attractive option.
[ame="
You are writing off the cost of the software on your taxes, hopefully. I always add my Unity store income to my taxes, so I have a lot of writeoffs.
The royalties for Unreal can't be written off. I don't think 5% is unreasonable, but that is a permanent drain on income and needs to be considered.
Really? I stand corrected. Any info or links to this?
Starting at 51 minutes.
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And also 4.6 open beta is available with the new UI system.
Why would you think that you wouldn't be able to? In the US at least there is an expenses section specifically for services, which is probably what this would fall under. I'm positive you can write it off as it is a business expense clearly, though you should probably talk to a tax specialist to find out exactly how to write it off.
That was EPIC!