The high-end game development toolset known as Unity has received a major software update today, featuring a range of 2D enhancements, a big change involving Windows Store, and more.
Unity3d.com offers the highlights of a “feature-packed release,” mentioning a completely revamped 2D toolset, blendshapes and animation events for animator-driven characters, MonoDevelop 4.0.1, a big Windows Store apps upgrade, and plastic SCM integration, dynamic off-mesh links and obstacle carving, and a lot more.
A new asset type called “Sprite” is available. Defined by a Texture2D, rectangle, and a pivot point, Sprite has an internal mesh generated based on pixel alpha values. This is a PRO only feature.
Unity can be used for free in trial mode for 30 days. To use it, you need a graphics card with 64 MB of VRAM and pixel shaders or 4 texture units. According to the creators of the toolset, “Any card made in this millennium should work.”