14 DAY TRIAL // Unity, a set of game development tools that consist of a powerful rendering engine fully integrated with a complete set of intuitive applications and rapid workflows used to create interactive 3D and 2D content, has been upgraded to version 4.5.
The Unity tools and brand name has been gaining notoriety in the last couple of years, especially after the developers decided to expand the support for Linux and Mac OS X. The engine is now used in countless projects and it's the power behind a lot of games that are already on the market.
Some of the most famous games built with this set of tools include Battlestar Galactica Online, Rochard, Temple Run, Dead Trigger, Guns of Icarus Online, ARMA Tactics, Cities in Motion 2, Deus Ex: The Fall, Kerbal Space Program, Shadowrun Returns, Shadow Blade, and quite a few others.
The developers have now pushed a huge update for Unity, raising the version number to 4.5, and this means that it comes with more features than we can count.
“No other Unity release has featured so many bug fixes: by downing more than 450 of the little critters, we’ve set a new record! Plus, thanks to our all new Module Manager, with Unity 4.5 we’ll be able to serve you platform-specific hotfixes across mobile platforms.”
“The latest release in the 4.x cycle, also brings you across the board 2D physics improvements, a major update to the shader compiler, improved MonoBehaviour serialization and added iOS support for OpenGL ES 3.0,” said the developers in the announcement.
Besides the support for OpenGL ES 3.0 and the bug fixing, Unity 4.5 also brings better 2D physics, which now comes with some new functions, a much better shader compiler, improved MonoBehaviour serialization, and quite a few others.
According to the changelog, shaders are now imported much faster (complex surface shaders), shader compilation results are now cached under the Library folder, error reporting has been improved, surface shader debugging is now performing much better, sparse texture support has been added, and a new Module Manager with updatable platform support has been implemented. This means that Unity add-ons can be updated without downloading the full editor installer.
Also, new Hierarchy Window sorting is now available, 2D Joint Gizmos have been added, the CanTransitionToSelf option has been added to the AnyState Transitions, a new scripting function called Animator.Rebind() has been implemented, and the Sprite Editor now works for single mode sprites.
This is just a small fraction of what the new Unity 4.5 brings to its users and it will be interesting to see what new games will be the first to use it.