In a special event at GDC in San Francisco, Unity took the stage to announce the availability of two new versions.
Unity 5.3.4 gives developers focused on a product launch the latest set of features and tools in a stable environment. Unity 5.4 offers a set of in-development features ideal for developers in experimentation and prototype mode. Unity also announced that moving forward, beta releases will be made available to personal edition users. 5.4 is focused on new visual features, improved performance, and a major VR rendering upgrade.
“We remain focused on democratizing development, solving hard problems and enabling success,” said John Riccitiello, CEO, Unity. “I’m proud of the success that Unity has achieved in the last year. To achieve 30 percent share of the top 1000 grossing games is unprecedented and a testament to the creativity of developers using Unity. The two new versions we are launching today will provide something for all developer needs and set a more stable baseline for future innovation.”
John Cheng, General Manager of Unity Analytics, took took the stage and announced that after a Beta phase that saw Unity Analytics integrated into 60,000 games, Unity is moving its Analytics service out of Beta and will be available to all developers. Analytics is built into Unity, no SDK required, providing one-click integration. Included are heatmaps, data exploration and integration of in-app purchasing for multiple app stores including newly added support for Amazon Appstore, Samsung Galaxy Apps and Tizen Store.
Device Intelligence, a feature of Unity Analytics, empowers developers to make data-driven technical decisions about what hardware to focus efforts on. Its value comes from the insight derived from the 1.5 billion devices seen by the Unity network.
If developers are interested in using the new service, they can email analytics@unity3d.com for more information. Now in closed Beta, Unity Collaborate is a simple way for small teams to save, share and sync their Unity projects in the cloud. To apply to the program you can visit unity3d.com/collaborate.
The first part of their real-time rendered short film “Adam” was also shown, created with the Unity engine by Unity’s Demo team (below). The full length movie will be shown at Unite Europe 2016 in Amsterdam.
Unity also announced on stage the creation of a Unity Certification Program and Unity Certified Developer Courseware. It’s a program designed to give developers the opportunity to prove their skills in Unity, achieve a qualification and use that to further their careers. Courseware will be available for purchase online soon and certification exams will be made available at Unity-hosted events worldwide. More informations is available at certification.unity.com.
Unity increased the number of supported platforms to 25 across 2D, 3D, VR and AR. Unity for Microsoft Hololens Tech Preview will ship on March 30 as well as upcoming new support for Amazon FireOS. To facilitate amazing games and experiences in VR, Unity will support NVIDIA VR Works™, including VR SLI and Multi-res Shading, as well as AMD LiquidVR™, offering developers access to the latest GPU capabilities.
