unity game development Archives

5 Rarely Known Advantages And Disadvantages Of Unity Game Development 2022

By Potenza unity game development May 25, 2022

5 Rarely Known Advantages And Disadvantages Of Unity Game Development

People used to have a hard time making mobile game apps for different platforms before the year 2005. It took a lot of time, effort, and money to make apps for different mobile platforms at that time. However, the introduction of the Unity engine at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference flipped the tables.

The robust cross-platform engine made it possible to construct the game app in a user-friendly environment for 27 platforms and different devices. It delivers many resources, including easy tools, ready-made assets, detailed documentation, tutorials, and an online community free to produce excellent 3D content for games.

Unity’s rendering, scripting, asset tracking, and physics features help reduce game development time and costs while allowing games to run on various platforms. The Unity engine is now at the top of the cross-platform game development ladder. All because of its benefits over the other tools out there.

Research shows that “Unity 3D engine has 45 % global game engine market share and chosen by 47 % game developers as the major development tool.” That’s pretty awesome. But, the engine has some shortcomings as well, which makes the developers reluctant to use the engine for the next-Gen game app development.

Let’s take a glance at the advantages and disadvantages of unity which help you decide whether the engine is suitable for the game development or not:

Advantages and disadvantages of unity

Pros of Unity Game Development

1) Platform support

The engine is highly preferred for its extended support to 27 platforms. The app developed and deployed can be easily shared between PC, web, and mobile platforms. Besides, the agile methodology enables speedy prototyping and stable releases, which speeds up the game development process.

2) IDE

Code is written in the IDE’s built-in text editor; however, developers may also prefer to utilise a separate code editor to avoid confusion. Additionally, the integrated development editor supports JavaScript and C# for scripting and offers notable features ideal for game development.

3) Graphics

The engine supports high-quality audio and visual effects that simplify the game development process. The visuals are adaptable on every screen and device without any distortion or compromising on the image quality.

4) Documentation

This is something you cannot miss. New developers always need easy-to-understand documentation that provides every little detail about the Unity engine.

5) Debugging

Debugging and tweaking are amazingly easier with Unity game development because all the game variables are displayed during gameplay. This is great because it allows the developers to debug the process at runtime.

Cons of Unity Game Development

1) Graphics

It’s hard to mention, but the engine is lagging when it comes to graphics. Comparatively speaking, it lacks a wide range of capabilities for creating visually beautiful graphics.

2) Physics

In the Unity 5 engine, the built-in support for the PhysX physics engine has some performance issues and lacks important functionalities required to craft an excellent game app.

3) Licence cost

The developers need to have licences for the best graphics, deployment, and performance improvements. These licences are expensive to purchase. Moreover, the use of rendering, buffer support, stencil support, and pretty more features scale up the development costs due to the expensive licences.

4) Source code

The code is stable in Unity as opposed to other engines and packed with a great architecture that improves the game app performance. But, the unavailability of the source code makes finding, addressing, and fixing the performance issues difficult.

5) Memory hogging

The game developed leveraging the Unity engine consumes more memory, which in turn creates OOM errors and debugging issues in the apps.

The last word

The mobile game development firm ranks Unity 3D as the best engine for game app development. The Unity 3D engine has been continuously enhanced, and faults have been fixed in newer versions. However, just as every coin has two sides, the Unity engine also has its Pros and Cons.

You now have a thorough understanding of how the Unity engine works. What are your thoughts? What is your opinion of the advantages and disadvantages of the unity engine and whether or not it is a good fit for your next project? Please express your thoughts in the space provided below.

Unity Is the Best Tool for XR Development

By Potenza unity game development January 19, 2018

Unity Is the Best Tool for XR Development

Virtual reality(VR) is somewhat of a household name nowadays, with Oculus Rift & Playstation VR people can experience Video Games outside of the traditional rectangular screen. Pokémon Go players have experienced Pokémon’s in their real-world environment which in technical term is defined as Augmented Reality(AR). When we combine the above two to create an environment where one can simultaneously experience and interact with digital content immersed into their real world is called as Mixed Reality(MR). These terms VR/AR/MR are mere sub-classes of a broader term called as Extended Reality which is also known as XR.

VR & AR allows man and machine to interact with each other on a whole different level. So, such type of XR development is not similar to the creation of traditional computer games, mobile games or console games. It requires tremendous research and knowledge so as to prioritize the comfort of the user while experiencing such products.

Developers swear by ‘unity’ and call it the best tool for XR development. Many mobile game development companies prefer Unity. One can find a noticeable boost in Unity game development these days. Let’s find out why it is the best tool.

1) Worldwide Reach

Unity can provide support to all the latest platforms like Oculus Rift, Steam VR/Vive, Playstation VR, Microsoft Hololens, Google’s Daydream View, etc. More than 91% of the Hololens applications and AR apps are made with Unity, which shows that we can combine those together for MR in the future, thus proving its usage as an XR tool.

2) Framerate Exposure

A highly optimized stereoscopic rendering pipeline helps an application reach to high framerates effortlessly thus it helps the developer to optimize their content.

3) Rapid Development

Unity also helps in the creation of cross-platform applications, as it takes very less effort for a creation of an app build for a different platform with just a few tweaks. It even allows third-party hardware manufacturer to develop their own plugins and SDKs. Integrating such plugins would reduce the benefits of the vast and highly optimized pipeline, but it would still allow its users to create an immersive VR/AR experience. Some of the plugins already available are ARCore & ARKit, Vuforia, etc.

4) Other Usages

Unity is not just a tool for the creation of Games, it has vast applications in the non-gaming sector like Education, Healthcare & industrial training. It can create vast immersive 3D worlds for the students of various discipline for experiencing something which is not possible via just books and field trips. One can create 3D objects for interactive purposes which is essential for a trainee in the industrial environment so as to prepare him for handling the real object. An experimental term called social VR is currently under development which is commonly known as Facebook Spaces, it allows a user to create his own virtual world with the help of his uploaded photos & 360 videos where the user can invite his friends from anywhere in the world to be a part of that world.

Unity has many inbuilt tools called as ‘Assets’ which help the user for fast and easy development of applications. These assets start from programming modules to media content like arts & sounds. Unity has introduced a new asset called ‘Virtual Room’ which a new type of interactive environment for advertising. This tool allows the advertising companies to insert an interactive ad inside the game’s storyline, where the player has the ability to either enter or experience the advertisement or just carry on with his game story. These ads may be in the form of a room where the player can enter and then explore the various brands and products the advertisement company has to offer. After a couple of minutes, he can exit the room and would be rewarded in some sort with a gift, thus promoting such experiences.

Some real-time usage of Unity is as follows:

1) Google VR SDK

This plugin for unity is used to build applications for Android and iOS. The integration of unity with Google VR makes it a cinch to build Android Applications for Daydream and Cardboard. This plugin also consists of various features like spatialized audio, Daydream Controller support, utilities, and samples. These features help to create a new VR unity project from scratch. It can be made to adapt an existing Unity 3D application to VR, also to make an app that can easily switch in and out of VR mode.

2) Vuforia

It is a market leader in AR/MR space, Vuforia along with Unity helps developers to use augmented reality as a cross-platform SDK for Android, iOS, UWP and digital eyewear. With Unity’s latest version Vuforia come included with the Unity editor, where it can use images and real objects as a target for placing content and tracking in the real world.

Conclusion

Therefore, we can easily conclude that with so many advantages, Unity is absolutely the best choice in the development of XR projects.

The Alternative Realities: Augmented vs. Virtual

By Potenza unity game development August 23, 2017

The Alternative Realities: Augmented vs. Virtual

Augmented Reality or AR and Virtual Reality or VR come up as two ends of the same sentence. There can be no conversation where both of them aren’t together discussed.

To all those who are less informed about them and use them alternatively, we must tell you- as related as they are, the difference, however, is enormous and worth explaining.

First up, they both possess the ability to change our perceptions of the world, the knowledge of our presence is what is the main difference between augmented reality and virtual reality.

Virtual reality is what we call 3D or computer generated digital environment wherein one can perceive things and interact with objects realistically. Peripherals like headsets and motion sensors are employed to transmit the appropriate feeling to all the senses.

Augmented Reality like its name suggests, enhances the reality with additional content that is virtual. 2D or 3D digital materials such as sounds, visuals over real physical world objects is what could be called Augmented Reality.

VR creates an imagination to interact with; AR adds to the stimulating content to already existing real world aspects.

-> Famous Examples of VR and AR

Most common examples of VR Technology include

a console, PC, and mobile games.
There are social networking platforms too, to mention a few- Oculus Rooms and vTime.
Online Environments like Second Life.
Design applications like Google Tiltbrush.
Other Entertainment Content, for example, videos on YouTube 360

Famous Examples for AR Technology:

Location based Games like Pokemon Go
Snapchat filters
Shopping Apps

These employ smartphone cameras to place the virtual graphics over the real world view.

-> Devices and Platforms These Technologies Manipulate:

VR

To track Head and Body movements, spatial audio setups, and stereoscopic displays; the VR technology makes use of Gyroscope and Motion Sensors. For VR settings, Wearables and accessories are crucial to being able to interact more realistically.

1) Controllers and Treadmills

Using standard hand-operated game controllers, one can easily navigate through virtual environments. To accurately replicate movements, treadmills and similar devices are put to use.

2) Head-Mounted Displays

Tools like Oculus Rift, PlayStation, VR and HTC vive could sync to external devices like the consoles and PCs.

3) Haptic Interfaces

To experience physical reciprocation through sensations such as vibrations, Bodysuits and Gloves exist to serve the purpose.

4) Mobile VR Goggles

Strapon Goggles enable a vibrant experience VR content to the user on smartphones and tablets. Samsung Gear and Google Cardboard are some modern examples of mobile VR Goggles.

AR

To allow users to perceive digital content and materials, AR employs display systems along with input systems and location tracking sensors. Smartphone models boast availability of most of this hardware.

1) Display

Hololens, smart glasses like the Google Glass, lenses and smartphone cameras are head mounted displays that AR employs.

2) Sensors

Accelerometers, Gyroscopes, Optical Sensors, and GPS that comes with built-in specs in standard smartphones, through which the position of the user can be tracked.

-> Applications of VR and AR Technology

VR allows for numerous possibilities when it comes to creating outstanding imageries, precisely the reason why it is more popular than AR in the field of technology. AR is seen as a daily requirement in the processes and enterprise applications.

VR

VR comes of use in the following aspects of our lives.

1) Design

Creation of virtual stereotypes in the field of automobiles to electronics.
For architects to experience realistic images of future buildings

2) Entertainment

Be it games, virtual theme parks, and videos, etc., VR is extensively used for such sort of entertainment purposes. However, VR is required for virtual viewing, sporting events and live concerts, and virtual tourism.

3) Military and Healthcare

To train personnel in the military safely, VR technology is required to create high-intensity situations like emergency and combat scenarios.

4) Business

For business to coordinate better with global teams, VR technology is used for the purpose of remote conferencing. VR is enables employee training effectively by creating life-like stimulation.

AR

There are two conditions of content creation when it comes to the VR application.

Using a spherical camera by taking a 360 degree video.
Using Game engines to create a 3D animation.

Unreal and unity game development are some popular game engines that the providers generally use for top virtual reality game services. VR applications.

AR

The best augmented reality developers like the Unity Game Development, with an effective knowledge about the AR technology; combine expertise In the development of mobile apps and processing of image. An example would be Vuforia which is an augmented reality app development that support detection of target, virtual buttons, 2D and 3D recognition, etc.

-> Future scope for AR and VR

VR

With more headsets making use of inside-out tracking to exit the need for cameras, Virtual Reality, that way, will presumably go wireless and portable too.
Developers like unity game development are looking for engaging solutions that uses graphics with high frame rates, solution for issues like latency or lag between the real movements and the movements in the stimulated environment.
Content of Virtual reality is expanding to incorporate newer experiences in the field of movies or shopping so the consumers can feel like they are in the stores but virtually.

AR

New smartphones have precise cameras that include the specifications like enhanced depth, tracking, supporting more AR apps.
Newer versions of the google glass with new modifications have been launched, aimed at enterprise use.

Blending the Two

MR or Mixed Reality combines the aspects of both the augmented and the virtual realities. MR enables users to interact realistically with virtual materials, for example, Holograms, placed perfectly in the real world setup.

However, this technology is in its initial stage; with the development of Microsoft Windows Mixed Reality Headsets, MR is expected to take a leap far ahead in the coming years.

Potenza Global Solutions has over the years, aced in the field of AR and VR technology and aims to provide efficient solutions in the services mentioned above. Being a forerunner among the leading providers of virtual and augmented reality game and app services, it invites those who wish to take a step in the right reality to further explore the galaxy of the AR/VR projects today.