Technology Issues - PG02 - UNITY Notes (23 September 2012)

UNITY notes
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Unity - fully integrated development engine

Assemble art and assets into scenes and environments, add physics, play test, and edit a game
then

Publish to platforms, including desktop computers, the Web, iOS, Android, Wii, PS3 and Xbox 360

Creation of most game types:

Browser-based MMOGs, First-person shooters, Racing games, Real-time strategy games, Third-person shooters, Roleplaying games, Side-scrollers, etc.

Unity Community
http://udn.unity3d.com/

1a.Unity Forums
1b.Unity Answers
1c.Unity Feedback
1d.Unity Scripts and Tips Wiki
1e.Unity Chat

Unity Basics
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/UnityBasics.html

Interface
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/LearningtheInterface.html

Views:
Project View - shows all the project folders
Scene View - shows the scene, with transform object tools
Game View - shows the game, with the stop and play controls
Inspector View - display info about the current game object
Hierarchy View - shows every game object within the scene
Animation View - for creation and modification of animated clips within Unity
Particle Effect -
Asset Store -
Console view - shows logs of messages
Animation View - used to animate objects in the scene
Profiler - user to investigate and find the performance bottle-necks in the game
Asset Server View - used to manage version control of the project using Unity's Asset Server
Lightmapping View - used to manage lightmaps
Occlusion Culling View - used to manage Occlusion Culling for improved performance

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Assets consist of scenes, scripts, 3D models, textures, audio files and Prefabs.

*Always use the Project view to move assets, do not move files in the OS.

Click on Project > Create, to create new objects.
OBJECTS
1.Javascript (UnityScript) - http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/34015-Newbie-guide-to-Unity-Javascript-(long)
2.C# Script
3.Boo Script - http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/72458-Official-Boo-Scripting-Resource-Thread
http://boo.codehaus.org/Language+Guide

Boo is an amazing language that combines the syntactic sugar of Python, the features ofRuby, and the speed and safety of C#.

Like C#, Boo is a statically-typed language, which means that types are important. This adds a degree of safety that Python and other dynamically-typed languages do not currently provide.

It fakes being a dynamically-typed language by inference. This makes it seem much like Python's simple and programmer-friendly syntax.

4.Shader - rendering of the graphics, Unity has 60 built in shaders, however can make own shaders.
5.Surface Shader - surface is affected by light and shadows
6.Vertex/Fragment Shader - where interaction with lighting is not required
7.Fixed Function Shader - are written for old hardware that doesn't support programmable shaders.
8.Shader Lab - looks like a 'function'
9.Prefab - reusable GameObject stored in Project View (like a movie clip symbol)
10.Material - allows user to adjust properties and assign assets
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Manual/Materials.html
11.Animation - http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/ScriptReference/AnimationClip.html
12.Cubemap - collection of six separate square textures, placed onto the faces of a cube.
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/class-Cubemap.html
13.Lens Flare
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/class-LensFlare.html
14.Custom Font
15.Physic Material - used to adjust friction and bouncing effects of colliding objects
http://docs.unity3d.com/Documentation/Components/class-PhysicMaterial.html
16.GUI Skin - enables a skin to be applied to the style of an entire set of controls

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