First off, Unity 5 introduces support for physically based materials – flavour of the month in games tool development, given their recent inclusion in Substance Designer 4, Allegorithmic’s texture-creation package. The update will also introduce full deferred shading and baked reflection probes, and thanks to the integration of Geomerics’ Enlighten middleware – previously used in games like Battlefield 4 – real-time global illumination.
Thanks to another technology partnership, this time with Imagination Technologies, Unity 5 also supports in-editor real-time lightmap previews based on Imagination’s PowerVR raytracing technology. Better physics, better performance, better… trees? In the world of real-time physics, PhysX has been updated to the latest release, version 3.3; while the 2D physics system added in Unity 4.3 has been extended to include new effectors. Performance has also been substantially improved, thanks to full 64-bit support, a multithreaded job scheduler and loading and NavMesh optimisations. The features list also mentions integration with IDV’s SpeedTree vegetation-generation system – although we can’t actually find any more details on either company’s website.
Non-graphics-related features
Outside the art department, the Unity Cloud interstitial ad-exchange network, announced alongside Unity 4.3, will also make its official debut, and there is an extensive new set of audio tools.
Unity’s new WebGL add-on, developed in partnership with Mozilla, and available in early access in Unity 5. Unity 5 will also provide “early access” to the new new WebGL add-on, created in partnership with Mozilla, and enabling developers to publish games directly to modern web browsers without the need for third-party plugins.
Pricing and availability
Unity 5 is currently available to pre-order, although no release date has yet been announced. Unity Pro costs $1,500, and the Android and iOS publishing add-ons a further $1,500 each. There is also a free edition of the software with a limited feature set.
Thanks to another technology partnership, this time with Imagination Technologies, Unity 5 also supports in-editor real-time lightmap previews based on Imagination’s PowerVR raytracing technology. Better physics, better performance, better… trees? In the world of real-time physics, PhysX has been updated to the latest release, version 3.3; while the 2D physics system added in Unity 4.3 has been extended to include new effectors. Performance has also been substantially improved, thanks to full 64-bit support, a multithreaded job scheduler and loading and NavMesh optimisations. The features list also mentions integration with IDV’s SpeedTree vegetation-generation system – although we can’t actually find any more details on either company’s website.
Non-graphics-related features
Outside the art department, the Unity Cloud interstitial ad-exchange network, announced alongside Unity 4.3, will also make its official debut, and there is an extensive new set of audio tools.
Pricing and availability
Unity 5 is currently available to pre-order, although no release date has yet been announced. Unity Pro costs $1,500, and the Android and iOS publishing add-ons a further $1,500 each. There is also a free edition of the software with a limited feature set.
