Unity3D Is Amazing
Cool stuff you might not know about
I’ve been using Unity3D for a better part of 2 years now, and I can’t help but wonder why a lot of programmers don’t use it or haven't even tried to learn it.
One of the reasons I feel, is that, it’s primarily build and marketed as a Game Engine, be it for AAA studios or Indie Developers. And having learnt it myself using only Google+Youtube, it does have a learning curve that might discourage newcomers to keep going.
But, once you understand the basics properly, it is an absolute pleasure to work with. Here are 5 cool things about Unity3D:
1. You can make Augmented and Virtual Reality Experiences for next-gen devices
Okay, yes this is pretty common knowledge, but there are also other libraries and frameworks such as Argon.js or WebVR which might be confusing to newcomers. However, these libraries are limited at this point of time and don’t really allow you to make amazing, mind boggling experience that you might have experienced, such as VR Games for the Oculus or HTC Vive, or Holographic apps for the Hololens.
2. Code once, build for many
When you are working on a project with Unity3D, you have the option to write code either in C# or JavaScript. Once you are satisfied with what you’ve built, you have the option to build your project to work on almost all major mobile platforms. Here’s what the Build Settings looks like.
3. A great Built-in Emulator
Yes, emulators are available for testing Android apps (Android Studio and GenyMotion) and iOS Apps (MacOS only), but the built-in emulator in Unity3D gives the best of both worlds. Another great thing is that you can run your project in the Emulator, and still manipulate or make changes in the code in real-time! This is one of those features that is a huge time saver and allows for rapid-prototyping new stuff.
4. The Asset Store
In addition to tons of online tutorials and amazing repositories on Github, Unity3D has it’s own Asset Store that has a huge range of Free and Paid assets, such as OpenCV Integration, LogViewer (app console for debugging and logging on actual device), 3D Models with Sounds and Animations and a many more.
5. Cloud Build and Analytics
Unity Cloud build is one of the most amazing services released in 2016. It automatically compiles, deploys, and tests your app so you can iterate quickly with your team, is multi-platform and allows seamless deployment. Unity Analytics is another one of several great services launched, that requires no additional SDKs, still works across all platforms and is Free to use.
So, these were some of the amazing stuff about the Unity3D ecosystem.
Do let me know in the comments below what you learned from this article and any experiences or suggestions you want to share.
Thanks for reading :)
Thanks Ashish Gulati and Manjog Singh for proof-reading.
