I have taken a look at Unity and have decided to make an extra effort to try and dive deeper into it and learn more. The last time I even took a look at unity was quite some time ago, probably not long after it became availible. I've decided to try and document my learning process here in the blog.
The current iteration 3.4 seems promising, from the videos I've watched and some of the reading I've done on it. I am currently working out of town for about two weeks so I have no internet access and must rely solely on the Unity documentation.
Problems
- Poor documentation! Unity comes with help docs but I have yet to find any starting point guide. I can't find a API other then what C# language/api features are available. I need a clean clear and concise api reference documentation for Unity if I am to figure out how to use it. First and foremost I am a programmer so without an API to browse through I'm lost. At least in Visual Studio you have the Object Browser and can browse trough the assembles and read the documentation.
- Poor UI. One of the bigger drawbacks is that the unity UI is that it is to "custom" aka programmer designed. It works but the look and feel is too cumbersome and nor easy to work through. To much reliance on File menu structures rather then say a context aware Microsoft Office style tool bar.
- Can't determine the exact nature of the scripting system, There seems to be a choice of JavaScript or C# or some other language I have never herd of called "Boo".
- Poor flow control.
- I have zero clue where to start. I am having trouble even trying to get a single object to move in 3D space with keyboard input.
Unanswered Questions
- How do I respond to keyboard events and move an object?
Notable Discoveries
- Democratizing game development as the Unity team describes it, with Union and how they are trying to setup a way for Unity developers to market and sell there games an a vast array of platforms from set top boxes, XBox, PS3, Wii, PC/Mac etc.
- The Unity team seems to be in talks and making deals with more and more AAA publishers and game companies regarding Unity. This give them credit as a legit and serious contender in the game dev space.
- They provide a free version of Unity that can compile your game