Unity from Zero to Proficiency (Proficient)


Book Description

First Edition, Published in September 2019 Content and structure of this book In this book, the fifth book in the series, you will become comfortable with creating your own RPG. If you were ever interested in creating systems for your game to speed-up your coding and create and maintain levels easily, then this book is for you. The book includes a list of the learning objectives at the start of each chapter, step-by-step activities, and quizzes to test your knowledge, and the content of each chapter is as follows: - Chapter 1 gives an introduction to the RPG genre. You will learn the design principles that will help you to speed-up your development process. - Chapter 2 helps you to create and animate your main 3D character, add a camera that will follow this character as well as a mini-map. You will also learn to use ProBuilder to create a village. - Chapter 3 explains how to create a dialogue system from an XML file, and how to integrate it seamlessly into your game. - Chapter 4 explains how you can create a simple inventory system and use it to collect, store, and use items that you will find in your quest. - Chapter 5 shows you how to create a shop where the player can buy items that will then be added to the inventory. - Chapter 6 explains how you can create different types of animated and intelligent NPCs that will challenge the player. - Chapter 7 explains how you can create a quest system based on an XML file to manage the objectives for each of your levels. You will learn to read, and use this file for your game. - Chapter 8 explains how you can create an XP attribution system where the player can use the Xps gained in the previous level to increase his/her skills (e.g., accuracy, power, etc.) - Chapter 9 shows you how you can create a maze randomly using a procedural method so that the maze is different every time the game is played. - Chapter 10 combines the skills that you have learned so far to create a final level where the player needs to eliminate guards, collect gold, and also defeat the boss. After reading this book you will become a better game programmer, improve your knowledge of coding and unity, understand how to make a more complex product, learn some techniques to make an RPG game more modular, especially the quest system, use reusable code/assets that you can employ in your own game, create an inventory for your characters and much more... If you want to get started with your first RPG in Unity and learn reusable systems for your other games, using a tried-and-tested method: buy this book now!




Unity 5 Game Optimization


Book Description

Master performance optimization for Unity3D applications with tips and techniques that cover every aspect of the Unity3D Engine About This Book Optimize CPU cycles, memory usage, and GPU throughput for any Unity3D application Master optimization techniques across all Unity Engine features including Scripting, Asset Management, Physics, Graphics Features, and Shaders A practical guide to exploring Unity Engine's many performance-enhancing methods Who This Book Is For This book is intended for intermediate and advanced Unity developers who have experience with most of Unity's feature-set, and who want to maximize the performance of their game. Familiarity with the C# language will be needed. What You Will Learn Use the Unity Profiler to find bottlenecks anywhere in our application, and discover how to resolve them Implement best-practices for C# scripting to avoid common pitfalls Develop a solid understanding of the rendering pipeline, and maximize its performance through reducing draw calls and avoiding fill rate bottlenecks Enhance shaders in a way that is accessible to most developers, optimizing them through subtle yet effective performance tweaks Keep our scenes as dynamic as possible by making the most of the Physics engine Organize, filter, and compress our art assets to maximize performance while maintaining high quality Pull back the veil on the Mono Framework and the C# Language to implement low-level enhancements that maximize memory usage and avoid garbage collection Get to know the best practices for project organization to save time through an improved workflow In Detail Competition within the gaming industry has become significantly fiercer in recent years with the adoption of game development frameworks such as Unity3D. Through its massive feature-set and ease-of-use, Unity helps put some of the best processing and rendering technology in the hands of hobbyists and professionals alike. This has led to an enormous explosion of talent, which has made it critical to ensure our games stand out from the crowd through a high level of quality. A good user experience is essential to create a solid product that our users will enjoy for many years to come. Nothing turns gamers away from a game faster than a poor user-experience. Input latency, slow rendering, broken physics, stutters, freezes, and crashes are among a gamer's worst nightmares and it's up to us as game developers to ensure this never happens. High performance does not need to be limited to games with the biggest teams and budgets. Initially, you will explore the major features of the Unity3D Engine from top to bottom, investigating a multitude of ways we can improve application performance starting with the detection and analysis of bottlenecks. You'll then gain an understanding of possible solutions and how to implement them. You will then learn everything you need to know about where performance bottlenecks can be found, why they happen, and how to work around them. This book gathers a massive wealth of knowledge together in one place, saving many hours of research and can be used as a quick reference to solve specific issues that arise during product development. Style and approach This book is organized based on the major features of Unity engine and should be treated as a reference guide. It is written as a series of investigations into both common and unusual performance pitfalls, each including a study on why the bottleneck is causing us problems, and a list of enhancements or features that can be used to work around them. Differences in effectiveness, behaviors, or feature-sets between Unity 4.x and Unity 5.x will be highlighted.




Unity in Action


Book Description

Summary Manning's bestselling and highly recommended Unity book has been fully revised! Unity in Action, Second Edition teaches you to write and deploy games with the Unity game development platform. You'll master the Unity toolset from the ground up, adding the skills you need to go from application coder to game developer. Foreword by Jesse Schell, author of The Art of Game Design Purchase of the print book includes a free eBook in PDF, Kindle, and ePub formats from Manning Publications. About the Technology Build your next game without sweating the low-level details. The Unity game development platform handles the heavy lifting, so you can focus on game play, graphics, and user experience. With support for C# programming, a huge ecosystem of production-quality prebuilt assets, and a strong dev community, Unity can get your next great game idea off the drawing board and onto the screen! About the Book Unity in Action, Second Edition teaches you to write and deploy games with Unity. As you explore the many interesting examples, you'll get hands-on practice with Unity's intuitive workflow tools and state-of-the-art rendering engine. This practical guide exposes every aspect of the game dev process, from the initial groundwork to creating custom AI scripts and building easy-to-read UIs. And because you asked for it, this totally revised Second Edition includes a new chapter on building 2D platformers with Unity's expanded 2D toolkit. What's Inside Revised for new best practices, updates, and more! 2D and 3D games Characters that run, jump, and bump into things Connect your games to the internet About the Reader You need to know C# or a similar language. No game development knowledge is assumed. About the Author Joe Hocking is a software engineer and Unity expert specializing in interactive media development. Table of Contents PART 1 - First steps Getting to know Unity Building a demo that puts you in 3D space Adding enemies and projectiles to the 3D game Developing graphics for your game PART 2 - Getting comfortable Building a Memory game using Unity's 2D functionality Creating a basic 2D Platformer Putting a GUI onto a game Creating a third-person 3D game: player movement and animation Adding interactive devices and items within the game PART 3 - Strong finish Connecting your game to the internet Playing audio: sound effects and music Putting the parts together into a complete game Deploying your game to players' devices




Unity 5


Book Description

Explore every nook and cranny of Unity 5 to turn your imaginations into realityAbout This Book* Demystify the C# programming language in Unity 5.x.* Unleash the power of Unity to create a wide variety of projects in numerous genres and formats.* Master the art of optimization for Unity 5.x applications with tips and techniques that will further enhance your game.Who This Book Is ForBeginner level Unity developers who do not have much programming experience.What You Will Learn* Master the art of applying C# in Unity. Get to know about techniques to turn your game idea into working project.* Use loops and collections efficiently in Unity to reduce the amount of code.* Create and code a good-looking functional UI system for your game.* Find out how to create exciting and interactive games using GUIs.* Work with different animation assets and components to enhance your game further.* Personalize your game by learning how to use Unity's advanced animation system.* Create, visualize, and edit animated creatures to add to your already amazing game.* Familiarize yourself with the tools and practices of game development Discover how to create the Game Manager class to, generate game levels, and develop UI for the game.* Use the Unity Profiler to find bottlenecks anywhere in your application, and discover how to resolve them.* Implement best practices for C# scripting to avoid common mistakesIn DetailUnity is a cross-platform game engine that is used to develop 2D and 3D video games. Unity 5 is the latest version, and adds a real-time global illumination to the games; and its powerful new features help to improve a game's efficiency.If you love games and want to learn how to make them but have no idea where to begin, then this course is built just for you. This learning path is divided into three modules which will take you in this incredible journey of creating games.The course begins with getting you started with programming behaviors in C# so that you can create 2D games in Unity. You will begin by installing Unity and learning about its features. You will learn how to perform object-oriented programming and discover how to manage the game play loop, generate game levels, and develop a simple UI for the game. By the time this module comes to a close, you will have mastered the art of applying C# in Unity.It is now time we put into use what we learned in the previous module into reality as we move onto the second module. Here, we will be building 7-8 action-packed games of different difficulty levels. Each project will focus on key Unity features as well as game strategy development. This module will mark your transformation from an application developer to a full-fledged Unity game developer.Who wouldn't love a game that is fully perfect, functional, and without any glitches? The third module deals with just that by teaching how to enhance your game by learning game optimization skills. Here, you'll gain an understanding of possible solutions to any problem and how to implement them. You will then learn everything you need to know about where performance bottlenecks can be found, why they happen, and how to work around them.With this massive wealth of knowledge, at the end of this learning path, you will be able to leverage an array of game development techniques to create your own basic games while resolving any issues that you encounter.Style and approachThis learning path should be treated as the complete package necessary for building games. It is a step-by-step guide to develop a game from scratch by applying the fundamentals of C# and Unity scripting, with a reference guide in the end to solve all your gaming problems.




Unity Game Optimization


Book Description

Get up to speed with a series of performance-enhancing coding techniques and methods that will help you improve the performance of your Unity applications Key FeaturesOptimize graphically intensive games using the latest features of Unity such as Entity Component System (ECS) and the Burst compilerExplore techniques for solving performance issues with your VR projectsLearn best practices for project organization to save time through an improved workflowBook Description Unity engine comes with a great set of features to help you build high-performance games. This Unity book is your guide to optimizing various aspects of your game development, from game characters and scripts, right through to animations. You’ll explore techniques for writing better game scripts and learn how to optimize a game using Unity technologies such as ECS and the Burst compiler. The book will also help you manage third-party tooling used with the Unity ecosystem. You’ll also focus on the problems in the performance of large games and virtual reality (VR) projects in Unity, gaining insights into detecting performance issues and performing root cause analysis. As you progress, you’ll discover best practices for your Unity C# script code and get to grips with usage patterns. Later, you’ll be able to optimize audio resources and texture files, along with effectively storing and using resource files. You’ll then delve into the Rendering Pipeline and learn how to identify performance problems in the pipeline. In addition to this, you’ll learn how to optimize the memory and processing unit of Unity. Finally, you’ll cover tips and tricks used by Unity professionals to improve the project workflow. By the end of this book, you’ll have developed the skills you need to build interactive games using Unity and its components. What you will learnApply the Unity Profiler to find bottlenecks in your app, and discover how to resolve themDiscover performance problems that are critical for VR projects and learn how to tackle themEnhance shaders in an accessible way, optimizing them with subtle yet effective performance tweaksUse the physics engine to keep scenes as dynamic as possibleOrganize, filter, and compress art assets to maximize performance while maintaining high qualityUse the Mono framework and C# to implement low-level enhancements that maximize memory usage and prevent garbage collectionWho this book is for The book is intended for intermediate Unity game developers who wants to maximize the performance of their game. The book assumes familiarity with C# programming.




Getting Started with Unity 5


Book Description

If you are a game developer interested in learning Unity 3D from scratch and becoming familiar with its core features, then this book is for you. No prior knowledge of Unity 3D is required.




Unity 5.x Shaders and Effects Cookbook


Book Description

Master the art of Shader programming to bring life to your Unity projects About This Book This book will help you master the technique of physically based shading in Unity 5 to add realism to your game quickly through precise recipes From an eminent author, this book offers you the fine technicalities of professional post-processing effects for stunning results This book will help you master Shader programming through easy-to-follow examples to create stunning visual effects that can be used in 3D games and high quality graphics. Who This Book Is For Unity Effects and Shader Cookbook is written for developers who want to create their first Shaders in Unity 5 or wish to take their game to a whole new level by adding professional post-processing effects. A solid understanding of Unity is required. What You Will Learn Understand physically based rendering to fit the aesthetic of your game Enter the world of post-processing effects to make your game look visually stunning Add life to your materials, complementing Shader programming with interactive scripts Design efficient Shaders for mobile platforms without sacrificing their realism Use state-of-the-art techniques such as volumetric explosions and fur shading Build your knowledge by understanding how Shader models have evolved and how you can create your own Discover what goes into the structure of Shaders and why lighting works the way it does Master the math and algorithms behind the most used lighting models In Detail Since their introduction to Unity, Shaders have been notoriously difficult to understand and implement in games: complex mathematics have always stood in the way of creating your own Shaders and attaining that level of realism you crave. With Shaders, you can transform your game into a highly polished, refined product with Unity's post-processing effects. Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook is the first of its kind to bring you the secrets of creating Shaders for Unity3D—guiding you through the process of understanding vectors, how lighting is constructed with them, and also how textures are used to create complex effects without the heavy math. We'll start with essential lighting and finishing up by creating stunning screen Effects just like those in high quality 3D and mobile games. You'll discover techniques including normal mapping, image-based lighting, and how to animate your models inside a Shader. We'll explore the secrets behind some of the most powerful techniques, such as physically based rendering! With Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook, what seems like a dark art today will be second nature by tomorrow. Style and approach The recipes in this book contain step-by-step instructions, complemented by screenshots and code, and real-world examples.




How to Cheat in Unity 5


Book Description

Looking to become more efficient using Unity? How to Cheat in Unity 5 takes a no-nonsense approach to help you achieve fast and effective results with Unity 5. Geared towards the intermediate user, HTC in Unity 5 provides content beyond what an introductory book offers, and allows you to work more quickly and powerfully in Unity. Packed full with easy-to-follow methods to get the most from Unity, this book explores time-saving features for interface customization and scene management, along with productivity-enhancing ways to work with rendering and optimization. In addition, this book features a companion website at www.alanthorn.net, where you can download the book’s companion files and also watch bonus tutorial video content. Learn bite-sized tips and tricks for effective Unity workflows Become a more powerful Unity user through interface customization Enhance your productivity with rendering tricks, better scene organization and more Better understand Unity asset and import workflows Learn techniques to save you time and money during development




Unity 5.x Cookbook


Book Description

Over 100 recipes exploring the new and exciting features of Unity 5 to spice up your Unity skillset About This Book Built on the solid foundation of the popular Unity 4.x Cookbook, the recipes in this edition have been completely updated for Unity 5 Features recipes for both 2D and 3D games Provides you with techniques for the new features of Unity 5, including the new UI system, 2D game development, new Standard Shaders, and the new Audio Mixer Who This Book Is For From beginners to advanced users, from artists to coders, this book is for you and everyone in your team! Programmers can explore multimedia features, and multimedia developers can try their hand at scripting. Basic knowledge and understanding of the Unity platform, game design principles, and programming knowledge in C# is essential. What You Will Learn Immerse players with great audio, utilizing Unity 5's audio features including the new Audio Mixer, ambient sound with Reverb Zones, dynamic soundtracks with Snapshots, and balanced audio via Ducking Create better materials with Unity's new, physically-based, Standard Shader Measure and control time, including pausing the game, displaying clocks and countdown timers, and even implementing “bullet time” effects Improve ambiance through the use of lights and effects such as reflection and light probes Create stylish user interfaces with the new UI system, including power-bars, clock displays, and an extensible inventory system Save and load text and media assets from local or remote sources, publish your game via Unity Cloud, and communicate with websites and their databases to create online scoreboards Discover advanced techniques, including the publisher-subscriber and state patterns, performance bottleneck identification, and methods to maximize game performance and frame rates Control 2D and 3D character movement, and use NavMeshAgents to write NPC and enemy behaviors such as seek, flee, flock, and waypoint path following In Detail Unity 5 is a flexible and intuitive multiplatform game engine that is becoming the industry's de facto standard. Learn to craft your own 2D and 3D computer games by working through core concepts such as animation, audio, shaders, GUI, lights, cameras, and scripting to create your own games with Unity 5. Completely re-written to cover the new features of Unity 5, this book is a great resource for all Unity game developers, from those who have recently started using Unity right up to Unity professionals. The first half of the book focuses on core concepts of 2D game design while the second half focuses on developing 3D game development skills. In the first half, you will discover the new GUI system, the new Audio Mixer, external files, and animating 2D characters in 2D game development. As you progress further, you will familiarize yourself with the new Standard Shaders, the Mecanim system, Cameras, and the new Lighting features to hone your skills towards building 3D games to perfection. Finally, you will learn non-player character control and explore Unity 5's extra features to enhance your 3D game development skills. Style and approach Each chapter first introduces the topic area and explains how the techniques covered can enhance your games. Every recipe provides step-by-step instructions, followed by an explanation of how it all works, and useful additional refinements or alternative approaches. Every required resource and C# script (fully commented) is available to download, enabling you to follow each recipe yourself.




Getting Started with Unity 5.x 2D Game Development


Book Description

Build a tower defense game and earn delectable C# treats by baking cupcakes and fighting fearsome sweet-toothed pandas About This Book Build a complete and exciting 2D Tower Defense game from scratch. Understand and learn to perform each phase of the game development pipeline Homework and exercises to improve your skills and take them to the next level Who This Book Is For If you are looking forward to get started with 2D game development, either if you are a newcomer to this world, or you came from 3D games or other game engines, this book is for you. Although there are many references to other resources throughout the book, it is assumed that you have a general understanding of C# and its syntax and structure. What You Will Learn Import and set up assets for 2D game development Design and implement dynamic and responsive User Interfaces Create and handle complex animation systems Unlock all the potentiality of the physics engine Implement Artificial Intelligence algorithms to give intelligence to your NPCs Script gameplay and overall bring your ideas to life In Detail Want to get started in the world of 2D game development with Unity? This book will take your hand and guide you through this amazing journey to let you know exactly what you need to build the games you want to build, without sacrificing quality. You will build a solid understanding of Unity 5.x, by focusing with the embedded tools to develop 2D games. In learning about these, along with accurate explanations and practical examples, you will design, develop, learn how to market and publish a delectable Tower Defense game about cupcakes versus pandas. Each chapter in this book is structured to give you a full understanding on a specific aspect of the workflow pipeline. Each of these aspects are essential for developing games in Unity. In a step-by-step approach, you will learn about each of the following phases: Game Design, Asset Importing, Scripting, User Interfaces, Animations, Physics, Artificial Intelligence, Gameplay Programming, Polishing and Improving, Marketing, Publishing and much more. This book provides you with exercises and homework at the end of each chapter so that you can level up your skills as a Unity game developer. In addition, each of these parts are centered on a common point of discussion with other learners just like you. Therefore, by sharing your ideas with other people you will not only develop your skills but you will also build a network. Style and approach This is a fun step-by-step approach in the whole pipeline of 2D game development in Unity, which is explained in a conversational and easy-to-follow style. Each topic is explained sequentially, allowing you to experience both basics and advanced features of Unity. By doing this, the book is able to provide you with a solid grasp on each of the topics. In this way, by engaging with the book's content, exploring the additional references to further readings and completing the homework sections, you are able to challenge yourself and apply what you know in a variety of ways. Once you have finished reading this book, you will be well on your way to developing games from start to finish!