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.




Unity 5.x Animation Cookbook


Book Description

A recipe-based guide to give you practical information on Unity 5.x animation techniques and tools About This Book A straightforward and easy-to-follow format. A selection of the most important tasks and problems. Carefully organized instructions to solve problems efficiently. Clear explanations of what you did. Solutions that can be applied to solve real-world problems. Who This Book Is For This book is for Unity developers who have some exposure to Unity game development who want to learn the nuances of animation in Unity. Previous knowledge of animation techniques and mecanim is not necessary. What You Will Learn Importing animations to Unity Work with different animation assets and components Create, visualize, and edit animated creatures Animating game cut scenes Design character actions and expressions Create gameplay by animating characters and environments Use animations to drive in-game logic In Detail This recipe-based practical guide will show you how to unleash the power of animation in Unity 5.x and make your games visually impeccable. Our primary focus is on showing you tools and techniques to animate not only humanoid biped characters, but also other elements. This includes non-humanoid character animation, game world creation, UI element animation, and other key features such as opening doors, changing lights, transitioning to different scenes, using physics, setting up ragdolls, creating destructible objects and more. While discussing these topics, the book will focus on mecanim, the Unity 3D animation tool, and how you can use it to perform all these tasks efficiently and quickly. It contains a downloadable Unity project with interactive examples for all the recipes. By the end of this book, you will be confident and self-sufficient in animating your Unity 3D games efficiently. Style and approach This practical no-nonsense guide is recipe-based with real-world examples of almost all the techniques mentioned.




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.




Unity 5. X Game AI Programming Cookbook


Book Description

Build and customize a wide range of powerful Unity AI systems with over 70 hands-on recipes and techniquesAbout This Book- Empower your agent with decision making capabilities using advanced minimaxing and Negamaxing techniques- Discover how AI can be applied to a wide range of games to make them more interactive.- Instigate vision and hearing abilities in your agent through collider based and graph based systemsWho This Book Is ForThis book is intended for those who already have a basic knowledge of Unity and are eager to get more tools under their belt to solve AI and gameplay-related problems.What You Will Learn- Use techniques such as A*and A*mbush to empower your agents with path finding capabilities.- Create a representation of the world and make agents navigate it- Construct decision-making systems to make the agents take different actions- Make different agents coordinate actions and create the illusion of technical behavior- Simulate senses and apply them in an awareness system- Design and implement AI in board games such as Tic-Tac-Toe and Checkers- Implement efficient prediction mechanism in your agents with algorithms such as N-Gram predictor and naive Bayes classifier- Understand and analyze how the influence maps work.In DetailUnity 5 comes fully packaged with a toolbox of powerful features to help game and app developers create and implement powerful game AI. Leveraging these tools via Unity's API or built-in features allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating your game's worlds and characters. This practical Cookbook covers both essential and niche techniques to help you be able to do that and more.This Cookbook is engineered as your one-stop reference to take your game AI programming to the next level. Get to grips with the essential building blocks of working with an agent, programming movement and navigation in a game environment, and improving your agent's decision making and coordination mechanisms - all through hands-on examples using easily customizable techniques. Discover how to emulate vision and hearing capabilities for your agent, for natural and humanlike AI behaviour, and improve them with the help of graphs. Empower your AI with decision-making functions through programming simple board games such as Tic-Tac-Toe and Checkers, and orchestrate agent coordination to get your AIs working together as one.Style and approachThis recipe-based guide will take you through implementing various AI algorithms. Each topic is explained and placed among other related techniques, sometimes building on the knowledge from previous chapters. There are also references to more technical books and papers, so you can dig deeper if you want to.




Unity UI Cookbook


Book Description

Over 60 recipes to help you create professional and exquisite UIs to make your games more immersive About This Book Design and develop interactive and professional user interfaces (UIs) for games in Unity Discover how to implement and deal with various in-game UI elements that will impress your players This practical recipe guide will help you to efficiently create powerful and remarkable UIs using C# code Who This Book Is For If you are a game developer with some experience in Unity and C# and want to create the best interactive experience fast and intuitively, then this book is for you. If you are an intermediate game developer or an expert, these recipes will help you bring out the power of the new UI Unity system. What You Will Learn Implement different kinds of counters and healthbars Deal with timers and find out how to format them Animate and vivify UI elements Handle runtime customizations Add complex Head-up displays (HUDs) Design and implement 3D UIs Integrate minimaps in the UI In Detail With the increasing interest in game development, it's essential to design and implement a UI that reflects the game settings and shows the right information to the player. The Unity system is used to create complex and aesthetically pleasing user interfaces in order to give a professional look and feel to a game. Although the new Unity UI system is powerful and quite easy to use, by integrating it with C# scripts, it's possible to realize the potential of this system and bring an impressive UI to games. This guide is an invaluable collection of recipes if you are planning to use Unity to develop a game. Starting with the basic concepts of the UI components, we'll take you all the way through to creating complex interfaces by including animations and dynamics elements. Based on real-world problems, these recipes will start by showing you how to make common UI elements such as counters and healthbars. You will then get a walkthrough of how to manage time using timers, and will learn how to format them. You will move on to decorating and animating the UI elements to vivify them and give them a professional touch. Furthermore, you will be guided into the 3D UI world and into HUD scripting. Finally, you will discover how to implement complex minimaps in the interface. Style and approach Interactive, easy-to-follow recipes will help you create and implement UIs that make gaming an exhilarating experience.




Unity 2021 Cookbook


Book Description

Discover the latest features of Unity 2021 and dive deeper into the nuances of professional game development with Unity Key FeaturesDiscover the latest features of Unity 2021 including coverage of AR/VR developmentFollow practical recipes for better 2D and 2D character development with Unity GameKitsLearn powerful techniques and expert best practices in building 3D objects, textures, and materialsBook Description If you are a Unity developer looking to explore the newest features of Unity 2021 and recipes for advanced challenges, then this fourth edition of Unity Cookbook is here to help you. With this cookbook, you'll work through a wide variety of recipes that will help you use the essential features of the Unity game engine to their fullest potential. You familiarize yourself with shaders and Shader Graph before exploring animation features to enhance your skills in building games. As you progress, you will gain insights into Unity's latest editor, which will help you in laying out scenes, tweaking existing apps, and building custom tools for augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) experiences. The book will also guide you through many Unity C# gameplay scripting techniques, teaching you how to communicate with database-driven websites and process XML and JSON data files. By the end of this Unity book, you will have gained a comprehensive understanding of Unity game development and built your development skills. The easy-to-follow recipes will earn a permanent place on your bookshelf for reference and help you build better games that stay true to your vision. What you will learnDiscover how to add core game features to your projects with C# scriptingCreate powerful and stylish UI with Unity's UI system, including power bars, radars, and button-driven scene changesWork with essential audio features, including background music and sound effectsDiscover Cinemachine in Unity to intelligently control camera movementsAdd visual effects such as smoke and explosions by creating and customizing particle systemsUnderstand how to build your own Shaders with the Shader Graph toolWho this book is for If you're a Unity developer looking for better ways to resolve common recurring problems with recipes, then this book is for you. Programmers dipping their toes into multimedia features for the first time will also find this book useful. Before you get started with this Unity engine book, you'll need a solid understanding of Unity's functionality and experience with programming in C#.




Unity Game Development Cookbook


Book Description

Find out how to use the Unity Game Engine to its fullest for both 3D and 2D game development—from the basics to the hottest new tricks in virtual reality. With this unique cookbook, you’ll get started in two ways: First, you’ll learn about the Unity game engine by following very brief exercises that teach specific features of the software Second, this tutorial-oriented guide provides a collection of snippets that solve common gameplay problems, like determining if a player has completed a lap in a race Using our cookbook format, we pinpoint the problem, set out the solution, and discuss how to solve your problem in the best and most straightforward way possible so you can move onto the next step in the project. Unity Game Development Cookbook is ideal for beginning to intermediate Unity developers. Beginners will get a broad immersion into the Unity development environment, while intermediate developers will learn how to apply the foundational Unity skills they have to solve real game development problems.




Unity 2018 Shaders and Effects Cookbook


Book Description

Bring realism to your games by mastering post-processing effects and advanced shading techniques in Unity 2018 Key Features Learn the secrets of creating AAA quality shaders without writing long algorithms Master shader programming through easy-to-follow examples Create stunning visual effects that can be used in 3D games Book Description Since their introduction to Unity, shaders have been seen as notoriously difficult to understand and implement in games. Complex mathematics has always stood in the way of creating your own shaders and attaining the level of realism you crave. Unity 2018 Shaders and Effects Cookbook changes that by giving you a recipe-based guide to creating shaders using Unity. It will show you everything you need to know about vectors, how lighting is constructed with them, and how textures are used to create complex effects without the heavy math. This book starts by teaching you how to use shaders without writing code with the post-processing stack. Then, you’ll learn how to write shaders from scratch, build up essential lighting, and finish by creating stunning screen effects just like those in high-quality 3D and mobile games. You'll discover techniques, such as normal mapping, image-based lighting, and animating your models inside a shader. We'll explore how to use physically based rendering to treat light the way it behaves in the real world. At the end, we’ll even look at Unity 2018’s new Shader Graph system. With this book, what seems like a dark art today will be second nature by tomorrow. What you will learn Understand physically based rendering to fit the aesthetic of your game Write shaders from scratch in ShaderLab and HLSL/Cg Combine shader programming with interactive scripts to add life to your materials Design efficient shaders for mobile platforms without sacrificing their realism Use state-of-the-art techniques, such as volumetric explosions and fur shading Master the math and algorithms behind the most used lighting models Understand how shader models have evolved and how you can create your own Who this book is for Unity Shaders and Effects Cookbook is for developers who want to create their first shaders in Unity 2018 or wish to take their game to a whole new level by adding professional post-processing effects. A solid understanding of Unity is required to get the most from this book.




Unity 2018 Artificial Intelligence Cookbook


Book Description

Explore various recipes to build games using popular artificial intelligence techniques and algorithms such as Navmesh navigation A*, DFS, and UCB1 Key Features Explore different algorithms for creating decision-making agents that go beyond simple behaviors and movement Discover the latest features of the NavMesh API for scripting intelligent behaviour in your game characters Create games that are non-predictable and dynamic and have a high replayability factor Book Description Interactive and engaging games come with intelligent enemies, and this intellectual behavior is combined with a variety of techniques collectively referred to as Artificial Intelligence. Exploring Unity's API, or its built-in features, allows limitless possibilities when it comes to creating your game's worlds and characters. This cookbook covers both essential and niche techniques to help you take your AI programming to the next level. To start with, you’ll quickly run through the essential building blocks of working with an agent, programming movement, and navigation in a game environment, followed by improving your agent's decision-making and coordination mechanisms – all through hands-on examples using easily customizable techniques. You’ll then discover how to emulate the vision and hearing capabilities of your agent for natural and humanlike AI behavior, and later improve the agents with the help of graphs. This book also covers the new navigational mesh with improved AI and pathfinding tools introduced in the Unity 2018 update. You’ll empower your AI with decision-making functions by programming simple board games, such as tic-tac-toe and checkers, and orchestrate agent coordination to get your AIs working together as one. By the end of this book, you’ll have gained expertise in AI programming and developed creative and interactive games. What you will learn Create intelligent pathfinding agents with popular AI techniques such as A* and A*mbush Implement different algorithms for adding coordination between agents and tactical algorithms for different purposes Simulate senses so agents can make better decisions, taking account of the environment Explore different algorithms for creating decision-making agents that go beyond simple behaviors and movement Create coordination between agents and orchestrate tactics when dealing with a graph or terrain Implement waypoints by making a manual selector Who this book is for The Unity 2018 Artificial Intelligence Cookbook is for you if you are eager to get more tools under your belt to solve AI- and gameplay-related problems. Basic knowledge of Unity and prior knowledge of C# is an advantage.




C# Game Programming Cookbook for Unity 3D


Book Description

An Accessible, Modular Style of Game Building-Easily Start Making Games with Unity 3DC# Game Programming Cookbook for Unity 3D presents a highly flexible core framework to create just about any type of game by plugging in different script components. Most scripts function within the game framework or in your own structures. The techniques and conce