5.6 or 2017.1?

Unity Engine
1

Hi Guys I was just updating Unity and then i came to know 2017.1 is soon releasing.

SO, should i get 5.6 or 2017.1? Which one is better?

2

Without knowing anything about your requirements or circumstances we can’t really answer this question. At best we can just point you towards the preview notes and let you decide if you want to wait for 2017.1 or simply start using 5.6 now.

https://forum.unity3d.com/threads/preview-of-2017-1-features.464265/

3

I just need it for personal use. Make small games with it. Maybe i wuld like to have better 2D Features coz my first game will be a 2D top down game.

4

If you are just getting started you won’t notice much of a difference.

5

Here is a brief overview of how we decide whether an Unity update is worth it. Read the Unity change-log and ask the team or perhaps just yourself:

  • Is the new version offering new features that help me with the project?
  • Is the new version fixing bugs I did run into, thus helps me with the project?

If the answer to both of these questions is ‘no’, there is no need to bother with an update.

If the answer is ‘yes’, I have to look into the new version and make sure it still does work with the project. I make a copy of the project to use it with the new Unity version:

  • Is the editor at least equally good/robust as the old version?
  • Is the game build at least equally good/robust/fast as the old version?

If the answer to one of these points is ‘no’, I file a bug-report and don’t update. We do these tests on more just one Computer / OS, depending whether the team works with different OS’s. If I consider the game build as fine (it could have taken a few iterations / patches), QA is thoroughly testing it as well. If they find an issue that isn’t there with the old Unity version, I file a bug-report and don’t update.

I keep working with the “copied project” for at least one week. If I find any issues during this time, that would hinder the project to advance, I file bug-reports, don’t update, wait for a patch and repeat the procedure.

If the answer is finally ‘yes’ (this did take 6 months in the past already) and the new version is better than the old one, the team and build servers get the new Unity version installed, the project gets converted and any “automatically modified assets by Unity” are submitted to version control.

This approach is quite time consuming, but if you can’t afford to fail, very necessary. It was quite terrible to see what broken versions Unity released in the past, but we learned our lesson.

9 Likes
6

Alright, so i upgraded it to 5.6! And i find it cool!!!

And yeah, your answer was really amazing and helpful @Peter77

1 Like
7

The press release makes 2017.1 sound like a compeltely different, stand alone engine from 5.6

Unity 2017.1 is available to all users with an active subscription plan (Personal, Plus and Pro). If you have Unity 5 perpetual license(s), Unity 5.6 was the last update in the 5.x cycle. To continue receiving all updates, go to the Unity Store and choose the plan that fits your needs.

I find this to be needlessly complicated and confusing. Is 2017.1 indeed a completely separate product or did the person writing this not really re-read what they wrote?

8

I see literally nothing confusing about this. The perpetual license for 5.x ends with 5.6, just as 4.7 was the last version for the 4.x cycle.

9

To continue receiving all updates, go to the Unity Store and choose the plan that fits your needs.

That’s what’s confusing me. It sounds like they’re saying Unity 5.6 and Unity 2017.1 are two separate licenses. I don’t understand how it’s an important distinction to make.

So simply put, 2017.1 is the latest update to Unity?

10

They sort of are. The 5.x series had perpetual licenses and subscriptions. Unity 2017 is subscription only.

What you’re quoting is simply saying, if you only have a perpetual license, please get a subscription for access to Unity 2017.

11

That’s what I thought. Pretty disappointing

12

Do you own a perpetual license?

13

What rock have you been hiding under? Unity 2017 was always going to be a major release, the same way Unity 5 was new and marked the end of updates to Unity 4.

And the perpetual license has been announced to be going away for almost a year now.

14

Like every single other major release, this one is exactly the same. Why are you surprised?

Also, update is a no brainer! .NET 4.6!

15

It’s technically marked “experimental” with 2017.1. Last I knew they were going to mark it stable with 2017.2.

16

So the more we stress test, the more sure they can be :slight_smile:

17

I guess I’m a little confused

Does this mean the perpetual license is being replaced with a subscription model entirely, not that Unity 2017.1 needs a subscription to use?

18

https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/06/05/subscription-why/

https://blogs.unity3d.com/2016/06/16/evolution-of-our-products-and-pricing/

19

Yes, and just to clarify free licenses will continue being available.

20

There is no perpetual license for Unity 2017. Unity 5 perpetual licenses are still valid for Unity 5, but don’t expect any new feature updates. Going by normal patterns, bug fixes will still be a thing for a while.

Anyone on a subscription or using personal is unaffected, these lisences are valid for Unity 5 and Unity 2017.