A lot of questions about Unity's innards

News & General Discussion
1

Hi, I’m not sure if I should submit this to Unity Answers but I have a good few inter-related questions.
Basically I need to know about Unity’s content pipeline and a few other things.

How does it handle graphics? both 3d objects and textures? Is it different or are they handled the same?
What about sounds?
What external tools does it use? I know Nvidia’s PhysX is one of them.
What about Unity’s Networking? How is that handled?

Finally, what is the exact license that Angry Bots is under?

Basically, I have a huge report in which I’ll have to write a lot about Unity and how it does things. Most of my research has brought me to Unity’s advertising pages which don’t really give me the answers I’m looking for

Apologies if I haven’t put myself across correctly but I’m writing this post quite hurriedly.
Thanks for taking the time to read, and thanks in advance if you can provide me with any answers

2

Hello,
Your questions don’t make sense. “Unity’s Network… how is that handled” doesn’t exactly make sense as a question… and I’m not sure what you mean by “content pipeline” I think you are wondering about the “rendering pipeline” which if you google, you will find info about.

Also, look at these:
http://video.unity3d.com/channel/6940262/unite

3

You have this huge report, and yet you failed to read the webpage and documentation about the engine?

4

Your questions are quite vague, maybe you’ll get a better picture checking out the manual.

5

This report isn’t all about Unity. It’s just one of many many things in the project. so yes, some stuff fell through the cracks.

Ok, clearly I failed miserably there.
I’ll try again.
Basically, what does Unity do behind the scenes and how does it do it? Specifically stuff related to assets and content.
When I import a 3d mesh, an image or an mp3 file, etc. How does Unity take that file and turn it into something it can use?
When Unity wants to use them, how does it communicate with the hardware?
Does Unity use DirectX or OpenGL? Can it use both?
When Unity wants to do physics emulation, it uses Nvidia’s PhysX. Are there a similar external tools for handling sound or graphics?

Here’s some XNA examples of the kind of things I’m looking for:
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/dd904179(v=xnagamestudio.31).aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb194916.aspx
http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library/bb447745.aspx

6

Well… let me help you…

read this: http://www.amazon.com/Game-Engine-Design-Interactive-Technology/dp/1558605932

Basically tells you what a game engine does. Unity is a game engine, it doesn’t do any magic stuff. It uses OpenGL / DirectX for graphics, uses the corresponding APIs to set textures, vertex streams, shaders, etc.

For Network it uses Raknet (IIRC), audio is FMod…

Asset Workflow
Audio
Rendering

All the information you’re asking for are available through their main site…

The assets are imported and if necessary converted…
AssetImporter class
→ Model Importer
→ Audio importer

Etc etc etc…

Edit: Wooohooo… 500th post :slight_smile:

7

Thank you. That was most helpful.
Apologies to carmine and Tanel for confusing them with unclear questions