Hi there, firstly, very impressive engine!
What I would like to know is does Unity allow you to edit Assets prior to laying them into the scene? As in setup the physics among other things, I am of course refering to an actual editor, not by programming it by hand, similar to the Unreal 3 engine, sorry for mentioning it I just couldn’t think of another example.
Thank you.
Have you seen the Unity Editor?
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Unity%20Basics.html
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Learning%20the%20Interface.html
Only through this webpage, I’m thinking of buying a Mac just due to this engine, but I need to know what I’m getting for big $$. From what you’ve just said I’m guessing it does 
Okay from those links I’m still not seeing a resource editor, or asset editor, what I am whaffling on about is a tool where you can apply controllers to, like physics controllers, scripting etc. I dont want to put links on here to other engines I am refering too, so I’m trying my best here, sorry.
Other engines I have used have always lacked in this area, you lay your resources in your scene and then once they are in there you apply your scripting and physics data to each object, this is slow and very inefficient.
Again I’m really sorry but this really does look like the bees knees of all well priced engines.
Unity is very flexible here; you can create resources any number of ways. One of the most common is to use prefabs, where you “bundle” any number of objects, scripts, materials, physics materials, etc. together into one object. Then you just drag the prefab into your scene as many times as you want or instantiate it with code.
On the other end of the scale, you can create everything in your scene entirely through code if you really wanted to.
–Eric
Fantastic, exactly what I needed to know, the prefabs page doesn’t seem to mention this very important part of asset creation.
This is a powerfull feature which some full authoring engines lack, it’s definatly true that you get what you pay for.
Hi!
I think you’re refering to prefabs. Say you’ve got a model, You can drag that into the scene, add some scripts, physic properties etc, Then by creating a prefab out of that, you have a new entity you can repeatedly drag into a project scene (Or spawn into a project via scripting)
Or you can call AddComponent and then specify what to add. For example, I have a building with 100 pieces. I select all then add my custom script.(about 3 clicks) The script adds a rigidbody for physics, and a collider(all at the initialisation of the scene). The script also makes the collider kinematic, so it doesnt all fly apart. So I could add an audio component, a renderer, whatever.
There is also ResourcesLoad(); Which a friend of mine used as an inventory.
Heres some links:
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Instantiating%20Prefabs.html
Hope that helps!
AC
EDIT>Erics got you sorted…
Yeah this is exactly what I am after, the ability and flexibility to modify assets in the library, some engines dont allow this, for example, you create a building, this building is going to be used within a city, instantiated, this building also has a particle attached for the chimney smoke, in most engines I’ve used you lay out your buildings in your city and then after go around adding a particle system to each chimney 
Crazy!! This also includes objects with physics!
In Unity any game object (or hierarchy of them) can be a prefab, with all kinds of components and behaviours attached.
So it’s really easy to start out with “rocket” prefab that only includes a sphere for prototyping, and later on add a real model, a particle system, a sound source etc. to it.
Maybe this will help.
The way I typically manage this is I have a “construction” level (scene) that I use to assemble and test my prefabs (group models, apply physics, add scripts, etc.) Once I get them the way that I like them, I save the prefab. The prefabs are then ready to drop into any of my actual game levels where they can still be tweaked (and saved back to the original prefab) if needed.
Unity has a great editor that allows you to see and tinker with the properties of a game object while a level is running. Since the changes that you make while the level is running are not permanent, it gives you some freedom to play with a setting without having to worry about messing up a level.
The other cool thing Slaine about prefabs, that SerKevin mentioned, is that if you have game object out in the scene view that is a prefab and you add some sort of functionality to the object in the scene view and realize, “Hey, I need that in all other instances of that game object” you simply drag the updated scene prefab onto the main prefab in your Assets panel and all instances in your scene of that type of prefab are updated.
The Unity workflow to create a game is second to none, to my mind. That covers working in the IDE, asset management (assets being anything in the game … code, artwork, textures, models, etc), arranging a scene, running it within the IDE, tinkering with variables, stopping the run and editing variabes and running again, and building to all target platforms. etc. The workflow is a joy.
there are a number of former Windows game developers/studios around here who have jumped on to the Unity bandwagon and have not regretted it for a second. Even with the cost of an iMac or whatever thrown in. I’m sure they’ll speak up in a minute or two.
I’ve just read Martin Schultz’s brilliant comparison of Torque versus Unity here …
http://forum.unity3d.com//viewtopic.php?t=8318&highlight=
and think that as a former Windows-only game developer he has provided a great insight into workflow and Unity. Highly recommended read by someone who provides great insight.
PS. The community here is also unmatched for their enthusiasm and skills.