Native Plugin - Pro License Only (Unity, Please consider removing limitation)

News & General Discussion
1

When comparing the Free vs. Pro version of Unity, there are tons of incredibly compelling features that make upgrading to Pro worth every penny of it.

Having said that, I am not convinced that restricting Native Plugins to Pro only is one of those features that really compels many if any to upgrade to Pro.

In my case however, what this restriction does is lock me out of the Free Unity user install base and limits our market potential on the Unity Asset Store since I can only offer this new Editor Tool / Addon to the Pro users only because this tool requires a Native Plugin.

Perhaps I am the only / lonely person developing an Asset Store addon which would appeal to both the Free and Pro users but can’t offer it to the Free users simply because of this limitation. If that is the case, then it sucks for me and doesn’t make sense for Unity to change this. On the other hand, if I am not the only person, or you agree that this limitation might not be needed anyone, please consider removing this limitation :wink:

Regards,

Stephan

2

I’m able to use the leap motion’s dll in unity free by putting it in the root project folder following this: http://pierresemaan.com/getting-the-leap-to-work-with-unity-free-version-not-pro/

Not sure which plugins it does/doesn’t work with but maybe you could find a workaround.

3

Having plugins pro-only is nonsense. Why can you use plugins for mobile but not for desktop? That stops you from using cool (and required) things like noesis gui and stops them from selling it, Unity also get’s a share, is it 30%? from sales in the asset store, so they would benefit too.

4

I guess I was of the understanding that native .net plugins work. Have you tried? I haven’t, but I read a thread of someone doing it asking if it was a bug or expected behaviour. I think the thread resulted in it being expected behaviour.

5

Most likely because there’s a lot of mobile specific stuff that can only be accessed by native plugins for the specific device.

6

The clean way of doing this (if the product is going to end up on the Asset Store which is what I am aiming for) is by placing the plugin inside the Assets/Plugins folder. I would like to avoid asking users to move the plugin around.

7

If they’re (most likely) using a free license, I think asking them to deal with that small hassle is fair.

8

I agree that in theory it shouldn’t be an issue given “this should be a simple task for those seeking to create games” but then again, I could see Murphy’s Law being in full force and this becoming a support nightmare because someone didn’t read the “READ ME!” / installation instructions :slight_smile:

It would be some much cleaner to just be able to provide an Asset Store package that doesn’t require any moving of files (DLL).

P.S. I don’t know about any of you but whenever I (we) didn’t double check everything before an important demo, tradeshow or event, Murphy always showed up to exploit this oversight. I learned pretty early in my career to never ever temped him :slight_smile:

Murphy’s Law