killing me 
I’ve basically been reduced to 100% idle time because
Pretty much just sitting at my computer and lurkin’ around the internets.
I’m hoping they release sometime around the UNITE 2011… The roadmap called for a late summer / fall release if I’m not mistaken.
I am doing just the same for last two weeks. However i am still doing prototypes for projects everyday, i just cant decide on which one to start. All the brainstorming is gonna kill me inside.
But yeh i am waiting for 3.5 too, cant wait for auto-LOD function thats really nice. Cryengine SDK is gonna be so mad for not having this feature, i will try not to open both apps at the same time to keep its rage down.
I’ve done some prototypes for other games too. I actually ended up writing a full procedurally generated tropical island creator out of sheer boredom 
I wouldn’t hold my breath.
Unity 3.4 just happened and 3.4.1 is all fresh, yet the list of things that were mentioned for 3.5 is that large that it can easily fill up to 8 months of work if its meant to be usable in its initial form and not a “broken replacement breaking things that previously worked” which I would assume as 3.5 is meant to make Unity step up toward UDK, not step down toward Shiva.
The alternative is that half of the list gets postphoned to a later date but even then, Unite is pretty unlikely for anything more than a preview of 3.5, would expect more a Nov release at earlist or a Jan 2012 otherwise
use this down time to write a unity agnostic ui system…kinda like you have to do when making your own game engine (switch from/to DirectX or OpenGL without changing game code). this way you can “easily” replace your UI when 3.5 comes out. Also, I’m sure the path finding will be okay, but, take this time to make a kick ass version for yourself.
Theres always something you can do, and waiting for someone else to implement a feature isnt always the best idea.
Have they publicly said they’re pushing back 3.5?
There is not even an ETA for 3.5 so pushing back is technically impossible 
Also you shouldn’t forget that the stuff mentioned on the blog isn’t granted to be in 3.5 or in Unity at all (no guarantee it happens as you can read there youself), its just a foresight on what they are working on and what they hope to bring to 3.5
And with all respect, so far such forsights failed, misserably, when it came to Unity. None of the PR mentioned mobile features meant to happen with 3.0 already have happened so far (the 2D system is one of them for example).
In either case: I don’t see how its important, cause if you do your business decisions basing on Unitys roadmaps and forsight you are doomed to lose. Use whats there now and work with it or create it but don’t include anything from roadmaps in your own plannings, ever or chances that you are going to regret it are very high, cause first it has to happen (you don’t know when) and then it has to be stable and usable (you don’t know how long that takes from happening on, Umbra had its dealbreaking bugs since the first 3.0 beta, Beast its memory problems that long too and it seems like 3.5 might finally adress part of that)
Well, there is an ETA on the blog …
‘Unity 3.5 is a late summer / fall 2011 release.’
I understand the legalese associated with their post (ie: nothing is a guarantee!)
I think 3.4.1, which was an unplanned bug fix release, pretty much guaranteed that 3.5 would not be delivered within the expected timeframe. I started a new project with 3.4 (and now 3.4.1) and I don’t know if it’s because something in 3.4.x is faster (quite possible) or that I’ve suddenly become a super coder (not very likely) but OnGUI is no longer giving me those Garbage Collector spikes that I had previously. I had resorted to using GUITexture and GUText game objects to replace all my OnGUI code, but now I’m thinking I might be able to go back to using OnGUI. I’m not developing for a mobile device and my projects tend to be very physics intensive so that might also be part of why I’m not seeing the spikes.
Thats not really an ETA as it could be barelly less precise. And given that 3.4 happened in summer one that was clear to not be meetable in the timeframe or only at its very end (as always, I’m happy to be proofen wrong UT ;))
To me thats a good faith statement and if you cram in the past you see that they so far worked out the Blizzard style: missed by at least a quarter++
Welcome to the joys of middleware. This is why, generally speaking, most companies fix themselves on a specific version until their product ships. What sucks is when the bug fixes are tied to version numbers…anyway, I’d move forward and use what is currently available. You can always go back and muck about upgrading your project to 3.5 after you’ve release your game, or, if you’re bold, just before. 
I’d like to make a few notes on Idle time.
Now I’m not really interested in Unity 3.5 (although it will be great when it comes out) But some products I wait on for ever, hence this “idle time”. I’ve been waiting for DB FPS package 1.00 for some months now… all doing nothing and waiting, when I could’ve got some quick apps in. Also Different Packages (Aron’s for example). I waited some time to implement the new AI. So basically… Don’t wait. It kills productivity. Work with what you have, and before you know it, the new project will have came out by the time your finished 
usually when you have nothing to do, waiting for the next big release is just an excuse to procrastinate more about not starting your projects, and once that version is released … lets find out what else do i need to wait for in order to begin, its a never ending loop.
just start working and you will see that nothing else matters
Im in dire need to want to see unity 3.5 too, I am sitting right on the edge of do I dig into Prime31 UIToolkit and and start putting code together for that?
Or do I just use OnGUI and assume 3.5 will make OnGUI all spiffy to only use like 1 drawcall?
I am also really in need of a LOD system and am on the fence, make my own? OR just wait another month?
There’s surely something you can do that doesn’t depends on some 3.5 features. Try to find out. ^^
Heh, I estimated it would take me five minutes to read my email this morning; it took two hours… so don’t hold your breath.
Holding off for the next release is never a good thing anyway, as it’s a vicious circle. You hold off now for 3.5 and the next day you’ll be holding off for 3.6, or 4.0, or whatever. Just don’t upgrade until you’re sure it’s safe. Gods know, there are people around here still using 2.6… and also, bear in mind that features being proposed for 3.5 doesn’t guarantee that they’ll appear in that version - there are plenty precedents for things being pulled or delayed due to technical reasons.
Creating the own, using whats there, use the universe lod node, whatever you like.
As a lod system with descrete meshes isn’t exactly rocket science, more like real basic basic work stuff, its a matter of a day or two to pull such a thing out of the finger and another 2 to make the editor artist friendly and make the API coder friendly and ‘scaling friendly’ for hardware targeting
Why would they NOT plan for bug fixes?
Generally bug fixes are part of the next version; they don’t usually have a release which is primarily intended just as a bugfix.
–Eric
They don’t have them anymore in Unity 3 one should say.
The two previous generations had them pretty regularly and once Unity 3 stops releasing new minors for minor additions or even additions with no engine changes like the asset store in 3.1 I guess we will see bug fix releases on Unity 3 again too as I don’t think that they are going to opt for monthly releases to overcome the long turnaround time problem