Unity 5 Announced

[Bael]

Updating as more info becomes available.

Official Unity 5 site (not available yet): http://unity3d.com/5

Polygon (Atricle has since been taken down - no details on why. Full article posted and linked a few posts down):
http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/17/5518114/unity-5-massive-update-game-development

Unity Technologies, makers of the suite, said Unity 5 will overhaul the game’s audio toolset and deliver upgraded lighting and and a physically based shader system. It now is a 64-bit engine with this release, Unity Technologies added.

Joystiq (thanks kenlem!)

Gaming and Video Game News & Reviews | Engadget

Unity 5 will be available for pre-order from the Unity Technologies store at some point tomorrow. Helpfully, paying for the engine early also grants users access to Unity 4 and all of that engine’s remaining updates.

VentureBeat (thanks bigzer!)

Unity Technologies unveils next version of its game development engine to...

“We’ve got the most complex lighting in the industry now,” Helgason said.

Unity competes with rivals such as Crytek and Epic Games. Helgason said that Unity’s 3D graphics are more functional than Epic’s Unreal Engine 3, and new features will approach the quality of Unreal Engine 4.

Real-time lightmap previews by PowerVR OpenRL (thanks VIC20!)
http://www.imgtec.com/powervr/powervr_raytracing.asp

Unity 5 is the first development platform to ship with in-editor real-time lightmap previews based on PowerVR Ray Tracing technology. This allows for near instantaneous feedback for changes to global illumination lightmaps by displaying an accurate preview in the editor’s scene view of how lighting will look in the final game.

Mozilla and Unity Bring Unity Game Engine to WebGL (thanks kryptopath2!)

Mozilla and Unity Bring Unity Game Engine to WebGL

Mozilla and Unity Technologies collaborate to bring you WebGL export early access in Unity 5.0.

[Frogdice]

I am very curious as to:

1. When it will be released.

2. What the upgrade costs will be. We just bought a bunch of Unity 4 licenses recently and a whole ton of cost upgrading would be pretty brutal.

[shaderbytes]

your link resolves to a 404 so…

[system]

@shaderbytes

your link resolves to a 404 so…

That’s odd, it didn’t do… Someone been asked to pull the plug?

[Hikiko66]

will overhaul the game’s audio toolset

That would be most welcome.

[HolBol]

Unity 5? Already? Jeez.

[Bael]

@shaderbytes

your link resolves to a 404 so…

Interesting - it’s gone from the polygon main page now as well. It was the top story on Polygon - they must have been asked to pull it?

[Kondor0]

Goddammit, so I’ll have to upgrade to have 64 bit support?

[roojerry]

Unity 5 — billed as “a massive update” to the multiplatform game engine and toolkit — was unveiled today at Game Developers Conference 2014.

Unity Technologies, makers of the suite, said Unity 5 will overhaul the game’s audio toolset and deliver upgraded lighting and and a physically based shader system. It now is a 64-bit engine with this release, Unity Technologies added.

Of note, Unity 5 will also include the launch of a cross-promotion neetwork for mobile games called Unity Cloud, “enabling mobile game developers to run full-screen interstitial ads in their mobile games, as well as exchange ad units with other Unity developers.”

The last full version, Unity 4 launched two years ago. Unity supports development on all mobile OSes, plus Windows, MacOS and Linux, the PS3, PS Vita, Xbox 360 and Wii U. Games developed with Unity range from acclaimed indie titles like Gone Home, to mobile hits like Temple Run, to the upcoming Wasteland 2 on PC.

from the 404’d article

[Bael]

Thanks brianruggieri - was trying to find a cached version of the article.

[LaneFox]

Welcomed improvements, curious about the planned live date though.

[HolBol]

Adding here list of new features (once they release more info…)

-overhaul the game’s audio toolset

• upgraded lighting and and a physically based shader system
• 64-bit engine
• Unity Cloud (mobile ads)

Interesting.
I also did not realise Unity 4 was 2 years old already.

[bbigger]

Google cache: http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:www.polygon.com/2014/3/17/5518114/unity-5-massive-update-game-development

[orbobservation_1]

@HolBol

Interesting.
I also did not realise Unity 4 was 2 years old already.

Time flies when you’re having fun!

[dogzerx2]

@HolBol

Unity 5? Already? Jeez.

Lol I thought the same!

I still can’t help to get hyped!

[VIC201]

@HolBol

Interesting.
I also did not realise Unity 4 was 2 years old already.

I think it was december 2012 - I doubt Unity 5 will be released before the 4th quarter but I guess there will be a beta starting in summer.
Funny thing is no word about a new GUI system. Maybe it will really find its way into 4.5?

[pragmascript]

here is a cached version:

http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:http://www.polygon.com/2014/3/17/5518114/unity-5-massive-update-game-development

[Julien-Lynge]

It probably needs to be said:

This is from an article on a single, random website, with no attribution to where they got the information. It could be that they know something that everybody else around here doesn’t, or it could easily be that they heard a rumour and wrote an article without checking it, or even that they just decided they wanted some extra web traffic and made the whole thing up.

Remember: rumours are a dime a dozen.

[VIC201]

OMG it’s really true and it will be released in April: You are an idiot

[Bael]

@Julien.Lynge

It probably needs to be said:

This is from an article on a single, random website, with no attribution to where they got the information. It could be that they know something that everybody else around here doesn’t, or it could easily be that they heard a rumour and wrote an article without checking it, or even that they just decided they wanted some extra web traffic and made the whole thing up.

Remember: rumours are a dime a dozen.

Always possible - Polygon is usually pretty good about only reporting real things, but nobody is perfect. It’s also possible it was a behind-closed-doors thing their source was shown at GDC, or something they got the scoop on that isn’t slated to be officially announced until later this week.