Hi @Stardog , customers who bought Bolt from Ludiq website will receive more instructions soon on how to proceed. Keep an eye on your inbox!
1 Like
Good for Unity and Ludiq - Bolt 2 especially seems to going to be a really good match for Unity!
I am worried aboutâŚwell me âŚthough. The customer I guess 
Why did Unity not do this earlierâŚwhy now?
Why will Unity invest in both Bolt and DOTS Visual based scripting?
When everythign phases to DOTS âwill Bolt get dropped I wonder? Just basically phased out slowly and not supported?
When I read about this first I was thinkingâŚoh WOW we are getting Bolt 2 as Unityâs built in Visual Scripting solution!!! But now âŚthis is weird to meâŚ
I dont mean to sound skeptical - just try and understand it from the other side. It looks like an odd move becasue we perhaps donât have the insight into this.
Either wayâŚitâs a good fit right now!
2 Likes
Thank you.
Hey thanks again for the question @Metron , we have updated the FAQ to make it more explicit:
So starting with version 1.4.12, youâll get access with the new Asset Store page published by Unity Technologies.
2 Likes
Thanks. Works like a charm.
1 Like
I hope this will become something interesting in the future. Even being a programmer, it is sometimes interesting to be able to make solutions that run without compilation time (this can be very interesting in the modding part too).
1 Like
Well, if you plan on releasing this for free, I would appreciate you thinking about ways of compensating people who bought this asset, thereby supporting its development.
1 Like
Why is it trying to make me pay for bolt again when i already have bolt. I donât want to pay again for Bolt
1 Like
So if I understand correctly, there is no advantage at all for Unity users.
Bolt (just the plugin) has changed hands, and now support and development responsibilities fall on Unity from now on.
So what youâre telling us is: Boltâs development will halt almost completely and it will also have worse support now.
Cool.
I hope at least the Bolt developers got a good paycheck.
3 Likes
As per OP:
âUsers who previously acquired Bolt from the Asset Store will get access to Bolt under the Unity Technology Asset Store publisher for free. Users who previously acquired Bolt from Ludiq website will receive a coupon to redeem Bolt under the Unity Technology Asset Store publisher for free.â
See this page: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/tools/visual-scripting/bolt-163802
Ludiqâs blog post: https://ludiq.io/blog/unity-acquires-bolt
1 Like
Products change, things are added, prices are lowered and increased.
Only thing that normally makes sense is to compensate back a fixed amount of time, say 1-3 month. Longer back that this on you already levered value of your investment before it came free.
That is how YOU see it.
I see this.
- Bolt 2 will be released that share common ideas with DOTS VS until then Bolt 1 has Unity support.
- Bolt 2 maybe go Final at the end of this year. DOTS maybe before next summer. Both system will be free then
- Bolt 1 dev will be halt and phased over to Bolt 2 over 1 year
- Bolt 2 will be maintained then 2-3 years depending on how fast projects move over to DOTS.
- Bolt 2 and DOTS dev will find as much similarities and synergies as possible.
- In about 3 years most project will be on DOTS and the DOTS VS is a great system taking value from BOLT 2 concepts
For me its a plan that makes total sense. especially considering the delays in DOTS. Now there will be a period of 2 years of learnings Unity will get. Also users will benefit from getting into VS concepts and better be prepared for DOTS VS
1 Like
-After the transitioning and learning period for the Unity Bolt team, I think the development of bolt 2 will actually go faster. Ludiq was a very small team and Bolt was not their only plugin or project.
-Unity buying Bolt also means Bolt will probably become a new standard for Visual Scripting, just like blueprint. Donât forget that Unity is a leader in the game engine industry, meaning they are trend setting the market. I love Bolt and Iâm very happy that it will probably influence every game engine in the future.
If you like using Bolt, Unity buying it is a very good news for you.
I donât see Unity completely going for DOTS only. DOTS is not relevant for every project. + itâs a complicated language, and making it the default one would be a mistake, as it would dissuade beginners to choose Unity.
I see more of an harmonious cohabitation, a bit like Shader Graph and VFX graph right now : they are both for graphics, but not the same kind of graphics. And they can work together.
Also would like to add, as a Bolt buyer, that I really would love to see Bolt becoming free. Again, the more you make it the standard and default solution for VS in Unity, the more iâm happy.
3 Likes
Nah, for limited scope size, small teams always develop faster than humongous messes of a company like Unity. Name one thing in Unity that has developed fast. I can name a ton that have been extremely slow.
Does Unreal sell blueprint?
No, itâs terrible news. I am reminded of the discussions when Autodesk bought XSI, and a lot of people were sad and angry and then a lot of other people were saying âNo, this is actually good, Autodesk has a lot of resources and XSI will finally become prime time software nowâ.
And here youâre all acting as if what Bolt needed to become better, is to be developed by a different team, not the team that made it good, but a team who is not familiar with the codebase and whose livelihoods donât really depend on the success of this software.
Yes. That is what Bolt needed. You are right. Now it will finally reach its full potential.
1 Like
Hi @moo-cow-news , did you acquire Bolt from Ludiq website? If so, you will receive soon some instructions to redeem the asset.
You are right that for now, nothing really changes for users, we make sure existing and new users of Bolt get continuous support.
Now moving forward two things are important to consider. Firstly, we have a larger firepower to accelerate Bolt 2 readiness, and the team is at work to do exactly this. Secondly, projecting ourselves in the future, we have now the opportunity to provide a more unified visual scripting workflow for both DOTS and gameobjects based projects.
2 Likes
Why not think it a bit more through before announcing this?
In my opinion you should stop selling the current one and make it for free for everyone.
Its the only way it will ever get traction.
Blueprint for unreal is also free and that is why many people use it.
because then you know everyone has it installed and it makes it easy to share visual scripts.
2 Likes
I said it in my post âI really would love to see Bolt becoming freeâ. I agree on that.
It could go wrong, I agree on that too. I was very sad of what Adobe made with Mixamo Fuse. They simply killed it. Why ? Probably because it was not that relevant in the Adobe family, after all.
On the contrary, Visual Scripting for monobehaviour in Unity is very relevant.
I rarely am disapointed with Unity. They are slow on many things, yes. SRP was a big mess. But Cinemachine or ProBuilder, packages developped by smaller teams inside Unity, are really really good.
âAnd here youâre all acting as if what Bolt needed to become better, is to be developed by a different team, not the team that made it goodâ
I never said that. Hasan, who worked at Ludiq, is now part of the Unity Bolt team. And Lazlo is going to work with them for several months to help transitionning. Of course, it would have been better for Bolt to be still mainly developped by itâs creator. But I also think Lazlo is done with Bolt and wants to move on to other projects. Like Freya Freya Holmer did with shader forge. And Iâm very happy for him.
Bolt 2 is basically done, it just needs debugging. Bolt 2 when it comes out will be equal to the vision Lazlo had for it.
âAnd whose livelihoods donât really depend on the success of this software.â
Yes, but in a way I think it does for Unity at a larger scale, I feel like getting a strong Visual Scripting quickly is a priority for them now.
Their competitor UE4, is free, has blueprint, and is getting more and more attention because of Fortniteâs success.
Making Visual Scripting for everything is a top priority now at Unity. (Shader Graph, VFX Graph, Dots Graph)
And again, I think it would be a huge mistake to make Bolt 2 a paid asset.
You have a pessimistic view on that, I donât, so wait and see.
3 Likes
The best thing about this news is that it signals Unity realized moving everyone into DOTS is a pipe dream and they need to keep development on Monobehaviour or risk alienating much of their user base.
4 Likes