Unity 2021 Cookbook - Fourth Edition

Discover the latest features of Unity 2021 and dive deeper into the nuances of professional game development with Unity

Key Features

• Discover the latest features of Unity 2021 including coverage of AR/VR development
• Follow practical recipes for better 2D and 2D character development with Unity GameKits
• Learn powerful techniques and expert best practices in building 3D objects, textures, and materials

Book Description

If you are a Unity developer looking to explore the newest features of Unity 2021 and recipes for advanced challenges, then this fourth edition of Unity Cookbook is here to help you.

With this cookbook, you’ll work through a wide variety of recipes that will help you use the essential features of the Unity game engine to their fullest potential. You familiarize yourself with shaders and Shader Graph before exploring animation features to enhance your skills in building games.

As you progress, you will gain insights into Unity's latest editor, which will help you in laying out scenes, tweaking existing apps, and building custom tools for augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) experiences. The book will also guide you through many Unity C# gameplay scripting techniques, teaching you how to communicate with database-driven websites and process XML and JSON data files.

By the end of this Unity book, you will have gained a comprehensive understanding of Unity game development and built your development skills. The easy-to-follow recipes will earn a permanent place on your bookshelf for reference and help you build better games that stay true to your vision.

What you will learn

• Discover how to add core game features to your projects with C# scripting
• Create powerful and stylish UI with Unity's UI system, including power bars, radars, and button-driven scene changes
• Work with essential audio features, including background music and sound effects
• Discover Cinemachine in Unity to intelligently control camera movements
• Add visual effects such as smoke and explosions by creating and customizing particle systems
• Understand how to build your own Shaders with the Shader Graph tool

Who this book is for

If you’re a Unity developer looking for better ways to resolve common recurring problems with recipes, then this book is for you. Programmers dipping their toes into multimedia features for the first time will also find this book useful. Before you get started with this Unity engine book, you’ll need a solid understanding of Unity’s functionality and experience with programming in C#.

Table of Contents

1. Displaying Data with Core UI Elements
2. Responding to User Events for Interactive UIs
3. Inventory and Advanced UIs
4. Playing and Manipulating Sounds
5. Creating 3D Objects, Terrains, Textures and Materials
6. 2D Animation and Physics
7. Characters, GameKits, and Starter Assets
8. Web Server Communication and Online Version Control
9. Controlling and Choosing Positions
10. Navigation Meshes and Agents
11. Cameras and Rendering Pipelines
12. Shader Graphs and Video Players
13. Advanced Topics
14. Particles Systems and Other Visual Effects
15. Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR)

Matt Smith is computing academic at TUDublin (Technological University of Dublin) Ireland, where he leads the DRIVE Research Group (Digital Realities, Interaction, and Virtual Environments). Matt started computer programming on a brand new ZX80 and submitted 2 games for his computing O-level exam. After nearly 10 years as a full-time student on a succession of scholarships, he gained several degrees in computing, including a Ph.D. in computational musicology. In 1985, Matt wrote the lyrics and was in the band whose music appeared on the audio cassette carrying the computer game Confuzion. Matt is a documentation author for the open-source Unity Fungus visual scripting and dialogue system.

Shaun is a lecturer at Technological University Dublin. He is currently teaching on the BA (Hons) in Creative Digital Media where he is lead in the delivery of the Multimedia Stream. He is currently exploring serious games for construction-related training as well as the opportunities transmedia provides in improving user experience and engagement in cultural archive artifacts. His educational research is currently driven by his interest in self-determined learning (heutagogy), rhizomatic learning theory, micro-credentialing /digital badging, and curriculum development.