Unity 5.x Cookbook

Over 100 recipes exploring the new and exciting features of Unity 5 to spice up your Unity skillset

About This Book

• Built on the solid foundation of the popular Unity 4.x Cookbook, the recipes in this edition have been completely updated for Unity 5
• Features recipes for both 2D and 3D games
• Provides you with techniques for the new features of Unity 5, including the new UI system, 2D game development, new Standard Shaders, and the new Audio Mixer

Who This Book Is For

This book is for anyone who wants to explore a wide range of Unity scripting and multimedia features, and find ready-to-use solutions for many game features. Programmers can explore multimedia features, and multimedia developers can try their hand at scripting.

From intermediate to advanced users, from artists to coders, this book is for you, and everyone on your team!

It is intended for everyone who has the basics of using Unity, and a little programming knowledge in C#.

What You Will Learn

• Immerse players with great audio, utilizing Unity 5's audio features including the new Audio Mixer, ambient sound with Reverb Zones, dynamic soundtracks with Snapshots, and balanced audio via Ducking
• Create better materials with Unity's new, physically-based, Standard Shader
• Measure and control time, including pausing the game, displaying clocks and countdown timers, and even implementing "bullet time" effects
• Improve ambiance through the use of lights and effects such as reflection and light probes
• Create stylish user interfaces with the new UI system, including power-bars, clock displays, and an extensible inventory system
• Save and load text and media assets from local or remote sources, publish your game via Unity Cloud, and communicate with websites and their databases to create online scoreboards
• Discover advanced techniques, including the publisher-subscriber and state patterns, performance bottleneck identification, and methods to maximize game performance and frame rates
• Control 2D and 3D character movement, and use NavMeshAgents to write NPC and enemy behaviors such as seek, flee, flock, and waypoint path following

In Detail

Unity 5 is a flexible and intuitive multiplatform game engine that is becoming the industry's de facto standard. Learn to craft your own 2D and 3D computer games by working through core concepts such as animation, audio, shaders, GUI, lights, cameras, and scripting to create your own games with Unity 5.

Completely re-written to cover the new features of Unity 5, this book is a great resource for all Unity game developers, from those who have recently started using Unity right up to Unity professionals.

The first half of the book focuses on core concepts of 2D game design while the second half focuses on developing 3D game development skills. In the first half, you will discover the new GUI system, the new Audio Mixer, external files, and animating 2D characters in 2D game development. As you progress further, you will familiarize yourself with the new Standard Shaders, the Mecanim system, Cameras, and the new Lighting features to hone your skills towards building 3D games to perfection. Finally, you will learn non-player character control and explore Unity 5's extra features to enhance your 3D game development skills.

Style and approach

Each chapter first introduces the topic area and explains how the techniques covered can enhance your games. Every recipe provides step-by-step instructions, followed by an explanation of how it all works, and useful additional refinements or alternative approaches. Every required resource and C# script (fully commented) is available to download, enabling you to follow each recipe yourself.

Matt Smith

Matt Smith is a computing academic from Dublin, Ireland. In 1983 Matt started computer programming (on a ZX80) and for his 'O-level' computing certificate (aged 16) he submitted 2 games for his programming project work. In 1985 Matt wrote the lyrics, and was a member of the band that played (and sang, sorry about that by the way) the music on the B-side of the audio cassette carrying the computer game Confuzion (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Confuzion). On a succession of scholarships he managed to spend almost 10 years as a full time student, gaining BA (Hons), then MSc then PhD degrees in computing and artificial intelligence. He then became a full-time lecturer. Having previously lectured full-time at Winchester University and London's Middlesex University, since 2002 he has been at the Institute of Technology Blanchardstown in Dublin (http://www.itb.ie/) where he is he is now senior lecturer in computing. Some of his previous Irish French student team games can be found and played at http://www.saintgermes.com (thanks for continuing to host these Guillem!). Matt was one of the two technical experts for a recent multimedia European project for language and cultural student work mobility (http://www.vocalproject.eu). He studies and teaches Taekwon-Do with his two children, having been awarded his first degree black belt in 2015 (he also runs his club's website at http://www.maynoothtkd.com/). He is trying to learn Irish, so he will understand the report cards from his children's Irish-speaking school. In occasional moments of free time he also tries to get better at playing the piano and classical guitar. Matt is a documentation author for the Fungus open source interactive storytelling plugin for Unity (http://www.fungusgames.com). Matt also maintains a step-by-step open source introduction to Unity 2D and 3D game programming on his public Github pages (see https://www.github.com/dr-matt-smith/gravity-guy2D). Matt's previous publications include a chapter in Serious Games and Edutainment Applications (Springer 2011, ISBN: 1447121600), and contributions and editing of several music education and artificial intelligence books.

Chico Queiroz

Chico Queiroz is a digital media designer from Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Chico started his career back in 2000, soon after graduating in Communications/Advertising (PUC-Rio), working with advergames and webgames using Flash and Director at LocZ Multimedia, where he contributed to the design and development of games for clients, such as Volkswagen and Parmalat, along with some independent titles. Chico has a master's degree in Digital Game Design (University for the Creative Arts, UK). His final project was exhibited at events and festivals such as London Serious Games Showcase and FILE. Chico has also published articles for academic conferences and websites such as http://www.gameology.org, http://www.gamasutra.com, and http://www.gamecareerguide.com. He curated and organized an exhibition held at SBGames 2009, which explored the connections between video games and art. SBGames is the annual symposium of the Special Commission of Games and Digital Entertainment of the Computing Brazilian Society. Chico currently works as a digital designer at the Tecgraf/PUC-Rio Institute for Technical-Scientific Software Development, where he, among other responsibilities, uses Unity to develop interactive presentations and concept prototypes for interactive visualization software. He also works as a lecturer at PUC-Rio, teaching undergraduate design students 3D modeling and technology/CG for games, in which Unity is used as the engine for the students' projects. Additionally, Chico is a PhD student in design at the same institution.