Unity 5 is out, demo videos

Game2k
Tuesday, March 3, 2015 | 6:10 PM
12 comments

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Unity Technologies has announced that Unity 5 is now available via a Personnal and Professional editions. Get the details along with the demo videos inside.

UNITY 5 IS HERE
SAN FRANCISCO, CA – March 3, 2015

Unity Technologies today announced the immediate availability of Unity 5, the next generation of the award-winning Unity multiplatform engine and development tools. The most powerful version of Unity to date includes massive graphics improvements and an expanded editor feature set that gives developers everywhere the potential to create incredibly beautiful and innovative gaming experiences across 21 platforms. Additionally, Unity announced the availability of Unity Cloud Build, which enables developers to increase productivity by leveraging the power of cloud computing in order to remain focused on game development.

With the launch, Unity bolsters its longtime mission to democratize development by opening up the entire engine and editor to all developers through progressive licensing options that add big value for large studios and massive power for hobbyists and developers just getting started without taking a share of revenue. Unity 5 comes in two editions:

Unity 5 Professional Edition
Unity 5 Professional Edition is all about adding incredible value whether for a small 2-3 person studio or a 100+ person studio with the addition of Unity Cloud Build Pro, Team License, Game Performance Reporting, Asset Store Level 11, Unity Analytics Pro, access to previews and betas and more for the same low price of $75/month subscription.

Unity 5 Personal Edition
Unity 5 Personal Edition is a free solution empowering hobbyists, sole developers, and studios just getting started with all the powerful features found in the Unity engine and editor such as Profiler, Occlusion Culling, Render-to-Texture, and Post-Processing Special Effects as well as all the big Unity 5 features like Physically-based Shading, Enlighten, and reflection probes.

“Unity 5 is a massive step up for Unity that empowers developers to make more beautiful and intricate games that reach bigger audiences, across more platforms,” said John Riccitiello, CEO, Unity. “We want everyone to have access to Unity 5 which is why we’ve increased the value of our royalty-free licenses. Unity 5 Professional starts with the power of Unity 5.0 and adds valuable tools such as Unity Cloud Build Pro and Team License. Unity 5 Personal Edition is for the developer just getting started and offers all the power of the engine and editor for free.”

Developers around the world are already finding great success using Unity 5, such as the recently released Republique Remastered from Camouflaj and the upcoming games Ori and the Blind Forest from Moon Studios and Rival Kingdoms from Space Ape.

The most powerful version of Unity yet adds big features to an extensive creative toolset that enables developers to craft stunning visuals and innovative gameplay experiences across any style, genre, and platform:

A Graphics Powerhouse
Unity 5 has massively enhanced graphics capabilities like physically based shading, real-time global illumination with Enlighten, and reflection probes that enable developers to create stunning visual experiences

Feature Rich and Highly Flexible Editor
Unity’s comprehensive, time-saving, and extensible editor is even more powerful in Unity 5 with 64-bit support, unprecedented audio tools, big improvements to animation, huge physics upgrades, and much more. With Unity 5, developers have the power and flexibility to let their creativity run wild.

Industry-leading Multiplatform Support
Unity 5’s industry leading multiplatform support does the heavy lifting so developers can focus on crafting awesome gaming experiences across 21 different platforms, including the new WebGL target as well as consoles, desktop and mobile.

Unmatched efficiency boosted in the Cloud
Unity’s legendary development efficiency reaches new heights with the launch of Unity Cloud Build that taps the power of the cloud to further increase productivity and keep developers’ focus where it should be: making great games. To find out more about Unity Cloud Build, which is also available today, visit https://build.cloud.unity3d.com/

Unity 5 Professional and Personal Editions are available for immediate download today at http://unity3d.com/5.

The Blacksmith

Divine Shrine Architectural

Commented on 2015-03-03 19:08:22

This is so poor compared to something like Samaritan. I mean, yea, it's nice Unity is trying to make an engine worthy of 2015, but UE4 is so, so far ahead...

In reply to

spacemanjupiter

Commented on 2015-03-03 20:17:36

Wasn't Samaritan UE3? I think The Infiltrator is UE4, and that Elemental thing. UE4 is free now. I think that is enough incentive for me to start learning some things.

King_Grunt

Commented on 2015-03-03 21:32:39

It looks great, Unity came a long way imho.

And the Blacksmith demo was amazing, not just the visuals but the music/character design!

Kotu

Commented on 2015-03-03 22:56:34

UDK 4 is free, no separation for amateur and pro versions...

GunsnSwords

Commented on 2015-03-04 02:11:24

UE4 all the way for me, Unity 5 looks not too bad though.

The possibilities with UE4 is just insane.
This video creation was from a small group using UE4.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0DG51glKipU

AMDman18

Commented on 2015-03-04 05:38:13

I think that this looks pretty great. And much closer to what we might see games actually look like in the next couple years. We've still yet to see any impressive looking titles built on UE4. Hell, UE3 has only JUST been pushed to Samaritan level graphics quality in Batman: Arkham Knight. It'll be ages before we see titles using UE4 that look anything like what we see in their tech demos. "The Blacksmith" demo in particular looks like it'd be doable by a developer in a fairly short time frame and still looks really good.

Commented on 2015-03-04 09:58:36 In reply to AMDman18

Both engines are available to work with, it's up to the creators to use it. Kingdom hearts 3 will be using UE4 and so will Hellblade. A few games are in development using the engine. from what i heard from users of both, Unity engine consumes quite a bit of system resources, and that can constrict creations. UE4's recourse consumption is not as bad which is probably why you see a maximized quality in user creations.

andrewsqual

Commented on 2015-03-04 15:30:40 In reply to spacemanjupiter

Yeah Samaritan was UE3 and was also a TINY closed off street. Easy to put alot of detail into a level the size of a small garden with the camera fixed looking one direction for the entire demo. Not sure why some people were impressed with that.
When are we going to see anything of worth on UE4 though?

twitchfactor

Commented on 2015-03-04 19:11:04 In reply to GunsnSwords

Posted by GunsnSwords

That video is more a testament to MegaScans, not Unreal.
I think it's funny how many people are willing to throw out their opinions based upon a couple of compressed videos on the net. I've personally used all the major engines and I can tell you, UE4 and U5 are comparable. It'll be down to what the developers can do, not just the engine they're using.

MrWhite

Commented on 2015-03-04 22:02:24 In reply to twitchfactor

Posted by twitchfactor

That video is more a testament to MegaScans, not Unreal.
It'll be down to what the developers can do, not just the engine they're using.

Bang on about what the devs are capable of, as is in anything that takes a skill and talent, really. The engines share the same relative feature sets. It's just really down to the intuitiveness of the tools supplied, and how efficient the engine can handle them. However, I agree and disagree with the first statement regarding UE4 and the Quixel tech. They're both a testament to each other. None holds sway over the other. Quixel's suite is just a nice little workflow shortcut. You can get a lot done and much faster than just having the tools supplied by the engine. It's the engine, afterall, that has to render everything.

Megido

Commented on 2015-03-04 22:08:44

Considering that Unity 5 supports PBR i see no reason why you couldn't use the Quixel suite in Unity. Look at some of their other videos, they've used the Quixel suite and megascans in Cryengine as well.