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Unity Software Inc S-1

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Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#171

Post by sgustard »

akersten wrote: post #26
formalsystem wrote: post #22

Out of any software tools I use frequently, Unity is the one that brings me the most joy. Any reasonably complex interface is essentially a game whether it's a music composition app, simulator, MMO or even a basic form. The basic abstractions of entities and components sometimes feel like they could apply to any software project. It's seamless to animate something, add physics, style in ways that would seem mind bogg…

> Any reasonably complex interface is essentially a game whether it's a music composition app, simulator, MMO or even a basic form. I've been out of the game development arena for a while, but I can't help but pause here. Are people really writing DAWs and big desktop app interfaces in Unity ? The last time I played with a game engine, I would have said UI was its weakest aspect. Clunky, slow controls, visually unapp…

Unity's homepage lists four industries they target and Games is only one of them. Seems clear they also want to sell into Manufacturing, Construction, Film, etc.

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#172

Post by amirhirsch »

akersten wrote: post #26
formalsystem wrote: post #22

Out of any software tools I use frequently, Unity is the one that brings me the most joy. Any reasonably complex interface is essentially a game whether it's a music composition app, simulator, MMO or even a basic form. The basic abstractions of entities and components sometimes feel like they could apply to any software project. It's seamless to animate something, add physics, style in ways that would seem mind bogg…

> Any reasonably complex interface is essentially a game whether it's a music composition app, simulator, MMO or even a basic form. I've been out of the game development arena for a while, but I can't help but pause here. Are people really writing DAWs and big desktop app interfaces in Unity ? The last time I played with a game engine, I would have said UI was its weakest aspect. Clunky, slow controls, visually unapp…

For quickly making a cross-platform mobile apps, it is definitely going to emerge as the new first choice. I've been burned so much by cross-platform issues trying to do anything complicated or graphical with phonegap/cordova/electron/react...

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#173

Post by ffggvv »

as a counterpoint to all the complaints, i still think unity is by far the easiest game engine to pickup even for people who’ve never coded before. and there’s so many resources out there to pick it up that there isn’t really a strong competitor imo despite any potential misteps

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#174

Post by chaostheory »

hobofan wrote: post #169
synaesthesisx wrote: post #50

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After watching how many SaaS companies with "weak" engineering have soared to astronomical valuations, I would say I'm quite bullish on Unity (as a stock), irrespective of what developers think. At the end of the day, fantastic marketing is what gets CXO's and decision makers to buy-in. Look at MongoDB's performance since IPO in 2017 for perspective.

> Look at MongoDB's performance since IPO in 2017 for perspective. I know that this opinion goes against the hivemind, but I wouldn't call them weak in engineering by a long shot. They obviously made some questionable/bad decisions regarding defaults (write acknowledgements, security) in order to have a lower barrier to entry, but apart from that I've had a pretty good experience with it as a stable product and good…

The important question is how does it compare to Unreal in terms of bugs, problems, and usability?

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#175

Post by trynewideas »

akersten wrote: post #26
formalsystem wrote: post #22

Out of any software tools I use frequently, Unity is the one that brings me the most joy. Any reasonably complex interface is essentially a game whether it's a music composition app, simulator, MMO or even a basic form. The basic abstractions of entities and components sometimes feel like they could apply to any software project. It's seamless to animate something, add physics, style in ways that would seem mind bogg…

> Any reasonably complex interface is essentially a game whether it's a music composition app, simulator, MMO or even a basic form. I've been out of the game development arena for a while, but I can't help but pause here. Are people really writing DAWs and big desktop app interfaces in Unity ? The last time I played with a game engine, I would have said UI was its weakest aspect. Clunky, slow controls, visually unapp…

> Are people really writing DAWs and big desktop app interfaces in Unity?

Arguably the biggest non-game applications are in virtual cinematography, architectural visualization, non-game simulations, and immersive art installations. Most of those uses don't result in discrete "apps", though, they're just workflows within Unity designed to produce a specific type of output.

One prominent example of a discrete pro app made from Unity, though, is Digital Monarch Media's filmmaking toolsuite, which is built on Unity.[1] But it fills some unusual hardware and interface needs that Unity is built, or has plugins, to provide (touchscreen interfaces, motion tracking, color grading).

That said, I see non-game apps in the vein of content creation or productivity pop up more frequently now in Godot development than Unity. There are some proof-of-concepts, like the Godello[2] Trello clone that was posted here a while back, but more useful examples are Pixelorama[3], an open-source pixel-art editor built with Godot, and Heavypaint[4], a painting/sketching app.

[1] https://www.vfxvoice.com/instant-feedback-expozure-expands-i...

[2] https://github.com/alfredbaudisch/Godello

[3] https://orama-interactive.itch.io/pixelorama

[4] http://www.heavypoly.com/heavypaint

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#176

Post by setzer22 »

xex70 wrote: post #82
andybak wrote: post #73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And they just bought the developer. I worry about all the good synergy I was getting from Unity stuff using Github as a default is going to dry up if there's a non-open, non-public VCS as the default. I love trawling Github for interesting Unity projects.

Game development historically and consciously does not use Git so you’re fighting a losing battle. There’s good reason for that. Git remains not a great fit for managing large projects of assets despite extensions and work put in, so I’d be cognizant of your projection of Web-centric preferences on another vertical. That’s a recurring theme from the Web vertical (why don’t you do things our way) and I can tell you I’…

Genuinely curious. You insist a VCS is not how the industry operates. But then how do those AAA devs manage synchronizing changes across a team of several hundreds of people? I imagine there must be some equivalent to VCS that better fits the gamedev indurstry. Or are people just throwing flash drives around the office?

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#177

Post by tikhonj »

tikhonj wrote: post #163
xex70 wrote: post #116

Earlier quoted context omitted.

AAA here. Actually, it is a stretch, because you’re expecting an entirely different discipline of software development to reflect the trends, knowledge, and assumptions of your discipline. We are a CryEngine shop but I’ve used Unity extensively for MVP pitches, spec work, and side projects. I also left the Web vertical to do this so I still have context from your side as well. I took the time to read what you’ve writ…

Game programming isn't —or at least shouldn't be —so different from other fields that fundamental software engineering principles do not apply. It seems like discarding criticism just because it comes from outside the immediate industry is going to lead to an insular culture and get in the way of any real change or progress. Doubly so for an industry that still has high-profile, highly funded projects (Battlefield V,…

This goes in the other direction too: other fields can and should borrow ideas from game programming. At the end of the day the goals of different software projects are pretty comparable: we all want to produce quality code, minimize bugs and do it as quickly and productively as we can. The details and trade-offs aren't identical, to be sure, but at the end of the day different programming fields are far more alike than not.

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#178

Post by MrLeap »

brundolf wrote: post #62
MrLeap wrote: post #19

I use Unity every day at work. This is a mixed bag for me. Unity gives google a run for their money when it comes to abandoning old features / letting them rot. The editor is kind of crashy, launch times get unwieldy fast. Sometimes there's subtle differences between build version and running in the editor, and solving the disparity is a death march. All that said, it's still one of my favorite environments to work i…

I'm curious what issues it still has with version-control? I know that for a while the default asset format was binary instead of text, but I believe they made text the default a little while ago (I've used Unity in a hobby capacity over the years but never professionally)

Scene files are the biggest thing. They're merge conflict magnets. You breath aggressively and they'll "change". Our workflow tends to be based around prefabs, and a main scene we _rarely_ change. Despite never touching it, everyone on the team has to revert Main.scene before committing, pretty much every time.

VFX Graphs are also pretty nuts. Cut one line and it changes 3000 lines of code. This isn't the biggest deal in the world, but it makes for weird diffs.

There was a memory leak bug with the videoplayer component, and the only fix I found was to update to a newer-than-LTS version. That version likes to strip public rendertexture fields from the inspector every time you pull a scene down from git. Hopefully they fix that before they call it an LTS :)

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#179

Post by qwert-e »

scott31 wrote: post #130
DudeInBasement wrote: post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Usually, there is a 'no short' window after IPO. It is better to buy put options as it limits your downside risk. Unless you are a big dog (can actually effect the market). Then shorting is better because you can force the price in your favor.

put options are fine too, do you know where I can buy them?

> do you know where I can buy them

Good luck

Re: Unity Software Inc S-1

#180

Post by swimik »

furyofantares wrote: post #111
_mkef wrote: post #93

Ehh. I really hope Unity raises tons of money , and inspires some decent competition here. Unity is the worst game engine, aside from all others. UE4 is a convoluted mess. I've tired several times , but even getting it setup with the C++ build chain is a pain. Godot ( which epic funded recently ) isn't done yet. I'm going to stick with Unity until someone else can build an easy to use game engine. Ultimately Unity do…

I'm a highly experienced programmer and I can't get started with Unity. Maybe I'm just an old curmudgeon now. But I just want to see some code and drive from code. The workflow of starting from objects and scenes in a GUI and attaching scripts is totally foreign to me. And then most of the tutorials seem to be videos, which I have no patience for, with text I can skip around and tailor my learning to my personal need…

I work on AAA games and this is exactly how I feel, especially about the online ecosystem around Unity, it's a big pile of garbage with maybe 1% of it being reasonable, best-practices documentation/advice.
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