Book Image

Getting Started with Unity 2018 - Third Edition

By : Dr. Edward Lavieri
Book Image

Getting Started with Unity 2018 - Third Edition

By: Dr. Edward Lavieri

Overview of this book

The Unity game engine has revolutionized the gaming industry with its complete set of intuitive tools and rapid workflows, which can be used to create interactive 3D content. With Unity, you can scaffold your way from the basics and make make stunning interactive games. This book will guide you through the entire process of creating a 3D game, from downloading the Unity game engine to publishing your game. It not only gives you a strong foundation, but puts you on the path to game development. Beginning with an overview of the Unity engine and its interface, you will walk through the process of creating a game environment and learn how to use built-in assets, as well as assets created with third-party 3D modeling tools such as Blender. Moving on, you will create custom scripts to control non-player character behaviors and gameplay. You will master exciting concepts such as Heads-Up-Displays, mini-maps, game navigation, sound effects, and lighting effects. Next, you’ll learn how to create your first VR experience, right from setting up the project to image effects. You'll be familiarized with all the tools that Unity has to offer to create your own immersive VR experiences. Each section is a stepping stone toward the completion of the final game. By the end of the book, you'll have learned advanced topics such as cross-platform considerations which enable your games to run on multiple platforms.
Table of Contents (21 chapters)
Title Page
Dedication
Packt Upsell
Contributors
Preface
Index

Additional optimizations 


Two additional areas where you can optimize your game is with level of detail and using static colliders. Both of these concepts are discussed in the sections that follow.

Level of detail

Level of detail refers to how much detail is rendered on any given game object. The greater the number of polygons, the greater the level of detail your game objects will have. In order to reduce render times, you should consider what elements of detail need to be part of the 3D model and which ones can simply be included in the texture.

There are also level of detail (LOD) models. This is when you use multiple models of the same object in a game, each with a different level of detail. Think about a game where the player stands on the coast, looking at the horizon. A ship that is 12 miles away does not need the same level of detail as when it is just a few yards away. 

Static colliders

Static colliders are game objects with a collider but without a rigidbody. As the name suggests, these...