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

Introduction to Unity's lights and shadows


Lighting in games is important as it is what allows GameObjects to be seen. If we did not have lights in our game, the game screen would be completely black. In Unity, it is easy to take lighting for granted because, when we create a new scene, there is a default Main Camera and a Directional Light

Shadows in game worlds are another component that can be taken for granted because Unity's default settings regarding shadows is often sufficient for games. 

In this section, we will look at light sources and shadows.

Adding light sources

In Unity, lights are GameObjects and are available in several different types. Here are the most common types of light sources:

  • Directional light
  • Point light
  • Spot light
  • Area light

Let's look at each of these lights.

Directional light

The Directional light is like the sun. As you can see from the following Inspector panel, there are several settings that can be adjusted for Directional lights beyond the Transform's Position, Rotation...