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

Creating the terrain


Unity terrain is essentially the ground in your game environment; it is your landscape. Unity has several tools that we can use to create, shape, and customize the terrain.  We will use those tools later in this chapter.

For our game, we will use a terrain that was created from a height map and then edited in Photoshop. If you are interested in learning how to accomplish this, read the Importing the terrain section. Otherwise, you can skip this brief section and resume with the section on importing the terrain.

Working with height maps

You will find a lot of free height maps with a simple internet search. Once you have the one you want, perform the following steps:

Note

This subsection is not required and only provided for informational purposes. The game's terrain file will be provided along with instructions on how to incorporate it in our game.

  1. Open PhotoShop and select File | New. Use the following settings:

Component

Setting

Width

512 pixels

Height

512 pixels

Resolution

72 pixels...