San Francisco, Calif. - Unity Technologies, provider of the Unity development platform for interactive 3D content on a variety of mediums-including the Web, iPhone, iPad, PC, Mac, Android, Wii, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3-announced the availability of Unity 3. Unity won The Wall Street Journal 2010 Technology Innovation Award in the software category.
"This audacious dream of building a truly unified platform for game development is coming to fruition," says David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. "Economies of collaboration and sharing and scale of stunning dimensions are being realized."
There are now more than 200,000 registered users of Unity, first introduced more than five years ago, says a company representative. Developers are leveraging Unity's tools to create innovation--unique control interfaces, real-time sports broadcasting, new ways of interacting with social networks, new ways to advertise products, augmented reality (AR) games, and integrated devices.
Helgason adds: "With Unity 3, we're demonstrating that we're serious about the long term and that high technology made simple is a transformational force."
Among the new features in Unity 3 are:
· Unified Editor - Deploy to any supported platform from one project in one editor
· Beast Lightmapping - Strong lightmapper now included in Unity
· Deferred Rendering - AAA class rendering available on Web, consoles, and standalone
· Occlusion Culling - Completely new Umbra-powered PVS solution
· Source-Level Debugger - Single step through code, variable inspection, and other development painkillers
· Audio Filters - Perfect FMOD-powered ambiance effects with integrated editing
· Lens Effects - AAA post filters ready for use in games or to be studied in source form
For Version 3, Unity Technologies has kept Unity, its entry-level product, free for commercial use. Its premier product, Unity Pro, will retain its current price of $1500 per developer seat. Current Unity Pro owners will be able to upgrade to version 3.x for $750.
Unity iPhone and Unity iPhone Pro will be available for pre-order immediately at similar discounts: $300 per seat for new licensees of Unity iPhone ($100 per seat for 1.x upgrades) and $1200 per seat for new licensees of Unity iPhone Pro ($500 per seat for 1.x upgrades).