Unite 2024 is over - there's a lot of cool stuff coming in Unity 6 - we've actually got a release date! 17th October for the stable version, which is less than a month away. If you can't wait that long, the tech preview is out now and I've been using it since day 1. One of the coolest new things for me is the new Awaitable class, which turns C#'s async/await syntax into a full replacement for Unity's Coroutines (which I hate). There are even some nice new features for multithreading there!
That's not the fun stuff though. We've known about Unity 6 for nearly a year at this point. I'm more interested in what's next. And boy was I not disappointed! We don't know much yet, but here's what's in store:
I'm starting with a boring techy one, but this is what I'm most excited for. CoreCLR is the open-source execution engine for .NET Core, and by integrating this, Unity can keep up to date with all the latest .NET upgrades. They'll be starting with .NET 8, which is the latest version, a long way ahead of .NET 4.8 which is what we're currently stuck with. This will come with a bunch of optimisations to make your games run even faster, and a bunch of new C# features that I can't wait to get my hands on.
A little side note for this set of changes - Code Reload is replacing Domain Reload, which is the frustrating progress bar that can block the editor for sometimes more than 10 seconds every time you change a script. This change alone will save so much time, significantly improving that all-important iteration speed.
Another big boost to iteration speed comes from a modernized content pipeline. This is just a fancy way of saying "the current content pipeline sucks so we're updating it"! Now when you import an asset, it won't block the whole engine. And when you load a scene, it will only check content that has changed that relates to that scene, rather than all content in the whole project. Hooray!
Read more about CoreCLR and Code Reload: https://discussions.unity.com/t/dot-net-modernization/1519272 Read more about the new Content Pipeline: https://discussions.unity.com/t/content-pipeline-modernization/1519283
Another major one here: a whole new animation system! We all hate Mechanim, it has so many issues and the Unity team are working on an entirely new animation system. This new system is built from the ground up to be highly performant, even at massive scales. One of the coolest features they've previewed is the ability to visually step through the animation and see exactly what's going on - no more guesswork. They're also adding features to make it easier to manage large projects, and giving technical animators more control than ever. While we're still waiting on an official release date, it looks like it will be worth the wait.
Read more about the new animation system: https://discussions.unity.com/t/new-animation/1519289
The Terrain system has been around forever and it's showing its age. Thankfully, Unity is working on a brand new worldbuilding system, designed for the massive open worlds we see in modern games. Think seamless integration with Houdini and Gaea, non-destructive layer stacks for easy editing, and built-in Shader Graph support for custom terrain shaders. They're even leveraging the power of ECS and Virtual Texturing for optimized runtime performance. This is a huge step forward, and I can't wait to see what we can create with it!
Read more about the new terrain tools: https://discussions.unity.com/t/new-environment/1519292
Turning to multiplayer tech, Unity want to make multiplayer games much more accessible, and they’re starting with some new tools like the Multiplayer Center package and Multiplayer Play Mode. These tools will streamline your workflow, from building your game to testing and deploying it. They're also working on unifying their Netcode solutions, so you'll have one powerful tool for all your multiplayer needs. And don't forget about the new Dedicated Server package, which makes it a breeze to set up and manage your own servers. Unity is committed to making multiplayer development accessible to everyone, and these new features are a big step in the right direction.
Read more about the updates to Multiplayer: https://discussions.unity.com/t/multiplayer-development-status-and-next-milestones-september-2024/1521688/1
Unity’s Entity-Component-System model, part of the Data-Oriented Tech Stack (phew that’s a low of acronyms), was a great way to squeeze the most performance out of your games. It is, however, much more difficult to get up and running than standard object-oriented code. Well, it was much more difficult - Unity want to change that. They're now building it into the core of the editor, making it much easier for everyone to benefit from its performance advantages, even if you're not directly using ECS in your code. This means faster games, more efficient memory usage, and a whole bunch of new features built on top of this solid ECS foundation. Get ready for a major boost in performance and flexibility!
Read more about the ECS roadmap: https://discussions.unity.com/t/dots-development-status-and-milestones-ecs-for-all-september-2024/1519286
So there you have it! Unity 6 is just around the corner, and beyond that the future looks even brighter. With CoreCLR, a revamped content pipeline, a brand-new animation system, powerful worldbuilding tools, and ECS for all, this Unite conference actually got me excited about the future of Unity. I didn’t think that was possible! Is there anything in particular you’re excited for? Let me know in the comments below!
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