Unity launches native 2d support. Yay or Nay.

[nasty_wolverine]

Just found out that unity now has native support for 2d and 2.5d.
How viable is it now for shmup development?
Has anyone tried it? Opinions please...

[n0rtygames]

It's okay.

Doing a vert shooter in unity is a pain with tate and all. Without pro you have no access to rendertargets either.

[nasty_wolverine]

It's okay.

Doing a vert shooter in unity is a pain with tate and all. Without pro you have no access to rendertargets either.

well that sucks, how I am supposed to use my 32 framebuffer texture attachment lazy composite method then??

[BPzeBanshee]

Is it strictly rotation that's an issue or are there additional design flaws?

[Rozyrg]

I'm interested to mess around with it; but every time I open it up, I'm pretty much just bewildered.

The license costs honestly scare the shit out of me, too. I know the free version isn't as ridiculously limited as other software's; but still.

[null1024]

I'm interested to mess around with it; but every time I open it up, I'm pretty much just bewildered.

This, so damn much.
I'd love to use Unity -- its platform support and general power appeal to me greatly. But I'm only slightly less overwhelmed opening it than I am opening Blender or something.

[nasty_wolverine]

But I'm only slightly less overwhelmed opening it than I am opening Blender or something.

tbh, i find blender easier to understand then unity, but that may be because i do have some knowledge of 3d modelling.

I know that tate is a problem, but what making yoko-tate games, like mars matrix, touhou, hellsinker, recca etc? also what about hori's?

[n0rtygames]

tbh if you guys wanted I could arrange to stream a "HOW TO UNITY" some day with some simple getting started tips

[nasty_wolverine]

tbh if you guys wanted I could arrange to stream a "HOW TO UNITY" some day with some simple getting started tips

You dont need to ask us permission, just do it already...

[eatfrog]

im working on a shmup in unity2d right now, and although the ui is a total mess, i really like unity. done some stuff in xna previously and having the editor and the built in stuff for components, collision detection and such is really sweet.

dont know anything about tate and stuff though, not that far along yet.

using the free version, and havent really found anything i need in pro yet.

[nasty_wolverine]

im working on a shmup in unity2d right now, and although the ui is a total mess, i really like unity. done some stuff in xna previously and having the editor and the built in stuff for components, collision detection and such is really sweet.

dont know anything about tate and stuff though, not that far along yet.

using the free version, and havent really found anything i need in pro yet.

you dont need RTT? you aint got enough bling yet!!!

[eatfrog]

im working on a shmup in unity2d right now, and although the ui is a total mess, i really like unity. done some stuff in xna previously and having the editor and the built in stuff for components, collision detection and such is really sweet.

dont know anything about tate and stuff though, not that far along yet.

using the free version, and havent really found anything i need in pro yet.

you dont need RTT? you aint got enough bling yet!!!

i dont even know what that is.

but what is the problem with tate in unity? cant i just... rotate the camera 90 degrees?

[n0rtygames]

No it's a little more complicated than that. You leave your camera alone completely.

The camera outputs to a render target and you render this on to a surface (ideally the GUI layer) with the correct scaling and rotation based on user settings.

Don't worry about tate for now, just focus on improving your skill set in other areas and over time this will make sense.

[nasty_wolverine]

you dont need RTT? you aint got enough bling yet!!!

i dont even know what that is.

Render-to-Texture. Yes a game can be done completely without it, but it just gives so much freedom once you learn to use it well. You can just forget ordering to render from back to front. just use multiple textures, render to them depending on what Z you want the object in, then composite them later to the screen in order you want, this also stops additive objects from bleeding and blending with the background (darius burst style lasers). Infact, you can composite them to another texture, add PostFX like scanlines, then scale rotate them for TATE or zoom or even the shadow playfield like in Danmaku Unlmited 2 (which to be honest is better than any wall paper)

[eatfrog]

thank you norty and nasty for your replies. interesting stuff. even though i have been a developer for several years professionally, game development is a different beast altogether so there is much to learn.

what kind of problems would one run into if trying to tate through rotating the camera + setting Camera.rect?

[nasty_wolverine]

what kind of problems would one run into if trying to tate through rotating the camera + setting Camera.rect?

ur aspect ratio will be skewed. also depending on how coordinate system is implimented, things will be weird.

also, game programming and normal programming isnt all that different, apart from a few major ones. you will still be using almost all the stuff you use in normal programming. difference is where as applications are designed around a event loop, games are designed around a FSM (Finite State Machine), games have to update constantly even where there is no user input. order of update is important, weird things can happen if not done properly. then they all have to rendered in the proper order, or you can end up with the HUD behind the background.

apart from that, you have lots of libraries to help you out with boiler code as usual, some free source engines you can use to rapid develop games. its not that hard, you just have to think a little differently when writing games. lots of beginner tutorials out there, since you have already been programming, it will be like learning how to write a different kind of application then usual.