The road to 2021

really people… some estimates about when will DOTS be ready?!
so many great things (new ui, visual scripting (the one with dots, the other doesn’t count), ai planet etc etc) and so many things actually finished….
when they will be ready?! DOTS will be ready this decade?! century?! millennium?!
sorry for the language but you really suck at communicating this kind of things!

All I want to do is paint high quality grass, trees and other foilage, on my terrain in HDRP. A basic, fundamental tool that works, or worked, in the standard shader, but has been taken out of HDRP. We are on the cusp of next-gen, and I still can’t do that. It’s painful to use. I’m not even sure how you are surviving right now? Fix what’s there before adding more new s**t we don’t need. It’s a crazy situation. Unreal delivers a mind blowing demo and you sit back and trundle along showing us videos of content we can’t actually create ourselves without a team of ten people manually placing grass on the ground. Just clean it up and fix it. Please.

THANK YOU UNITY! Now we no longer have to damage our eyes thanks to dark theme! I think this will boost sales even more.

Well after reading all the comments on this blog post I have come to the conclusion that the Unity community is nothing but passionate about the engine and its tooling. :)

I am glad to see the networking piece high on the roadmap as I think we are all aware that has been a needed item for quite sometime now. I personally have been using LiteNetLib coupled with SteamWorks and PlayFab with some success, but as the netcode community knows when it comes to the fast paced games and the need for lag compensation, rollback, fixed tick on multiple platforms, etc… it is not an easy task to accomplish especially for Indie developers with day jobs. I have worked with the DOTS NetCode stack since I saw the amazing FPS demo published by Unity and the other samples since have all shown great promise such as the DOTS Sample Project. 3/4 of the need is there and it does work out of the box it just isn’t as easy as people want and Unity has said they understand that and are working on it.

However the part that has been frustrating for me in following along with the development of DOTS and the Netcode portion in particular are that these demos that show promise are not updated to keep up with the changes to the stack and quickly become useless and frustrating for the community. I had to turn off my GitHub notifications as I was getting 10 or so messages a day of complaints of users not being able to compile and update the FPS-Sample repo. This to me turns something Unity had done as a positive into a very negative thing. I mean there is still an awesome webpage showing this great FPS-Sample and here is how you download it and get it up and running, but it hasn’t worked in a year and a half at least. Just wish the teams working on the DOTS/Netcode stack were as committed to these demos and learning tools as the community is. As it is now, anytime an update comes out with Netcode it seems I have to shuffle through all the demos out there to find the one that works with the latest release and they seem to be getting more watered down each time.

Only other criticism, hopefully taken as constructive, I have is that the Unity asset community leaders be reached out to and input taken at a higher priority than it is today. I embarrassingly spend a lot of time on the various Discord servers for the assets developers, many of which have decades of real world game company experience, and the common theme I hear from them is that they have had to do some workaround in their asset to fix something in Unity and that they have put in the tickets for and are basically throwing their hands up in the air with frustration over months passing and no resolution. Probably the most out spoken about this is Jason Booth the developer of Microsplat/Megasplat. There is no denying this guy knows his stuff when it comes to terrain shaders and so if you are lucky enough to have him using your engine and developing assets for it then maybe take a moment and get his input. There are others, but I always find Jason’s comments the most comical so he stands out in my mind. :) The Asset store is one of Unity’s biggest draws and feathers in its cap so it would be a shame to loose critical people from it over pure neglect.

I do want to thank the Unity team and all the work that they are putting into their engine and for working so hard to get it to the next level while trying to maintain a legacy code base. Anyone who has ever had to do that knows it is a thankless and under appreciated under taking. So seriously from me to you all I really appreciate it and I am extremely excited to see what the next year brings. Good luck with your upcoming IPO. Hope you get your 1.2 Billion ;)

Well, the software is called Unity, but it has 3 different incompatible graphics pipelines , it has many features and tools that are scattered across packages and not built in by default. The Unity name kinda lost its meaning … Isn’t that right ?

I REALY HOPE YOU WILL simplify the process for reading a Data.JSON from the StreamingFolder
When publishing to WebGL right now its a nightmare!!.
Need to write inside pligin need to update index need to include things that are outside of the unity domain.
Make it very frustrating.
Please make it simple.

I hope Unity can go above and beyond the floating point limit, because a range of 100,000 is simply not enough
.

I really like the 2D lights feature (introduced in 2018 I think), it’s pretty awesome, but I have a feature request: Metallic maps. We’ve got normal maps, and even Ambient-occlusion maps (through the _MaskTex secondary texture), but metallic maps would really make our space-ships pop!

A few suggestions for consistancy.
I love the way the new Input System can generate code for bindings. Please make this a consistant feature with everything that uses strings and ‘blackboards’. AudioMixer, Animator, Shader graph etc.
For all visual scripting, use vertical execution with horizontal data, like the Visual Effects Graph. ie make Bolt default to the Bolt 2 vertical layout. This is a nice layout, plus it looks similar to normal code, helping beginners and making tutorials and docs more common to both VS and code.
Also avoid pointless renaming of normal code terms, etc “Super Units” instead of functions and ‘blackboard’ instead of Variables.
The less special cases the better.

I am so happy to come across this piece of write up, very much advanced my understanding to the next top level. Great job and continue to do same.

And the recently announced IPO is going to kill all the good resolutions. I pity the fools..
Over and out!

rendering pipeline to unity 2019 and 2020 no fixed for old mobile

So something most might not know is unity transport initially had the full C source, then it was removed. With all the talk about OSS will Unity open that back up?

I was surprised seeing visual scripting getting a spot in the top 3 next to SRP and Multiplayer. Is this list for tech that is in a bad state that you guys are prioritizing or is this the base from the user or studio inputs or a combination.

I really expected to see the GI in real time as a focus for 2021, are we going to have to wait any longer for that to happen?

I think this is the correct decision and gives me the confidence to keep using Unity for commercial products.

However we desperately need better terrain and vegetation tools, efficient realtime GI for URP, and inbuilt LOD/optimisation tools. I’m willing to have these locked behind a Plus subscription.

Also, please transition your Roadmap to Trello or Notion, which are common public tools used by developers. Your current roadmap is hard to navigate and often out of date. Look at the Unreal Engine roadmap for inspiration.

I wonder if it’s because I’m in the niche of solo-developer, but I have never heard “the people” ask a lot for Visual Scripting tools, much less for them to be integrated into Unity, though it is nice to hear the node tools are finally getting a strong foundation (does that mean we will be able to develop our own node editor tools?!).

I was most excited about multiplayer networking, but after reading also most confused. I do get that a lot of companies would need this, right now, but could you elaborate on the long-term goal? Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’m reading that Unity is collaborating with outside developers to make this solution happen and that it will be independant of DOTS. 2 red flags: Unity has been stepping away from outside solutions the past years (or else merging them into the company) and DOTS is being shaped up to replace the engine’s core.

Many things are in really poor shape, the Terrain tools need heavy work, there is no shader graph integration for terrain, it supports 8 layers like we are in 1999.

Enlighten has been cut while Unreal did show realtime GI, leaving Unity with absolutely nothing.

Dots is the way to the future and putting visual scripting anyone can buy right now in many variations over Dots, Lighting, Terrain, Shader Graph integration and UI is extremely misguided (atleast Multiplayer and RPs are adressed). I hoped Unity would understand from all the recent backlash and complaints about the current state.

Get the existing Tools on par, this is absolutely the worst time to play with some new gimmick now.

And desperately hire some UX talent.

I think much of the complaints could be reduced with improved UX design and clarity.
Unity needs to set up a strong UX strike team who actually go over all the features and identify all these pitfalls that made Unity from the easy to pickup Engine to this Patchwork UX nightmare of the current state, especially within HDRP.

Also how is Visual scripting now a top priority when this was just recently bought from a third party?
The last unity should do is chase a new toy which requires big refactoring, nobody actually needs at this moment. Lighting and many other things are still in a really poor state.

Focusing on the cool new toy is really sending all the wrong signals.

I already own a Visual Scripting tool that has a much better Asset Store review score than Bolt. I doubt many people would have asked for you to integrate an inferior visual scripting tool into the Unity engine. At least make it removable.

I do like the emphasis on fixing and polishing what’s there, and make it work together better. This has been a big problem the last two years. Unfortunately, you made a very similar statement a few years ago, then completely dropped the ball on it. Why should we believe you this time?

Also, on the side, why is this comment box only two lines tall? Your website team leaves a bit to be desired. Asset Store iteration has been extremely slow, and takes years to add sorely needed features and improve performance.

Interesting stuff, I know the Unity team can’t get to everything, but I gotta say — nice work!

I was looking forward to visual scripting since it can help a lot with graphs and visual tools for RPGs I always wanted to make.
I also highly appreciate the bugfixing and workflows improvements, they really mean a lot to us, so thanks for that! (AND DARK THEME OMG -fanboy mode activated-)

Also random, I’m quite curious if Unity will be getting an export to Tesla cars sometime.. hehe. But I’m sure you can’t reveal anything about that yet.

Unity 2020 loading speed is very low ! really disaster.

So you wanna do less….less…
sigh

I hope that DOTS will always remain a number one priority until it is fully complete – and I didn’t really get that impression from this post. The fundamental development differences and resulting performance expectations between OOP and DOTS are too vital to leave in limbo for long – and we’ve been waiting for quite a while now.

Can you elaborate more on future DOTS development and timeline please?

It’s sounding like no hope for Dots until 2022.

So Visual Scripting (VS) is now top, top priority? In this case, I have a few comments.

How many half baked VS tools are cramped into your oven by now?

– ShaderGraph
– VFXGraph
– DOTS Visual Scripting
– DSPGraph
– And now … Bolt native integration

I understand why you want specialized VS tools – the beauty and purpose of VS is to offer simplicity. If you try to solve all the world’s problems with one visual language then the complexity will outgrow the purpose. So specialization is great, but how many native VS tools should Unity support? Wasn’t Bolt doing just fine as an Asset Store product?

I haven’t used any of your VS tools – even being a huge fan of VS in general. Why? Either because they are not mature, they don’t support the features I need, or they are too difficult to extend. Examples? ShaderGraph support for DrawProcedural, ComputeBuffers, SV_VertexID. VFXGraph support for shared memory (or just an easy way to route data from other ComputeShaders into the graph).

So please, don’t try to support all your users special VS needs. Instead:

1. Make your VS tools easily extensible. Make it the easiest thing in the world for your users to script their own type of specialized nodes (blocks or systems, or whatever the components may be called).

2. Make the very foundation of your engine easily extensible, so that users can easily build their own VS tools. Historically you have done a great job on this, but on the graphics front, with the rise of URP and HDRP, this has gone down the drain. URP now have Custom Render Pass, but still has some way to go. HDRP now have Custom Pass, but try to write a shader without tearing your hair out. UIElements is useful for UI, but the API is very alien to Unity (inspired by web tech) and can get overly complex.

I have spent ages developing my own VS tool. It has been a fun ride, but if your VS tools were easier to extend (1), I might have gone with that. And if your graphics foundation was easier to extend (2), I might have shared my VS tool by now.

Would be interesting to see some numbers on how many developers are actually shipping games using Dots / URP. As i feel its probably in the <5% mark. Meanwhile it seems like mono has been forgotten (not to mention networking on mono)

Great news! Keep up the amazing work.
Though you should also lower the Asset Store share from 30% to 15% in 2021. Or less / earlier.. xD

Congrats for hosting an AMA — a great step forward building a roadmap with the community.

Hi Unity Team !
While you are making the future of multiplayer ready, could you communicate what pending multiplayer technology was used in the game you mentioned in the article please (Fall Guys)?
Thank you in advance.

what multiplayer did Unity do for fall guys and how did you make it easier?

Is the “default parent” feature used to make it so when you drag an object into a scene, it automatically parents to that? If so, awesome! That shows that Unity is really finding issues in the Unity pipeline and trying to fix them. :)) That’s something I’ve always wanted, and built a tool to do it, but I’m sure the Unity version will be integrated better!

Looking good. Make less and make them better.

Missing features/Incomplete features:
– Spline component (someone mentioned above).
– Pro Grids/Pro Builder (Why are they eternal PREVIEW packages? This should have been part of the core engine ages ago for quick prototyping. This is a must and one thing I miss coming from UE4).
– Terrain Tools (What happened? Another preview package that should have been part of the core engine ages ago.)

Please fix the asset pipeline 2, it is too slow and I cannot upgrade.
There are several complains that script reloading and asset importing takes much longer than before.

ok ok ok, but what are your plans to confront Nanite and Lumen.. please focus on what really matters…

really? Visual scripting? I don’t choose Unity instead of Unreal seven years ago because you have blueprints or visual tools for noobs, I choose you because your workflow is fast, is clear, simple, we write code, fast shaders compilation (and they are created writing code, not using obligatory “graphs” tools), there was good documentation, your engines were optimized and works on low computer specs and your games runs good on low-end devices or we could make amazing games for high specs, using only ONE graphic pipeline, there was realtime global illumination and every engine iterarion improves BIG changes, no this stupid thing of 2018, 2019, 2020, 2021, all looks like the same thing with nothing relevant.

You are just taking all that makes you better than Unreal and throw it to the trash, losing time in a lot of stupid things, I’m really angry and yes I paid some occasions for the Unity subscription licences if some of you have that question, and yes I also spend money on great assets from the store and some of them are deprecated because your “URP and HD pipeline” thing sucks.

I’m feeling I loosed seven years of my time on your tool and you simply don’t hear anything I said or a lot of other developers with years using Unity.

Epic offers things like Epic MegaGrands and works with it´s developers, offer free access to Megascans, or things like that, but you are just in silence, it doesn’t reassure me.

WHAT IS HAPPENING WITH UNITY!!!!

NETWORKING!!!! W00t! Please tell us you’re solving things like lag compensation, client-side prediction, and all that stuff that doesn’t come with any solution that I’m aware of (that doesn’t charge you rent to use).

Very nice changes and a year of improvements for Unity. But there is something they should do before, and that is to give us the Dark theme for all: ‘C several improvements, these years and so far nothing. It would be excellent to give us all the dark theme in these next updates, is what several users wonder, When the free Dark theme: ´C

I hope URP performance and overall performance is a high priority. Latest versions of Unity, Post Processing stacks and SRP all brought major performance regression. I hope you can bring it at least on par with previous Unity versions.

A good commitment from Unity must include amazing VR support. Vulkan and Quest leaves a lot to be desired and we are approaching a year on from when the competition had it stable. Not a good look but I think all that does is highlight an oversight I’m absolutely sure you’ll sort out if it’s brought to your attention.

We need Splines !! please :)

2D Animation (PSB Importer) -not only for Photoshop users!
-Now it is impossible to work not only with third-party programs, but even with files from Adobe Illustrator – with any change in the drawing (in the order of layers) – and all the work done in 2D Animation after first importing into the Unity – will be destroyed!

These are great news! Could you please update the official roadmap reflecting what was mentioned in this article? Right now it only shows “UI Toolkit: Theming”. I use to read the roadmap on a weekly basis to get to know what’s being worked on.

URP improvements are very welcome, currently it’s lacking features that you get for granted on the built-in renderer.

The great forgotten are the 2D features, very sad :'(

Yes, what about new 2d features?

Great news!

What about 2D, new UI and physics? There’s nothing about that. I am assuming these features will follow the general stabilisation and improvements mindset?

Regarding DOTS, when you share info, please share as high detailed info as possible since for many types of games it can be very beneficial and if we know roughly when we can expect stuff. It can help a lot when making decisions about using it for a project or not.

When i read multiplayer for 2021 i got hopeful that DOTS will be stable (at least Entities, Physics and Animation with NetCode) until then. It is great that you are supporting GameObjects anyways. I imagine it is the same LLAPI at least if not a bridge for the current NetCode to communicate with MonoBehaviours.

Platform support (for next gen) needs to be added to 2019.4 LTS.

Hey also please add volumetric lighting in URP it will be very helpful. And also please add a built in dynamic Clouds like unreal. Please. Good Luck unity Team you have a very bright future.