UnityEngine
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Snapchat will let you play as your Bitmoji in games
You'll soon be able to play as your Snapchat Bitmoji avatar in a wide variety of video games. Snapchat on Thursday launched a Bitmoji for Games SDK that will let video game developers replace their characters with the app's iconic Bitmoji. Players will be able to scan an on-screen Snapcode to unlock their avatar on any supported games.
BMW used virtual reality to bring its latest crossover SUV to CES
When you're in Las Vegas for CES and want to show off a brand-new car before its debut at the North American Auto Show, what do you do? Well, if you're BMW, you do it virtually. The German automaker "brought" its new X2 crossover SUV to the desert with virtual reality, in a first-of-its-kind (for BMW, at least) demo experience that lets potential customers get behind the wheel and poke around the vehicle's nooks and crannies. BMW sees this as a natural bridge between looking at pictures online and reading brochures, and for the automaker, the medium seems like a logical next step to updating the shopping experience for the future.
Merch booths are coming to a video game near you
Take a look through Etsy or the countless daily T-shirt sites and nerd-focused stores online and you'll find a common theme: merchandise featuring characters and other bits from your favorite video games. Soon, you won't have to go outside the title you're playing to grab a piece of tie-in swag, however. That's because online shopping company Shopify has designed a developer tool that hooks into games made with the incredibly popular Unity toolset, and sets up a virtual shop in-game where you can buy branded t-shirts and other tchotchkes. What's more, unlike the aforementioned storefronts, it'll be officially licensed merch.
First Unity-built cartoon proves the engine isn't just for games
As the NBA's eSports league proves, video games are quickly becoming mainstream. Games are having a moment, and so are the tools used to make them. Case in point, the Unity game engine recently reached a big milestone. French animated show Mr. Carton just became the first cartoon TV series made with Unity.
Google's VR art app is open source and ready to get weird
Google's Tilt Brush is capable of some pretty impressive results. But what if those 3D paintings and projects you made while strapped into virtual reality could escape into the real world? That's the idea behind the open-source Tilt Brush Toolkit, available now on GitHub.
Facebook is launching its own PC gaming platform
Facebook's gaming aspirations didn't stop with Farmville and its $2 billion Oculus VR acquisition. Nope, the social network is also launching a dedicated PC gaming platform today. Said platform will lean heavily on developers using the ubiquitous Unity game engine, according to a release from the company. The partnership's first project is admittedly developer-centric, but it has a direct impact on the folks playing games on Facebook. Zuckerberg and Co. describe it as a new export feature baked into Unity that allows a studio to publish directly to Facebook and the aforementioned Facebook PC gaming platform "with very little effort and few code changes."
Crafting the algorithmic soundtrack of 'No Man's Sky'
While you've no doubt heard of No Man's Sky, the game, chances are you can't say the same of the band that scored its soundtrack. That's fair. UK noise/drone rock group 65Daysofstatic (65DOS) has quietly been releasing records since 2001. Its songs regularly stretch past seven minutes, and if they feature vocals, the singing is buried so deep in the mix that it's almost indistinguishable from the maelstrom surrounding it. All that is to say, the band doesn't write the type of music that gets stuck in your head. Which makes multi-instrumentalist Paul Wolinski's hopes for the score all the more surprising. "We wanted it to be hummable," he told Engadget.
Unity Engine working to keep years of browser games alive
One of the big factors to game engine Unity's success is that for awhile it ran on basically any platform be it Oculus, PS Vita or home consoles like the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One. But according to the developer, recent moves by the likes of Google, Microsoft and Mozilla are going to put an end to that. The latest version of Chrome doesn't have support for a specific plugin (NPAPI, specifically) that the Unity Web Player relies on, and Unity says that Firefox's support for plugins is going the way of the buffalo while Edge isn't supporting them at all. Most everything is moving toward WebGL these days.
One of gaming's most-used engines arrives today on PlayStation Vita
With PlayStation Vita getting Unity game engine support in today's update, one of gaming's most widely used game engines is heading to Sony's latest handheld. And that means it's all the easier for the dozens of great Unity engine games to head to the Vita as well, to say nothing of future developments. It also means that, when games are ported, they'll have access to the full suite of PlayStation Network features (matchmaking, trophies, etc.); previously, many developers took the PS Mobile publishing route, leaving out rich features many other Vita games enjoyed. As content is the lifeblood of any game console, we're thrilled to see what today's update means for 2014 with PlayStation Vita. Unity's also promising PlayStation 4 support in the near future, which hopefully means that applicable Unity engine games will also have crossbuy support. We can dream, can't we?
Unity to bring Qualcomm optimization to its game engine
Unity already supports development for (nearly) all mobile platforms and now the game engine maker's working on an optimized version for those with Qualcomm processors -- ie, quite a chunk of them. On the heels of freshly announced competition, it announced that it's collaborating with the chip-maker to release a new version of its multi-platform engine "in the coming months" to speed up Unity-authored games for Android and Windows Phone 8 devices powered by most flavors of that CPU. So far there are over 1.5 million registered developers building games for around 770 products that pack the necessary Snapdragon / Adreno combo, according to Unity -- meaning there's a decent chance you'll soon see some extra oomph in one or another of the games you play, whether you're in Redmond or Mountain View's camps. Hit the PR after the jump for more.
Mini TARDIS really is bigger on the inside, thanks to augmented reality (video)
Once in a while we'd come across some cool DIY projects inspired by Doctor Who, the world's longest-running sci-fi TV show, but nothing beats this little TARDIS that would actually make you gasp out the classic line: "It's bigger on the inside!" Greg Kumparak, a former writer of sister site TechCrunch, initially built nothing more than just a convincing model of the iconic blue police box (with a functioning light at the top) by hand, but soon afterwards he wanted to somehow give it an interior as well. By utilizing the Blender 3D creation suite (which was a first for Kumparak), Unity 3D engine and Qualcomm's Vuforia AR SDK, the result is an Android app that renders the 3D interior atop the random wave-like pattern -- visible once the door's removed -- on the TARDIS in real time (no pun intended). Once you've seen the demo video after the break, you'd probably agree that Kumparak's only one sonic screwdriver away from becoming an honorary Time Lord. For more detail on how and why this project was put together, head over to Kumparak's blog post.
Unity and Nintendo partner to bring Unity Engine, and its 1.2 million devs, to Wii U
Unity Engine is best known for supporting mobile and digital games, but Unity Technologies CEO David Helgason sees his company's game development engine as more flexible than that. Nintendo apparently does as well, partnering with Unity on a worldwide licensing agreement that offers first- and third-party developers Pro level engine access to Unity's tools for Wii U development. The partnership also grandfathers in the existing 1.2 million Unity licensees to the Wii U platform, which Helgason tells us is, "extremely easy" to port to -- Unity's calling the partnership an "excellent opportunity" to port existing Unity games from "thousands of studios currently developing mobile and social games." The partnership's effects aren't immediate, however, as Unity Engine's Wii U support won't go live until 2013, which tells us that we won't see any fruit from the collaboration until some point in 2013 at the earliest. When pushed, Helgason wouldn't out any potential games headed to the Wii U via Unity, nor would he offer up names of studios interested in working with Nintendo's next console. It's not hard to imagine big Unity games like Slender and Rochard ending up ported to the Wii U, of course, but it sounds like we'll have to wait a bit longer before we hear which games will benefit from the partnership first.
Windows 8 and Windows Phone 8 to play nice with Unity game engine
You can't have too many supported platforms and Unity Technologies seems to agree, announcing that its self-titled game creation tool will be coming to both Windows 8 and its mobile sibling. According to CEO David Helgason, "The Unity community has been asking for access to Windows Phones and have been eagerly anticipating the release of Windows 8. We're happy to announce that we will support both." He added that several of its games will also be making their way to Atom processor-powered Android phones soon.
Autodesk Scaleform lets you use Flash to build high-end portable device games for $299 (video)
Got some great smartphone game ideas and Flash talent, but no budget and little to no programming savvy? Autodesk's Scaleform for Mobile Platforms could let you launch those ideas from a catapult, cannon or any game weapon of your choice -- all you'll need is Adobe creation tools and $299. That's the price per platform (iOS, Android or Windows 8,) giving you tools to convert your Flash assets and animations into a full blown Unity game, as well as the engine necessary for the mobile OS. That would let your creation take full advantage of the latest smartphone graphics and multi-processing capabilities, giving users smoother play and sharper looking games -- according to the company. The software is heavily based on the console and PC versions of Scaleform, optimized for the small devices and costing thousands less. So, if you think you've got the mad Flash skillz to create the next Infinity Blade, check the PR and video after the break to see how to power up.
Unity 4.0 game engine adds Linux support, Mecanim animation, Flash and DirectX 11 (video)
Unity is about to give a jolt to the Linux gaming community with version 4.0 of its engine. The Penguin has been "underserved," according to the game engine company, so it'll now join the list of supported operating systems alongside Windows, OS X, iOS, Android, Xbox, PS3 and Wii. Developers will also get the new Mecanim system for making character animation easier, on top of DirectX 11 for Windows and Flash publishing options. Details are in the video after the break, but it's good news considering how Linux's namesake just decried the lack of love for the platform.
Madfinger demos and dishes details on its forthcoming Shadowgun game
Shadowgun looked good when we saw footage of it last month, and at E3 2011 we got to chat with the game's creators about the Tegra-optimized title. Madfinger, the game's creator, worked closely with NVIDIA to wring the maximum performance possible out of the Tegra 2 platform, but it said Shadowgun will still look stunning on other silicon. The game is built on the multi-platform Unity engine and will be coming to iOS and Android devices around the world in September (prices TBD). As you can see in the video above, it runs smooth as silk on an LG G2x (55-60fps) and Motorola's Xoom (30fps). Madfinger said we can also expect 60fps on the iPad 2 and devices packing Kal-El chips, and 30fps on other Android handsets and the iPhone 4 when the game debuts. If you've got a hankering for some more video of the game, check the official trailer after the break.
Lenovo's Chinese eBox console suffers delay, here's how its camera-based games might play (video)
We had nearly forgotten Lenovo's Eedoo spinoff and its China-bound video game console, seeing as how it failed to meet a planned November 2010 unveiling, but IDG News reports that the motion-sensing eBox hasn't slipped Lenovo's mind -- it's just been pushed further into 2011. How far? If we were to guess, we'd say Q2 2011, and the video above spells out why. Seemingly by coincidence, we were just sent this footage of a game called Flyimal, built on the Unity Engine as a collaboration between 3D asset company Mixamo and 3D gesture recognition company Omek Interactive, and -- get this -- running on "the first [console] to be made by the Chinese for the Chinese market and due for launch by Q2 of this year." We can't think of many game systems that fit that description, to be honest. There's not a lot to look at here, but we imagine PrimeSense and competitors will be perusing the video soon, noting that the machine captures precisely 15 points on a user's body for its gesture recognition algorithms... and wondering if there's a third dimension to any of that movement. Read Unity, Mixamo and Omek's statement after the break.
Apple rejects Unity games on the App Store
Touch Arcade has the news that the long-awaited Ravensword and a number of other games built on the Unity game engine have been rejected by Apple from the App Store. The problem appears to be a number of API calls in the engine (though not specifically the game themselves, as I understand it) that allow the games to access the iPhone's number and send it back to the developer's servers. Apple considers these to be private APIs, and they also got games developer Storm8 in trouble earlier this week; their games were pulled from the store in response to a lawsuit alleging that they were collecting data from users without their knowledge. Chillingo, publishers of Ravensword, contacted us about this story, and they said that while the Unity engine does allow developers to use these calls, they did not use them or collect any user information. We're also told that the problem APIs "have been removed," and Chillingo has resubmitted the game for App Store approval. As I understand it, this is the same type of issue that came up with Google a while back. It's not the same APIs (Google was using the proximity sensor back then), but now as then, it's Apple's call whether they will allow developers to use these private and undocumented calls. Obviously some apps on the iPhone have to access the address book from time to time, but it's Apple's call whether they can use APIs like that or not. This time, it appears, they said no. Update: Unity has also contacted us, and they say that the engine was updated to Apple's wishes as soon as they learned of the issue. They also would like to point out that while Storm8 did use the same private API calls, they don't use Unity to run their games. Storm8's update on the issue is here.
Freeverse puts 'Big Bang' in Brain Games
Not one to miss out on the 'brain training' craze, Freeverse Software has announced its own line of puzzlers and memory trials designed to keep your dome fit, dubbed Big Bang Brain Games. We're not sure how the Big Bang comes into play, but you're free to download Reaction through Thursday -- the remaining five stimulators (Sudoku, Remembrance, Echo, Novasweeper, and Fallacy) will be released in December (not for free).The Big Bang games were developed by Graveck Interactive using Over the Edge's Unity engine. Designed for Mac, the collection can be integrated with Apple's .Mac service, allowing trainees to show off their "Brain Scores" via Brain Pages. For those of you who can't land a headshot, this might be your best chance to top a leaderboard ... Big Bang l33t, holla!
