Unity Technologies has announced that the Unity development engine is now fully functional for development of virtual reality (VR) videogames and experiences on the new iMac Pro. The company worked with Apple, AMD, and Valve to ensure optimal integration for Unity development and performance on the Metal graphics API and Apple hardware.
The first of these immersive VR experiences, Electronauts and Gravity Sketch, were announced last week and are demonstrations of the ways that Unity developers can unleash their creativity on macOS.
“The release of the iMac Pro puts virtual reality into the hands of even more consumers and creators. With Apple’s history of making new technologies mainstream, this is an exciting time for Unity and our developers,” said Tony Parisi, Global Head of VR/AR Strategy at Unity Technologies. “The future of VR has never been brighter. Now is the time to dazzle, surprise, and immerse an entirely new audience into the world of VR.”
Electronauts, created by Survios, is promising to deliver an immersive music creation experience empowering all music lovers to DJ, perform and produce music. The Electronauts experience envelops the user in a world of audio, experienced and powered by VR. It is designed for users of all levels, and it empowers all music lovers to DJ, perform and produce great music.
“Electronauts‘ development process was one of near-constant creative experimentation and Unity allowed us to iterate quickly on our designs and rapidly prototype new ideas as the experience evolved,” said Nathan Burba, Cofounder and CEO of Survios.
Gravity Sketch is a multi-platform 3D creation tool which gives industrial designers, automotive designers and to create 3D objects in a VR environment. Unity’s flexibility enabled the team to optimise Gravity Sketch for the iMac Pro.
“When we met with Unity we were blown away by how optimised Unity 2017 was for macOS,” said Daniel Thomas, CTO of Gravity Sketch. “It was easy to get Gravity Sketch up and running on Apple hardware. Thanks to Unity we are now able to reach an entirely new segment of creators, making it easier than ever for them to turn their ideas into reality.”
Unity is the world’s most popular real-time development platform, with more than 60% of the world’s VR and AR creations developed on the platform. VRFocus recently interviewed Parisi, and will bring you more details on the future of Unity’s AR and VR development platform later this week.