If you happen to make virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) content then there’s a good chance you might use development middleware Unity – the company claims two-thirds of all AR experiences are made with the engine. Should that be the case then you’ll be glad to hear Unity 2018.2 has been launched today, adding plenty of new features to make content creation easier.
New additions to Unity 2018.2 include optimised performance of the Lightweight Render Pipeline (LWRP) and an enhanced High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) which are both in preview. LWRP is particularly notable as it helps deliver high performance for lower-end hardware, useful for performance-hungry applications like XR, on mobile platforms. While the HDRP prioritises high-definition visuals targeted at high-end platforms, such as PC and consoles.
Or how about the particle system improvements which has seen the update add support for eight UVs, MinMaxCurve and MinMaxGradient, Linear Color Space, Emit from Sprites, BakeMesh, and ETC Texture Support.
Unity and Google also want to make it easier to create Connected Games by reducing the resource, technology, and knowledge barrier through the introduction of a suite of features to Unity 2018.2 designed to enable connected games including game server hosting and game-specific services such as an open source matchmaking project developed by Unity and Google.
On the mixed reality (MR) side HoloLens Holographic Remoting now features, allowing applications to leverage the power of a local desktop machine to offload rendering and processing at runtime. Unity notes that: “We think our Automotive and AEC customers will find this feature particularly useful.”
As for features still to find a way to the software one of the biggest is Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio (MARS), announced during the Unite Berlin keynote address last month. For further details on all the new additions check out the Unity blog. As Unity continues to expand its videogame engine, VRFocus will keep you updated.