Classes vs. Structs. How not to teach about performance!

I always love reading posts by Sergey Teplyakov. Even though they are sometimes overly technical and tough to go through (not a bad thing at all). This one is a great example of why you should always profile your code, especially critical parts on the hot path, and not believe tests on the web, as some authors try to mislead you for their reasons or just out of pure negligence or ignorance.

https://sergeyteplyakov.github.io/Blog/benchmarking/2023/11/02/Performance_Comparison_For_Classes_vs_Structs.html

#performance #benchmark

How I got streamers and YouTubers to play my demo

An author shares great tips and resources on how to find relevant people increasing chances of your game being noticed.

https://www.reddit.com/r/gamedev/s/kmF6RDmqni

#marketing

How to template your Unity project

This article describes two ways to create a template via GitHub and Unity Hub. It sounds super convenient, especially if you create new projects often or have core tools and logic that you integrate into each of your projects.

https://medium.com/@wondrous_aqua_toad_341/how-to-template-your-unity-project-cc021231e33e

#template #editortools

New Shader Graph Node Reference Samples

An invaluable resource, especially for those diving into shader intricacies. It's fascinating how seasoned shader experts dissect complex visual effects into a sequence of small and simple steps. This library of samples acts as a comprehensive guide, providing insights into the inner workings of these individual steps and unveiling the diverse possibilities available from the outset.

https://blog.unity.com/engine-platform/new-shader-graph-node-reference-samples

#shadergraph

A Primer on Unity Addressables and UGS Cloud Content Delivery

A very basic, step-by-step guide on how to set up Addressables and UGS for content delivery. Worth adding to bookmarks for when you would need to set up this pipeline, for example, for a prototype, since this setup will be free with the current pricing plans for small scale tests and prototypes.

https://dev.to/attiliohimeki/a-primer-on-unity-addressables-and-ugs-cloud-content-delivery-4n1d

#addressables #ugs #ccd

Unity ECS Performance Testing

The second post in my series on automated testing with Unity.Entities, where I shared why I believe performance testing is valuable and worth adopting. I also provided examples in the post, along with a sample repo that you can use to skip setting it up yourself in your project.

https://gamedev.center/unity-ecs-performance-testing-the-way-to-the-best-performance/

Repo with the sample: https://github.com/AlexMerzlikin/UnityEntities-AutomatedTests-Sample

#ecs #dots #performance #testing

Design decisions when building games using ECS

A fine write-up about problems you would most likely face when developing an ECS game

https://arielcoppes.dev/2023/07/13/design-decisions-when-building-games-using-ecs.html

#ecs #architecture

The current version of Unity Shader Graph supports the Custom Render Texture target. It's handy to generate a dynamic cubemap.

A Unity sample project showing how to provide an animated cubemap

https://github.com/keijiro/DynamicCubemapTest

#rendertexture #cubemap

Animated Progress Bar: Coloured animated progress bar made in Unity, with Shader Graph

Repo: https://github.com/MirzaBeig/animated-progress-bar-shader-graph

Demo: https://mirzabeig.github.io/Animated-Progress-Bar-WebGL/

#progressbar #ui

Gamedev • 2 | November • 2023

We are publishing the second edition of the Gamedev compilation!

A week ago, we released the first edition within our channel community. Surprisingly, many enthusiasts reached out to participate. And now – one link and a compilation of 10 channels are again in a separate folder for you!

Gamedev • 2

Every week, 10 channels about gamedev
➕ In several channels from our community
➕ In all channels from the weekly compilation

Disclaimer: all other channels are in russian language, you can try to use a built-in Telegram translator feature to check them out.

The current compilation includes
MD/LD
Celestial Beasts
Про гейм-дизайн за 5 минут
Everyday Unity
Лев Дизайнит
Кодзима Гений - канал про геймдизайн
Лавка Разработчика
lediiana
Креативный Анатолий
KSI Games × О геймдеве

__

How to get featured in the compilation?
Fill out the form

We'll check relevance to the theme and audience presence
Make a post with the weekly compilation

We'll reach out to you before publication
Share if you find this helpful!

UI Toolkit: New and updated demos for programmers and artists

I’ve seen some Entities samples by Unity Technologies that use UI toolkit for in-game UI and not just for editor tools. It was interesting to play around a bit, but I have no real experience working with it in production yet. If anyone has used UI toolkit for in-game UI in production, I would be happy to hear about your feedback in the comments.

https://blog.unity.com/engine-platform/new-ui-toolkit-demos-for-programmers-artists

Quiz sample: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/tutorial-projects/quizu-a-ui-toolkit-sample-268492

Dragon Crashes sample: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/tutorial-projects/ui-toolkit-sample-dragon-crashers-231178

Video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XtQist-I3Xo

#uitoolkit

Web runtime updates are here: Take your browser to the next level

A lot of new features for web builds: compute shaders, GPU skinning, SIMD, better exception handling and more

https://blog.unity.com/engine-platform/web-runtime-updates-enhance-browser-experience

#webgpu #web

PrimeTween

High-performance, allocation-free tween library for Unity. Create animations, delays, and sequences in one line of code. A lot faster than other tween libs according to author's benchmarks. It would be interesting to see comparison to Magic Tween too in the same benchmarks, because Magic Tween is claimed to be even faster than PrimeTween

https://github.com/KyryloKuzyk/PrimeTween

Performance comparison: https://github.com/KyryloKuzyk/PrimeTween/discussions/10

#tween

Soft Mask: a plugin that brings alpha-friendly masking to UI

It works almost like the standard Unity's mask, but supports alpha, which enables gradual and semi-transparent masks.

Repo: https://github.com/olegknyazev/SoftMask

Demo: https://olegknyazev.itch.io/softmask

#ui #mask

ParrelSync is a Unity editor extension that allows users to test multiplayer gameplay without building the project by opening another Unity editor window and mirroring changes from the original project.

Gonna come in handy especially given the new template release: small scale competitive multiplayer.

https://github.com/VeriorPies/ParrelSync/

Template: https://forum.unity.com/threads/small-scale-competitive-multiplayer-template-now-released.1520044/

#netcode #editortools

Unity Case Study: Vampire Survivors

This blog post is a good starting point for developers who are interested in learning more about architecture principles for Unity games and how to analyze other projects.

https://medium.com/@simon.nordon/unity-case-study-vampire-survivors-806eed11bebb

#review

Updated 2022 LTS Best Practice Guides for optimizing games | Unity Blog

Two new books featuring optimization tips and tricks for mobile, consoles, and PC have been released. I've skimmed through both materials; all the tips have already been published in various resources. However, it's great to have them compiled in one place with navigation via the contents page. I highly recommend bookmarking these books.

https://blog.unity.com/engine-platform/updated-2022-lts-best-practice-guides

#optimization #book

Managed memory reservation in Unity

Control heap growth in Unity using heap growth divisor to reserve memory before it is needed. The author provides a better way to do it compared to a large array allocation on the app start.

https://vbor.blog/posts/heap-realloc/

#memory #gc

Intro to Shader Graph in Unity 2022 (Your first graph, Textures & UVs, Transparency and Alpha)

For a long time, I was quite skeptical of Shader Graph due to the suboptimal performance of generated shaders. Consequently, I focused on learning HLSL. However, given the abundance of learning resources on Shader Graph, I decided to use it in my prototypes. It allows for the quick and easy addition of test shaders for my VFX. Now, I can confidently recommend trying it to save time during prototyping, especially if you are not highly proficient in HLSL. And as always, don't believe anyone about performance, profile yourself your particular game. Probably shader graph would be ok for you even in production.

https://danielilett.com/2023-09-26-tut7-3-intro-to-shader-graph/

https://danielilett.com/2023-12-04-tut7-4-intro-to-shader-graph-part-2/

https://danielilett.com/2023-12-11-tut7-5-intro-to-shader-graph-part-3/

#shadergraph