Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials

Game development with C# and Javascript

Will Goldstone

• Publisher: Packt Publishing
• Year: 2011
• ISBN:
  9781849691444
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Computer Science
• Subtopic: Programming in C#
• Index: Computer Science

In Detail

Game Engines such as Unity are the power-tools behind the games we know and love. Unity is one of the most widely-used and best loved packages for game development and is used by everyone, from hobbyists to large studios, to create games and interactive experiences for the web, desktop, mobile, and console. With Unity's intuitive, easy to learn toolset and this book - it's never been easier to become a game developer.

Taking a practical approach, this book will introduce you to the concepts of developing 3D games, before getting to grips with development in Unity itself - prototyping a simple scenario, and then creating a larger game. From creating 3D worlds to scripting and creating game mechanics you will learn everything you'll need to get started with game development.

This book is designed to cover a set of easy-to-follow examples, which culminate in the production of a First Person 3D game, complete with an interactive island environment. All of the concepts taught in this book are applicable to other types of game, however, by introducing common concepts of game and 3D production, you'll explore Unity to make a character interact with the game world, and build puzzles for the player to solve, in order to complete the game. At the end of the book, you will have a fully working 3D game and all the skills required to extend the game further, giving your end-user, the player, the best experience possible. Soon you will be creating your own 3D games with ease!

Approach

This book follows an informal, demystifying approach to the world of game development with the Unity game engine. With no prior knowledge of game development or 3D required, you will learn from scratch, taking each concept at a time working up to a full 3D mini-game. You'll learn scripting with C# or JavaScript and master the Unity development environment with easy-to-follow stepwise tasks.

Who this book is for

If you're a designer or animator who wishes to take their first steps into game development or prototyping, or if you've simply spent many hours sitting in front of video games, with ideas bubbling away in the back of your mind, Unity and this book should be your starting point. No prior knowledge of game production is required, inviting you to simply bring with you a passion for making great games.

Unity 3.xGame Development Essentials

Game development with C# and Javascript

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Table of Contents

Unity 3.x Game Development Essentials

Credits

Foreword

About the Author

About the Reviewers

www.PacktPub.com

Support files, eBooks, discount offers and more

Why Subscribe?

Free Access for Packt account holders

Preface

What this book covers

What you need for this book

Who this book is for

Getting help with the book and updates

Conventions

Reader feedback

Customer support

Downloading the book asset bundle

Downloading the color images of this book

Errata

Piracy

Questions

1. Enter the Third Dimension

Getting to grips with 3D

Coordinates

Local space versus world space

Vectors

Cameras

Projection mode—3D versus 2D

Polygons, edges, vertices, and meshes

Materials, textures, and shaders

Rigidbody physics

Collision detection

Essential Unity concepts

The Unity way—an example

Assets

Scenes

GameObjects

Components

Scripts

Prefabs

The interface

The Scene view and Hierarchy

Control tools

Flythrough Scene navigation

Control bar

Search box

Create button

The Inspector

The Project window

The Game view

Summary

2. Prototyping and Scripting Basics

Your first Unity project

A basic prototyping environment

Setting the scene

Adding simple lighting

Another brick in the wall

Building the master brick

And snap!—It's a row

Grouping and duplicating with empty objects

Build it up, knock it down!

Setting the viewpoint

Introducing scripting

A new behaviour script or 'class'

What's inside a new C# behaviour

Basic functions

Variables in C#

What's inside a new Javascript behaviour

Variables in Javascript

Comments

Wall attack

Declaring public variables

Assigning scripts to objects

Moving the camera

Local, private, and public variables

Local variables and receiving input

Understanding Translate

Implementing Translate

Testing the game so far

Making a projectile

Creating the projectile prefab

Creating and applying a material

Adding physics with a Rigidbody

Storing with prefabs

Firing the projectile

Using Instantiate() to spawn objects

Adding a force to the Rigidbody

Summary

3. Creating the Environment

Designing the game

Using the terrain editor

Terrain menu features

Importing and exporting heightmaps

Setting the resolution

Mass place trees

Flatten Heightmap

Refresh tree and detail prototypes

The terrain toolset

Terrain Script

Raise height

Paint height

Smooth Height

Paint Texture

Place Trees

Paint Details

Terrain Settings

Creating the island—sun, sea, and sand

Step 1—Setting up the terrain

Step 2—Creating the Island outline

Step 3—Volcano!

Step 4—Adding textures

Painting procedure

Sandy areas

Grass & Rock

Volcanoes rock!

Step 5—Tree time

Step 6—The grass is always greener

Step 7—Let there be lights!

Creating sunlight

Step 8—What's that sound?

Sounds—2D versus 3D

Audio file formats

The hills are alive!

Importing the book's asset package

Further audio settings

Step 9—Look, there! Up in the skybox!

Step 10—Open water

Step 11—Going walkabout

Step 12—Final tweaks

Summary

4. Player Characters and Further Scripting

Working with the Inspector

Tags

Layers

Prefabs and the Inspector

Anatomy of a character

Deconstructing the First Person Controller object

Parent-child issues

First Person Controller object

Object 1: First Person Controller (parent)

Transform

Character Controller

Mouse Look (Script)

Character Motor (Script)

FPSInput Controller (Script)

Object 2: Graphics (child)

Mesh filter

Mesh Renderer

Object 3: Main Camera (child)

Camera

GUILayer and Flare Layer

Mouse Look (Script)

Audio listener

Further scripting

Commands

Variables

Variable data types

Using variables

Public versus private variables

Declaring public and private variables

Full example

Functions

Update()

OnMouseDown()

Writing custom functions

Return type

Arguments

Declaring a custom function

Calling a custom function

If else statements

C#:

Multiple conditions

For loops

Inter-script communication and Dot Syntax

Accessing other objects

Find() and FindWithTag()

SendMessage

GetComponent

Programming for Mobile

Dot Syntax

Comments

Further reading

Scripting for character movement

Deconstructing the script

Full script (Javascript)

Variable declaration

Storing movement information

Moving the character

Checking grounded

@Script commands

Summary

5. Interactions

External modeling applications

Common settings for models

Meshes

Normals and Tangents

Materials

Animations

Animation Compression

Setting up the outpost model

Adding the outpost

Positioning

Rotation

Adding colliders

Adding the Rigidbody

Adding audio

Disabling automatic animation

Collisions and triggers

Ray casting

The frame miss

Predictive collision detection

Opening the outpost

Approach 1—Collision detection

Creating new assets

Scripting for character collision detection

Working with OnControllerColliderHit

OpenDoor() custom function

Declaring the function

Checking door status

Playing audio

Testing the script

Extending colliders

Playing animation

Reversing the procedure

Code maintainability

Drawbacks of collision detection

Approach 2—Ray casting

Disabling collision detection with comments

Migrating code—writing a DoorManag...