Unity3D Essentials

Course Overview

The ‘Unity 3D Essentials’ video courseware from Noesis Interactive teaches students the principal tools within Unity’s incredibly robust multiplatform game development engine.  From first launch students are guided through the use and common practices within the Unity Development Environment. Topics include a general workflow primer, asset management and organization and optimization techniques. Basic scripting and deployment is also covered while students use existing assets to assemble a fully playable game.

Course consists of three essential modules to learning the fundamentals of Unity:

Module 1 – Fundamentals (interface and mise-en-scene) - discuss exercise and then do practical example in "Lerpz Escapes" if applicable. Module consists of a breakdown and explanation of toolsets within Unity. Individual chapters detail specific tasks and tools useful or requisite to general development.

• Overview of Tool Paradigms
  • GameObject, Components, Scripts
  • Integration with 3D programs, Photoshop
  • Create New Project with Standard Assets
• Unity 3D Interface (Development Environment)
  • moving around, shortcuts, hotkeys
• Editor Customization & Layouts
  • move/save layout
• Creating Terrains
  • Terrain Engine
    • height, textures
    • trees, grass, detail mesh
    • optimizing with lightmaps
  • skybox
• Asset Import and Integration (Models, Textures, Audio)
• Prefabs
• Cameras & Lighting
  • camera component - applications and settings for different types of games
  • light types, cookies, rendering types (vector/pixel)
  • projectors
• Particle Systems
  • overview of emitter, animator, collider, renderer
• Lerpz' Jet Pack
  • use Prefabs, Lights, and Particles to make jet flames for Lerpz
• GUI 
  • Non-Interactive GUI setup

Module 2 – Gameplay and Scripting Primer
Module consists of an explanation of the scripting paradigm(s) in Unity. Individual chapters begin by breaking down basic scripts to achieve / relay basic tasks. Later chapters follow the Lerpz 3D platformer tutorial to implement and briefly explain pre-created scripts

• Overview of Scripting and State Machines
  • Adds interactivity and logic to all the assets in the game (GameObjects and their Components). Without any scripts, the objects behave according to the default rules of the Unity Engine - there will be gravity and collision applied, but nothing else will happen.
  • A State Machine is a system in which an object has a finite amount of states it can exist in. A light switch can be on or off, and we can track that and tell associated light objects to turn on or off accordingly. A player can be alive or dead, and we can track that and tell the game to respond accordingly. Scripts define these states and determine the behavior that results from objects existing in these states.
• Overview of Scripts to C++, design concepts, organization
• Basic Gameplay
  • physics and colliders
  • animation
  • audio listener
    • Discuss Node Logic in Lerpz Escapes
    • Planning
      • objective: player needs to collect 20 fuels, unlock ship, and take off in it
      • conflicts: robots and laser damages, falling off kills, fence prevents player from leaving
      • need to track: player health, lives, enemy health, damage dealt, when player has fallen off, fuels collected, whether fence is up or down, whether player is alive or dead
• Write Pickup script as example of collision and tracking level status, updating GUI
  
  • Add raycast in front of Lerpz to make Fuel collectable only when Lerpz faces it

Module 3 – Unity Optimization and Deployment
Module outlines current deployment options is specific versions of Unity.

• Optimization Techniques
  • Combine meshes
  • Vertex Lights and Baked lighting (for nonmoving objects)
  • Optimize Models: mesh and material, polygon count, hard edges, UV mapping seams
  • Texture file size: Compress on compile and set max texture size
  • Pro Only: Shadows
• Deployment Options
  • Standalone Mac & Windows
  • Web Browser
    • Web Optimization
    • Streaming Optimization
    • Embedding and Customizing Player (uses js/html)
    • Communicating w/Browser, Detecting and Installing Player (uses js/html)