Issue #182 - Performance Tuning and What's New

This article was originally published on GameDevDigest.com

Performance tuning, marketing, AI, and lots more. Enjoy!

Unity Performance Tuning Bible - This book is a comprehensive guide to optimizing performance in Unity. The e-book is available for download as a PDF.
CyberAgentGameEntertainment

Analyzing your application’s physical memory footprint using Memory Profiler - Soon, we will be releasing Memory Profiler 1.1 (an experimental version is available now), which includes updated labels and descriptions to explain how memory works and how application memory footprint is calculated. Since memory footprint continues to be a hot topic in our conversations with developers, I’m here to answer your frequently asked questions.
Unity

See what’s new with Cinemachine 3 - We are constantly iterating to improve its functionality, and we also receive helpful feedback from our users with requests for updates. All of which has led to our latest release: Cinemachine 3.
Unity

Will Your Games Be Marketed By Chat-gpt - So I signed up for the $20 version of Chat-GPT 4 and I asked it to help me figure out what game to make and then how to market it. At each stage of the process I will evaluate how accurate the information with a letter grade.
howtomarketagame.com

The Quest to Enhance Design in Video Games - Viktoriya Kozyreva discussed the challenges that UI/UX designers face in creating games, detailed solutions that designers are using to overcome these challenges, and spoke about the importance of cross-device consistency and cultural adaptation.
80.lv

Procedural 3D mesh generation in a 64kB intro - We’ll see how with a few well chosen techniques, it is possible to create a variety of shapes, or make a viewer believe we did.
ctrl-alt-test.fr

Videos

Recreating The Pathless' Gameplay | Mix and Jam - This project was my opportunity to study why the Gameplay of the Pathless feels so good! Hope you enjoy the video that shows my journey to explore game dev techniques to try and achieve a similar gameplay!
Mix and Jam

Unity Rendering Benchmark: Improving Performance & Framerate - Let's discover the true potential of Unity by pushing its limits. In this video, we'll explore a variety of techniques, from straightforward tweaks like data-oriented design, to more advanced methods such as direct GPU rendering and compute shaders. Join us as we uncover the power and flexibility that Unity has to offer!
Tarodev

Placing Objects - Grid Placement System in Unity P3 - In this Unity tutorial we will place objects on our grid. At the end of this tutorial you will have a grid placement system that you can use in your own project.
Sunny Valley Studio

Render Shadows in AR in Unity with URP - Shadows can add a lot to AR experiences!
Dev Dunk

Create Parallax Fog and Dust Particles | Unity Tutorial - In this 2D Unity tutorial, I'll show you how to create some simple (but really nice looking) dust particles, as well as a shader to create some rolling fog to really help bring some mood to our environment.
Sasquatch B Studios

Moebius-style 3D Rendering | Useless Game Dev - It’s shading time. Watch me try to make a shader that renders real-time 3D in the hand drawn style of Moebius. There be crosshatch, outlines, sobel filters, we’re in for a bumpy ride.
Useless Game Dev

Unity roadmap for 2023 | Unity at GDC 2023 - Learn what’s new and upcoming in Unity’s 2022 LTS and 2023 Tech Stream, including all the latest on graphics, multiplayer games, and the Entity Component System (ECS). Discover how Unity lets you leverage the latest platform features across mobile, desktop/web, and XR. See how you can leverage the power of Unity’s DevOps and Wētā Tools (Ziva, Speedtree) through the Editor.
Unity

The FUTURE of Unity - Roadmap GDC 2023 (DOTS, Multiplayer, Rendering, AI) - I just got back from GDC (thanks Unity for flying me over there!) and here's my recap of everything that I saw, mainly the Roadmap talk that goes over what is happening with Unity 22LTS and beyond.
Code Monkey

I Tried Sorting Pixels - Pixel sorting has been a niche data moshing technique in the generative art community for many years, but an efficient real time pixel sorting shader for games has never been made for a few reasons. Can I solve the puzzle and invent one?
Acerola

Assets

50% off Michael Kremmel - Publisher Sale - Get 50% off Michael Kremmel assets – now until April 6.

PLUS: Get MK Toon - Stylized Shader for FREE with code MKTOON (no purchase necessary)

Michael Kremmel's other assets include MK Glow - Bloom & Lens & Glare, and MK Glass - Refractive Glass Shader.
Unity Affiliate

Behaviour Tree Editor - Behaviour Tree Editor for Unity built with UIToolkit
thekiwicoder0 Open Source

UnitySSPathTracingURP - Screen Space Path Tracing for Unity's URP (Universal Render Pipeline).
jiaozi158 Open Source

Lucid Audio - Lucid Audio is a library that handles audio playback in Unity. You can easily describe how to play and stop sounds, set callbacks, etc. using method chaining.
AnnulusGames Open Source

Epic Royalty-Free Music Collection - Score your next project with this epic collection of tracks. Take a sonic journey through action, intrigue, drama, uplifting emotion, and more with this colossal collection of royalty-free music from composer Joel Steudler! These compilation sets have never been offered before, and many include newly remastered deep cuts from Joel's extensive catalog. Media producers of all sorts will find a bountiful bonanza suitable for film, video, podcasts, streaming, or games. Plus, your purchase will support JDRF in their mission to find a cure for type 1 diabetes!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

The Best Royalty-Free Music Collection - I am thrilled to present to you my biggest collection of original royalty free music for your next game. This collection features multiple albums of genre-specific royalty-free music that I have personally composed and produced, and that are all cleared for use in your next project. [Also read the Reddit thread]
Josh Bakaimis

Generative Speech Playground - Welcome to PlayHT's voice playground, a place where the power of speech is harnessed like never before. This is no ordinary realm, for it is inhabited by a new breed of technology - a transformer-based text-to-speech model trained on a staggering amount of audio.
playground.play.ht

A Universe ofAnnotated 3D Objects - Objaverse is a Massive Dataset with 800K+ Annotated 3D Objects
objaverse.allenai.org

mvvmtoolkit - Model-View-ViewModel Toolkit for Unity UIToolkit.
mvvmtoolkit Open Source

unity-camera-and-input - A collection of camera controller and input wrapper scripts
It has InputManager which is wrapper for mobile's on-screen joysticks to make it able to write the same input codes for mobile games and PC (or Mac or Linux).
insthync Open Source

Unity Build System - Provide an Editor Extension which allows adding multiple build targets and batch building all, one or a subset of these targets.
kwnetzwelt Open Source

LiteEntitySystem - Pure C# HighLevel API for multiplayer games using .NET Standard 2.1
RevenantX Open Source

Tween Playables - Tween Animation Library for Unity Timeline
AnnulusGames Open Source

BlenderGPT - This addon allows you to use Blender with natural language commands using OpenAI's GPT-3.5/GPT-4
gd3kr Open Source

Unity Core ML Stable Diffusion Plugin - Stable Diffusion plugin for Unity, based on Apple's Core ML port. You can run the model on-editor and at-runtime without needing any extra components.
keijiro Open Source

The Maps Bonanza Encore - Chart a course for a mapmaker’s dream. Our popular fantasy map bundle returns! Prepare your adventurers to explore vast dungeons, vibrant cities, and expansive worlds with this collection of maps and mapmaking resources. Get creative with Campaign Cartographer 3+ (1-year or lifetime license), Fractal Terrains 3, and sci-fi focused Cosmographer 3, and discover a treasure trove of pre-made maps to add exciting new destinations to your virtual tabletop games. Plus, your purchase will support Cool Effect and Oceana!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Auto Toggle Creator - A Unity Editor tool to automatically setup the lengthy process of making animations, setitng up a controller, and filling out the vrchat expression assets. While this is made with VRChat in mind, that is only the tail end of the script and can be used for a variety of tasks related to generating animations and configuring animators.
CascadianWorks Open Source

Unity Texture Ops Plugin - This plugin helps you save/load textures and perform simple operations on them, like scale and slice. It also contains an example sliding puzzle project to demonstrate the slice operation.
yasirkula Open Source

Unity Native Camera Plugin - This plugin helps you take pictures/record videos natively with your device's camera on Android and iOS. It has built-in support for runtime permissions, as well.
yasirkula Open Source

Game Design and AI Booke Bundle - Explore the world of game design.
Discover insights from pro game designers, AI experts, and more in this book bundle from Taylor & Francis. Featuring books from the Game AI Pro series (edited by industry veteran Steve Rabin), in-depth breakdowns of video game classics, and tomes full of development advice, this library is an essential addition to any gaming and AI enthusiast’s digital bookshelf.
Plus, your purchase helps support the charity of your choice!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

King Of Content Creator Bundle - Become a pro video & audio creation powerhouse. Unleash the power of pro-quality audio and video with this incredible content creators’ bundle! Tap into the renowned video editing tools of the fast, powerful Vegas Pro Edit 18. Record, arrange, mix, and master your audio with Samplitude Pro X5. Get Music Maker Plus 2021, SOUND FORGE Audio Studio 15, and soundpools full of loops and samples. Treat your creative passion with the quality and polish it deserves, and help support Malala Fund with your purchase!
Humble Bundle Affiliate

Spotlight

Blue June - Blue June is a 2.5D story-driven adventure game with elements of exploration, puzzle solving, stealth and horror. Play as June, a student of the prestigious Rose Hill Academy, and uncover the truth that lies within her mind.

[You can get the demo on Steam, follow them on Twitter, and visit their website]
Tiny Dodo

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