Everyday Unity

Technical Interview Preparation

A notebook by a seasoned game developer with questions that are usually asked at technical interviews.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1GEy-tPO048rsg4XNS_f-jiHZWYlH6gXAUJ_v7PoUynA/

#interview

Compute Shaders in Unity: Processing transforms with GPU

The title is a bit misleading, it's about how to pass data to a compute shader, modify, and then return back to a C# script. Transforms are still processed on the main thread. But it's still a decent example how to use compute shaders.

https://www.artstation.com/blogs/degged/KOre/compute-shaders-in-unity-processing-transforms-with-gpu

#compute #shader

Ocean waves simulation with Fast Fourier transform

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kGEqaX4Y4bQ

Repo: https://github.com/gasgiant/FFT-Ocean

#fft #water

How to Design Levels With the "Super Mario World Method"

This article explores how challenges evolve and expand in platformers, using Super Mario as an example.

https://gamedevelopment.tutsplus.com/how-to-design-levels-with-the-super-mario-world-method--cms-25177a

#leveldesign #gamedesign

Improving Burst Inspector search performance

Another example how standard methods might be a lot slower due to various reasons, for instance safety checks. And how own implementation may leverage some assumptions to provide performance gains.
But as usual, always profile.

https://blog.unity.com/engine-platform/improving-burst-inspector-search-performance

#optimization

Unity3D - Personal Notebook: A notebook filled with a variety of Unity-related content by a seasoned game developer.

It is especially helpful for new developers as it provides the following:
- A list of existing assets that the author typically includes in their projects.
- UI tips: Although Unity's documentation has greatly improved in terms of UI and its optimizations, this notebook can still serve as a handy cheat sheet to refresh your knowledge.
- The building process and how to troubleshoot potential issues.
- Optimization tips
- Editor tips and tricks
and many more

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1-EFSFLf8bJTZq60kwLzHBOTnb9nv6_Oelu5ho6J_-uI/edit#heading=h.qolyg3va2zkn

#book #tips

Simple 2D Character Controller

A good starting point for implementation of your own kinematic 2D character controller.

https://roystan.net/articles/character-controller-2d/

Repo: https://github.com/IronWarrior/2DCharacterControllerTutorial

#character #kinematic

project-curator: A convenient tool to help cleaning and maintaining Unity Projects 🧹✨

Project Curator is an Unity Editor window that, based on the currently selected Asset, displays the following information: Each asset it depends on (called dependencies). Each asset that depends on it (called referencers) Very useful to know if an Asset is can be safely deleted or not.
Whether the asset is included in the build or not, depending on the nature of the Asset and its referencers (checked recursively)

https://github.com/ogxd/project-curator

#editortool

How to create a Space Portal with HLSL in Unity

https://www.jettelly.com/blog/how-to-create-a-space-portal-with-hlsl-in-unity/

#shader #portal

Using StringBuilder To Replace Values

We commonly think of StringBuilder as a class to build up new string values, but it could also be used to alter an existing string efficiently.
Author's benchmarks show significantly less allocations. The StringBuilder implementation allocates about 20% of what the String implementation does.

https://khalidabuhakmeh.com/using-stringbuilder-to-replace-values

#string #performance

Metroidvania: Open source metroidvania game.

It is an open source unity project with the goal of demonstrating how a complete game structures asset folders, connects systems, handles editor tools and much more.

Recently I've started to play around with my own pet project that contains platformer elements. So I skimmed through a bunch of samples and this one seems pretty decent to look at and see how particular stuff might be implemented.

https://github.com/kennedyvnak/unity-metroidvania

#platformer #metroidvania #sample

NativeMessenger: This is system-wide native messenger for Unity Entities. It provides an efficient way to trigger systems on demand without involving entities data or any structural changes.

https://github.com/bustedbunny/NativeMessenger/

#ecs #entities

A multi-threaded GOAP (Goal Oriented Action Planning) system for Unity.

https://github.com/crashkonijn/GOAP

#goap #ai

Grass System (BIRP & URP)

Provides a tool to paint grass on the terrain, culling system, terrain blending, and interaction with objects.

https://www.patreon.com/posts/83683483

#grass #urp #editortool

Unity Serialization System

The author has been digging into Unity's serialization system for a few years and created kind of a cheat sheet with everything related to the Unity serialization system: how to serialize private fields and properties in Unity, plus techniques with ScriptableObjects serialization and other common problems related to the Unity Serialization System

https://blog.gladiogames.com/all-posts/unity-serialization-system

#serialization

Happy Harvest demo: See the latest 2D techniques | Unity Blog

It incorporates best practices any 2D creator can use, including not baking shadows into a sprite, keeping sprites flat, moving shadow and volume information to secondary textures, advanced Tilemap features, a day-to-night cycle, 2D animation and IK, VFX graph for 2D effects.

https://blog.unity.com/games/happy-harvest-demo-latest-2d-techniques

Sample: https://assetstore.unity.com/packages/essentials/tutorial-projects/happy-harvest-2d-sample-project-259218

#urp #2d #sample

Weighted Random Sample

The implementation of this technique allows for the random selection of items with varying probabilities based on their assigned weights, e.g. loot boxes, or skill selection system similar to Vampire Survivors, where you have more chances to receive upgrade for an already obtained skill rather than a new random one.

https://gist.github.com/Nox7atra/3611b5dc0ccd45906010987b694bd43a

#weighted #random

Chunk Iteration in Entities 1.0

The author doesn't mention clearly when to use chunk iteration so here's a little note on this:
Iterating with IJobChunk requires more code setup than using IJobEntity (which generates an IJobChunk under the hood). To automatically benefit from any future source-generation improvements, most jobs that perform a single iteration over a chunk's entities should prefer IJobEntity (optionally implementing the IJobEntityChunkBeginEnd interface as well, for any custom chunk-level operations before and after the core entity iteration loop).
Some examples of use cases which require IJobChunk:
- jobs which do not iterate over each chunk's entities at all (e.g. gathering per-chunk statistics)
- jobs which perform multiple iterations over a chunk's entities, or which iterate in a unusual order

https://coffeebraingames.wordpress.com/2023/06/25/chunk-iteration-in-entities-1-0/

#dots #chunk #ecs

Open Source Kinematic Character Controller for Unity

There are also links in the description with videos about kinematic controllers, which might be useful to check before implementing your own solution.
Code is also pretty well organized.

https://github.com/nicholas-maltbie/OpenKCC

#kinematic #character

Building Roads Procedurally Using Unity's Spline Package

Shows how to create intersections, add UV and decals with additional details.

https://youtu.be/ZiHH_BvjoGk

#spline #road #decals