The document provides instructions for getting started with Unity, including how to create a new project, navigate the Unity interface, add basic game objects like a plane and camera to the scene, add textures, lighting, animations, and prefabs. It also discusses topics like materials, models, code and performance optimization, version control, and using the terrain editor.

1. Game Project
Unity
Petri Lankoski
aalto.fi

2. Getting Started
• Creating a new project
– Select File -> New Project
• Write the project name
• Select (at least) the following Packages to the project
– Character Controller
– Scripts
– Terrain Assets
• Click Create Project
Getting Started with Unity

3. Anatomy of the Unity Project
Getting Started with Unity

4. Navigating in Unity
Getting Started with Unity
Hand tool (shortcut: Q)
- click-drag to move camera
- ALT click-drag to orbit camera
around
- CTR click-drag to zoom
Move tool (shortcut: W)
Rotate tool (shortcut: E)
Scale tool (shortcut: R)
On scene view:
• F to zoom to selected object
• Hold right mouse to enable
• ASWD movement
• Q up, E down
Play Mode

5. Anatomy of the Unity Project
Getting Started with Unity

6. Working with the Scene
• Add in-build plane
– Game Objects -> Create Other
-> Plane
– Set Position <0,0,0>
– Set Scale to <10,10,10>
• Delete Main Camera
Getting Started with Unity

7. Making Movable Camera
• Hierarchy: select Main Camera
• Project: Open Standard Assets / Prefabs
• Drag First Person Controller to Hierarchy
• Set Position to <0,2,0> if the First Person Controller
drops thought the Plane
• (Save Scene: File->Save Scene)
Getting Started with Unity

8. Making Movable Camera
Getting Started with Unity

9. Adding Details
• Finder: Drop PlaneTexture.psd to
Assets Folder
• Adding Details to Plane
– Hierarchy -> Popup Menu -> Create ->
Material
– Rename it to PlaneMaterial
– Drop the PlaneTexture to the
PlaneMaterial
– Drop the PlaneMaterial to the Plane
– Try Transparent/Diffuse shader
• Texture should have transparency
Getting Started with Unity
Shader Texture

10. Adding Details
• Light: Game Object ->
Create Other -> Directional
Light
– Move and rotate the light in
Scene view or in Inspector
• Add cylinder on the plain;
add material and texture to
the cube
Getting Started with Unity
RotateMove
Drag with
mouse

11. Adding Sounds
• Finder: drop a sound file to Assets folder
• Add an Game Object to Scene
• Drag and Drop the sound file to the Game Object
– Rolloff factor determines how fast sound fades when distance
grows
Getting Started with Unity

12. Adding Animated Model
• Finder: Drop the model (e.g., Abby.fbx) to Assets folder
• Drag and Drop the model to Scene (or Hierarchy)
– Set Position <8,1.1,0)
Getting Started with Unity

13. Test the Model
Getting Started with Unity

14. Setting Up Bone Animations
• The Model Abby has different
animations:
– Idle: 1-200
– Idle: 201-390
– Idle Action: 391-660
– Walk: 819-898
– Etc.
• We need to split animations to use
them in Unity
Getting Started with Unity

15. Creating Prefab
• Create a New Scene
– File -> New Scene
• Add Plane and scale it bigger (x & z)
• Rename “Abby” to “Abby Model” (project view)
• Create Abby prefab
– Project Popup -> Create -> Prefab
– Rename “New Prefab” to “Abby”
– Drag-and-drop Abby Model to Abby
Getting Started with Unity

16. Creating Prefab
• Adding control scripts to Abby
– Drag-and-drop ThirdPersonController to Abby
– Change values of CharacterController of Abby
• Height: 1.7
• Radius: 0.3
– Add animations to the scripts
• Add SmootFollow to Main Camera
• Drag-and-drop Abby to Scene view
– Make her stand on the plain
• Drag-and-drop Abby to Main
Camera/SmoothFollow/Target
Getting Started with Unity

17. • xx
Getting Started with Unity

18. • xx
Getting Started with Unity

19. Adding New Animation Control
• Create new C# script AbbyAnim
• Attach the script to Abby (on Scene view)
• Add idle action animation clip to the Abby/AbbyAnim
• Apply changes to prefab
Getting Started with Unity
More about character animation,
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Character-Animation.html

20. public class AbbyAnim : MonoBehaviour {
private Animation _animation;
public AnimationClip action;
void Awake() {
_animation = GetComponent(typeof(Animation)) as Animation;
if (! _animation) { Debug.LogError(“…”); }
if (! action) { Debug.LogError(“…”); return;}
_animation[action.name].wrapMode = WrapMode.Once;
}
…
Getting Started with Unity

21. …
void Update() {
if(Input.GetKey(“z”) {
_animation.Play(action.name);
}
}
}
Getting Started with Unity

22. Mono Behavior
• Can be attached to game objects
• Unity Calls MonoBehavior
• Initialization
– Awake(): called for every MonoBbehavior
– Start(): called for every MonoBehaviour after all the Awake()s
• Game Loop calls
– Update(): called in every frame, most things happens here
– LateUpdate(): called after every Update()s are exceted. Use for, e.g., follow
camera
– FixedUpdate(): use for physics thing, e.g., RagDoll handling
– OnGUI(), for GUI drawing, can be called several times in each frame
• Other useful things: Invoke(), InvokeRepeating(), StartCouroutine()
Getting Started with Unity

23. User Interface
public class ExampleGUI : MonoBehaviour {
public GUISkin gSkin;
public string infoText = "”;
private bool showThingies;
void Start() {
if(gSkin==null) { Debug.LogError(“ gSkin is not set”); }
showThingies = false;
}
}
Getting Started with Unity

24. User Interface…
void OnGUI() {
GUI.skin = gSkin; // Seting skin for changins how GUI looks in inspector
GUI.matrix = Matrix4x4.TRS(Vector3.zero, Quaternion.identity,
new Vector3(Screen.width / 1280.0f, Screen.height / 854.0f, 1));
GUILayout.BeginArea (new Rect (1100, 750, 100, 100));
if(showThingies) {
if(GUILayout.Button ("Hide")) { showThingies = !showThingies; }
}
else {
if(GUILayout.Button ("Show")) { showThingies = !showThingies; }
}
GUILayout.EndArea ();
if(showThingies) {
GUI.Label(new Rect (600, 400, 200, 200), infoText, "blackBG");
}
Getting Started with Unity

25. User Interface
• Create a game object for
attaching GUI script
– Game Object->Create Empty
– Rename the new object to, e.g.,
GUI Cube
• Drag-and-drop ExampleGUI
script to GUI Cube
• Create GUI Skin
– Project -> popup -> GUI Skin
– Drag and drop the skin to
ExampleGUI : GSkin
Getting Started with Unity

26. User Interface
• Experiment with GUI Skin settings
– Play to see how the settings changes GUI
Getting Started with Unity

27. Models and Animations
• Characters
– 15-60 bones
• Hierarchy!
• Consistent naming (the same names for same type of things)
– 2500-5000 triangles
• Textures
– Optimal size: 2nx2m (1x1, 2x2, …, 128x256, … 256x256, …,
256x1024, …, 1024x1024,)
• In some cases SoftImage does texture optimizing
– Optimal size: small as possible
• Older cards do not support over 1024x1024
Getting Started with Unity

28. Material – Shader – Texture
• Material defines
– Shader
• Defines method to render an object, texture properties, etc.
– Texture(s)
– Color definitions
– Other assets
• E.g., cubemap required for rendering
Getting Started with Unity

29. Models and Animations
• Object needs to be
drawn for every of its
texture
– Object with 4 textures
will be draw 4 times
– Combine textures in
SoftImage
– Use different textures
only if you, e.g., need
different shaders
• Unity and SoftImage
have different shaders
• Use simplest possible
shader in Unity
– Opt for shaders without
bumbs, transparencies
unless you use these
Getting Started with Unity

30. Code Optimizing
• Keep Update(), FixedUpdate(), LateUpdate(), OnGUI() clean
• Avoid object lookups, e.g., GameObject.Find() calls within these
– Cache lookup results when possible
• Use MonoBehaviour.enabled to disable/enable MonoBehavior if
you do not want to execute Update(), …
– MonoBehaviour.Invoke(), MonoBehaviour.InvokeRepeating()
and Couroutines are alternative to Update()
• Functionality is not needed to execute in every frame
– E.g., use InvokeRepeating() to execute of function for every 0.5s
– Do not add empty Update(), FixedUpdate(), LateUpdate(), OnGUI()
• Call overhead!
Getting Started with Unity

31. Version Control
• External version control with Pro
– Needs to be enabled from Edit->Project Settings->Editor
– Set up the system:
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/ExternalVersionControlSyste
mSupport.html
– CVS, Perforce, Subversion, …
• Binary files, (textures, models, sounds) do not work work well with these
– Unity Pro project will be incompatible with Unity
• DropBox as version control
– Drop the project folder to a DropBox folder to check in a version and vice versa
– CVS, Perforce, Subversion for version control for scripts
– Unity and Unity Pro projects will be compable
• Unity Pro only features will be automatically disabled in Unity
• Regular backup (e.g., zip the project folder)
– Archive backups to have snapshop of the project to rollback
Getting Started with Unity

32. Terrain Editor
• Terrain->Create
Terrain
Getting Started with Unity
More about Terrain Editor,
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Terrains.html

33. Terrain Editor…
Getting Started with Unity

34. Terrain Editor…
Getting Started with Unity

35. Terrain Editor…
Getting Started with Unity

36. Terrain Editor…
Getting Started with Unity

37. Terrain Editor…
Getting Started with Unity

38. More Information
• Unity manual
– http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/
• Unity scripting reference
– http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/ScriptReference/
• Unity Scripts and Tips Wiki
– http://www.unifycommunity.com/wiki/
• Unity Tutorials
– http://unity3d.com/support/resources/tutorials/
• Lies and Seductions source code
– http://mlab.taik.fi/~plankosk/blog/?p=308
Getting Started with Unity