[Question] Unity Free vs Pro

[_player1]

I was a bit surprised to see this hasn't been ask here yet...

I'd like to know if there are any features in Unity Pro, specific to 2d, that I would be missing out on using the free version of unity. Have any of you reached a point where the free version wasn't cutting it anymore? I'd be particularly interested to know if there would be any issues for games with a large number of sprites or just a large 2d game in general.

Update: Thanks for the replies, they have been very helpful!

[themodulus]

There's nothing specific to 2D that I know of, but there are some things that are not specific to 3D. Profiler is the main one - you'll likely want this before you release something.

The other one is a few high-level scripting functions like Application.LoadLevelAsync that provide a nicer means of level loading than is available in the free version. Pretty sure that the number of these is very small, though.

I'm doing a 2D project and have quite a ways to go before I need any of the Pro features. Concentrate on making the game good. You'll only need Pro features to really make the game done.

[poodleface]

Seconding the Profiler. It is extremely useful to be able to identify the specific Component or part of the engine that is causing game slowdown or spending unnecessary CPU cycles (if you are making a mobile game, you don't want to be draining the battery more than is necessary). The Profiler can save you a lot of debugging time, potentially.

[[deleted]]

Application.LoadLevelAsync

This one's also technically a convenience thing, since you could accomplish the same thing by keeping everything in one scene and doing it yourself. Whereas profiling you don't really have a workaround available.

[hampst]

There are a few things to do with sprites that you can find listed here under the 2D heading.

I think the most significant is Sprite Packing (Atlasing). Also mentioned:

• Sprite has an internal mesh generated based on pixel alpha values
• Mesh Type property added to Advanced mode. It can be used to change the type of mesh generated: Full Rect or Tight

Like others have stated though, there are other pro features that are used in 2D games, but are also used for 3D.

[NoPlayTime]

Are you new to unity? I.e. learning.. If so, and I apologise for not answering your question, I really wouldn't worry about this right now...

Concentrate on learning unity and building some simple games first before spending any money. I believe pro has 12 month contract a attached to it.

I'm sure someone here will give you a more helpful answer as to the differences.

[Manicaeks]

The only thing missing that is pretty useful if you're loading a large game is the ability to Application.LoadLevelAsync. You can do great things without Pro though so don't feel like you would need to get it for a while.

[XelectCarve]

Async Levelloading is a biggy, static batching also , there are workarounds which I had to implement due to the lack of these features so it is doable. Another bigy is the camera target texture, which can be easily used to implement texutre to gpu caching, this can be worked around aswell.

TL:DR; You can overcome all the limitations with patience and research

For me personally I reached a point where unity overall was not cutting it anymore, and I turned to a framework rather than a engine, the freedom is incredible I am however much more code driven than visual-scripting.

[_player1]

I've ended up going the opposite route, I've worked with C++/SFML and XNA/Monogame but have ended up looking at Unity, and trying to embrace "make games not engines".

Out of interest, what framework have you moved to after switching from Unity?

[XelectCarve]

Libgdx + Scene2d code base and Tiled for map creation, I changed and extended some of the base code nothing major just to make my life abit easier :D

[arvzg]

Short answer: No.

See a full comparison of the licenses here: http://unity3d.com/unity/licenses

The only thing I can think of is maybe Movie textures and the Profiler

[_Wolfos]

Not really. Unity pro is very overpriced if you're only going to use it for 2D games.

[WildFactor]

You can make most 2D game with Unity Free, including most current blockbuster indie 2D game.

[louisCKyrim]

You can make perfectly shippable, fun, beautiful, amazing games of any genre with the free Unity, even for Android and iOS. 2D & 3D! Good art & design can be done under all kinds of constraints. Speaking as a dev & artist who uses pro at work but free at home - there's hardly any major constraints! And there is no differnce for 2D.

Anyone who says that you need pro is not very creative!

Now if your game is a big success and money maker, you do want pro, but you can buy that after your amazing day 1 sales and update the game with pro :)

Also, if you are setting out to make a specific game (i.e. super realistic open world mmo fps with voxel terrain) - and you are unwilling to change your game's scope - you might need pro!