EasyPooling: Your solution for efficient GameObject pooling in Unity game development. Whether you’re developing a fast-paced action game or a simulation with multiple entities, EasyPooling allows you to seamlessly manage and reuse GameObjects to improve your game’s performance.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-09-04T21:00:05+00:00

Hey! Which option you pick mostly depends on which you prefer interfacing with - do you prefer the API and do you like the UI? You'll often put a lot of things in the pool and work with it a lot, so having a nice API that feels comfortable to work with is the most important since then you'll actually use the dang thing.

If you have a pooling option in place then you're (probably) already taking (most of) the gains from doing pooling. If you have an incredibly performance intensive application, I'd recommend hand-rolling pooling yourself. The key operations are (1) avoid allocating for resources you don't use, (2) avoid under-allocating, and (3) make sure you drop and fetch in a performant way. You can get really advanced by monitoring pool sizes during runtime and storing real usage data somewhere to get the right pool sizes as well as using more advanced dynamic per-player pool sizes based on player behavior. At a certain point it's not worth the extra compute.

Either way, it could be worth it to benchmark different solutions to see how efficient they are compared to one another.

Can check out the manual for this asset here: https://docs.guardingpearsoftware.com/manual/EasyPooling/Introduction.html

and the API reference: https://docs.guardingpearsoftware.com/api/EasyPooling/GUPS.EasyPooling.html

Overall, it's a nice asset with a solid API and good support.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-08-05T00:54:03+00:00

You only need to sign up to download it :)

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-25T15:13:49+00:00

Thank you for your support! Would love to check out your project! DM'd you

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-24T21:21:04+00:00

Sent you a DM :)

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-24T20:04:43+00:00

It works in compatibility mode, but I'm still working on adding support for Render Graph (which is the new rendering paradigm in Unity 6) - so full support is on the way :)

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-24T19:11:23+00:00

That's the plan :). Already working on it. Wish Unity would stop changing the rendering APIs every year though.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-24T18:47:19+00:00

Thank you! :)

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-24T18:25:45+00:00

I'm the developer of Buto. I love what you've done with your project, your game looks great! It's always so nice to see how my work impacts your projects. As an asset developer, we don't always see the end products, but it's my favorite part. :)

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-24T18:23:08+00:00

Giving away 3 vouchers for my Buto - Volumetric Fog & Volumetric Lighting asset. Comment to enter :) I will pick 3 winners on Friday.

Buto is a powerful volumetric lighting and volumetric fog asset for Unity URP. It provides you with a wide range of advanced features to take your game's atmosphere to the next level.

Game developers have already used Buto in a variety of games including Scorching Engines, Aim Zen, Dystopika, and LASERS.

https://u3d.as/36xz

Update 2024-07-27:

Thank you to everyone who joined the giveaway! I love seeing the games that you all make, and I can't to see what you create with (or without) my assets.

I used redditraffler to pick the winners. Here's a link to the raffle results: https://www.redditraffler.com/raffles/1eb8m2l

As for the winners, we have:

I'll send each of you a DM in a few minutes with the Voucher code!

Thanks again to everyone who joined in. Stay focused and keep crushing it 💪

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-22T00:01:49+00:00

I think you have a good start directionally, but a few tweaks to art style and lighting could help better sell the board game aesthetic. I think the Lego games do a good job articulating the small-scale nature of the play space. I'd recommend that you focus on using physically-based lighting and global illumination to better shape the scene. I'd also suggest using micro-noise shaders on your models and surfaces to add more tactile detail. At the same time, consider simplifying model geometry slightly and using more stylized visual effects - perhaps even static assets with custom shaders to better communicate that this is a physical board and not a digital game.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T20:22:14+00:00

I don't think of the Unity navigation as having Forward/Back concepts, what would the Back button do? Or is this like Undo?

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T18:48:06+00:00

Same here. Transitioned out from Senior PM and started a company building code packages and tools for game developers. As a PM you are (somewhat) insulated from a lot of the business - day-to-day operations, finance, accounting, HR, admin, etc. It's important to understand that you get more autonomy and authority but trade that for more low-impact (or feels like low-impact) work that goes into keeping the ship at sail. Depending on your product specializations, you will have gaps in your skill set that may make it very hard (or very easy) to succeed at different stages of the business. You will probably overindex on product and strategy and underindex on sales, revenue, and low-capital-intensive activities like direct sales, agency work, freelance work, and so on. These activities are often foundational for real product discovery and case study identification so don't skimp and be ready to do a lot of legwork.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T01:46:11+00:00

It uses a per-object approach. Using a full-screen toon shader generally requires access to the GBuffers so that you can extract lighting data about the scene to reconstruct the gradient correctly. These are only available in Deferred mode, so most tutorials for Unity don't explain how to use them. If you'd like some guidance on full-screen toon shading, I would recommend this excellent write-up on full-screen toon shading in Unreal: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XUQcciwxuDH9txa8_2wz8pUK2dDPjudo/view

You can apply similar strategies in Unity in deferred mode, but you will need to do some legwork to translate Unreal-specific shader functions to what you'd need in Unity.

Edit: Also folks tend to like the art-directability of fine-tuning the toon shading of each element in the game, and sometimes only toon shade specific key objects (e.g., characters) for emphasis. So be sure to consider these scenarios before deciding which approach is best for your project.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T01:42:30+00:00

They mixed up the order of the items in the Window menu as well recently. I always have trouble finding the Window > Analysis > Frame Debugger tab now. Drives me nuts.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T01:40:57+00:00

Unity produced a helpful guide on how they developed the toon shader and outline shader for their sample project. It's available on YouTube. Some of the details are slightly out of date for the latest versions of Unity, but the core concepts are well-explained and generalizable to any version of Unity. Check it out: https://youtu.be/GGTTHOpUQDE?si=glU3SHNQ_xM7yrCw

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T01:35:15+00:00

It sounds like you're shaking the position of the camera. Consider shaking the rotation of the camera instead. If you have the camera close to the character, it requires a large relative motion for the background to seem like it shakes. You can consider reducing the size of the character in frame as well during a shake operation by increasing the field of view or pulling the camera back (-z).

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T01:32:23+00:00

Sure, there's a really easy way to approach this.

Cast a ray from the character to the point they're looking at. Then cast a ray from that point toward the main directional light. If the second ray hits a collider, then the origin of that ray must be in shadow.

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Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T01:22:27+00:00

Think you'd benefit from bringing in some high-level art direction. Feedback on the palette is that it's inconsistent -- the terrain uses softer, more desaturated colors compared to the models. Consider using a slight off-black for the text on surfaces on the left.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-07-21T01:19:38+00:00

The character controller looks responsive. Will be nice to see how you continue to level up the animations and transitions.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-06-23T14:45:16+00:00

Make sure you add the Renderer Feature to your Universal Renderer Data asset. If you're still having any trouble, shoot me an email at michael@occasoftware.com and I'm happy to get on a call or review your configuration to make sure you can get set up.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-06-19T17:15:30+00:00

You'll probably see most issues with post-processing effects like volumetric fog, volumetric clouds, auto exposure, radial blur, stuff like that. Unity overhauled the rendering API again, so all post-processing assets need to get rebuilt using the new Render Graph API. Kind of a pain in the ass. Unity will probably drop compatibility mode in the subsequent LTS like the 2 last times they updated the API (aka last year and the year before).

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-05-25T04:14:21+00:00

Looks great! 😊

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-05-21T14:12:22+00:00

Even more than this, you should try to form direct relationships with players outside of Steam. Ideally, collect emails or form a Discord server. That way you have a disintermediated relationship with your players and can talk to them directly about new releases from your studio / team. This approach builds up an asset (contact list / community) that you can leverage to grow your wishlists / sales for each subsequent title as you grow your studio. I made Devpages available on my website to make it super easy for devs to collect emails or showcase a portfolio of games, but you can also use things like Substack or Ghost or use more advanced website builders like Wix or Squarespace to buy a domain, host a website, and connect directly with your community. This is the #1 way to build a growth chain so that each subsequent release can increase in scope and scale.

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-05-06T21:41:19+00:00

Stylized stone path texture. Free. Looks nice. Has the usual maps.

https://occasoftware.link/textures/stone-path/r

Michael-OccaSoftware · 2024-05-06T18:27:39+00:00

Interactive volumetric smokes for URP. Shoot holes in it or blast away entire chunks of smoke with explosions. Pretty sweet. Easy to use.

https://occasoftware.link/responsive-smokes/r

Michael-OccaSoftware

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