SVN
- access from the Filmschool: [https://unity/svn/]
- access from outside: [https://unity.filmskolen.dk/svn/]
Note: you have to accept the self-signed SSL certificate, but you trust me, right? ;)
File names
Never, ever use any non-English alphabet characters like 'ø' or 'å' in file names. Avoid using spaces as well.
Never, ever use the word 'new' as part of any filename. I'm serious about this one. 'final', 'last' and any variations are also prohibited.
Regarding version control and file names: if you're creating a new version of GrassTexture.png and you think the older version of GrassTexture.png from last Monday is crappy, overwrite the old file with the new file - SVN will always remember all the previous versions, in case you changed your mind. Do not give them file names like GrassTexture_ver2.png, because it creates a total mess and no one will be able to figure out, which version you thought should be the final. (exception: if you created five versions of a grass texture and want to see all five of them in the game before you decide on which is the good one, you can call them GrassTexture_ver1.png, GrassTexture_ver2.png, … but remember to delete them later on and have the definitive version called GrassTexture.png)
Models and textures
All textures (exluding those for GUI/HUD) have two be square and power-of-two-sized, so 128x128, 256x256, 512x512, etc..
Transparency as alpha channel in .png files works fine.
Models should be rotated in vertex edit mode to have positive Y as 'up' direction (this one is not crucial, but helpful). You can later rotate them back to whatever you choose in object rotation mode, since only the information from the vertex edit mode is imported into Unity.
For level geometry: creating a lot of small meshes to create a room is not so good for performance, so it's better to have one mesh with 2000 tris than 20 meshes with 100 tris each. There's a little twist to it though: geometry which is not on the screen is not being drawn, but culling works better, if the stuff not being drawn is in a different mesh. Combining that rule with the previous one: you would make a room with floor and walls as one mesh, but the the corridor and the other room would be a second and a third mesh, since the player has little chance to see all those three at the same time (but he will be seeing whole room at once, thus we put the whole room in one mesh).
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=5003
- Use single Skin when possible
- Keep meshes out of the skeleton
- Check Character Definition on export. This ensures the FBIK rig will export correctly (i.e. for later usage in another program)
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=71802
- Freeze Transformations on the model and skeleton before binding… "Modify/Freeze Transformations"
- Delete History on model and skeleton before binding…"Edit/Delete by Type/History"… add a Hotkey for this function Wink
Rigging and animation
Warning: when mirroring joints use the behaviour mode!
Please read this thread I created about problems with importing Norman…
http://forum.unity3d.com/viewtopic.php?p=124880#124880
(We will have to work out specific guidelines for rigging together)
…and also those good practices about modelling/rigging in Unity:
http://unity3d.com/support/documentation/Manual/Modeling%20Optimized%20Characters.html
Audio
All sounds that are supposed to have source at a specific point in the scene have to be imported as mono. You can create them as stereo (that's gonna add me some work), but they will have to be converted to mono on import anyway. Stereo sounds, on the other hand, will be played from both channels at the same volume level, so they're good (only) for stuff like background music (and any other effects, that don't have any specific origin in space).
First animation properly imported from Maya into Unity.
600 tris, basic rig with IK for the legs
I've exported geometry from the prototype level to .obj, so that you could import it and play around with dressing it up.
Note: the mesh has a lot of duplicate vertices (each corner has three vertices instead of one), so if you want to do anything with this mesh instead of just building around it, remove duplicates first (in blender for instance this would be: edit mode -> w -> remove doubles)