Unity Software Extensions

Unity3D comes with several ready-made extensions, which provide a user-friendly environment. These core features make Unity an ideal game development engine for beginners. The Unity 3 software extensions include the following:

Terrain Toolkit

The Terrain Toolkit is a collection of powerful game making tools for its Unity Editor and is intended to provide game developers with the capabilities needed to improve and rationalize the game development workflow in as far as the creation of realistic 3D terrains for their video game development projects is concerned. This Unity 3D extension allows game developors to create realistic and sharp 3D landscapes and terrains within the game development engine and without having to rely on third party applications.

Another important advantage of this Unity3D extension is that it allows for the dynamic creation of 3D landscapes and terrains at runtime. This translates to a 3D video game that can handle an endless number of terrains and game levels with no significant effects on the file size. This nifty extension of Unity provides game developers with a work around for manual modeling and importing of terrain and landscapes of other packages with the addition of UI tool and algorithms for procedural terrain creation.

This Unity 3D toolset has three components – terrain creation, terrain texturing and terrain erosion. These components of the toolset can be accessed in the Texture, Erode and Create panels.

Explosion Framework

Detonator is the explosion framework for Unity3D. It allows game developers to create high-impact explosions for their 3D video game projects the fast and easy way. The manner by which this Unity3D extension is used by game developers largely depends on their goals and objectives. Game developers can immediately access basic explosion prototypes or integrate special effects to create more elaborate and high-impact explosion scenes.

This Unity3D extension can be easily incorporated to any GameObject at its basic level. This explosion framework allows game makers to make the necessary configuration on the detail, duration, and color of an explosion scene and integrate other important elements like shockwaves, smoke and sparks.

Locomotion System

The Locomotion System is the extension of Unity3D that allows for a more realistic walking and running of characters in 3D video game projects. This Unity system is a simple tool that enhances the overall look of video games without the use of numerous animations. The Locomotion System works by automatically blending the key-framed run and walk cycles and adjusting the leg motions and strides so that the feet appear firmly planted to the ground. This nifty system works particularly well for terrains with uneven surfaces and provides for a more realistic movement of characters in all directions.

The key features of the Locomotion system include:

Automatic adjustment of movements to adapt to the uneven terrain
Full control of the creation of movements for different personalities and styles
Full control of character behavior
Applicability with any legged video game character
Compatibility to 3D video game projects with limited budget

Head Look Controller

Head Look Controller is the Unity3D extension that saves you the need to create extra animation in order to add more life to video game characters by making them look dynamically at designated points in space. Through this extension, game developers can easily make video game characters to look at any direction and control the movements of the head, eyes and upper body and point to specific directions. Game developers can also designate multiple bone ranges using different settings for angle constraints, responsiveness, etc.

Unity Remote

Unity Remote is an application that allows game developers to use a remote control device, the iPad or iPhone. Through this software, game developers can use their iPhone or iPad for rapid development as they can access the Editor Game window if they don’t prefer to gather and deploy the game project every time they want to make some changes.

You only need to install the Unity Remote application on your iPhone or iPad if you want to work on your development project using your mobile gadget. Of course, you iPhone or iPad must be connected to the same network as the game development machine via Wi-Fi. With Unity3D running on your computer, the Unity Remote is launched with the selection of the specific computer from the list displayed on your iPhone or iPad. Once the Unity Remote is deployed, you will be able to use the mobile device for the development and testing of your 3D video game project.