Unite 2022: A day of inspiration and connection

Paul Hatton was in attendance as the Unity community finally came together in person again at events across the globe

It was back in 2019 that the Unity world gathered together en masse at Unite. Before COVID-19, back when large groups could gather together without concern, developers, artists and creators descended on the beautiful Danish capital of Copenhagen.

They were met with groundbreaking announcements, a diversely represented expo and a keynote presentation that showed Unity at the forefront of media and technological development. Attendees left Unite 2019 full of eager expectations for the following year’s offering.

Unfortunately, the pandemic had other ideas. Unity was forced to put a pause on its global gathering for safety reasons, so you can understand why the announcement that Unite was returning in 2022 was met with such excitement.

LOCAL MEETUPS

To make it accessible for as many people as possible, Unity decided against hosting the conference in a single venue and opted to create multiple local meetups instead. These were held all around the world including Austin, Brighton, Copenhagen, Montreal and San Francisco.

Many are hoping these hubs will be expanded in future years, because there was real benefit in being able to connect with local developers and creators. Through these connections, there has been increased collaboration and sharing of ideas that would have otherwise been kept private.

This network building is of particular value when one thinks of the necessity of building multi-disciplinary teams to deliver on projects. It’s rare to find all the required skills in a single person, but by drawing in the talents and ideas of others, creators now have the ability to reach previously unattainable heights.

TECHNOLOGY ANNOUNCEMENTS

A key part of Unite is the releasing of the most up-to-date details around the latest tech. The keynote presentation contained well over an hour of the Unity team bringing us the latest news on their particular areas.

One such announcement was that Directx 12 was coming out of its experimental phase. Director of graphics engineering Raymond Graham took the floor for this one. He explained that the biggest delivery challenge for Unity was being able to provide tools that work across the entire gamut of hardware available to Windows users. Directx 12 enables Directx Raytracing, the power of which was demonstrated by playing a showreel of Sakura Rabbit’s incredible work.

Attendees were also treated to an update on how Unity are bringing artistry tools to real-time production pipelines, including Weta FX tooling to author grooms. As shown in their demo Lion, its new hair and fur authoring tools helped simulate two million strands of fur, with no visual artifacts or strands with background noise.

Through Ziva, Speedtree, Syncsketch, Weta FX, and an enhanced High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), Unity has been able to create something truly special. Louise Scully, the head of product marketing for art tools, took creators through what is possible and the workflow required. By showcasing the Lion demo again, Unity reaffirmed its plans to get all of these tools into the hands of creators in the coming years, with an initial promise to make environment and character pipelines available in 2023.

LEARN NEW SKILLS

Alongside the new tech announcements, there was a whole host of sessions devoted to learning new skills. Take for example Pierre Yves Donzallaz’s 30-minute rundown of a selection of lighting setup options, including showcasing the GPU Lightmapper, the new Probe Volume system, ray tracing, and path tracing.

With sessions like this, artists get the latest and greatest workflows from the most accomplished of teachers. Mixing new tech announcements and workflow demonstrations means creators are not only told what’s possible, but are also shown how to make it a reality in their own work. Donzallaz took the famous Sponza Atrium to guide the audience through a mix of baked and real-time techniques.

CONCLUSION

The future of Unity looks bright. Its acquisition of both Weta Digital and Ziva are paving the way for a serious powerhouse in the field to be unveiled. Those who missed out on the 2022 event can watch the keynote presentation and every other session on Unity’s Youtube channel. Prepare to be inspired.

For more info about Unite events, visit unity.com/events/unite