Unity – the world’s leading platform for real-time 3D content creation and development (RT3D), recently held the Unite event, its annual conference for game developers.
Here, Unity announced a series of new AI enhancements and platform updates to better support game developers in realizing their visions and running successful game products.
Announcements include early access to Unity Muse, a feature set that uses AI technology to simplify content creation; first images of Unity 6, the next major Unity version due out in 2024 (formerly known as 2023 LTS); and the launch of Unity Cloud, a platform of interconnected products and services that helps developers organize content across projects and workflows.
Earlier this year, Unity announced the launch of closed beta versions of two platforms using AI technology, Unity Muse and Unity Sentis. Today, Unity Muse enters early access with an ever-expanding feature set that simplifies content creation including:
- Muse Chat – used to find answers and resources on Unity and receive usable code
- Muse Sprite – used to create 2D sprite images and many variations
- Muse Texture – used to create high-quality, ready-to-use 2D and 3D textures
Specifically, Sprite and Texture operate based on a deep learning model that is specifically built and trained entirely with data and images owned or copyrighted by Unity. This ensures the datasets do not contain any recognizable people, symbols, or art styles.
Unity Muse is a standalone product that costs $30/month. Users who sign up for the service will also get priority access to upcoming features in the pre-release, such as Muse Animate (which helps developers set animated characters without code), Muse Behavior (helps developers set up character interactions), and Muse Sketch (a 3D canvas for rapid prototyping and team collaboration).
Suppose Unity Muse helps developers improve their workflow. In that case, Unity Sentis allows them to bring complex AI data models into Unity Runtime to solve “difficult” tasks, as well as create new functionality in Unity Runtime—a game using an AI model. Unity Sentis is currently in open beta and will be widely available with Unity 6 in 2024.
Marc Whitten, President of Create, Unity, shares: “We are always ready to help developers create impressive and successful games. We work with their input. They tell us where we’re doing well and what we need to improve. With Unity 6, we need to focus on improving performance and workflow. In terms of AI technology, we realized we need to ensure developers have the tools to make more games faster. We want to be a true partner, able to meet creators’ needs at any stage of the process. develop their games”.