Wednesday, March 04, 2015

Unity 5.0, my kindle, and a banana.

No, they are not related at all. As the self-proclaimed Most Boring Person with a Blog, I have to put in something more boring in addition to the boring stuff I post.

I ate a banana today*.

So, with regards to my Kindle - it's the 3rd generation keyboard, 5 years old now? - has been acting up recently. Freezing and resetting suddenly. Been _slightly_ tempted to used this excuse to upgrade to one of the new ones with the backlight - would be super to read in bed without the ceiling lights on.

But anyways, as I'm saving up for my dream aircraft carrier and can't really justify buying a new kindle, a quick google search had me taking the kindle apart, and lo and behold, the rattling that was going on inside, was due to loose screws! Those little buggers must have been the cause of my freezes. Got them screwed back in what I hope are their correct positions. Will know shortly if this is truly the cause, or if I truly need to speak to my banker about buying a new kindle.

For all the electronic toys I have, the kindle is probably the one I keep in the highest regard, and will definitely replace if lost or damaged.

Finally, Unity 5 got released today! Surprisingly, the free version (rebranded to "Personal Edition") comes with many coveted features only previously available in the pro editions - which cost a pretty penny - the profiler is now available, as well as render to texture and other nifty toys. This is apart from the new toys released in 5. And it's "free".

Basically, if you earn more than 100k gross a year, you need to get the pro version. This is perfectly fine for dabblers like myself, but many people are grousing that the key feature that they want, in the pro version is the removal of the Unity logo at the start up of apps and games.The cost to remove the logo can run up to several grand, in order to obtain the pro version. And now, with all the key pro features available in the Personal Edition, and not everyone needing the pro features, makes it sort of a tough sell. This, is from someone on the outside looking in.

Drawing a parallel to Houdini, which has 3 tiers - Apprentice, which is Non Commercial, Indie (my license!) which is valid for those who gross less than 100k a year with minor restrictions, and of course the full blown commercial licenses for Houdini/FX. Indie has got to be popular, I got it mainly to support sidefx, and because its 200 bucks. It's finally finding use with Unity.

I would think Unity would gather a fair bit of support (and maybe revenue!), if there was a middle tier that caters to devs who earn less than 100k, but would like the logo removed. It would slot right in perfectly with Hindie. But that's the random pitter patterings of the Most Boring Person with a Blog.

Right, unity's finally downloaded. Time to launch!

*and bananas are delicious.