Unity 5 available now in Professional and Personal editions

Unity Technologies has launched Unity 5, the next generation of its award-winning engine.

The latest iteration introduces significant graphical improvements and an expanded editor, and continues Unity’s policy of not taking revenue from games made using its technology.

New features include physically-based shading, reflection probes, Geomerics’ Enlighten technology, and 64-bit support. Improvements have also been made to the audio, animation and physics tools.

In a departure from past releases, Unity 5 is actually available in two editions: Professional and Personal.

Professional is aimed at larger studios or ambitious but smaller teams. Priced at $75 per month, this includes a team licence, game performance reporting, Asset Store Level 11 and Unity Analytics Pro.

Meanwhile, the Personal Edition is available for free and targets hobbyists, one-man studios and new developers. This still includes major Unity 5 features such as physically-based shading, reflection probes and Enlighten.

Unity 5 can already been seen at work in Camouflaj’s Republique Remastered for PC – read our interview with Ryan Payton on his experience with the tech here – as well as upcoming games such as Moon Studios’ Ori and the Blind Forest and Space Ape’s Rival Kingdoms.

The new engine allows developers to deploy games to 21 platforms, including WebGL, consoles, desktop and mobile.

 “Unity 5 is a massive step up for Unity that empowers developers to make more beautiful and intricate games that reach bigger audiences across more platforms,” said Unity CEO John Riccitiello. “We want everyone to have access to Unity 5, which is why we’ve increased the value of our royalty-free licences.

“Unity 5 Professional starts with the power of Unity 5.0 and adds valuable tools such as Unity Cloud Build Pro and Team Licence. Unity 5 Personal Edition is for the developer just getting started and offers all the power of the engine and editor for free.”

Unity has also released Unity Cloud Build, which the firm claims will “tap the power of the cloud to further increase productivity and keep developers’ focus [on] making great games”.

Unity 5 Professional owners will also have access to Unity Cloud Build Pro. You can find out more at www.unity3d.com/cloudbuild.

GDC attendees can check out Unity 5 and find out more at Unity’s stand – Booth No.1402 – at the GDC Expo.

For more GDC 2015 news, head to www.develop-online.net/gdc