The Linux developers at Unity [Official Site] have been plugging away on putting SDL2 [Official Website] into the Linux builds, and with Unity 5.6 it should be there.
Na'Tosha Bard tweeted out that the code for it has landed in "trunk" (their main codebase), so it's all ready to go now. The first beta of Unity 5.6 sounds like it's not due for another few weeks yet, so there's still some time until anyone can test it in the wild.
I spoke with Na'Tosha for a bit on Twitter to clear some things up. She said that it enables Unity to remove their own X11 implementation, and they are using SDL2 for window management and mouse, gamepad, joystick and keyboard inputs.
Na'Tosha did state that she's not aware of any actual issues being fixed by using SDL2, but some users may see improvements.
It will also provide them with the possibility of Mir and Wayland support in future, but they aren't currently on their roadmap yet.
This is good for SDL2 as well of course, as any bugs encountered by the Unity team can be reported and hopefully fixed to then improve SDL2 for other developers. The power of open source and all that jazz.
SDL2 isn't the only big thing that Unity 5.6 will bring. It's also planned to have their first version of Vulkan support too, and you can find more on that here.
You can find out what else Unity has planned on their roadmap.
You can also find the Linux builds of the Unity editor right here on their forum.
Many thanks to Na'Tosha Bard for replying to me on Twitter about it to clear some things up. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Na'Tosha Bard tweeted out that the code for it has landed in "trunk" (their main codebase), so it's all ready to go now. The first beta of Unity 5.6 sounds like it's not due for another few weeks yet, so there's still some time until anyone can test it in the wild.
I spoke with Na'Tosha for a bit on Twitter to clear some things up. She said that it enables Unity to remove their own X11 implementation, and they are using SDL2 for window management and mouse, gamepad, joystick and keyboard inputs.
Na'Tosha did state that she's not aware of any actual issues being fixed by using SDL2, but some users may see improvements.
It will also provide them with the possibility of Mir and Wayland support in future, but they aren't currently on their roadmap yet.
This is good for SDL2 as well of course, as any bugs encountered by the Unity team can be reported and hopefully fixed to then improve SDL2 for other developers. The power of open source and all that jazz.
SDL2 isn't the only big thing that Unity 5.6 will bring. It's also planned to have their first version of Vulkan support too, and you can find more on that here.
You can find out what else Unity has planned on their roadmap.
You can also find the Linux builds of the Unity editor right here on their forum.
Many thanks to Na'Tosha Bard for replying to me on Twitter about it to clear some things up. Article taken from GamingOnLinux.com.
Some you may have missed, popular articles from the last month:
The comments on this article are closed.
@Beamboom the correct way is "should have", but let's not have article comments descend into grammar hell?
3 Likes, Who?
Quoting: kellerkindtYes. However, as Na'Tosha said, only the X11 backend will be supported at first - Wayland and Mir will come a bit later, as everything gets set up for building/deployment/testing of those configurations.Quoting: MaCroX95I'm not really familiar with SDL, does this mean that games will be able to run in independent window manager regards of which one system uses (x11, wayland, mir)? If that is the case this is some great news!
SDL is more like a thin layer you talk to (your application -> SDL -> X11/Wayland/Mir/whatever).
It allows you to use the same code for everything SDL supports. So you tell SDL to create a new window, and it will sort out how to do it on your system.
0 Likes
Hmm, I wonder if this will fix the longstanding issue I've had with unity games (and perhaps it's fixed, I've not checked with newer unity titles) where you cannot launch multiple unity applications at the same time.
0 Likes
Quoting: liamdawe@Beamboom the correct way is "should have", but let's not have article comments descend into grammar hell?
No no by all means - I just have always wondered about this particular "odd" way of writing, since I've seen it "everywhere" and it's so explicitly wrong (in my eyes).
But I understand now (also thanks to those who sent me a PM on the subject!) that it's a way of mistyping "should've" since it sounds a bit like "of" at the end. I still think it's odd, but at least I now know that it's not me whom vocabulary is just a bit outdated. :)
Last edited by Beamboom on 10 November 2016 at 3:20 pm UTC
0 Likes
Quoting: Beamboomit's not me whom vocabulary is just a bit outdatedTo nitpick, shouldn't this have been "whose"? :D (but I must say I would have worded it differently anyway - not a native speaker either, btw).
I am glad they took the SDL route. I didn't occur to me that they weren't already using it. I guess this explains quite a lot of the early bugs, especially concerning mouse handling.
SDL is such a great tool. It has been around for a long time, I never encountered any bugs, and its developer is now a Valve employee. However, it's not a magic bullet, if you want to make a good 3D game, you will probably have to use Vulank/OpenGL, and OpenAL. I emphasize the last word; HRTF is so great, and having a maximum number of games using OpenAL means we get it for free :)
This Na'Tosha seems to be one of the most dedicated developers we have. Many thanks to her and the whole (Linux) Unity team ! <3
0 Likes
natewardawg Nov 12, 2016
Levi/Tak, I didn't forget about you. Thanks to the both of you for your hard work. If you want to be more easily remembered, all you have to do is dye your hair bright pink. :D
0 Likes
Patreon
PayPal
See more from me