Unity Asset Store discoveries/discussions

Tuism

Hey guys, sometimes there are these sales and things that pop up, and I feel like I look at them without an educated idea of what a plugin is worth, if it's good, etc.

So, if there's something that looks good in the Unity Asset store, drop it here, and see what other (experienced) people say about it? :)

I saw Particle Playground 2 on sale today, 65% off at $25, which looks damn impressive, but what do you think?
https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/13325?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=daily


> Looks professional
> Positive reviews
> Is a 2nd edition which means the first one must've done something right, right?

garethf

Looks pretty snaz to me.

clive

I have 3x products on the Unity Asset Store myself. I know a few other South African's that have published stuff on the store too. Might also be worth creating a separate listing of "local is lekker on the UAS" ;)

roguecode

@clive, you might as well list them here :). But I agree, it would be cool for a dedicated local list.

Tuism

Aw damnit, sale cut off before I bought :/ THANK YOU ESKOM.

clive

roguecode said:

@clive, you might as well list them here :). But I agree, it would be cool for a dedicated local list.

Well, if anyone is curious about my products on the Unity Asset Store here's a quick listing:

• Screenshot Creator - Quickly create multiple resolution screenshots regardless of actual game resolution (even 4k shots) from within the editor or at runtime. Built-in watermarking for promo shots.
  
  
• GUI Generator - Visually and procedurally generate buttons and other GUI elements for super fast good looking prototypes or for those of us (like myself) who aren't artists to quickly create clean UI items or even as "skeletons" to provide to actual artists with correct dimensions etc. - Featured in the new book Unity 3D UI Essentials
  
  
• Sound Generator - Software audio synthesis. Visually design and create sound effects which will be generated at game launch (or a time of your choosing). No more wavs or MP3s required for small compact games. Zero or minimal (only at level load time) runtime impact, only uses Unity AudioClips internally so compatible with any other sound systems.
  
  

garethf

Aw damnit, sale cut off before I bought :/ THANK YOU ESKOM.

Sucks, bro. I picked it up in the last 40 minutes. ;P

Kalekin

We have a good couple of Asset Store packages at work and my own opinion of them is pretty low. Every now and then, when enough time passes between purchases, we'll pickup one that looks like it does something really awesome.

Everything starts out great. It takes a bit of figuring out how to work with your new toys but eventually you've got your setup doing the same things cool things you saw in that promo vid. After a couple weeks have passed and your project has established itself, this is about the time you start running into issues. The package is being used in a hundred different places in a hundred different ways and every now and then one of those spinning plates comes crashing down and you have to spend ages figuring out out obscure fixes or workarounds.

The unfortunate reality is that most of what is on the Asset Store is made by people who have some combination of non-existent software engineering skills, little understanding of low level Unity or poor technical knowledge in general. The real danger is that on the surface things look fine and things work as expected. Once your use cases become extensive and things are deeply integrated into your project there are too many opportunities for these fragile packages to fall apart, and they almost always seem to fall apart.

The best experiences I have had for 3rd party assets are those that are developed and maintained by companies looking to integrate their already mature products into the Unity space.

That being said I am doing my damnedest to get our company to pony up for a Shader Forge license. This time everything is going to work out, I just know it.

clive

Kalekin said:

We have a good couple of Asset Store packages at work and my own opinion of them is pretty low. Every now and then, when enough time passes between purchases, we'll pickup one that looks like it does something really awesome.

Everything starts out great. It takes a bit of figuring out how to work with your new toys but eventually you've got your setup doing the same things cool things you saw in that promo vid. After a couple weeks have passed and your project has established itself, this is about the time you start running into issues. The package is being used in a hundred different places in a hundred different ways and every now and then one of those spinning plates comes crashing down and you have to spend ages figuring out out obscure fixes or workarounds.

The unfortunate reality is that most of what is on the Asset Store is made by people who have some combination of non-existent software engineering skills, little understanding of low level Unity or poor technical knowledge in general. The real danger is that on the surface things look fine and things work as expected. Once your use cases become extensive and things are deeply integrated into your project there are too many opportunities for these fragile packages to fall apart, and they almost always seem to fall apart.

The best experiences I have had for 3rd party assets are those that are developed and maintained by companies looking to integrate their already mature products into the Unity space.

That being said I am doing my damnedest to get our company to pony up for a Shader Forge license. This time everything is going to work out, I just know it.

Although I've had the same experience with one or two packages, I think it unfair to judge them all that way. Mostly (especially through support systems) when I have in fact had an issue the publishers have been able to either fix the issue or help me through it.

I, obviously, do the same for my own products as well. It's really best to look through previous reviews and on associated forums and not just at the promotional videos.

Also, and as a side note, you realize of course that since Shader Forge's licencing is per person / per seat so your company would have to lay out for more than just one licence - how ever many you have on your team - as with all editor extensions on the Unity Asset Store.

Kalekin

I don't judge them all though there certainly is a trend. Out of the 15 or so packages we have sitting around there are only one, maybe two, that have been worth the purchase. Almost all of these are very popular and highly rated items.

I think for prototyping or developers who work on smaller projects (which forms the majority of those buying/rating on the store) most of these will work just fine. Unfortunately they have almost all, in my own experiences, scaled very poorly for more complicated work.

dislekcia

So we use a couple of Stan's Assets to handle some mobile social stuff and Aeq and Squid can't shut up about how rad Stan's stuff has been. It pretty-much gave us screenshot sharing for free too :)

Squidcor

dislekcia said:

So we use a couple of Stan's Assets to handle some mobile social stuff and Aeq and Squid can't shut up about how rad Stan's stuff has been. It pretty-much gave us screenshot sharing for free too :)

Can't recommend Stan enough. His native plugins are brilliant.

Pierre

I tend to find that the simpler task specific assets are better.
Obviously less "moving" parts means less complication...

So In general I only shop for assets when it's something small that will take too much time if I did it myself.
For more complex assets I try to roll my own, unless it is completely outside of my ability.

This brings me to X-WeaponTrail...
https://assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/20972

I can highly recommend this asset. It is fast and easy to implement and it gives wonderful aesthetic improvement to any fast limited-frame motion.

Tuism

Tomorrow Sale: Has a bunch of really cool sci-fi themed stuff. Check it out.

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/sale?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=scifi_april15_launchFB

Squidcor

During my time at TPG we used a number of nifty plugins (aside from well known things like Ngui):

M2H Localisation
Syncing straight from Google docs is an awesome way to do localisation.

Clockstone Audio Toolkit
Managing large numbers of audio assets is a huge pain in Unity (at least in 4.x). This made that way, way better.

Behave 2
A bit pricey but definitely a high quality product. I'd say a visual editor is a must have for any complex BT based AI.

FX Maker
Took a fair amount of work to get this functioning properly and working efficiently. But we got a lot of mileage out of it for Tom Sparks.

Nuclear_Mosquito

Have any of you guys played around with any smoothed voxel engines? They are using one called Voxeland to create the terrain for Subnautica. It allows you to create caves and overhangs very quickly, something that is rather difficult with heightmaps and 3D models. You can look at it here: https://assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/9180

I played around with a similar voxel engine called Cubiquity (forum.unity3d.com/threads/cubiquity-a-fast-and-powerful-voxel-plugin-for-unity3d.184599/)

Unfortunately the texturing of the terrain is a bit lacking so I don't suggest you use Cubiquity for a project, but it is very fun just to play around with.

Here is Voxeland in action for the Subnautica level design:
https://youtube.com/watch?v=zBdWjDfe0cw&list=PLZmVk4US70ohuD_LO46SQlbRuorDjM1Ey&ab_channel=RussellMeakim

Tuism

Just saw Adventure Creator go on 50% off sale on Unity store:

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11896?utm_source=unity3d&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=may_20_15_adventure

It looks REALLY good for making adventures, and seems to be just in time for the Adventure Game Jam :D

dammit

Tuism said:

Just saw Adventure Creator go on 50% off sale on Unity store:

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11896?utm_source=unity3d&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=may_20_15_adventure

It looks REALLY good for making adventures, and seems to be just in time for the Adventure Game Jam :D

Has anyone used this asset? Discovered it today, but not sure if I want to spend $70 on it...

WilliamHK

dammit said:

Tuism said:

Just saw Adventure Creator go on 50% off sale on Unity store:

https://www.assetstore.unity3d.com/en/#!/content/11896?utm_source=unity3d&utm_medium=blog&utm_campaign=may_20_15_adventure

It looks REALLY good for making adventures, and seems to be just in time for the Adventure Game Jam :D

Has anyone used this asset? Discovered it today, but not sure if I want to spend $70 on it...

I bought this and it's amazing. You WILL NOT be disappointed, I can guarantee it. This was probably the best asset I've purchased so far.