That's really cool, I coulda used that a few months ago, to get access to the on-hardware profiler. Seems a waste to get Unity Pro and Android Free, though, since you'd lose most of the Pro advantages when making your OUYA build. It's best to either get Unity Free+Android Free, or Unity Pro+Android Pro.
Yes I agree download the free version and learn how to use it and develop apps with it. When you get a finished game you want to sell, you can buy the Pro version to add more advanced features to it. For just learning Unity Free is your best bet. Don't buy Unity Pro until you know what you are doing first and have a completed game. Then by selling it you can afford the Pro license. IIRC they just allowed free mobile development with the free version, but it is limited. BTW Unity can develop for other platforms like the iPhone, so it is worth looking into if you want to develop for more than just Windows and Android.
No need to get Pro unless you doing something uber GFX intensive (like we are).
Plus you can do a trial for 30 days for pro features. We are Pro iOS and so I've re-activated Unity on a trial so I can use Pro Android to evaluate our need for it for 30 days before stumping up the £1000 ish for the Pro Android plugin.
The free version is very good and it's very powerful. Many games do not need this and your first probably shouldn't :D
I wouldn't say you'd need to do something "uber GFX intensive" - the profiler is really dang useful no matter what you are writing, and static batching can make quite a large framerate difference if your environment is made up of a bunch of different models.
I'll agree that the free version is very good and powerful, but just those two features makes Unity Pro quite a bit more useful for game development.
You can publish with the free version all you want. The only stipulation is you or your entity can't make over $100k per year. If that's true you can't even use free version, you need to use Pro.
@Dreamwriter - the truth is that we don't need Pro for iOS iPad 2 and 4S and above for our game, we only really needed it for 4 (a bit) and 3G S.
Yep the profiler is super useful, but if you follow the guides on writing lean code, pooling objects and avoiding allocation of any sort, then you're game will fly along unless you're doing too much graphically (typically).
What I was saying, was if you're doing something small, if you're not pushing the power of the unit, you don't need Pro. This is still true.
If anyone is strapped for cash, then develop your game and when you're ready, REALLY ready to profile it, then reset your license so you can enjoy a Pro trial and then have at the Profile for 30 days.
Another case where the subscription model works great is if for example you're using Pro on a single licence but want to bring in a couple of extra developers in on Pro seats for a short amount of time, say the last couple of months of the project.
Anyway, never mind the profiler and built-in shadows etc., you need Pro for the dark grey theme ;-)
tgraupmann
Posts: 2,869Administrator, Team OUYA
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I wouldn't say you'd need to do something "uber GFX intensive" - the profiler is really dang useful no matter what you are writing, and static batching can make quite a large framerate difference if your environment is made up of a bunch of different models.
I'll agree that the free version is very good and powerful, but just those two features makes Unity Pro quite a bit more useful for game development.
Can you still publish using the free Unity software?
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OUYA Inc | Android Developer
Skype: tgraupmann_prey
http://github.com/ouya/docs
http://github.com/ouya/ouya-sdk-examples
Check out the latest docs for your game engine: [setup] [adobe air] [android] [clickteam fusion] [construct 2] [corona] [libGDX] [game maker] [html5] [marmalade] [monogame] [unity] [unreal]
Use caution when setting [persistent wireless mode].
Yep the profiler is super useful, but if you follow the guides on writing lean code, pooling objects and avoiding allocation of any sort, then you're game will fly along unless you're doing too much graphically (typically).
www.demonstudios.com
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