Description

Unity3D is a free (for non-commercial use) game development tool, available on the Windows 64-bit platform (Windows 7 through 10) and the Mac (OS X 10.9+). This software provides developers with tools to model terrains and develop digital environments that can be exported to a great variety of platforms.

Unity3D comes with an asset store from which models and extensions can be downloaded and added to the platform. Alternatively, models can be easily added and imported from third-party software development suites.

Tutorial for Hello World

The Hello World tutorial below can be done with very little effort. To create "Hello World" in Unity, follow the steps in this "Hello World Unity" Tutorial.

Minimum/Recommended System Requirements

Minimum

CPU

• SSE2 instruction set support;

Operating system

• Windows 7 SP1+, 8, 10, 64-bit versions only; Mac OS X 10.9+

GPU

• Graphics card with DX10 (shader model 4.0) capabilities 

Recommended

Processor

• Intel Core i7 7820X 8 Core 3.6GHz (4.3/4.5GHz Turbo) 

GPU

• NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1080 8GB 

Memory

• 32GB of RAM

Metrics

Accessibility: The estimated time for someone to create Hello World in VR

• Beginner:  no experience with Unity or similar software | < 30 min.

• Intermediate:  some experience with Unity or similar software | < 15 min.

• Advanced:  experienced with Unity and other software | < 10 min.

• Expert: highly experienced Unity user | < 5 min.

Power

• High: Unity is a powerful rendering engine for three dimensional models at various levels. Builds on the fly and allows outputting to various file-formats when building is done. Also provides possibilities to integrate sound and SteamVR support.

Usage

• Game development: excellent tool for developing games; allows integration of terrains, models, and easily build up games from scratch. Coding can be done in C#, JavaScript/UnityScript, or Boo and can be easily integrated with components during game development. Scripts can control your game objects, scenes, and can implement game logic. 

• Other - not intended for science visualization; good for importing assets but not for creating assets or creating art.

Summary

Overall, Unity3D is extremely powerful and versatile for the creation of digital games, both in 2D and 3D. It is relatively intuitive and does not require a steep learning curve to use.