// transmission.log

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> Intercepted signals from across the network — tech, engineering, and dispatches from the void.

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[ 2024 ]

20 entries
661|openai.com

Animator Lyndon Barrois creates new worlds with Sora

Filmmaker Lyndon Barrois describes how to use Sora as a storytelling tool.

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662|openai.com

Sora System Card

Sora is OpenAI’s video generation model, designed to take text, image, and video inputs and generate a new video as an output. Sora builds on learnings from DALL-E and GPT models, and is designed to give people expanded tools for storytelling and creative expression.

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663|blog.unity.com

Industry trends 2025: immersive tech is changing the game

Immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) have moved beyond buzzwords to become transformative tools driving change in industries like healthcare, manufacturing, automotive, and retail. No longer experimental, they’re streamlining workflows, improving outcomes, and transforming experiences for employees and customers alike.The numbers speak for themselves. Recent data predicts the immersive tech market will explode from $183.96 billion in 2024 to $1.7 trillion by 2032, with a staggering 32.1% annual growth rate. This isn’t just fast growth—it’s proof that immersive tech is becoming a critical part of how businesses operate and grow.In this year’s Unity Industry Trends Report, we dive into how businesses are scaling immersive solutions to achieve tangible results. From rethinking team collaboration to improving surgical precision, these tools are reshaping how work gets done.Take manufacturing, for example, where teams are turning complex 3D data into easy-to-use, interactive tools that speed up design, diagnostics, and training. These solutions don’t just help engineers—they’re unlocking collaboration across entire teams, driving faster innovation. In healthcare, 3D simulations are helping surgeons plan and practice with incredible precision, while patient-specific visuals are transforming how care is delivered. Imagine walking into a doctor’s office and seeing a clear, 3D visualization of your surgery—it’s not just futuristic, it’s happening now.Training is one area where immersive tech is having an immediate, measurable impact. Data shows immersive learning boosts retention by 75% and learner confidence by 275%. That’s a game-changer for industries tackling big challenges like safety, skills gaps, and cost pressures.KLM’s VR pilot training is a perfect example. What started as a small project to enhance readiness has become a core part of their operations. It’s saving money, improving safety, and helping pilots get flight-ready faster. The takeaway? When businesses use immersive tech with clear goals, the results can scale.It’s not just internal operations—immersive technologies are changing how companies engage with customers, too. In retail, immersive shopping is quickly becoming the norm as customers expect more personalized, engaging experiences. Behind the scenes, these same tools are helping retailers train their teams and fine-tune operations.Meanwhile, in automotive, AR-powered displays are keeping drivers focused while delivering critical info, and immersive human-machine interfaces are redefining how vehicles are designed and experienced. These tools are breaking down silos, making processes more collaborative, and delivering results that ripple across entire organizations.What excites me most is how immersive technologies are opening the door to entirely new ways of working, learning, and connecting. Teams across industries are finding creative ways to weave these tools into their daily workflows, boosting both efficiency and creativity.This year’s Unity Industry Trends Report shares stories and insights from 17 industry leaders already making it happen. I hope you’ll check it out—you might come away with some ideas to inspire your own work.

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664|openai.com

Introducing ChatGPT Pro

Broadening usage of frontier AI

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665|openai.com

OpenAI o1 System Card

This report outlines the safety work carried out prior to releasing OpenAI o1 and o1-mini, including external red teaming and frontier risk evaluations according to our Preparedness Framework.

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666|openai.com

OpenAI and Future partner on specialist content

OpenAI and Future, the global platform for specialist media, have today announced a strategic partnership to bring content from Future’s 200 plus media brands to OpenAI’s users.

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667|openai.com

Shaping the future of financial services

Morgan Stanley uses AI evals to shape the future of financial services

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668|blog.unity.com

Games made with Unity: November 2024

November was packed with game releases and some pretty sizable updates, including the new Undead update for DOTS-powered Diplomacy is Not an Option from our friends at Door 407. Want to use mountains of corpses as barriers? Now, you can!Steam curator list: Better TogetherWith many families coming together for the holiday season soon, we thought it would be a good time to gather up a list of Made with Unity games you can play with others. We posted up our poll and Better Together co-op games came out on top, check out the list and follow our Steam Curator page.Award seasonAs we head into the next few months of the major gaming awards, we want to congratulate some of the Made with Unity winners of the Golden Joysticks:Still Playing Award (Mobile) - Honkai: Star RailBest Indie Game (Self-published) - Another Crab's TreasureBest Early Access Game - Lethal CompanyNext up are The Game Awards with many of your games up for awards there, follow along on our social channels to celebrate the winners.Working on a game in Unity? We’d love to help you spread the word. Be sure to submit your project. Without further ado, to the best of our abilities, here’s a non-exhaustive list of games made with Unity and launched in November of 2024, either into early access or full release. Add to the list by sharing any that you think we missed.Bullet heavenTemtem: Swarm, Crema, GGTech Studios (November 13 – early access)Card games and deckbuildersMenace from the Deep, Flatcoon (November 11)Casual and partyDEATH NOTE Killer Within, Grounding Inc. (November 5)Bounce Arcade, Velan Studios (November 21)ComedyGreat God Grove, LimboLane (November 15)HorrorSorry We're Closed, à la mode games (November 14)Absolute Insanity, Chris Danelon (November 5)Angel Wings: Endless Night, RumR Design (November 6)Is this Game Trying to Kill Me?, Stately Snail (November 13)Enigma of Fear, Dumativa, Cellbit (November 28)FPS420BLAZEIT 2: GAME OF THE YEAR -=Dank Dreams and Goated Memes=- [#wow/11 Like and Subscribe] Poggerz Edition, Normal Wholesome Games (November 14)Narrative and mysteryChicken Police: Into the HIVE!, The Wild Gentlemen (November 7)Deathless Death, Dream Delivery Center (November 13)Loco Motive, Robust Games (November 21)Mercury Abbey, YiTi Games (November 22)PlatformerMind Over Magnet, Game Maker's Toolkit (November 13)Management and automationTechtonica, Fire Hose Games (November 7)MetroidvaniaLast Vanguard, Cool Tapir Studios LLC (November 5 – early access)Roguelike/liteVoid Crew, Hutlihut Games (November 25)Elin, Lafrontier (November 1 – early access)Munch, Mac n Cheese Games (November 4)ShapeHero Factory, Asobism.Co.,Ltd (November 5 – early access)Ammo and Oxygen, Juvty Worlds (November 7 – early access)Atomic Picnic, BitCake Studio (November 7 – early access)Shape of Dreams: Prologue, Lizard Smoothie (November 12)Dungeon Clawler, Stray Fawn Studio (November 21 – early access)RPGVoid Sols, Finite Reflection Studios (November 12)Metal Slug Tactics, Leikir Studio (November 5)ATLYSS, Kiseff (November 22 – early access)Neon Blood, ChaoticBrain Studios (November 26)Puzzle adventureLittle Big Adventure – Twinsen’s Quest, [2.21] (November 14)SimulationMirthwood, Bad Ridge Games (November 6)Dustland Delivery, Neutron Star Studio (November 5)Everholm, Chonky Loaf (November 11)Luma Island, Feel Free Games (November 20)StrategySongs of Silence, Chimera Entertainment (November 13)Sainthood, Bisong Taiwo (November 1)Skill Legends Royale, ZGGame (November 4)Lost Eidolons: Veil of the Witch, Ocean Drive Studio, Inc. (November 5 – early access)Tower Factory, Gius Caminiti (November 7 – early access)SurvivalI Am Future: Cozy Apocalypse Survival, Mandragora (November 13)That’s a wrap for November 2024. Want more Made with Unity and community news as it happens? Don’t forget to follow us on social media: Bluesky, X, Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram, YouTube, or Twitch.

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669|blog.unity.com

Get the most out of the VFX Graph in Unity 6 with our updated e-book for artists

To orchestrate their creations, visual effects artists need a sophisticated understanding of shape, lighting effects, color, volume of particle effects, speed of movement, and timing.The VFX Graph is Unity’s node-based visual logic system for creating visual effects in games. It provides all the capabilities you need to create GPU-accelerated visual effects.Now, you can get our updated e-book on creating effects with the VFX Graph in Unity 6. This new edition will guide you to achieving the best visual quality and performance for your effects for your Unity 6 productions.The new features in VFX Graph for Unity 6 include profiling tools, six-way lighting for smoke effects, new learning templates, and more. These are part of a wide-ranging collection of new rendering and graphics features in Unity 6, like performance enhancements for URP and HDRP, potential reductions in CPU and GPU workload, and new optimization options.And there’s more. Together with the Unity 6 VFX Graph e-book you can also watch a new video tutorial that explores the VFX Graph Learning Templates:The VFX e-book includes key sections like:A detailed introduction to graph logic and all of the parts that make up a graphWorking with VFX Graph in URP and HDRPExplanations of many different types of visual effects examplesHow to create interactivityUsing VFX Graph and Shader Graph together for advanced shader effectsPipeline tools to use with VFX GraphProfiling, debugging, and optimization featuresTechniques for advanced creatorsLet’s look in brief at some of the great new content in the guide.UI improvementsCreating nodes or blocks now uses a hierarchical tree view, making it easier to browse the node library. Enhancements include custom colors and a favorites folder for a more efficient and personalized search experience. You can also use the advanced search filtering to select from the available nodes.New VFX ToolbarThe VFX Toolbar has been simplified and includes new options for quick access to documentation and samples.Keyboard shortcutsThe Shortcut Manager has a VFX Graph category that lets you modify the shortcut command available in the Visual Effect Graph window.The VFX Graph Learning Templates is a collection of numerous different samples that help you explore a specific aspect and feature set of VFX Graph, and showcases many VFX techniques. The sample content is compatible with both URP and HDRP projects, for VFX Graph in Unity 6 and later.The sample graphs are small and focused, making them ideal learning resources. Dive into each template to master a new technique or use it as a starting point for your own effect. Each graph comes with detailed notes to help you understand their construction.You’ll find samples that cover:Graph fundamentalsParticle orientation and rotationTexturing and flipbooksParticle pivotsMesh and texture samplingCollisions and interactivityDecal particlesParticle stripsA new section in the guide explains how to create six-way lighting, a method for smoke rendering based on baked simulations that works well across different lighting conditions. It can approximate the volumetric feel of smoke with a cost-effective process. Six-way lighting can be a useful technique in your effects toolkit, balancing visual quality, performance, and memory usage for rendering real-time smoke effects.You can also watch VFX Graph: Six-way lighting workflow for a complete walkthrough of the technique and read this blog post for more information.One of the key advantages of Shader Graph integration is the ability to drive shader behavior on a per-particle level. This allows for creating variations, color randomization, and other dynamic effects with different per-particle values, enabling highly complex visuals.The e-book now includes a bigger section using examples from the Shader Graph Feature Examples sample content. This is a collection of Shader Graph assets that demonstrate how to achieve common techniques and effects in Shader Graph. The goal of this sample pack is to help users see what is required to achieve specific effects and provide examples to make it easier to learn.Finally, VFX Graph in Unity 6 also includes integration with Shader Graph keywords. This allows you to create one Shader Graph for use in multiple VFX Graphs.Unity 6 includes Profiling and Debug panels that provide essential information about your visual effects. These tools can provide information such as CPU and GPU timings, memory usage, texture usage, and various states. Use them to monitor and optimize performance for your VFX Graphs.Seasoned VFX artists and developers can take advantage of the Custom HLSL Block. This feature allows you to create unique effects that may not yet be natively supported in Unity. With Custom HLSL, you can create advanced physics simulations, flocking behaviors, or real-time data visualizations.Custom HLSL nodes allow you to execute custom HLSL code during particle simulation. You can use an Operator for horizontal flow or a Block for vertical flow within Contexts.Along with the VFX Graph e-book you can access other great resources that provide know-how for how to create graphics and effects that boost the atmosphere, fun, and excitement for your 2D and 3D games. Here are a few to check out:Unity 6 graphics learning resourcesIntroduction to the Universal Render Pipeline for advanced Unity creatorsCreate 2D special effects with VFX Graph and Shader GraphFind a treasure trove of lighting and visual effects in Gem Hunter Match

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670|blog.unity.com

Unity for Humanity 2025 grant now open

Real-time 3D (RT3D) is transforming how we approach social impact, and we’re excited to continue supporting creators who harness this technology to build a more equitable, inclusive, and sustainable world. Today, we’re thrilled to announce that applications are open for the Unity for Humanity 2025 Grant, an opportunity for creators to secure funding for their social impact projects.In 2025, we’re awarding $500,000 USD across multiple projects to empower creators advancing global goals in alignment with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year, we’re introducing several new resources and features for applicants.To support your application journey, we’ve launched two guides: Unity for Humanity: Guide for Creators, a short course to help you get started, and an Examples from Past Winners guide, showcasing successful projects to inspire and inform your submission.For the first time, feedback on applications will be available upon request. Due to the lean size of our social impact team, we ask that applicants request feedback if needed. Please give the team up to four weeks to respond to your request for feedback. The contact information and request instructions will be available in the email notification to applicants.To inspire the next generation of social impact creators, we’re introducing a new category specifically for students. We encourage students to bring their unique visions to the grant and drive change through RT3D.If you’re working on a game, experience, film, mobile app, or another RT3D project aimed at meaningful social impact, we encourage you to apply for this opportunity. For detailed information on eligibility, application guidelines, and FAQs, please visit our Unity for Humanity page. The deadline for submissions is 11:59 pm PT on February 7, 2025.Be a part of this year’s Unity for Humanity Grant and join a global community of impact creators dedicated to making a difference through creativity and technology.

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671|lilianweng.github.io

Reward Hacking in Reinforcement Learning

Reward hacking occurs when a reinforcement learning (RL) agent exploits flaws or ambiguities in the reward function to achieve high rewards, without genuinely learning or completing the intended task. Reward hacking exists because RL environments are often imperfect, and it is fundamentally challenging to accurately specify a reward function. With the rise of language models generalizing to a broad spectrum of tasks and RLHF becomes a de facto method for alignment training, reward hacking in RL training of language models has become a critical practical challenge. Instances where the model learns to modify unit tests to pass coding tasks, or where responses contain biases that mimic a user’s preference, are pretty concerning and are likely one of the major blockers for real-world deployment of more autonomous use cases of AI models.

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672|blog.unity.com

6 Ways to Get Started with Unity 6

The exciting release of Unity 6 is here, marking a significant milestone in the world of game development and real-time 3D applications. Whether you're a seasoned developer or just starting out, Unity 6 offers a wealth of features and enhancements designed to unleash your creative potential. This blog will guide you through six effective ways to get started with Unity 6, helping you make the most of this powerful platform.The first step to getting started with Unity 6 is to download it. Unity 6 is packed with new features and improvements that enhance performance, productivity, and creativity. From advanced rendering capabilities to intuitive workflows, this release is designed to streamline your development process and bring your projects to life.Starting with a new platform can be overwhelming, but Unity provides a comprehensive set of learning resources to help you get up to speed quickly. Whether you prefer video tutorials, in-depth courses, or written documentation, there is something for everyone.Here are a few learning resources to help you get started:Unity Essentials: Designed for anyone new to Unity, this guided learning journey is your first step toward creating confidently in the Unity Editor and bringing your vision to life.3D Beginner: Roll-a-Ball Game: Learn how to use the Unity Editor and its built-in capabilities to set up a simple game by writing your own scripts, creating basic user interfaces, and building your game for others to play it!Get started with Unity Web: Designed for creators of all skill levels, follow along with this guided learning journey to learn how to set up and build your game for web browsers.Visit the Unity 6 Resources Hub to access a variety of tools and materials tailored to your learning style. Highlights include:Interactive Tutorials: Step-by-step guidance on creating your first project.Video Tutorials: Learn from the experts with detailed video content.Live Training Sessions: Participate in live sessions with Unity professionals.Documentation: Access the extensive and updated Unity documentation.Unity has a vibrant and supportive community of developers, artists, and enthusiasts. Post your questions and connect with other Unity users in Discussions, and engage in real time conversations in the Unity Discord server. Participating in the community can accelerate your learning process and help you solve any challenges you encounter.One of the best ways to learn is by doing. Unity provides a wealth of sample projects that demonstrate various features and capabilities of Unity 6. Download these samples in the Unity 6 Resources Hub and dissect them to understand how they work. Experiment with modifying them to see how changes affect the outcome. This hands-on approach will build your confidence and deepen your understanding of Unity 6. The Unity Asset Store offers a plethora of free and paid assets that can significantly speed up your development process. From 3D models and textures to scripts and plugins, there's something for every project. Utilize these resources to add professional-quality elements to your projects without starting from scratch. The world of game development is always evolving, and Unity 6 is no exception. Stay current with the latest updates, best practices, and new features by regularly visiting Unity Learn. Continuous learning will ensure you remain at the forefront of innovation and can incorporate the latest advancements into your projects.Unity 6 is a powerful, user-friendly platform that opens up countless possibilities for developers. By following these six steps, you can get started on the right foot and make the most of the new features and enhancements.

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673|openai.com

Advancing red teaming with people and AI

Advancing red teaming with people and AI

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674|openai.com

Building smarter maps with GPT-4o vision fine-tuning

Building smarter maps with GPT-4o vision fine-tuning

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675|openai.com

Rox goes “all in” on OpenAI

By combining commercial experience and deep LLM expertise with OpenAI’s models, Rox makes every seller a top 1% seller.

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676|blog.unity.com

Unity 6 UI Toolkit: News and updates

In the fast-paced world of game development, creating an engaging user interface (UI) is just as crucial as refining game mechanics or crafting stunning visuals. A well-designed UI serves as the bridge between players and the experience you've crafted – it can make or break immersion. As games grow in complexity, the need for intuitive, responsive UIs and the ability to display dynamic data become increasingly important. Unity 6 focuses on accelerated UI development, providing tools that simplify the UI creation process, allowing teams to bring their ideas to life faster and with greater impact.Unity 6 brings significant improvements to UI Toolkit. Whether you’re working on an expansive open-world RPG or an indie passion project, the toolkit streamlines workflows, optimizes rapid iteration, and reduces production times. By tackling the most common UI challenges – such as managing complex hierarchies, addressing performance bottlenecks, and enabling extensive customization – Unity 6 makes designing UIs more intuitive, flexible, and, most importantly, enjoyable.Key features of UI Toolkit in Unity 6Unity 6's UI Toolkit introduces powerful new features that streamline UI development, enhance customization, and help you create dynamic, engaging user experiences. Let's explore the highlights:Runtime data bindingThe new runtime data binding is a powerful feature that seamlessly connects UI elements with your game data at runtime. With it, developers can link variables, properties, and collections directly to UI components without writing extensive boilerplate code. This drastically reduces the manual work required to keep UI elements in sync with the underlying game state, making building responsive and dynamic interfaces effortless.Runtime data bindings can be set directly from the UI Builder, making the workflow accessible for team members using codeless tools and enabling better collaboration. They are also extensible, letting developers create converters between value types and implement custom binding types. Additionally, runtime data bindings can be tweaked to achieve optimal performance, ensuring your game’s UI remains efficient and responsive.Expanded UI controls libraryThe expanded UI Toolkit standard library provides even more built-in options for designing your UI. Recent additions like the TreeView and multicolumn ListView, introduced in 2022 LTS, facilitated the migration from IMGUI to UI Toolkit and are essential for managing and displaying large datasets.This version introduces the TabView and ToggleButtonGroup. Buttons now have icon support, which can be displayed with or without accompanying text. These new controls are not limited to the Editor; they are also available for the runtime environment and are fully customizable to match the aesthetic of your game, ensuring a consistent and immersive player experience.Improved extensibilityThe extensibility of UI Toolkit has seen major upgrades, especially for creating custom controls and exposing them to the UI Builder. Developers can now create custom UI controls more easily, integrating them seamlessly for drag-and-drop design. This upgrade makes it easier for teams to build reusable, tailored components, saving development time and boosting creativity.Gone are the days of writing boilerplate code with UXMLFactories and UXMLTraits, which are now deprecated and will be removed in future versions. The new approach involves simply decorating your C# code with [UXMLElement] and [UXMLAttribute] attributes — making custom control definition more straightforward, concise, and maintainable. Please refer to the Unity manual for creating custom UI controls using this new method.Enhanced control configurationUnity 6 also enhances how custom components are exposed and configured in the UI Builder, with support for property drawers and decorators, similar to those found in the Editor Inspector. These additions give developers complete control over how UI element attributes are exposed, providing UI designers with a more intuitive and efficient experience when adjusting properties. The result is polished, highly customizable interfaces that look great and function smoothly.UXMLObjects for efficient data managementUXMLObjects provide a flexible way to define and manage serialized data directly within UXML files. This feature allows developers to create reusable, self-contained UI components that maintain readability, even with large data structures.UXMLObjects enable UI elements to contain serialized data that can be stored and edited directly in the UI Builder, making it easier to reuse elements across different parts of the UI while preserving their data integrity. Designers can edit these data structures visually, streamlining workflows for data-driven UI components.This feature is useful for creating structured, reusable data elements in UIs, such as configuring data for visualizations like pie charts. By serializing data within UXMLObjects, developers can maintain an organized and modular approach to UI design, making the process of managing large and dynamic data sets more efficient.Advanced text and localization featuresUI Toolkit now includes multi-language and emoji support, made possible by an optional text generator offering comprehensive Unicode and advanced text shaping capabilities. This ensures that your UI seamlessly supports various languages, including right-to-left (RTL) scripts like Arabic and Hebrew, providing true multilingual capabilities.This new text backend is entirely opt-in, allowing developers to transition at their own pace while benefiting from enhanced localization. Though there are some limitations — documented in the manual — the system is a powerful tool for broadening the reach of your project.The updated Localization Package allows developers to fully leverage the new multi-language support and easily localize UI Toolkit content, making games accessible in multiple languages. Integrating with the new bindings system allows this feature to be accessible directly from the UI Builder, resulting in a seamless and efficient workflow for multilingual projects.Streamlined workflowsUnity 6 introduces several workflow improvements to make UI development faster and more intuitive. These updates allow developers to iterate quickly and make designing more efficient.Search in the control libraryThe control library can become difficult to navigate, especially for complex projects with a large number of UI elements and custom controls. This update adds a fast and intuitive search capability within the control library, allowing quick access to UI elements. It works both in the Standard and the Project section, making it easier to find what you need.Extract inline styles to selectorYou now have more control over extracting inline styles, with the ability to extract specific values and apply them to an existing selector, not just create a new one. It significantly reduces the need for duplicating inline edits on a selector and allows for more experimentation with changes on a single element before "committing" them to a selector.Fill attribute for slidersSliders now have a fill attribute to extend their functionality and create visual elements such as volume controls, health bars, and more. The attribute enables a filled-in area for the slider, with an option to select the fill color. This new attribute is also supported in code, for example:Performance enhancementsUnity 6 introduces a wide array of performance improvements to ensure a smooth and responsive experience in both the Editor and runtime environments:Event dispatching: Event dispatching rules have been simplified, making them easier to understand and twice as fast.Mesh generation enhancements: Key improvements include jobified geometry generation for classic element geometry and a transition of the vector API to a native implementation. Text generation is also now parallelized.Custom Geometry API: A new public API enables developers to generate custom geometry with the same level of performance, allowing for highly optimized UI components.Deep Hierarchy Layout Performance: Improved caching of layout computations significantly boosts performance in deep hierarchies, providing a smoother user experience.Optimized TreeView for Large Datasets: The TreeView control, previously inefficient with large datasets, has been enhanced with a new high-performance backend specifically for Entities.For tips on optimizing content created with UI Toolkit, refer to this breakout session from Unite 2024.We’re committed to keeping performance front and center. Look for even more optimizations in future updates that ensure Unity remains the best platform for creating responsive, high-performing user interfaces.ConclusionUnity 6 offers a host of new features and improvements that will significantly enhance your ability to create sophisticated, high-quality UIs. Whether you're an indie developer or part of a larger studio, the advancements in performance, workflow, and customization are designed to help you push the boundaries of what's possible.Get started and learnIf you want to get started with UI Toolkit, start by exploring our full documentation and tutorials, and join our community to gain inspiration from others and to share your projects.You can learn UI Toolkit concepts with QuizU or explore a complete game sample with UI Toolkit Dragon Crashers. Don’t miss the companion pieces to the samples:QuizU Discussions articles for programmers in mind and video overview of the sampleE-book, User interface design and implementation in Unity and video overview of the sample

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677|blog.unity.com

Our complete guide to setting up version control for your team – now for Unity 6

It’s not uncommon for teammates in a game development studio to have varying levels of experience with using a version control system. An artist might tap their programmer colleague on the shoulder when they need to push or commit a change to the main repository because they’re unfamiliar with the software. We also hear stories of how game development assets like expensive 3D models are spread across multiple servers or even hosted in a Dropbox, with no easy way to categorize and search for them.DevOps, and particularly version control, can be a daunting topic for game creators who haven’t used such tools before. But it doesn’t need to be that way. There are numerous tools that you can use with Unity – both third-party options and Unity’s own solutions – to help your team work effectively with versioning, manage your builds, and keep track of your assets.Our updated Unity 6 e-book on version control and best practices for project organization can help you and your team get started with choosing the right solution for your game development. This new edition provides know-how for the latest workflows in Unity Version Control and DevOps solutions, making it a significant update to the original version control e-book released in 2022.You’ll get close to 100 pages of generally recommended practices and tips and tricks. Alongside the e-book, you can also view three new video tutorials on Unity Version Control, Unity Build Automation, and Unity Asset Manager.We aimed to provide a broad and balanced view in this guide because we believe it’s valuable to our users. You’ll find plenty of tips that are agnostic to whichever version control system you prefer to use. It starts with an explanation of the key concepts of version control. There’s a handy section comparing popular version control solutions compatible with Unity, and a dedicated section on Unity Version Control (UVCS), which guides you through setting up UVCS for your project and how to use its key features.This Unity 6 version of the e-book includes new sections about Unity Asset Manager and Unity Build Automation. Finally, you’ll find tips to help ensure team collaboration is smooth and efficient through the different cycles of the development process, and as your project grows and you add more users.With integration directly in the Unity Editor, it’s now easier than ever to enable and use UVCS, particularly for users with a non-programming background who prefer working with visual interfaces.An in-depth video tutorial accompanies the e-book, providing a solid introduction to UVCS, and showing you how to set up your own repository, invite collaborators, and check in changes.In the tutorial, we also explore branching strategies, how to handle conflicts, set up merge rules, lock files, and much more. If you are new to Unity Version Control, this is a great way to get an overview in 20 minutes before diving into the full e-book.Unity Build Automation automates the process of creating builds of your game for multiple platforms, allowing you to streamline the development workflow by continuously integrating and deploying updates with minimal manual intervention.In this new tutorial we show you how to streamline your workflow to build for multiple platforms and move your local build pipeline to the Unity Cloud to automate builds.The Unity Asset Manager makes it easy to keep track of all your 3D digital assets, including managing and transforming the data. It offers a central and secure place to find and store the assets you create and collaborate using your favorite tools.Asset Manager supports a wide range of asset types, including 3D models, textures, materials, prefabs, sound files, and more. In this video, we show you how to get started with the Asset Manager, edit your assets, and use search filters.We hope these resources will help you as you scale up your team and game development with Unity 6.

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678|openai.com

OpenAI en France

Our first office in continental Europe

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679|blog.unity.com

Unity 6 graphics learning resources

To help you get started with graphics in Unity 6, we’ve put together this reading list. These resources represent the latest and greatest content for learning our Scriptable Render Pipelines (SRPs) in the newest Unity version, whether you’re building your project with the Universal Render Pipeline (URP) or High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), or learning how to leverage updates in VFX Graph and Shader Graph.We’ll be updating this post periodically, so add it to your bookmarks and check back from time to time to see what’s new. Universal Render Pipeline (URP) resourcesIf you’re building for mobile or considering the possibility of launching on multiple platforms, URP is well worth considering. Prioritizing scalability, customizability, and a rich feature set, it’s made to give you creative freedom in any type of project, from stylized visuals to physically based rendering.Check out the guides and resources below to get up to speed with URP in Unity 6.URP templates and sample projectsFantasy Kingdom in Unity 6: Download the latest URP sample, based on last year’s Fantasy Kingdom project but optimized for mobile, leveraging Unity 6’s improved CPU and GPU graphics performance, Adaptive Probe Volumes (APVs), and VFX Graph.URP 3D sample: Explore four distinct scenes – the terminal, the garden, the cockpit, and the oasis – and discover how to create, customize, and scale beautiful graphics with flexibility and performance.Take your learning even further with on-demand video content: URP 3D sample: A short introductionURP 3D sample deep diveURP 3D sample deep dive: Lighting techniquesURP 3D sample deep dive: Configuring for VRHappy Harvest: This readymade project shows you how to harness the latest capabilities for creating 2D lights, shadows, and special effects with URP in Unity 6. It incorporates best practices any 2D creator can use, including not baking shadows into a sprite, keeping sprites flat, moving shadow and volume information to secondary textures, advanced Tilemap features, and much more. Learn more in this Blog post and on Unity Discussions.Gem Hunter Match – 2D sample project: See how a 2D puzzle/match-3 game can stand out from the competition with eye-catching lighting and visual effects created in URP. Learn more in this Blog post, and download the sample here.URP training sessions, technical talks, and webinarsMobile game optimization in Unity 6: In this webinar, Unity’s Advocacy team runs through new rendering technology in Unity 6 and shows how these tools can be applied to create more performant and better-looking mobile experiences.Graphics rendering: Getting the best performance with Unity 6: Learn Unity 6’s powerful graphics optimization tools can minimize your game’s CPU and GPU rendering overhead while increasing frame rate and extending mobile battery life in this talk from Unite 2024.Traditional animation, modern 2D: The art of Cookie Cutter: Discover how artist and art director Stefano Guglielmana created Cookie Cutter’s stunning animated world from a drawing tablet, then optimized everything in URP.URP e-books, guides, and documentationURP Documentation: Read the latest documentation for the Universal Render Pipeline, now updated for Unity 6.Introduction to the URP for advanced Unity creators: Learn how to start a new project based in URP, migrate an existing project to this pipeline, and more in our ultimate guide.Recipes for popular visual effects using the URP: Get step-by-step instructions for creating 12 different visual effects, including Ambient Occlusion, toon and outline shaders, reflections, refractions, and more.Mobile optimization in Unity 6: This newly updated e-book shares expert tips and advice on how to optimize your mobile game – including graphics rendered with URP – for a wide range of devices. We’ve also created an accompanying video tutorial that shows you how to use Unity tools and techniques for optimizing cross-platform games, using a VR game as the example.Introduction to the Render Graph in Unity 6: This video tutorial shows you how to create a dither effect Renderer Feature by using a Full Screen Shader Graph material with Render Graph's optimized resource management.URP in productionExplore recent examples of games made with URP across Unity versions.Cookie Cutter: Read how Subcult Joint leveraged URP’s 2D asset management and lighting tools to make Cookie Cutter, an irreverent beat-em-up Metroidvania with hand-drawn visuals.Bleak Sword DX: Solo developer more8bit reached new audiences for his mobile game Bleak Sword by launching on PC and console. Upgrading to URP helped him add visual polish to take advantage of additional processing power on consoles, without compromising the game’s retro look.Synth Riders: Kluge Interactive moved their rhythm-based XR to URP so they could launch on more VR platforms. Learn how the migration positioned them to work with the latest tech, including the Apple Vision Pro.Roundtable: Best practices for moving from the Built-in Render Pipeline to URP: Devs from Scopely, Anvil Game Studios, and Kluge Interactive share how they reached more players by switching to URP.High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) resourcesHDRP offers off-the-shelf high-fidelity graphics optimized for PC and high-end consoles. Unity 6 comes with new HDRP features and improvements like Sky Occlusion baking for APVs, Spatial-Temporal Post-Processing (STP) upscaling technology, GPU Resident Drawer with GPU Occlusion Culling, and more.Below, we’ve curated resources showcasing what HDRP in Unity 6 can unlock for your project. HDRP templates and sample projectsTime Ghost: The latest Unity Originals demo is a stunning showcase of what you can achieve in HDRP in Unity 6, highlighting advancements in visual quality, project complexity, and the practical use of machine learning workflows. Get started by downloading the Time Ghost: Character and Time Ghost: Environment packages.HDRP training sessions, technical talks, and webinarsTransitioning from the Built-in Render Pipeline to URP and HDRP: Get a rundown of the advantages of SRPs in production, plus how to upgrade from the Built-in Render Pipeline. This Unite 2024 session also includes expert tips and feedback from productions that made this highly beneficial transition.Time Ghost: How Unity 6 made it possible: The Unity Originals team breaks down their latest release into clear, understandable components, showing how they used essential Unity 6 features like the Entity Component System (ECS), Sentis, HDRP, and VFX Graph to create this highly realistic demo.HDRP e-books, guides, and documentationHDRP Documentation: Visit this microsite for technical instructions on getting started with the High Definition Render Pipeline.HDRP in productionExplore recent examples of games made with HDRP across versions.Harold Halibut: See how SLOW BROS. created a stunning game using thousands of hand-made objects and HDRP lighting tech from Unity 6.Den of Wolves: 10 Chambers’s Hjalmar Vikström and Svante Vinternatt discuss the new Unity 6 graphics features they’re using to build their dystopian co-op shooter.More Unity 6 graphics resourcesLevel up your graphics with help from technical experts at Unity and from our wider community.Graphics training sessions, technical talks, and webinarsAchieve your vision faster with technical artist tools in Unity 6: Discover how to quickly create a gameplay sequence using Unity 6’s updated VFX Graph, Shader Graph, and other artist-friendly tools. You’ll also get a primer on designing materials and visual effects, setting up post-processing, and creating a resolution-independent user interface.New lighting features and workflows in Unity 6: Watch this video to learn how to achieve high-quality results using APV, including best practices for lighting setup, how to fix common problems like light leaking, and how to use techniques like Scenario Blending and streaming to optimize for performance.Performance tips & tricks from a Unity consultant: Learn proven best practices from Nicolas Borromeo, a highly experienced consultant and author of the Hands-On Unity book. He covers common and consequential performance and how to avoid or resolve them, basics like UI and scripting performance, and advanced topics like memory consumption, Addressables, and URP.Graphics rendering: Getting the best performance with Unity 6: This Unite talk demonstrates how Unity 6’s powerful graphics optimization tools can minimize your game’s CPU and GPU rendering overhead while increasing frame rate and extending mobile battery life.CommunityUnity Discussions: Talk graphics with our product experts and other professional artists and developers in our community. Start finding answers to your questions by using these tags to narrow down your search:6-0, Built-in-Render-Pipeline, DirectX, Global-Illumination, Graphics, High-Definition-Render-Pipeline, Line-Renderer, Materials, OpenGL, Particle-System, Path-tracing, Post-Processing, Ray-Tracing, Scriptable-Render-Pipeline, Shader-Graph, Shaders, Shadows, Textures, Trail-Renderer, Universal-Render-Pipeline, Visual-Effect-Graph, VulkanDiscord: Join the Official Unity Discord to chat in real-time with artists and developers about creating different visual styles for your game. Unity Twitch: Go under the hood of Made With Unity games. Recent streams featuring games made using our SRPs include Crab God by Chaos Theory Games (HDRP) and Diplomacy is Not an Option by Door407 (URP).Unity Insiders: Follow community creators like Game Dev Guide, SpeedTutor, and Sunny Valley Studio for different approaches on creating graphics in Unity 6. Sakura Rabbit is also known for sharing her incredibly realistic 3D artwork made with Unity.Unity 6 documentationUnity User Manual: Everything you need to know about using the Unity Editor and Scripting API to create games and interactive experiences.Unity 6 upgrade guide: Understand how to upgrade your 2022 LTS project to Unity 6 while troubleshooting potential blockers.New in Unity 6: Learn what else is new in Unity 6 since 2022 LTS, including features from 2023.1, 2023.2, and Unity 6 Preview.

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Extend Your Holiday Success: Q5 Strategies for Mobile User Acquisition

While the holiday season remains a busy time of year with consumers being inundated with sales, deals, and general holiday rush, an often-overlooked time period for advertisers is between the day after Christmas and mid-January. This is otherwise known as Q5, where the rush of the holidays are over, but many are still gearing up for the new year.In this post, we'll explore:How Q5 offers a unique opportunity for mobile advertisers due to increased user activity and cost-effective advertisingStrategies to optimize ad creatives by generating topical content, using interactive ad formats, and updating custom store pagesWays to diversify user acquisition campaigns with ROAS or event optimizers, offerwall campaigns, Connected TV, and adjusted bidding based on holiday user patternsThe importance of capitalizing on the influx of new devices during the holidays to reach users early in their device setup journeyAdvertisers might overlook this time period due to the post-holiday lull, however data shows us that this time period is a recipe for opportunity. Q5 also allows advertisers to close out end of year KPIs, and leverage learnings well into Q1 and beyond.The Q5 opportunityData shows us that user behavior on mobile apps during the holidays can set the stage for an opportunistic Q5, with increased play time for mobile games, increased app sessions, and cost-effective advertising.Unity recently surveyed 4,094 U.S. adults aged 18+ mobile users and found that more than a third (36%) of respondents expect to increase their mobile gaming activity during the holidays.*In the same survey, 37% of all respondents said that on average, they’d be playing mobile games around 1-2 hours a day during the holidays**App sessions experience an uptick during Q5 across both iOS and Android, according to AppsFlyer and Meta survey dataIn Q5 specifically, post-holiday CPM rates were on average -15% below Oct 1, levels, average CPAs were down -4%, and average CVR was down -8%, according to Meta’s data.The mobile gaming surge from the holidays doesn’t stop there - the demand is still high from users, and advertising costs are typically lower, making Q5 an interesting opportunity for advertisers to seize ahead of rolling into Q1.Creative best practices for Q5Optimizing your ad creatives is one of the easiest and most impactful ways to enhance your mobile UA strategy. In this section, we'll explore tips and techniques to help you craft compelling ads that resonate during Q5.Generate creatives based on topical insightsHoliday-themed creatives can help spike IPM and boost eCPM, while providing players with a fresh, fun update to your game’s look and feel. But how can you carry themed creatives into Q5, when the holiday season is dwindling down?Try tapping into the mindset of where your users might be at by leveraging the new year and new beginnings mindset – new year, new challenges in your game! Layering in nods to the new year; resolutions, new beginnings, and celebration of achievements, can all provide a distinct post-holiday/new year distinction in your game.You can also look back at how your creatives were performing in Q4 and throughout the holidays to inform certain ad formats, length of creative, or type of creative to see what drove higher conversion rates.Focus on interactive ad formatsData from our Unity survey showed that 38% of all respondents said that rewarded ads and playable ads were ad formats they’d most likely engage with over the holidays.Leaning into engaging ad formats that give potential players a solid understanding of your game’s core mechanics is a great way to showcase your game and drive installs. Playable ads in particular offer people a chance at test-driving your game before committing, so ensure that you are giving enough time for players to get a good understanding of the game’s progression. We typically recommend making playable ads 20+ seconds long.To get started creating interactive ads, use the free Unity Playworks plugin for the Editor. This plugin allows you to leverage existing projects to easily create, customize, test, publish and analyze playable ads and interactive end cards, without needing additional code or resources.Developers can also seek guidance from creative professionals who specialize in game advertising, by working with Unity’s creative studio. Unity’s experts can provide a valuable look into competitive insights, creative concepts, and tailored recommendations to help optimize ad creatives for long-term success. Leveraging the studio’s knowledge and experience, developers can create compelling ads that showcase their game's unique features and attract high-quality users.Update your custom store pageCustom store pages allow advertisers to create a seamless user experience from first ad exposure all the way through to the App Store, by creatively customizing your app store page to match the ad your potential player may have seen. If you’re updating your ad creative to be Q5-themed, mirror your custom store page as well to provide consistency. Studios that leverage custom store pages see improved conversion and IPM.When running various creative formats and versions, you’ll want to ensure you’re A/B testing to see what’s resonating with your audience, and more importantly, what’s not.User acquisition best practices for Q5Equally important as optimizing your creative for Q5, is testing various UA campaign strategies. Let’s take a look at some ways to optimize UA campaigns for Q5.Diversify your UA campaign typesWith the rollover of engaged players during the holiday season into Q5, it could be beneficial to include campaign optimizers in your UA strategy to find high-quality players who will continually take action in your game. If you're not already using ROAS (return on ad spend) or event optimizers, Q5 could be the perfect time to test them out.ROAS-based optimizationROAS campaigns that optimize for Ad Revenue, IAP revenue, or both, can be an efficient way to acquire players at scale, and at an optimal price.With increased app sessions in Q5, introducing event optimization, such as tCPE (target cost per event), or tCPA (target cost per action), could be a great way to reach players who might be more inclined to take specific actions that you set within your game, like watching a certain amount of rewarded videos, or purchasing a set amount of currency.Event-based optimizationHow do you choose an event to target? We recommend choosing an action that your top 5–20% of users with the highest LTV complete within the first seven days of gameplay. It might help to look at what your high-value players have been doing over the holidays to inform your Q5 event optimization.Our data shows that over the last two years, advertisers across both Unity Ads and ironSource Ads networks have shifted their budget allocations to further diversify their campaigns by leveraging these optimizers.Offerwall campaignsAnother way to diversify could be acquiring players through the offerwall. As a rewarded marketplace, the offerwall enables advertisers to run event-based campaigns that cater to specific player engagement behaviors. Users acquired through the offerwall tend to have higher retention rates – users who find and convert on offerwall have 2-7x higher retention compared to non-offerwall users, as they are rewarded with high-value items like in-game currency for completing certain tasks.This approach is particularly effective in the post-holiday period when players might spend more cautiously, as it provides an alternative avenue to access premium in-game content by investing time rather than money. Additionally, you can wrap the offerwall with holiday themed creatives, and create time-sensitive offers that can help drive urgency.Connected TVAs the post-holiday lull sets in, people often find themselves with more downtime to watch their favorite shows. According to a Comcast report, over 60% of U.S. households who have connected TVs are turning to free ad-supported streaming services to watch their favorite shows***. This presents a unique opportunity for advertisers to reach audiences throughout Q5. By introducing Connected TV into your user acquisition mobile strategy, you can take advantage of this increased viewership.Adjust budget and bidding strategiesTake advantage of the holiday uptick in mobile gamers and expand your budget allocation. Adjust your bidding strategies to capitalize on the influx of new players and their increased time spent playing games.Try looking at user patterns throughout the holiday season to identify any trends in session lengths, retention rates, ad engagement, or IAP activity, which could help you further optimize your budget and bidding strategies going into Q5.One strategy to consider is adjusting bids and offering promotions on the offerwall during Q5. Our recent Tap4Fun case study, showed that by increasing bids and providing bonus rewards to users who completed offerwall events within a specific time frame, they were able to significantly increase their monthly spending and improve their return on ad spend. Developers can explore similar tactics to engage users and optimize their ad spend during this period when user activity is at its peak.Leverage the influx of new devices from the holidaysNew or upgraded mobile devices are a popular holiday gift. Not only do people love them, but telco companies tend to launch deals and promotions during the holiday season to incentivize people to buy. This surge in new devices presents a unique opportunity for advertisers, as our data shows that 95% of users install over 60% of their apps within the first 48 hours of unboxing a new device****.The period right after a user gets a new phone presents a valuable opportunity for advertisers to get their apps in front of new users. By leveraging innovative advertising solutions, such as Aura from Unity, apps and games can reach users from the moment they unbox their new phones and throughout the device lifecycle, delivering high-quality users, long-term engagement, and return on investment.With the influx of new devices during the holidays, running a campaign that positions your app right in front of users at one of the earliest touchpoints in their device setup journey can be a game-changer for your UA strategy. Seize the Q5 opportunityBy implementing a diversified UA strategy that includes optimizing ad creatives, capitalizing on increased user activity, and exploring innovative channels like offerwall and on-device advertising, advertisers can maximize their return on investment and set themselves up for long-term success.Don't miss out on the Q5 advantage – reach out to your dedicated account manager to start planning your UA strategy now. There’s no better time to hit the ground running and scale your mobile growth in the new year. * Source: Unity survey of 4,094 U.S. adults aged 18+, statement: “I will be playing mobile games more than usual.” 36% of total respondents.** Source: Unity survey of 4,094 U.S. adults aged 18+, statement: “On average, how long do you play mobile games per day during the holiday season?”*** Source: 2022 Comcast FAST Report**** Source: Aura from Unity, Android, from June 2023 to June 2024

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