Unity Technologies -- provider of the Unity development platform for interactive 3D content on the web, iPhone, iPad, Mac, PC, Android, Wii, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3, announced that Unity 3 is available.

According to David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies, among the dozens of new features in Unity 3 are:

° Unified Editor, which lets you deploy to any supported platform from one project in one editor;

° Beast Lightmapping, the industry's strongest lightmapper;

° Deferred rendering -- AAA class rendering available on web, consoles and standalone;

° Occlusion culling -- a completely new Umbra-powered PVS solution;

° Source-level debugger that offers single step through code, variable inspection and other development painkillers;

° Audio filters that let you perfect FMOD-powered ambiance effects with integrated editing;

° Lens effects -- AAA post filters ready for use in games or to be studied in source form.


For version 3, Unity Technologies has kept Unity, its entry level product, free for commercial use. Its premier product, Unity Pro, will retain its current price of US$1,500 per developer seat. Current Unity Pro owners will be able to upgrade to version 3.x for $750.

Unity iPhone and Unity iPhone Pro will be available for pre-order immediately at similar discounts: $300 per seat for new licensees of Unity iPhone ($100 per seat for 1.x upgrades) and $1,200 per seat for new licensees of Unity iPhone Pro ($500 per seat for 1.x upgrades). To get the free and feature-packed Unity for creating games and interactive visualizations, visit http://unity3d.com/unity/download .