New Unity Sample Assets

Unity Engine

Unity is updating the “Standard Assets” packages that come bundled with Unity, and renaming them as “Sample Assets”. Before the next version of Unity, when the new assets are integrated with Unity itself, Unity Technologies is releasing a beta version for users to try out.

On Friday, Unity tweeted this announcement:

A big update for our Sample Assets beta is up! Check out all the new features and fixes: http://t.co/fVhnwTwu8X #unity3d

— Unity for Games (@unitygames) February 13, 2014

This was followed up with another tweet a couple hours later:

Have fun with the updated version of our Sample Assets beta! The whole package is free at the #AssetStore: http://t.co/sXLIF4g5Nn #unity3d

— Unity for Games (@unitygames) February 13, 2014

So if you are interested in trying out the new assets, check them out!

New Features

The major new items in the Sample Assets include:

• A New First Person Character, using a standard rigidbody, with configurable head-bob and footstep effects.
• A New Third Person Character, which is Mecanim-based, with root-motion.
• A Sample 2D Character, sprite-based, with a platform test scene.
• Usable Camera Rigs, including an automatic follow cam and a free-look camera.
• Car controller with a sample scene, flexible enough to simulate front, rear and four-wheel drive vehicles, SUVs, Karts and Forklift Trucks.
• Aeroplane scripts to set up a forward-flying aircraft, with optional ailerons, rudders, etc.
• Cross Platform Input Example, showing how to publish to desktop, web and mobile from the same project.
• AI-controlled versions of each of the character, cars, and planes included.
• Prototype Environment, useful for quickly blocking out level designs.

Here is a few updates that are included as well:

* Added simple arcade style 2-axis aircraft control example.
* Added “Handheld Camera” prefab. Has realistic fuzzy tracking of object, and auto zoom to fit target in view.
* Updated mobile particle effects for better performance.
* Character model (Ethan) re-skinned, fixed bone weights, joint orientations and interactions, and blending errors.
* Fix for first-person controller so it sticks to ground when running up/down slopes.
* Better cursor locking handling.
* Fixed camera in car scene, so loop-the-loop is possible!
* Added menu item in Cross Platform Input so user can choose between mobile/standalone input when testing in editor with a mobile build target selected.
…as well as other bugfixes and modifications.

Get It

The Sample Assets Beta can be downloaded from the Unity Asset Store.