Unity3D - A Basic and Intermediate Work-Along Course

Install Unity 3D and complete setup with the Unity 3D installer, then configure the editor—MonoDevelop versus Visual Studio and coding preferences—and preview the module layout for upcoming sessions.

Learn the core Unity concepts by exploring scenes, game objects, and components, and see how the Unity editor uses the inspector to attach behaviors to objects.

Download and install Unity, select the plan, and configure the installer with documentation, standard assets, Visual Studio tools, Android and Mac build support, then start a new project.

Create your first Unity project by selecting new, naming your project, and choosing a location; pick two dimensional, or three dimensional, then add asset packages as needed and open it.

Organize the big six (the inspector, scene view, game view, console, project window, and hierarchy window) into a sensible default layout, then resize and position them for efficient design.

Explore the scene view in Unity3D to navigate and edit your environment, switch between 3d and 2d views, adjust shading, and toggle lighting for level and UI elements.

Navigate the Unity scene view with the transform toolbar and mouse shortcuts: scroll to move forward or back, right-click for free look, and alt-drag to pivot around center.

Master scene view navigation by creating a cube, then moving the camera behind it to see the other side, using two creation methods and object selection.

Explore the scene view to follow the cube assignment solution; practice behind-the-cube navigation using mouse three, zoom, and rotate with the right mouse button, noting the y zero point.

Study how the game view renders from the main camera, compare it with the scene view, and adjust aspect ratio and maximize on play to preview the final published game.

Learn to use Unity's project view as a basic file explorer to organize assets by type, create folders, import items, and switch between list and icon views.

Explore the console view in Unity3D for printing statements, debugging, and error logging; learn features like clear, collapse, clear on play, and pause on error for efficient debugging.

Navigate the hierarchy view that lists all scene objects and shows parent-child transform inheritance. Create child and empty objects, move them with gyros, and reorganize the hierarchy.

Model a house object in Unity, exploring hierarchy relationships by arranging four walls, a door, a window, and a door handle under an empty game object.

Create a Unity hierarchy by making an empty house object with four wall children, plus a window, a door, and a door handle, demonstrating reparenting and moving the entire structure.

Explore the inspector to manipulate components on a game object, focusing on the transform and the box collider. Learn to enable or disable components and access component documentation.

Master the inspector gear, reset components, and harness the transform's position, rotation, and scale, including how parent and child objects inherit these transforms.

Use the transformer component to transform objects into a working house, adjusting position, rotation, and scale to form a floor, four walls, and a pitched roof inside House.

Construct a house in Unity by organizing a floor and walls under a house object, and using the transform component to position, rotate, and scale, then add a pitched roof.

Explore using an empty parent object to organize a house hierarchy so child objects move together through translation and rotation, with prefabs enabling reusable shapes.

Explore materials, shaders, and textures to color and texture Unity objects, and practice scene management by instantiating cubes, resetting the camera, and using the inspector to enable or disable items.

Explore how to create and apply a basic Unity material to a cube, changing color and textures to control visual appearance and rendering properties.

adjust the color of the cube by tweaking the standard material's albedo and rendering mode, exploring shaders and textures to see real-time changes.

Learn to apply colors and textures with shared materials in Unity, and see how changing one material updates all linked objects, with tips on creating material instances.

Use the checkbox to re-enable the house in the hierarchy, then create multiple materials and assign both shared and individual materials to different elements where appropriate.

Enable the house, create floor, wall, and roof materials (shared and unshared), apply them with the inspector, adjust color and transparency, and create a reusable prefab.

Import a bitmap image into Unity as a 2D texture, create a material, and apply it to a quad with an unlit transparent shader while adjusting tiling and scale.

Complete a textures assignment by creating a traditional Unity 3D billboard with a cute pup, using various materials for each part and assembling it from standard Unity 3D components.

Build a traditional billboard in Unity3D using primitive objects. Organize assets by creating a materials folder and assemble a post and backboard with a Huskie model using a parent-child transform.

Learn how prefabs in Unity store a game object with its components, children, and values as reusable templates, enabling synchronized updates across copies and selective overrides.

Master prefabs by editing the template and its instances, propagate changes to all children, and preserve unique per-instance tweaks for efficient, varied game objects.

Create a small city using prefab buildings of varying sizes and billboards, remove all nonessential scene objects, and customize walls by creating new materials for the prefabs.

Design a small Unity city using prefab objects, customize houses and billboards, adjust materials and transforms, organize hierarchy, and preview how to move the city with user input.

Explore the basics of Unity lighting by examining directional, spotlights, area lights, and point lights, adjusting shadows, and ambient light to shape scenes.

Master the Unity main camera by configuring the camera component, tags, layers, culling mask, clear flags, skybox, and projection to craft unique, dynamic views.

Explore the Unity editor, add components, and experiment with a particle system on an empty object to understand behavior, visuals, and basic editor settings before coding.

Create your first c-sharp script in unity, naming it 'first script', via the right-click create menu, then double-click to launch monodevelop and start scripting object behavior.

Explore the Start method in Unity, attach a C# script to a game object, and print to the console to debug as play mode begins.

Explore how the update method runs once per frame to handle input, move the player with the up arrow, and coordinate multiple scripts on a single object.

Learn how Unity passes parameters from the editor to scripts and how to access components in a MonoBehaviour using two scripts on one game object.

Expose script variables to the Unity editor by making them public, then pass strings, numbers, booleans, game objects, and even other scripts to drive dynamic behavior.

Learn how to pass variables with the public keyword between scripts, access a game object transform component, and print transform data while exploring vector3, translate, and in-editor references.

Create a Simon script that takes a game object and a second script from the editor. Print the object's name, its transform, and the string script; compare to second script.

Discover how to implement a Unity assignment script by attaching it to a game object, using public variables, and printing the object name and x position.

Learn to gather user input in Unity 3D, including keyboard and mouse input and key press events, and apply it to move objects and adjust camera views.

Explore Unity's input system by using the Input class to detect any key or specific key presses, compare GetKey and GetKeyDown, and apply them in real-time updates.

Move a player object in Unity using the axis system and input class, reading horizontal and vertical axis values to translate with keyboard input.

learn to capture vertical and horizontal input, store them as movement values, and move a game object by translating its transform with a Vector3 in forward and right directions.

Learn to make movement frame-rate independent by scaling movement with time delta time, introduce a public speed variable and use a speed vector for consistent object translation.

Explore how physics makes a ball roll instead of sliding using Unity's rigid body and physics engine, moving in three-dimensional space and enabling an artillery-style game like Angry Birds.

Apply a rigid body to enable Unity's physics engine to handle collisions, gravity, and forces; learn to apply forces in fixed update for realistic motion.

Learn to use GetComponent to retrieve a rigidbody in Start, then move with physics by applying forces in FixedUpdate, using a private rb and null checks to guard.

Apply forward and horizontal forces to a rigid body using Unity's physics engine, using AddForce in fixed update to make a ball roll and move with speed and camera follow.

Practice physics by adding and manipulating rigid bodies, creating more cubes, adjusting mass and constraints, and observing how objects and the player interact in a growing Unity3D project.

Explore the turret game concept and the key capabilities to include. Review how we implement them and what the final game will look like.

Set up a new scene to build a physics-based turret game, create a target, and script rotation, panning, and firing cannonballs to aim and knock over objects.

Create a Unity turret using a base cube, a bulbous sphere, a rotating barrel, and a tip cube. Organize turret materials and colors, then prepare rotation and cannonball firing scripts.

Develop a turret controller in Unity to pitch and rotate turret top (ball, barrel, tip) with w a s d input, using rotate around the y axis and delta time.

Finish the turret's vertical rotation and switch to local space so up and down movement works with w and s, while keeping horizontal rotation and saving as a reusable prefab.

Learn how to instantiate cannonball prefabs in code, apply physics with a rigid body, and fire from a turret using the space bar, positioning new cannonballs at the gun tip.

Instantiate cannonballs with Rigidbody at the barrel tip in Unity, offset along the turret forward vector, and apply a force to launch them, ensuring a valid barrel tip reference.

Learn how to fire cannonballs in a turret game by applying force to a cannonball's rigid body and shooting along the turret forward direction, then destroy them after a delay.

Set up the game camera behind the turret, add objects with rigid bodies for collision, and enable cannonball firing as you instantiate objects for future enhancements in Unity3D.

Extend the turret game with camera manipulations that follow the latest cannonball at a fixed offset from its position, resetting to the initial view and a toggle to disable tracking.

Attach a barrel cam to the turret and use a render texture to display its view on a barrel cam window, enabling multiple cameras.

Explore translating ideas into a fully functioning Unity 3D turret game through a hands-on project, covering environment design, prefabs, rigidbody physics, input, and camera techniques.

Explore colliders in Unity, attach Rigidbody components with gravity, and observe how box colliders interact in play mode to drive the physics engine.

Enable trigger detection in Unity by using colliders and rigidbodies, learn how triggers differ from colliders, and implement OnTriggerEnter/Stay/Exit to detect and respond to objects.

Explore unity's UI system by building an overlay canvas with text and UI elements, while mastering screen space overlay, screen space camera, and anchors and input fields.

Wire up a UI text and an input field in Unity, pass references, and display trigger messages by setting the text to the input value, with dynamic updates.

Explore unity's ui system with a canvas and panels, adjust colors, opacity, and background images. See how panels act as containers and prepare to use triggers in the next class.