Unity Development in Practice

This book is the Chinese translation of Unity 4.x Cookbook, published in 2014 by China Machine Press as part of its Game Development and Design Technology Series. It has 11 chapters and 291 pages, organized as practical recipes in a problem-solution-discussion format. Built around Unity 4.x, a cross-platform game engine, it presents more than 100 small, hands-on examples covering the entire development chain, from installation, interface, and project management to cameras, materials, GUI, animation, audio, external data, and performance optimization. Specifically, Chapter 1 walks readers through installing Unity 4.x, setting preferences, and understanding the interface, and explains Prefabs, asset import and export, and custom packages. Chapter 2 focuses on multi-camera techniques, including picture-in-picture, camera switching, lens flare, generating textures from screen content, zoomable cameras, inspection cameras, and minimaps. Chapter 3 covers textures and materials such as reflective materials, self-illuminating materials, specular and transparent maps, cookie textures, and runtime-generated textures. Chapter 4 concentrates on GUI, including digital and analog clocks, compasses, radars, inventory icons, countdown timers, mouse wheel input, and custom cursors. Chapter 5 centers on the Mecanim animation system, covering Avatar configuration, Root Motion and blend trees, animation layers and mask blending, attaching rigid props, throwing objects, and ragdoll physics. Chapter 6 discusses playback control for sound effects and music, volume control, and dynamic soundtracks. Chapter 7 addresses external assets and devices, such as downloading assets from the Internet, saving with PlayerPrefs, saving screenshots, controlling characters with Kinect, and PHP/MySQL leaderboards. Chapter 8 covers reading, writing, and serializing external text and XML data. Chapter 9 discusses object state management and movement control, including orientation behaviors, seeking and fleeing, flocking, spawn point selection, waypoint following, and the state pattern. Chapter 10 presents optimizations and additional features such as pause, slow motion, profiling, object pooling, coroutines, and caching. Chapter 11 introduces Pro version capabilities such as depth of field, rearview mirrors, in-scene video playback, and audio filters. It should be noted that this book targets the Unity 3.x/4.x era, and some APIs and interface elements differ from current Unity versions; readers should consult official documentation and adjust accordingly when practicing.