Unity Technologies has officially hinted at the next major iteration of its engine, tentatively called Unity 7. During the recent Unite developer conference, Unity presented its future roadmap, including updates to Unity 6 and what to expect from Unity 7. The development of Unity 7 is already well underway, with over a year of progress made. While Unity 7 is still in its early stages, internal testing has begun, and Unity has shared some of the features we can look forward to.

Unity 7 represents a significant shift in the way the engine operates, with a focus on simplifying the complexity of existing pipelines and tools. As Unity moves away from the split between the built-in rendering pipeline, Universal Render Pipeline (URP), and High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), Unity 7 will bring these together under a unified renderer. The goal is to reduce fragmentation, streamline workflows, and provide developers with a more cohesive development experience.

The expected timeline for public alpha or beta testing of Unity 7 could be around two years from now, although Unity has not yet provided official release dates. Unity 6 will continue to receive updates for an extended period during this transition.

Section 2: Key Features of Unity 7

One of the primary focuses of Unity 7 is the unification of rendering pipelines. Currently, developers must choose between the URP for mobile and real-time projects and the HDRP for high-end applications. This fragmentation creates challenges when developing cross-platform games. Unity 7’s unified rendering system aims to resolve this by merging the functionality of both pipelines into a single, scalable solution.

In addition to the rendering overhaul, Unity 7 introduces a new animation system, which has been a long-requested feature by the developer community. The animation system will be more powerful and flexible, allowing for greater control over animated assets.

Another exciting feature is procedural terrain generation, which will integrate with the Shader Graph and provide non-destructive editing tools. This is seen as Unity’s answer to Unreal Engine’s Nanite technology.

Unity 7 also brings updates to the Shader Graph, with improved Shader authoring tools and unified Shader programming. These enhancements aim to streamline asset creation for developers, enabling them to author assets once for use across all platforms.

Section 3: Faster Iteration And Content Pipeline

Performance is a critical area of improvement in Unity 7. Unity has been limited by its reliance on the Mono runtime, which is outdated compared to modern standards. In Unity 7, the engine will transition to Microsoft’s Core CLR, which promises improved performance and up-to-date .NET features. Core CLR will power both the editor and the runtime environment, delivering better compilation speeds and faster iteration times.

The content pipeline is also receiving significant updates to reduce blocking operations during asset imports. Currently, importing assets can bring the Unity editor to a halt, which can slow down development. Unity 7 will introduce background importing and continuous asset builds, allowing developers to remain productive while their assets import seamlessly in the background.

These changes to the content pipeline, combined with Core CLR, will lead to faster development cycles, reducing wait times and increasing overall efficiency for developers working with large projects or frequent asset changes.

Section 4: ECS and Dots Integration

Unity 7 aims to fully integrate its Entity Component System (ECS) and Data-Oriented Technology Stack (Dots) into the engine’s core. ECS, which provides a more efficient way to manage game objects and components, has been optional in previous Unity versions, often requiring developers to use an additional layer to work with traditional game objects. Unity 7 will make ECS a fundamental part of the engine while still supporting traditional workflows.

This integration will allow developers to take advantage of the performance benefits of ECS without needing to make significant changes to their development processes. ECS enables parallel processing, which can dramatically improve performance, especially in large-scale games or simulations. Unity 7 will break down objects like transforms into components, making them parallelizable and thus speeding up processing times.

The goal is to offer the best of both worlds—developers who prefer working with traditional game objects will still be able to, but the engine will leverage ECS under the hood to improve performance automatically.

Section 5: Simplified Rendering Pipeline and UI Toolkit

The rendering system in Unity 7 is being overhauled to offer a more simplified approach. The complexity introduced by having multiple rendering pipelines in Unity 6 will be addressed by merging these pipelines into a single, unified renderer. This change aims to reduce confusion and streamline the development process for teams working across different platforms. Developers will be able to use one rendering solution that adapts to the specific needs of their project, whether they are targeting mobile, consoles, or high-end PCs.

Another key feature in Unity 7 is the introduction of a new UI Toolkit. Originally planned for Unity 6, this feature has been pushed back and will now be a core part of Unity 7. The new UI system promises to make it easier for developers to build flexible and responsive user interfaces that scale across different screen sizes. The combination of a simplified rendering pipeline and an improved UI Toolkit will make it easier to create visually consistent experiences across a range of devices.

Section 6: Future of Unity and What Developers Can Expect

Unity 7 marks a significant evolution in the Unity engine, providing developers with more powerful tools, faster workflows, and a simplified approach to game development. With the introduction of a unified renderer, Core CLR, and ECS integration, Unity 7 is poised to address many of the pain points developers have faced in previous versions of the engine.

For developers, the transition to Unity 7 will require adaptation, especially as some asset store products may struggle to stay compatible with the new systems. However, Unity 6 will continue to receive updates and support, ensuring that developers who are not ready to make the switch can continue working in a stable environment.

Unity is expected to begin alpha or beta testing of Unity 7 within the next year, with a full release potentially still a few years away. While there is no official timeline, developers can expect to see more updates from Unity in the coming months as the engine continues to evolve. Unity 7 promises to be a game-changer, and its release will set the stage for the future of game development.

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