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Add to SafariWhen comparing GLBasic vs Unity 2D, the Slant community recommends Unity 2D for most people. In the question“What are the best 2D game engines?” Unity 2D is ranked 7th while GLBasic is ranked 76th. The most important reason people chose Unity 2D is:
2D game creation was a major feature request from the Unity community and was added with version 4.3. 2D is provided in both the Pro and Free distribution of Unity.
Specs
Question Ranking
Pros
Pro Easy to develop with
Language is easy to use, with a fast compiler.
Pro Fast 2D
Pro Easy to learn
Pro Support
Forum support is great. No advertising in program or forums. Company has been going for over 10 years.
Pro 3D
Unlike most multi-platform development systems, 3D is available across most of them.
Pro Multi-platform
Code can be written once and will work on supported platforms with very little modification.
Pro No hidden fees
PC version is free.
Full Multi-platform version requires one-off very reasonable price, and all further updates are free, however you can run a watermarked demo on your chosen platform with the free demo version.
Pro C/C++ support
C/C++ code can be included inline or as a DLL/.o/dylib file.
Pro HTML 5 compiling is now faster and works better
Pro Default GUI system works fine, and has all the needed widgets needed
Only problem is position is based on position of previous widget.
Pro Compiler is fast and produces efficient code
Pro Free for home development
Create apps for non commercial 2D programs running on Windows, Linux and Mac OSX. The extension to create programs for other platforms, 3D or network applications requires a license key. Otherwise the "Premium" programs are limited to 10 min runtime for test purposes. There is no trial limit for the development environment.
Pro Networking
Easy-to-use networking system with either TCP or UDP.
Pro Books
Programmers reference guide, user guide and various others are free.
Pro Gaming related functions
Viewports, sprites, rotating/animating and zooming sprites, collision detection and pathfinding.
Pro Built into Unity 4.3+
2D game creation was a major feature request from the Unity community and was added with version 4.3. 2D is provided in both the Pro and Free distribution of Unity.
Pro Integrates with Mecanim
Mecanim brings state machines and blending to 2D bone animation. The state machine editor allows for designers and programmers to visually create a Finite State Machine (FSM) to control when animations should play. Mecanim also allows for blending so an animation can transition smoothly between two states without the need of in between frames made by an animator.
Pro Sprite Sheet and Bone based animation supported
Both types of 2D animation for game development are supported in Unity’s system and can be used interchangeably in the timeline.
Pro Easily change sprites dynamically
Usually used for character customization, programmers can change any sprite in a bone animation at runtime easily by referencing the bone and loading the new sprite from the resources folder.
Cons
Con Command set has hardly changed or been updated/improved over the years
Con Poor 2d collision detection with rotated sprites
2d sprite rotation with collision detection isn't present and requires some annoying run-arounds to achieve what is a staple of other game engines.
Con No multi-platform editor
Whilst Linux and Mac IDE's were started, they were never completed.
Con No clear way to monetize apps
It's impossible to place ads. There is a third party in-app purchase library hidden somewhere deep within the forums which hasn't been updated for years.
Con Issues don't get fixed
The Blender exporter and the 3D converter have been broken and remain unfixed for years.
Con Only supports .ddd 3D format
This format does not support bones and only keyframe animation. 3d files will become extremely large if there are animations in models.
Con HTML 5
HTML 5 compiling is rather slow, and doesn't allow all GLBasic features
Con Poor GUI creation library
Its library for GUI creation is abysmal and not acceptable.
Con Poor documentation
There is next to no documentation on using OpenGL commands in GLBasic.
Con Lacks critical features
- Vertices can't be animated, so you can't have ANY organic feel (like... lungs breathing).
- Parent bone can't be animated without affecting the children. This is especially impeding for organic feel, again.
- No option to show & unshow assets (or it is hidden), like for switching weapon on your character for exemple.
Con Poor script interface for texture atlases
Accessing individual sprites within an atlas texture is possible at runtime, but requires use of the Resources folder subsystem.
