Looks like Unity 4.3 is finally out of beta! http://unity3d.com/unity/whats-new

I've been looking forward to an integrated 2D module for ages, so it's damn exciting to see it finally come out. I've been considering playing about with Unity for a while, but the lack of a 2D module (well, one that wasn't cobbled together with marketplace plugins) has always driven me off. Well, that and the high price, which this doesn't exactly solve...

There's reports that you can also import 2D Toolkit projects into the new built in support - Anyone been brave enough to try this yet?

I'm going to download a copy and play about with it, but how's it looking to those with Unity experience?

I've been waiting impatiently for it for a few months now. 4.2.2 was a disappointment, especially with all the hype around 4.3.

Downloading it is probably the first thing I'll do in the morning. I hope it doesn't disappoint. The detailed release notes seem to touch so many systems, and the jump from the crappy old 2.x MonoDevelop to 4.x may mean it is time to stop using visual studio as the editor (but probably not).

I've got mine downloading for when I get home.

I've been playing around with it for the last few days. Having never used Unity before it's a little overwhelming to get started, but now that I'm getting used to it I'm starting to like it.

What I like:

• Entity/Component style architecture is fantastic.
• The animation tool is amazing.
• The sprite packer/atlas has some really handy tools for optimizing graphics. I'm still not 100% sure though how you determine which images end up in which file so you don't have to keep binding textures to the spritebatch.

What I don't like:

• Since Unity has done 3D for so long, it can be confusing which tools are meant for 2D and which are for 3D. If I want to make a rectangle with just a colour it seems like I have to go into the 3D tools and create a quad. I guess it makes sense once you get used to it.
• Not really Unity's fault, but trying to find help online can get real confusing given the generic search of "Unity 2D". I actually wish they would come up with a code name like "Unity Fire" or something silly just to separate SEO from all the other stuff online. Most of the time I end up with tutorials which apply to other tools like 2D Tookit.

Right now I'm trying to figure out how to get it to work on different phones with different resolutions, but I think I'm getting closer to an answer. Overall I'd say I'm super impressed by the 2D module, it's just going to come down to (for my purposes at least) how it runs on phones.

I'm *REALLY* happy to see the long lost of bug fixes. I am currently focusing on mobile which is why 4.2.2 was disappointing; it was supposed to be a bug fix release but it didn't actually fix many bugs. So far it looks like all the big known bug issues are better, including the really annoying flickering shadows.

Performance is much better on complex scenes. They had been talking up their new culling system and mobile device processing improvements for months, and the work certainly shows on the hardware. Good job Unity Devs.

I like how they didn't break everything when adding 2D. All the new 2D support is nice and I'm sure many pixel artists are thrilled at the prospect of new jobs, but right now most games using the engine are 3D. The ever-present 2D button on the Scene view is mildly annoying since I'm working on 3D stuff, but understandable because this is a first pass and it was bound to have some mild annoyances. I was a little worried that existing features would suddenly turn 2D-centric. So far there are just some menu items and that one ever-present 2D button that I don't see how to turn off.

The new MonoDevelop 4 is WAY better than the old MonoDevelop 2. Not enough to make me give up UnityVS (the tool that integrates Visual Studio with Unity) but it is enough that the tool looks usable. I am guessing that when I need to use MonoDevelop, it likely won't feel quite as painful.

Morph targets are something animators are certainly cheering about, but for a programmer not so much. They can now target their morphs... or something. For my hobby projects regular skeletal animation is good enough.

I can tell there were some incremental visual changes that were made, but nothing that I really notice. I hate it when companies randomly decide to rip out great features or dramatically change the look with no option to keep the old styles. This still feels and acts basically the same.

Other than that it still looks like unity, which is a good thing.

I just saw this:

And Im like..."holy fucking shit O___O"

[edit]

Well, the guys did an epic real time 2d game editor (far superioir than unity, it seems), and both the game and engine are open source..(actually, if I get it correctly, the game comes with editor capabilities built in)