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• 1 media/city.gif media/city_scene.png 2017-10-02T19:51:53-07:00 BEYOND GAMES 13 image_header 2017-10-23T17:34:20-07:00

        Unity has been doing much more than simply providing game-making tools. From data visualizations to real-life simulations, users can find a number of non-game resources in Unity’s non-games gallery. One interesting software using Unity in alternative ways is Roames, developed by Fugro, a company based in Brisbane, Australia.
    Roames is a lofty project that aims at creating layered representations of real-world locations for both the public and private sectors. The virtual environments are developed by doing monthly fly-overs the place of interest with an onboard camera. The equipment creates a point map of elevations and terrain, that is then analyzed and made into reference to form 3-dimensional models using a Unity program.
  From the final visualization, users are able to determine street dimensions, encroaching vegetation, power line height, and much more, so it is easy to see how this could become an important asset for urban development in the future.
  The specific reasons why Fugro chose to work with Unity are its pre-made AR/VR capabilities and the fact that the engine's software is open-source, allowing people to fork (modify it to a certain degree) whenever their projects need it.
    This generosity comes as no surprise, since Unity truly aligns itself with the spirit of hacktivism  by promoting knowledge accessibility in massive-scale. The already mentioned tutorials are testament to that, but for those interested in getting serious about games as a career, there are plenty of formal learning opportunities with Unity and even certifications that increase the individual's professional value.

  ​  Parallel to that, Unity is committed to improving game tech in general and offers graduate students researching machine learning a grant -the Unity Global Graduate Fellowship - in the value of USD 30,000.
  If that wasn’t enough, Unity has also been engaged in social causes that push for a more connected, free and tolerant world. One such example is the Unity Without Borders program, that provides 50 game-developers from impacted nations with a chance to attend the Unity Europe Conference. Among the benefits of the program are visa sponsoring, plane tickets, hotel stays, tickets to the event and a daily allowance.

    These facts, however, do not confer universal approval and Unity has faced its fair share of faultfinders. We will see next what are the arguments against Unity in the following segment: Critics