Discover the latest features of Unity 2021 and dive deeper into the nuances of professional game development with Unity Key Features Discover the latest features of Unity 2021 including coverage of AR/VR development Follow practical recipes for better 2D and 2D character development with Unity GameKits Learn powerful techniques and expert best practices in building 3D objects, textures, and materials Book DescriptionIf you are a Unity developer looking to explore the newest features of Unity 2021 and recipes for advanced challenges, then this fourth edition of Unity Cookbook is here to help you. With this cookbook, you'll work through a wide variety of recipes that will help you use the essential features of the Unity game engine to their fullest potential. You familiarize yourself with shaders and Shader Graph before exploring animation features to enhance your skills in building games. As you progress, you will gain insights into Unity's latest editor, which will help you in laying out scenes, tweaking existing apps, and building custom tools for augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) experiences. The book will also guide you through many Unity C# gameplay scripting techniques, teaching you how to communicate with database-driven websites and process XML and JSON data files. By the end of this Unity book, you will have gained a comprehensive understanding of Unity game development and built your development skills. The easy-to-follow recipes will earn a permanent place on your bookshelf for reference and help you build better games that stay true to your vision. What you will learn Discover how to add core game features to your projects with C# scripting Create powerful and stylish UI with Unity's UI system, including power bars, radars, and button-driven scene changes Work with essential audio features, including background music and sound effects Discover Cinemachine in Unity to intelligently control camera movements Add visual effects such as smoke and explosions by creating and customizing particle systems Understand how to build your own Shaders with the Shader Graph tool Who this book is forIf you're a Unity developer looking for better ways to resolve common recurring problems with recipes, then this book is for you. Programmers dipping their toes into multimedia features for the first time will also find this book useful. Before you get started with this Unity engine book, you'll need a solid understanding of Unity's functionality and experience with programming in C#.

The world of esports in education is booming, and the field needs empirical studies to help ground much of what is going on in the field. Over the last couple years, there appears to be a large amount of anecdotal evidence surrounding esports and its role in education, but researchers, teachers, coaches, and organizations need peer-reviewed, research-based evidence so they can evolve the field at large. As the amount of esports teams and organizations continues to rise, so will the need for the field to provide empirical research about esports and education and the effect it has on students and those who partake in it. Esports Research and Its Integration in Education is an essential reference source for those interested in educational research related to esports topics as they are approached through multiple ages of schooling and infused throughout a variety of content areas and research methodologies. The book covers empirical studies that help practitioners to understand how esports is developing within and around learning institutions and what the impact may be on students and their contemporary educational experiences. Covering topics such as college and career readiness, literacy practices, and urban education, this text is essential for stakeholders involved in the rise of esports, administrators, teachers, coaches, researchers, students, and academicians.

Explore the world of augmented reality development with the latest features of Unity and step-by-step tutorial-style examples with easy-to-understand explanations Key Features Build functional and interactive augmented reality applications using the Unity 3D game engine Learn to use Unity's XR and AR components, including AR Foundation and other standard Unity features Implement common AR application user experiences needed to build engaging applications Book DescriptionAugmented reality applications allow people to interact meaningfully with the real world through digitally enhanced content. The book starts by helping you set up for AR development, installing the Unity 3D game engine, required packages, and other tools to develop for Android (ARCore) and/or iOS (ARKit) mobile devices. Then we jump right into the building and running AR scenes, learning about AR Foundation components, other Unity features, C# coding, troubleshooting, and testing. We create a framework for building AR applications that manages user interaction modes, user interface panels, and AR onboarding graphics that you will save as a template for reuse in other projects in this book. Using this framework, you will build multiple projects, starting with a virtual photo gallery that lets you place your favorite framed photos on your real-world walls, and interactively edit these virtual objects. Other projects include an educational image tracking app for exploring the solar system, and a fun selfie app to put masks and accessories on your face. The book provides practical advice and best practices that will have you up and running quickly. By the end of this AR book, you will be able to build your own AR applications, engaging your users in new and innovative ways. What you will learn Discover Unity engine features for building AR applications and games Get up to speed with Unity AR Foundation components and the Unity API Build a variety of AR projects using best practices and important AR user experiences Understand the core concepts of augmented reality technology and development for real-world projects Set up your system for AR development and learn to improve your development workflow Create an AR user framework with interaction modes and UI, saved as a template for new projects Who this book is forThis augmented reality book is for game developers interested in adding AR capabilities to their games and apps. The book assumes beginner-level knowledge of Unity development and C# programming, familiarity with 3D graphics, and experience in using existing AR applications. Beginner-level experience in developing mobile applications will be helpful to get the most out of this AR Unity book.

The global gaming market, due to numerous technological advancements in social media networking and live-streaming video, has exploded in recent years. However, this newly acquired popularity has left many industry professionals pondering a difficult enigma: How does this affect the professional world? Implications and Impacts of eSports on Business and Society: Emerging Research and Opportunities provides innovative research exploring the immersion of competitive electronic sports and applications within global marketing, business, and society. Featuring coverage on a broad range of topics such as social networking, sponsorship branding, and risk management, this book is ideally designed for sports and entertainment practitioners, communications professionals, marketers, business consultants, researchers, professionals, and students seeking current research on potential business opportunities in the eSports industry.

Learn animation programming from first principles and implement modern animation techniques that can be integrated into any game development workflow Key Features Build a functional and production-ready modern animation system with complete features using C++ Learn basic, advanced, and skinned animation programming with this step-by-step guide Discover the math required to implement cutting edge animation techniques such as inverse kinematics and dual quaternions Book DescriptionAnimation is one of the most important parts of any game. Modern animation systems work directly with track-driven animation and provide support for advanced techniques such as inverse kinematics (IK), blend trees, and dual quaternion skinning. This book will walk you through everything you need to get an optimized, production-ready animation system up and running, and contains all the code required to build the animation system. You'll start by learning the basic principles, and then delve into the core topics of animation programming by building a curve-based skinned animation system. You'll implement different skinning techniques and explore advanced animation topics such as IK, animation blending, dual quaternion skinning, and crowd rendering. The animation system you will build following this book can be easily integrated into your next game development project. The book is intended to be read from start to finish, although each chapter is self-contained and can be read independently as well. By the end of this book, you'll have implemented a modern animation system and got to grips with optimization concepts and advanced animation techniques. What you will learn Get the hang of 3D vectors, matrices, and transforms, and their use in game development Discover various techniques to smoothly blend animations Get to grips with GLTF file format and its design decisions and data structures Design an animation system by using animation tracks and implementing skinning Optimize various aspects of animation systems such as skinned meshes, clip sampling, and pose palettes Implement the IK technique for your game characters using CCD and FABRIK solvers Understand dual quaternion skinning and how to render large instanced crowds Who this book is forThis book is for professional, independent, and hobbyist developers interested in building a robust animation system from the ground up. Some knowledge of the C++ programming language will be helpful.