[Solved] Unable to Import Blender Models & Textures

[bdmoakley]

Hey there, I left a few comments. Hopefully, you’ll find them helpful.

@instig

1. How long until we can expect the new version to release? Can we expect it this year? By Halloween?

We aim to get the new version out by the end of the year. I don’t have any more information about a timeline.

@instig

2. If one finished with Unity 2018.1, will they be disadvantaged if they transferred to Unity 2019? I’m just worried that there will be something drastically different, or, the thing that was written in the book, is no longer a viable approach. Essentially, will there be anything in 2019 that cannot be applied from learning Unity 2018?

Unity changes tend to be incremental but breaking changes can happen. Probably the biggest change since we wrote the book is the new prefab system. It’s much better, but a little harder to learn. Once you finish the book, you should read this free tutorial to get you up to speed.

https://www.raywenderlich.com/9330-how-to-use-the-new-unity-prefab-workflow

Unity is an evolving platform but the book doesn’t so much focus on version features as much as it teaches you how to think in Unity. While the editor and workflow may change, the big concepts will not.

@instig

3. The third question isn’t directly related, but I’m curious about this one: one of my biggest issues between Unity versions is compatibility. Already, I have seen problems importing the assets from the book in a later version. If I used the Asset Store, will I also have those issues? Will I be plagued with compatibility issues when using assets in the future?

It depends. For the most part, when working on small projects, you don’t run into these issues. I’m willing to bet the issue resides in our models which we’ll have an artist address and remove the Blender requirement. But this isn’t a common occurrence. We originally wrote the book in 2015 and this is the first model issue that I’ve seen.

But yes - some assets go out of date. Unity may change an API which will break things. Typically, game developers will stick with one version of Unity through development versus updating to the latest version. So yes, you’ll run into issues occasionally, but this is true with all software development.

@instig

4. Is there something I can do/read to fix the problem with BobbleEnemy-Body being messed up the way it is? Once that issue is fixed, the other problems can be easily adjusted.

This sounds like it’s not a Unity issue but a modeling issue. It’s incredibly rare that Unity will distort a model like that. It generally comes down to how a model is structured.

As for compatibility- it’s a project by project basis. For instance, Unity may change how the lighting works so when you update to the latest version, your game may look different or perform differently. Or Unity may change an API which makes the API better, but now all your scripts don’t work.

This is why upgrading a big project can be a big deal. For a small game like the tutorials we put on the site - the updates are pretty painless whereas a monster game like 7 Days to Die, engine updates can cause months of delays.

This is why Unity Hub exists. A Unity developer will typically have multiple versions of Unity installed on their system to support a variety of projects.

In any case, I hope that helps! Cheers!