From Flash to Unity

[semyonkirov 29,038]

As all of you know, Tanki Online started its journey in 2008. Right from the start it was decided that the game would be based on Flash. Firstly, it was a convenient tool that had many built-in features. Secondly, Flash was extremely popular, 99% of PCs had it installed.

Another important thing was the fact that key programmers of the company had been working with Flash for a lot of time before, we knew the technology and there was no risk of pitfalls.
We knew that we could develop a Flash game that would work in real 3D. A game that would work smoothly on basically any PC and wouldn't require any installations. Just open a browser, and there you are, playing.

It was decided that the game would be based on an in-house development, Alternativa3D engine. Other technologies available at the time simply didn’t meet our requirements. In the meantime, Alternativa3D was very productive for its time and provided correct sorting of polygons, which was a serious issue at that moment. Moreover, it was able to provide players with decent graphics without hardware acceleration.

The engine was constantly developing, there were several versions of it, the most important of them are Alternativa3D 3, 5 and 7. 3rd and 5th versions weren't widely used, just for some technical demos. Interestingly, AlternativaEditor is based on Alternativa3D 5, while Tanki Online uses Alternativa3D 7.

Interestingly, many years ago we were thinking of moving to Unity which had a lot better performance than Flash at that time.

However, after some time Adobe released 3D API Molehill that allowed the use of GPUs to process graphics in Flash games. The performance issue was solved. Moreover, Unity was almost unavailable in browsers, so it was decided to stick to Flash.


One of several teams of programmers that is focused on working with Unity.

And now, years later, we've decided to move to Unity once again. This is largely due to the fact that we have a new goal ahead of us, creating a global gaming social network. The task is really challenging and time-consuming. It was decided to develop the new version of Tanki and its graphics on Unity right from the start. The technology is growing rapidly, its creators have a clear strategy of development and follow it. At the same time, Flash is standing still. As a result, we allocate lots of resources to optimizing and tweaking the content. We are not willing to spend resources on creating solutions from scratch.

Unity, being a professional multiplatform engine for developing games, has several advantages that also let us to save a lot of time and resources:
— the main advantage of Unity is that it’s cross-platform engine that allows you to make a game for all kinds of platforms (PCs, smartphones, tablets, consoles);
— Unity provides us with ready solutions that can be implemented as they are or slightly adjusted to suit our needs, which results in faster development of the game and its features;
— There is no need to create a physics engine from scratch. We can adapt the existing one;
— Technologies that Unity provides allow us to implement the new graphics and adapt it for both PCs and mobile devices.

Unity is conquering the world. More and more game studios create their new games on Unity.
Before deciding to move to Unity we analyzed our audience and found out that 43% of our players already have Unity installed on their PCs which is a lot.


A lot remains to be done but we get closer and closer to the target with every day.

Currently we are developing the following components of the game: server platform, combat mechanisms, the game’s interface and graphics. Stay tuned for more news about the process of development!

[MisterGeneral 692]

Keep up the good work :)

[vanshajwore 324]

Nice!

[Eragon 13,876]

3! Cool!

How long until Unity will be out? Also lots of people like flash more, most players don't like to download stuff from web,can't tanki stay with flash? 

Edited March 21, 2014 by eragon33

[JL6H 1,220]

Epic :d

[AngeIs.And.Demons 1,988]

Nice... Can we have download link?

[vanshajwore 324]

Player vanshajwore has been warned. Reason: Misinforming players. Rules

Edited March 21, 2014 by FederalBureauFBI

[jake432 0]

nice!  :)

[Uliuliu 637]

leave the graphics as they are now, please.

[dandrr 5]

Hi guys, any news for linux users?

[sebytto 53]

Really cool they are working hard !!

[gazatron30 513]

Social Network? I dunno...Good work though!

[gazatron30 513]

leave the graphics as they are now, please.

They can't if they are moving to unity, I think.

[ll.SILVER.ll 456]

I probably heard that unity player takes ages to load. What if I had to refresh the page?
Do I have to wait again for that whole loading to be done again?

Edited March 23, 2014 by ll.SILVER.ll

[Miahak 1,596]

good news. :), i have UnityWebPlayer.

Edited March 21, 2014 by I.Pro.the_best_re

[Miahak 1,596]

I probably heard that unity player takes ages to load. What if I had to refresh the page?

Do I have wait again for that whole loading to be done again?

well, i think it will not take that long to load but the thing is most people don't have unity.

[FURNO2488 0]

I probably heard that unity player takes ages to load. What if I had to refresh the page?

Do I have wait again for that whole loading to be done again?

I downloaded it to play a game, it did not take that long to download, but that was only in my computer. It took about 3-5 minutes

[ll.SILVER.ll 456]

^^ well I have played online games that runs by Unity Player but it's totally different story of what you've said

 

That was the reason I asked if Tanki would take that long too for loading?

Edited March 21, 2014 by ll.SILVER.ll

[Mr.SV.ENS 738]

Can't wait :)

[GreatIraan 647]

Dear Devs,

 

Please give us more details.

I know that this versions of the game on Unity are amazing.

But surely it needs for more internet speed, therefore there will be more lags in game!

Note that the lags are the worst problem of players,  yet!

Do you think that it is not necessary the game as a software? 

In other mean, users can run this software in the PC,... and connect to Tanki servers,

This can surely decrease the lags in the game.

 

Best,

Great Iran

Edited March 21, 2014 by GreatIraan

[Aero.v2.0 1,456]

Best of luck!

[killyoudie 8]

use Flash and Unity! it's a good idea ...

but i'm concerning about this ... will you stand it?

Flash was extremely popular, 99% of PCs had it installed.

you gonna lose like 99% players online in a day just for waiting for them to download unity softwares...

 

anyway, it's great to have a new software like unity to play the game because you don't have to INSTALL FLASH to play it now!

Edited March 21, 2014 by killyoudie

[rokar123 11]

Good work! :)

[r_goldboxer1230 15]

This is great news !

BTW. The guy who is sitting in the left looks like Macklemore LOL

[r_goku8900 45]

unity is better i use it sometimes to o anything for my delf :D