Gabriel Williams and Karl Henkel have been committed to creating convenient development tools so that they can be used for quick and easy level design directly in the Unity editor. Their works include: ProBuilder, ProGrids, Polybrush, etc. Now Gabriel Williams and Karl Henkel have officially joined Unity, and these toolsets have officially become part of Unity's creative toolsets.
In Unity 2017 , we have added powerful visualization tools such as Timeline, Cinemachine, and the new FBX exporter . We will continue to work hard to help artists, designers and developers to create and collaborate more efficiently. Now ProBuilder and Polybrush will officially become part of Unity's functional roadmap. There is no additional cost, and it can be used by all Unity subscribers.
ProBuilder
ProBuilder is a unique blend of 3D modeling and level design tools, and is optimized for building simple geometry, but it can also perform detailed editing and UV unfolding of the mesh as required. ProBuilder can help you quickly create prototypes of buildings, complex terrain, vehicles and weapons, or make custom collision geometry, trigger areas or navigation grids.
The main features of ProBuilder include: stretch and insert, procedural shapes, UV control in the scene, and unlimited editable shapes.
Stretch and insert
Procedural shape
UV control in the scene
Unlimited editable shapes
Since its release in 2012, it has been widely praised by developers, and has been used in well-known games such as "Tinertia", "Superhot", "Republique", and "STRAFE". The following is a collection of games that have used ProBuilder.
Polybrush
Polybrush allows you to mix textures and colors, and process meshes directly in the Unity editor. Polybrush is currently in beta and has just gained new features in the latest iteration, and now it allows the use of highly customizable brushes to spread objects in the world.
The main features of Polybrush include: blending textures, drawing vertex colors, spreading detailed meshes, and sculpting geometry.
Mixed texture
Draw vertex color
Scattered detail grid
Sculpted geometry
ProGrids
ProGrids provides you with a grid with both visibility and functionality, which can be adsorbed in 3 axes. ProGrids can improve the speed and quality of level production, making level production very fast, simple and accurate. It is especially convenient for modular or tile-based environments, and you will find that it can significantly speed up the workflow and improve the quality of various tasks.
Combining ProBuilder, Polybrush and ProGrid together is a complete in-editor level design solution for faster and more accurate geometry construction.
Of course, you can also take advantage of Unity's feature of seamless collaboration with other digital content creation tools (such as Maya), and use your familiar and favorite tools to further optimize and polish the model.
How to get
As mentioned earlier, these tools will be available to all Unity subscription plan users from now on without any additional fees. Here is how to get them.
ProBuilder is being integrated into the Unity 2018.1 beta version, and its test version is now available through the new Asset Pack Manager. Enter the Unity editor, select "Window>Package Manager" from the top menu, click "All", then select ProBuilder, and click Install.
For Unity 2017.x and Unity 5.6 versions, ProBuilder will download the resource package from the Asset Store and add it to your project. But please note: ProBuilder will no longer develop new features in the asset store, and only supports bug fixes. All new features will be added to Unity 2018 and later versions. We will end support for Unity 5.6 at the end of March 2018.
Polybrush is still in the testing phase, and the new version is still available from the Asset Store. We plan to integrate Polybrush and ProGrids directly into Unity at some point in 2018.
If you purchase ProBuilder, Polybrush, and ProGrids before being integrated into Unity, you will find that the resource pack is now deprecated. Other tools ProGroups, QuickDecals, QuickEdit and QuickBrush have been deprecated. You can still access it through the Asset Store resource library, but this resource pack will no longer receive any updates.