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Unity launches Unity 2021 LTS for creators
Unity 2021 LTS delivers powerful improvements to workflows, rendering capabilities, and platform support to help you realize your creative ambitions. New enhancements prioritize quality, productivity, and performance for any platform, genre, or artistic style.
Today, we’re excited to announce that Unity 2021 LTS is available to download and use. This release represents more than a year of focused development across the entire Unity Editor and underlying foundational features. In 2021, we continued our commitment to putting quality first in order to make your experience working in Unity more stable, productive, and efficient than ever before.
The LTS release combines the features we rolled up in our Unity 2021.1 and Unity 2021.2 Tech Stream releases with an additional six months of quality polish. This means you can choose the Long Term Support version with confidence that you’ll experience highly dependable workflows and incredibly stable games that hum on any platform you target.
LTS releases are published annually, with two full years of support and biweekly updates to ensure you have the absolute latest fixes when you need them.
We focused Unity 2021 LTS development on four key areas.
First, we focused on offering more accessible workflows for all creators, regardless of their role in the project. This enables you to build immersive experiences more quickly by taking advantage of the improvements we’ve made on how you work in-Editor.
Integrated visual scripting is available in Unity 2021 LTS. Easily the most exciting feature in the release, this approach can benefit anyone, from non-coders who want more autonomy to seasoned programmers quickly prototyping new functionality. Most Unity scripting processes can be replicated through a visual drag-and-drop interface that allows you to create and prototype without having to write a line of code.
We’ve also improved how quickly assets are imported into the Editor and made it easier to manage PSD imports for 2D game components. Get through your worldbuilding phase faster with updates to Terrain Tools, and discover improvements to VFX Graph, Shader Graph, and Cinemachine.
Next, we wanted to give you the ability to iterate faster and produce higher-quality experiences for your players. We’ve upgraded workflows across the board, provided better Editor usability, and enhanced our testing tools.
Minimize time from design to hands-on creation by leveraging Feature Sets, which gather all the packages you need to start a project in a one-click bundle. Find what you’re looking for faster with improved search capability, and experience an added zippiness in common operations you use regularly.
Make sure your code is clean, performant, and high-quality with a new Mono upgrade, improved C# 8 support, and incremental builds that compile your project as you create it. A comprehensive Memory Profiler allows you to profile with multiple Players simultaneously.
Follow up that quality coding experience with tools that facilitate an equally high-quality output. In Unity 2021 LTS, you’ll find a mobile Device Simulator to check for compatibility on multiple devices. Use the production-ready Code Coverage package with the Test Runner to export code coverage data and reports from your automated tests. Additionally, the Code Coverage package offers a Coverage Recording feature that allows you to capture coverage data on demand for manual testing or when there are no automated tests in the project.
Our third area of development was to couple all the work on the Editor with an equal focus on improving graphics capabilities for your projects. Craft stunning visuals with a collection of powerful rendering solutions, all supported by a comprehensive ecosystem of graphical tools.
Our Universal Render Pipeline (URP) is optimized for maximum platform reach so your players can enjoy fantastic graphic fidelity regardless of their device. In Unity 2021 LTS, you’ll find upgrades to URP for Point Light shadows, Lens Flares, and decals.
If you’re looking to get the maximum performance for a specific platform, the improvements we’ve made to the High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP) include realistic cloud definition with Volumetric Clouds and Static Shadow Casting.
Craft stunning visuals with powerful rendering solutions supported by an ecosystem of tools. Push the limits of high fidelity with HDRP performance upgrades and features like NVIDIA DLSS for desktop and AMD FSR native support in URP.
Be where your players are with support for innovative new platforms and technologies. Expand your development capabilities with ChromeOS and macOS-based Apple silicon support, and achieve even more impressive results on the latest generation of PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S consoles. Develop for augmented and virtual reality worlds with OpenXR and Oculus enhancements, or create for mobile by optimizing with Samsung Adaptive Performance 3.0 and tap into seamless publishing with Android asset bundling.
