A dispute with engine maker Unity had created questions about the future of middleware SpatialOS' support of the Unity Engine. Now, with the disagreement coming to an amicable close, that is no longer in doubt.
Improbable, creators of SpatialOS, confirmed that support of the Unity Engine will continue after Unity stated yesterday that they had reinstated their license along with a change in terms of service. Improbable said in their blog post:
We are delighted to confirm that, following Unity’s recent commitment to a permanent open platform, work on the SpatialOS Game Development Kit (GDK) for Unity will continue to be one of our priorities, to support developers looking for a comprehensive multiplayer platform.Improbable also added that developers either currently creating and using SpatialOS with Unity or are considering its use are safe to use the platform. "We will ensure that SpatialOS continues to work with Unity," said the post. It is important to note that while you can use SpatialOS with Unity, Improbable is not, as of now, partnered with Unity meaning that Unity support cannot help with issues regarding the plugin. Improbable says they would like to become partnered with them but that would mark an even larger turn in relations after recent events.
This means that games such as Lazarus should be up and running again. Mentioned in our first article on this issue, we noted that Sensiga Studios was working on an unannounced MMO that used both Unity and SpatialOS. The future of the game was in question, but now things should return back to normal.
Improbable will also offer SpatialOS support for mobile games. Titles on mobile devices often do utilize Unity, and while mobile support is very early, it grants developers more opportunities to incorporate cloud-based multiplayer in their games.
Yesterday, Improbable also released a post about SpatialOS and how it works with engines. For the uninitiated, it is not a game engine, but something incorporated into the engine like Unity. They said:
SpatialOS is a cloud platform for developing and hosting multiplayer games. It empowers developers to create innovative games which are able to use more than one game server in a single instance. This means that games powered by SpatialOS can vary from smaller-scale session-based titles to persistent worlds with very large scale, high player count and much complexity.The future for Improbable, developers, and Unity looks bright with these new changes, and games that were in limbo should be back in production.
Are you happy with the outcome of this situation? What are your current thoughts on Unity? Let us know in the comments below.
