koobas.hobune.stream
Creating Non-Game Apps with Unity
I'm in a unique position to create a business app for my current employer and I would like to do so in Unity. I have searched, but can't find too many resources on making non-game apps with Unity -- are there resources anyone can point me toward?
I would like to disable all non-essential features in the engine (such as 3D, physics, lighting, etc) as the primary functionality will be serving images and videos. I'd like to make the app as small, light, and battery efficient as possible. I'm not even completely sure what features can or cannot be disabled, but I would like to cut out pretty much everything but the 2D UI.
I know that there are better tools for doing this type of app, but I want to attempt it with Unity for the professional experience.
Unity presents a game engine with C# scripting. This means you can't strip out the physics engine, it is part of the binary code comprising the runtime for Unity builds.
That said, if you don't implement 3D graphical objects there is no time spent calculating 3D rendering in the GPU. The potential will still be there, and you can't strip that potential out of the build because you don't have source code to the binary run time components, but unless the GPU is given 3D objects and shaders which consume and operate them, 3D won't be part of the functional result.
Similarly, lighting is a by product of the shaders you select. If you're not selecting shaders that implement lighting, the product won't be taking time or spending battery power calculating it.
You're right. For what you've stated there are methods that will result in smaller, lighter and more battery efficient products, but as you've probably noticed there can be issues supporting the platforms Unity supports with many of them, while some may actually offer better platform diversity.
