Unity 5 Announced at GDC 2014: 64-Bit Engine, Nvidia PhysX 3.3 Support and More

Unity Technologies has revealed their next engine iteration at GDC 2014 with Unity 5. It is currently available to pre-order and permits access to existing updates and Unity 4.

Some of the new features include the Enlighten lighting system, physically based shaders, a unified shader architecture, in-editor real-time lightmap previews, a new Audio mixer and much more. It is also a 64-bit engine for the first time and include support for Nvidia PhysX 3.3 and integration with SpeedTree.

David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies, stated that, “Every time we ship a new version of Unity, we’re looking to empower developers with technology that’s more powerful and easier to apply than ever before. With the huge additions of physically-based shading, lighting workflows, a new platform, and a new built-in method for user acquisition, we’re improving Unity dramatically from both a creative and business perspective.”

The release of Unity 5.0 will also see the introduction of Unity Cloud for cross-promotion of mobile games to add developers. Check out some of the newer features in the screenshots below.