ME FIRST GAMES
Menu

games for me and you

Why YOU should use Unity LTS

9/24/2020

1 Comment

 
Picture
Unity LTS (Long Term Support) does not always have the latest and greatest features, but all Unity developers should seriously consider using LTS over the latest release.

I've talked about what LTS is in a prior post, but now I want to list the reasons why I'm personally sticking with 2019 LTS and won't upgrade until 2020 LTS is released.

📌 I early adopted 2019 in multiple projects, and it resulted in more headaches than good.
📌 It is common for bugs to arise in versions prior to LTS, e.g. 2019.[1-3].x
📌 New editor bugs can slow your development and unexpectedly break features.
📌 I found myself upgrading Unity often to get the latest bug fixes, but sometimes a new version would introduce another bug.
📌 In retrospect, the frequent upgrades were a huge waste of time. A smarter strategy is to simply wait and upgrade between proven stable versions.

📌 Packages also had to be constantly upgraded, and this led to even more unknowns.
📌 I used the SRP package in a VR project, and it had many runtime bugs. This specific package had so many issues and changed so much that Unity eventually rebranded it to URP.
📌 Features in the latest Unity, like 2020 make it very tempting to upgrade. However, make no mistake, these features will likely not be stable until late 2020.3.10+ or 2020.4.x LTS versions.
📌 Before you write off 2019 as a special case, many devs are having similar issues with 2020.
📌 Even Unity themselves, recommends releasing games on LTS.

⭐️ As a game developer, it's without a doubt that time is your most valuable asset. Early adopters will lose much time dealing with upgrade issues and bugs.
⭐️ For games released with a decent player base, I highly recommend sticking to Unity LTS unless you absolutely need to upgrade for specific features.
⭐️ For early adopters, plan and schedule accordingly to account for extra upgrade time. Also, bring a machete because you're blazing a trail. 

1 Comment
Maarten
11/2/2021 02:12:49 am

Hi!
Thanks for this blog post.
Just to clarify, you're advocating to do the upgrade between LTS versions? So once 2021 is in LTS, upgrade there from 2020 LTS? Or would you rather keep your project in 2020 LTS all the way, and start any new project in 2021 LTS?

Thanks!
Maarten

Reply



Leave a Reply.

    Picture
    Me First Games is an independent game studio dedicated to creating unique and bizarre video games.
    GAMES HERE

    Red Matter

    Star Impact is an upcoming adventure platformer coming to PC, Mac, and Linux.

    Archives

    April 2021
    February 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2019
    March 2019
    December 2018
    April 2018

    Categories

    All

    RSS Feed

Copyright (c) 2020 Me First LLC
  • STU the First AI
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Unity Tools
    • Hierarchy Comments
  • STU the First AI
  • Blog
  • Contact
  • Unity Tools
    • Hierarchy Comments