(Part 2) Top products from r/Unity3D

There is a saying in programming Favour Composition Over Inheritance.

In short, If you had a Duck class and then later on went to make a RubberDuck or a WoodenDuck both would inherit Fly and Quack, not just the contract but the actual implementation.

A solution to having composed behavior is not to base it off the same object but to make a contract and extract the behaviour. e.g:

IQuackBehaviour

So your duck might look like:

public class Duck : MonoBehaviour {

public void Quack(){
_quacker.Quack();
}
public void Fly(){
_flyer.Fly();
}

IQuackBehaviour _quacker;
IFlyBehaviour _flyer;
}

might have:


public class SimpleQuack : IQuackBehaviour
{
public void Quack(){
Debug.Log("Quack!");
}

}


While a non-live duck might just... do nothing:

public class CannotQuack : IQuackBehaviour
{
public void Quack(){
Debug.Log("Nothing Happened");
}

}

So you can make a new Duck and set what kind of behaviour it does in the cases where quacking is needed:

var liveDuck = new Duck();
liveDuck.SetQuackStrategy(new SimpleQuack());
liveDuck.SetFlyStrategy(new SimpleFly());

var rubberDuck = new Duck();
rubberDuck.SetQuackStrategy(new CannotQuack());
rubberDuck.SetFlyStrategy(new CannotFly());

and this opens you up to different strategies for more abstract concepts later

var propellerDuck = new Duck();
propellerDuck.SetQuackStrategy(new SimpleQuack());
propellerDuck.SetFlyStrategy(new PropellerFly());

var daveTheArticulateDuck = new Duck();
daveTheArticulateDuck .SetQuackStrategy(new HumanSpeechQuack());
daveTheArticulateDuck .SetFlyStrategy(new JFKAirportFly());


*

If you notice I used the word strategy a lot there. That is because the common name for this approach is The Strategy Pattern.

If you are interested in going down this road there are a number of great books on the subject. This Free Ebook is a great introduction. my personal favourite book on the subject is Head First Design Patterns.

These books help you bridge the gap between knowing the benefits of designing code well and some actual practices to try to do so.

just one Word of warning. Design patterns can be confusing at first. no shame in that. everyone learns at some stage, but for your own sanity Don't use patterns you don't understand**. Patterns are designed to solve problems, If you don't understand the problem well enough to see why the pattern is a solution, don't use it. Copy and pasting patterns is a quick way to an overcomplicated mess of a project. Instead when you have a problem (like this), have a look at some of the ways other people solve it and see what fits your project,

good luck!

So kudos to you for wanting to create more manageable code. I will take a look at your class when I get some time and give you some ideas, but for now I recommend this book that helped me immensely: Head First Design Patterns: A Brain-Friendly Guide. It is a fun read and goes over some of the most important patterns in OOP. I had to read each chapter a few times and practice coding solutions for the knowledge to sink in, but what you will learn is amazing. I was able to apply concepts to one of my games when using for instance the Strategy Pattern to swap out flying behaviors super easy and separate code that will change from code that will not change. I will be posting tutorials on this subject in the future at my new Unity Game Dev site: https://www.theunitygamedev.com

You can take a look at the book on Amazon here: https://www.amazon.com/Head-First-Design-Patterns-Brain-Friendly/dp/0596007124

TL;DR

Take a look at spaced repetition. Study without any music and use the absence of music as a check to see if you are still motivated to do your studying.

<br />

I fucked up my first part of my education too. Lucy i realized that and got motivated again before i finished school.

I am currently 19 years old and I also always loved math (and some physics). I am from the Netherlands so our education system does not really translate well to English but i was basically in highschool when i only did things that interested me. I got low grades on everything else.

1 moment in highschool really stayed with me where I now have finally realized what was happening. In highschool i had a course about the German language. I already had a low grade for that class so I sat to myself to learn extremely hard for the next small exam. The exam was pretty simple. The task was to learn 200 to 250 German words. So I took a peace of paper and wrote down all 250 words 21 times. 1 or 2 days later I had the exam. But when i got my grade back it sad that i scored a F (3/10) . I was totally confused and it only destroyed my motivation more and more.
What I now have come to realize is that learning something is not just about smashing a book inside your head as fast as possible.

<br />

So these are some tips I wished I could have give myself in the first year of highschool:

Go and sit in an quit room or in the library. This room should be in total silence. Now start with you studying. As soon as you feel the tension to put on some music than you should stop and reflect and take a little break.

The default in nature is chaos. Learn to use this as your advantage. I sit in a bus for 2+ hours a day. 1 hour to school and 1 hour back. Nearly every student does nothing in this time. So I made the rule for myself to do something productive in that time like reading a book. Normally I am just at my desk at home and before I know it it is already midnight. So this is for me at least a really good way to force my self to start reading a book in dose otherwise wasted 2 hours.

Get to know your body and brain. I personally made a bucket list of 100 items that includes 10 items about doing something for a week like running at 6am for a week of being vegan for a week. Fasting is also really great. Just do it for 1 day. So only drink water for one day and look how you feel. And try the same with coffee, sex, fapping and alcohol. Quit 1 day and look at how you feel. And have the goal to quit 1 time for a hole week strait.

Watch this video to get a new few about the difference of low and high energy. I never understood this but I think that everybody should know about the difference https://youtu.be/G_Fy6ZJMsXs <-- sorry it is 1 hour long but you really should watch it.

Learn about about how your brain stores information and how you can improve apon this. Spaced repetition is one of those things that really changed the way I now look at learning something. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cVf38y07cfk

<br />

I am currently doing my highschool math again for fun. After I am done with that again i hope to start with these 3 books.

• 3D.Math.Primer.for.graphics.and.game.development
  
• Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics - Eric Lengyel
  
• Graphics C version
  
  I hope this helps someone and if you guys have any tips about learning shaders in unity than please share them.
  

If you enjoy projects and quizze method of learning then the best series I can suggest is Head First Series. they have books in all manner of coding and their C# & [Design Pattern]() books are great for beginners to intermediates. I extremly recommend the Design Pattern one.

The biggest difference with this book series is they focus on a Conversational Tone instead of text book talk. And yes while these are more programming related, everything is easily translated to Unity.

Towards the original question. What else would you spend the $10 on? If you really want to learn Unity through video tutorials like theirs then quit fast food for a week, or coffee, or something to make up for the $10.

I'm not even sure if it's possible - or feasible - to run Unity in a "cloud VM". It's surely nothing I would have tried, and I would definitely go for a PC, preferably a stationary (more bang for the bucks, better upgrade options etc.), but I can understand it if you must have a laptop; hard to drag the stationary around. :)

If your budget is max. $1.5K, there are tons of very good options out there. A quick search on Amazon.com gave me f.ex. this ASUS laptop at $1.2K + shipping. Quite good specs, and should be more than enough for Unity development.

Alternatively, it has a little brother for only $700 + shipping, which still would be a good choice, although 256GB disk might be a tad small.

Good luck!

For those who are interested in downloading/viewing the game. Here are the links :D


https://wafflegum.itch.io/io-shape-defense

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07Z692QYC/ref=mp_s_a_1_1?keywords=Io+shape+defense&qid=1571297761&s=mobile-apps&sr=1-1

Yes, unfortunately I can't release it on google playstore. I have no dev account and have no money to pay for it, but hey! Thanks for the lovely support you guys are giving me :)

If you are starting from an amateur background as a developer on C# centric stack, I'd argue that Code Complete has strong to potential to protect against your weaknesses/blind spots than just about any book about software development. It doesn't go deep, but it will introduce you to breadth of fundamentals. Feel free to skim past the ones you are already familiar with.

https://www.amazon.com/Code-Complete-Practical-Handbook-Construction/dp/0735619670

​

The particular techniques described evolve over time, but the principles endure. e.g. One poster commented of making backups. Tools in the C#/MS ecosystem have evolved considerably, but git based source control is pretty popular tech at moment. Github is popular for hosting source of open source projects - Azure Repos and Azure Devops suite has more depth for larger teams and complex processess.

Unity has already been well covered here by other redditors.

Nevertheless, if you are also in the process of learning how to program, I would like to contribute with two pointers.

Code: The Hidden Language of Computer Hardware and Software, by Charles Petzold

For the very basic of computer science

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735611319

Inside C#, by Tom Archer and Andrew Whitechapel

This is quite old now but very easy to read and good to understand the language

https://www.amazon.com/dp/0735616485

If you are not in the US, just google around for other sources.

Happy hacking

>mostly because you need to be good at a lot of mathemtics, is this true?

This is primarily for algorithms. It's pretty easy to be good at math, the hardest part I find for people who program is that they often don't think "outside the box" in breaking their program down.

I and others recommend programming in C#. You should be able to get off the ground with the following resources:

http://learncs.org/

https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/software-development-fundamentals-8248?l=D9b9nHKy_3404984382

https://mva.microsoft.com/en-US/training-courses/c-fundamentals-for-absolute-beginners-8295?l=bifAqFYy_204984382

http://www.amazon.com/Exam-98-361-Software-Development-Fundamentals/dp/047088911X

This list is for programming in general:

http://www.amazon.com/Pragmatic-Programmer-Journeyman-Master/dp/020161622X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453520022&sr=1-1&keywords=pragmatic+programmer

http://www.amazon.com/Clean-Code-Handbook-Software-Craftsmanship/dp/0132350882/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453520045&sr=1-1&keywords=clean+code

http://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Object-Oriented/dp/0201633612/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1453520067&sr=1-1&keywords=gang+of+four

http://www.comp.nus.edu.sg/~stevenha/myteaching/competitive_programming/cp1.pdf

http://visualgo.net/

http://www.sorting-algorithms.com/

http://code.tutsplus.com/tutorials/3-key-software-principles-you-must-understand--net-25161

Thanks for the suggestions, I appreciate it! Of your suggestions I like this one best because of the solid state drive: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFC44CL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_iP04CbG9P4AAV

It depends on what you're looking for, really.

If you're just starting out, this is pretty fantastic. It primarily uses UnityScript but has a C# reference at the end of each chapter. I had a lot of fun starting with UnityScript and then porting the code to C# before checking it against the end reference.

My advice, as a long time UI/UX designer is test early and often on people who have never seen your game. This has been the only way for me to ensure things are improving. Once someone has tested your UI once, they bring that knowledge with them into their next play session, negating any indications of weather or not this is easy to understand and use.

Also, don't try to reinvent the wheel. Billions of dollars have likely been spent trying to solve the very problem you are. Look at what is out there, find the good stuff, and use it as a starting point for your own problems. Shops in particular, have TONS of examples of successful and unsuccessful designs. My primary resource is the hundreds of games I own on steam, and my memories of the best systems I've encountered.

The Design of Everyday Things is about the only book I'd recommend, but it does not focus on UI/UX so much as design as a concept in itself.

But to your actual question. It depends on what you are making. But at that price range, maybe something with a decent i7. A decent graphics card and a fair amount of ram (def no less than 8gb but imo 16 is a god send)

Good laptops:
Dell Inspiron i7559-5012GRY 15.6" UHD (3840x2160) 4k Touchscreen Laptop (Intel Quad Core i7-6700HQ, 8 GB RAM, 1 TB HDD) NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M, Microsoft Signature Edition https://www.amazon.com/dp/B015PYZI8E/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_1M04Cb6KHV04D

HP Pavilion Power 15-inch Laptop, Intel Core i7-7700HQ , AMD Radeon RX 550, 12GB RAM, 1TB hard drive, Windows 10 (15-cb071nr, Black), Gaming https://www.amazon.com/dp/B071L1VCV6/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_eO04CbGQ4MT02

Dell Inspiron i5577-7342BLK-PUS,15.6" Gaming Laptop, (Intel Core i7,16GB,512GB SSD),NVIDIA GTX 1050 https://www.amazon.com/dp/B06XFC44CL/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_apa_i_iP04CbG9P4AAV

You're kidding right? That's 100% personal preference... It doesn't matter how you place the braces as long as you're consistent.

This: The Microsoft C# Style Guide. It's literally garbage unless you work for Microsoft or a company that also follows this style guide to religiously. They're suggestions by Microsoft on how to write clean code. If you want a real break down on what clean code is read Clean Code or The Pragmatic Programmer and you'll learn what things are actually worth worrying about.

I have read this

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/1849695261?pc_redir=1410434094&robot_redir=1

And I think it's a great introduction to Unity

This one may be a good choice. All the low reviews are because it assumes the reader has little to no C# experience and walks them through it. So, likely the perfect place to start.
Learning C# By Developing Games in Unity

http://www.amazon.com/Head-First-C-Andrew-Stellman/dp/0596514824

The head first books tend to be pretty good for people who haven't done development before. Unfortunately I don't know of anything unity specific.

thanks for all the ideas, he really is a book person and has no trouble with complex books/concepts, as such I have ordered " Learning C# By Developing Games in Unity " and will get him on the playground videos until that arrives. thanks for the thoughtful suggestions.

https://www.amazon.com/Acer-Predator-Overclockable-Aeroblade-PH315-51-78NP/dp/B07CTHLX8C/ref=sr_1_3?keywords=laptops+gaming&qid=1570165442&sr=8-3 - $1k

https://www.amazon.com/IPS-level-i5-8300H-Processor-GeForce-Gigabit/dp/B07JF6HRJ1/ref=sr_1_6?keywords=laptops+gtx+1060&qid=1570165535&s=electronics&sr=1-6 - $810

​

Both of these are going to have 0 problems running Unity and allowing you to game as well. Cheers mate.

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D-ebook/dp/B00MMOJ31E?ie=UTF8&keywords=c%23%20unity3d&qid=1464636147&ref_=sr_1_2&sr=8-2

Teaches C# through Unity, reading it now and it's really good!

I like Effective C#. Also worth taking a look at are C# 5.0 in a Nutshell and Beginning C# Object-Oriented Programming.

Very interesting.

​

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My books on 3D modelling; https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07TW91PKH https://www.amazon.com/dp/1077426879

> Unity seems to be encouraging this weird hybrid style.

This isn't actually true, there are lots of weird implementation details but there is nothing weird or hybrid about Unity's design. It's just not a data-oriented ECS. The Unity pattern is a variation on the Composite Design Pattern from this book:
https://www.amazon.com/Design-Patterns-Elements-Reusable-Object-Oriented/dp/0201633612

this helped me... from the ground up....

https://www.amazon.com/Learning-C-Programming-Unity-3D-ebook/dp/B00MMOJ31E/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1496342477&sr=8-3&keywords=c%23+for+unity

Get this book :)

https://www.amazon.com/Foundations-Game-Engine-Development-Mathematics/dp/0985811749/

back in the 90s I got paid to do the dynamics on a racing game.

so much fun.

hardest part was understanding impulse vs. force applied, keeping the time dimension straight.

plus figuring out the axis of rotation of wheeled vehicles, how exactly tires turn a car.

https://www.amazon.com/Race-Car-Vehicle-Dynamics-Experiments/dp/0768011272 is the bible of course but it didn't answer any of the hard problems I ran into, like how to transfer the (uneven) forces in the shocks into angular vs. vertical acceleration.