Unity has detailed the future of its game engine beyond the current Unity 5 cycle of releases.
Speaking at its Keynote earlier today, members of the Unity team took to the stage to discuss the new features coming to the final update in the Unity 5 family, as well as what features game developers can expect to see in the “next generation” of the Unity engine.
Starting off, the company announced that Unity 5.6, which has been in open beta since December, will see a full release on March 31. During the live-streamed event, Unity team members ran through some of the notable features included in the upcoming release, such as a 4K enabled video player, native support for Vulkan graphics API, a Progressive Lightmapper, and more.
The keynote also saw the announcement of the next lifecycle of Unity, called Unity 2017.
While Unity CEO John Riccitiello said the current generation of Unity’s software made strides in “key focus areas” of graphics, performance, stability, efficiency, and platform growth, Unity 2017 aims to further develop those same areas while also adding additional tools that are focused on the needs of artists and designers. The first beta of Unity 2017 is expected to roll out in April.