Development tool provider Unity has unveiled two new branches of its technology at Google's annual I/O developer conference: Unity Android, a platform for Google's mobile phone OS, and Native Client, which allows Unity content to be played without a plugin in the Chrome browser.
Described as a "potential game changer" by Unity VP Brett Seyler, Native Client is a security sandbox currently in development for Chromium which allows "the secure execution of native code". Unity's Web Player software is not required.
Though demoed in the Developer Sandbox area of the show floor, word of Native Client spread thanks to a keynote by Sundar Pichai, Google’s product management VP, featuring a Chrome-based version of Lego Star Wars: The Quest For R2-D2. The Chrome Web Store, predicts Seyler, is being designed with such games in mind. The technology behind Native Client, meanwhile, is open source, making it a viable proposition for competing browsers.
Other Unity demos included Star Troopers and Penelope running on Google’s Nexus One handset, the former also appearing on a new tablet device sporting Nvidia’s Tegra 2 chipset.
“I want to take a moment to say how fantastic it’s been to collaborate with Google,” says Seyler. “For a giant company famously populated with geniuses, the people we’ve worked with have been incredibly humble, open, and responsive. No doubt about it, this is a sharp, ambitious, and capable crew and they want to do good things for game developers.”
[Source: Unity]