Today there are several announcements of interest to Unity game developers. First and foremost, the biggest announcement today is the release of Unity 6.1. Additionally, there are several game development bundles of interest to Unity developers that just launched. There are two new Unity bundles from Leartes on Gumroad, the 15 environments SpaceNova Bundle (use code SN70 for an additional $70 off) as well as the 5 environment StarNova bundle (use code SN40 for $40 off). There are also SpaceNova and StarNova Unreal Engine bundles as well as a StarNova Godot engine bundle (both using the SN40 and SN70 discount codes as well!). Finally Unity have just released a free 150 page PDF e-book titled UI Toolkit for advanced Unity developers (Unity 6 edition). As the title suggest, this book covers the newly released UI Toolkit in quite some depth. What’s new in Unity 6.1 Unity 6.1 builds on the stability and performance shipped in Unity 6.0 LTS to enable you to deliver to more platforms, with better graphics, more efficiently. Here are some highlights available in this Update release: Get the best performance on any device Unity 6.1 offers significant performance optimizations to help your games run smoothly across a wide range of hardware: Deferred+ – Build richer worlds with the Universal Render Pipeline’s (URP) new deferred rendering path, which accelerates GPU performance using advanced Cluster-based light culling for more lights, with support for GPU Resident Drawer for more objects. Variable Rate Shading – Improve GPU performance with minimal impact to visuals. Set the shading rate of custom passes within URP/HDRP, and generate Shading Rate Images (SRIs) from textures and shaders. Get access to powerful workflows Project Auditor for static analysis – Analyze scripts, assets, project settings, and builds. Learn how to resolve issues and optimize the quality and performance of your game. Build Automation – Accelerate iteration cycles with cloud builds, with Build Automation now integrated directly into the Editor. Reach the widest audience of players globally Create for the latest supported platforms and devices to maximize your player reach: PC and console – Improve CPU performance, PSO caching, and ray tracing with enhanced DirectX 12 support Large screens and foldables – Access enhanced support for large screens and foldables with the latest Android APIs Unity for Web – Run your Unity games anywhere the web exists, including mobile browsers. Experiment with the latest WebGPU graphics API integration and unlock compute acceleration for web browsers Android XR and Meta Quest – Save time and streamline the build process with the ability to create multiple build configurations for release and development builds Instant Games on Facebook and Messenger – Streamline building, optimizing, and uploading instant games to Facebook and Messenger Key Links Unity 6.1 Release Blog Unity Space Nova Bundle (Use Code SN70) Unity Star Nova Bundle (Use Code SN40) The Supreme Unreal & Unity GameDev Humble Bundle [Learn More] Unity Variable Shading Rate Demo Project GitHub Variable Shading Rate Explained Unity Forward+ Rendering Explained Project Auditor Package Documentation You can learn more about the Unity 6.1 release, as well as about the new free UI Toolkit e-book and multiple Unity asset bundles in the video below. Using links on this page to purchase the bundles helps support GFS (and thanks very much if you do!)