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[Richard Kain]

Wow thanks for the news, any link to verify that?

Here's a quick link.

In the video, it shows a game running with 3D graphics in its menu. I did notice that there were rendering artefacts when displaying the skybox for the game. This was actually something I noticed in the project that I exported from Unity. When you could see the default Unity "world" graphics, it would display those same rendering artefacts. When I put a plane in front of that area, it solved the issue. So if you wanted to put a 3D Unity game on there, you would probably want to roll your own skybox solution, and not rely on the built-in horizon view in Unity.

[oahda]

If you are looking to get your hands on some computing power in a tiny form-factor, micro-computers are a great way to get everything you need for a very reasonable price.

Oh, yes, don't get me wrong; the prices are very reasonable—it's just not reasonable for me to get one at all right now.

One of the biggest drawbacks to these things is a noticeable lack of game engine support. Almost none of the major middleware companies has released targets for the RPi and its various competitors. The lack of one standard or OS to target is almost certainly part of this. But it has still held back game development on these things. Not everyone feels comfortable enough with low-level coding to dig into custom engine programming. Having the possibility of targeting Unity projects at one of these devices is a pretty big development.

I'm guessing it's a hardware issue, since it should work if using an OS that Unity already supports like a Linux distro? They don't have a graphics card, right? Is that the problem?

[Richard Kain]

They don't have a graphics card, right? Is that the problem?

They don't have dedicated graphics cards, but they do usually have GPUs. (depending on the model) The standard form factor for these usually does come with its own GPU. The OS is actually the issue. Unity has a Linux distro target, but that target only works for x86 architecture. All of these microcomputers use ARM processors. So you would need Unity support for an OS that is targeting ARM architecture. Basically, that boils down to Android. And up until recently, there had not been that many efforts to port Android to the Raspberry Pi.

The reason is actually kind of obvious. The Raspberry Pi has no touchscreen, by default. You can plug it into a touchscreen. But the core hardware is not designed to run a mobile-phone OS by itself. This is why the usual OS installed on the Raspberry Pi is a Linux ARM distro called Raspbian.

The advent of Android TV convinced more developers to start looking at getting Android onto the Raspberry Pi. Android TV is optimized for interfaces that don't rely on touchscreen controls. That's why there is now a port of Android TV running on the Raspberry Pi, and why I am now able to get Unity projects running on the hardware.

[gimymblert]

Speaking of alternative of Rpi, there is the odroid series, that is compatible with unity, but they had no 5$ model as of late (need to check back, okay cheapest still at 28$), also have more standard mobile GPU (amli series), which are supported.
http://www.hardkernel.com/main/products/prdt_info.php?g_code=G145326484280

If you have other alternative that are cheaper and more standard gpu I'm listening!

[Richard Kain]

Speaking of alternative of Rpi, there is the odroid series, that is compatible with unity

Yes, the cheapest of the main ODroid series is around the same price as a standard Raspberry Pi 3. But they do have better out-of-the-box Android compatibility, which would make them much better for running native Unity Android apps. Also, they provide multiple different power options. Oddly, the $46 model they have seems to have better performance and more advanced OS support than their $59 model. I think it comes from the improved data transfer options that the $59 model sports. It's their only model to have USB 3.0 ports.

The point is, if you are looking for some nice, cheap options for lower-end development and deployment, the opportunities are now there. These micro-computers are more of a viable option than ever before. And a nice healthy, competitive scene provides smaller indie devs with better hardware at lower prices.

I was just poking around, and I saw that the Orange Pi One and the Orange Pi Plus2 both support Android as well, and both have GPUs that would make them viable options. The Pi One is a little lean when it comes to RAM, so that's a limiting factor. But it's also one of the cheapest micro-computers I've seen, coming in at just around $20. Quite feature-rich for such a low price, and definitely a potential option for games that don't need a lot of power.

The Orange Pi Plus2 is a bit more expensive than the standard Raspberry Pi. It comes in around $50. But the feature set for the Plus2 is huge, with twice the RAM of the standard micro-computer, and lots of other extras. (built-in wifi with an actual antenna, analog video and audio out, built-in microphone, a SATA port for hooking up hard drives, and many more) If you don't mind spending a little extra, this thing has a ton that you can do with it, and more power to play with than usually comes standard on these micro-computers.

[Richard Kain]

I was able to do a little testing last night, and I confirmed that a basic empty scene with a few basic 2D GUI elements will run at 60 fps at 720p. I'm having a little trouble getting my Raspberry Pi to output proper 1080p. I'm not sure if it's an issue with the Pi setup, or with the settings for the Android install.

Next up is testing joystick support, and getting some interactive/animated elements.