A new version of Unity is out and, with it, a whole host of new features. To start things off, this is how the official website is heralding the new release:

Unity has evolved to be the perfect MMO and virtual world client, both in the browser and stand-alone. Stream in limitless landscapes as your users travel your universe, customize characters, and load infinite locations and virtual items on demand. When Funcom, makers of Anarchy Online and Age of Conan, decide to use Unity for their upcoming browser based MMO project, you know it has to be good.

If anyone was still unsure of whether or not browser-based 3D engines were a viable platform for serious game design, I think that should be enough to quash any arguments. If Funcom pull off another masterpiece, but this time with Unity, it'll catapult the engine into triple A status by serving as the ultimate example of how 3D should be handled on the web.

The full feature list can be found here.

Among that list are a few tweaks to the terrain engine...

• Multiple terrains can be included in a single scene.
• Terrains can now be moved and connected.
• Terrains have an additional "Pixel Lit" render mode.
• VertexLit terrain lighting mode supports point lights now.
• Projectors work on terrain.
• Terrain can be displayed in wireframe mode in Scene View.
• Terrain textures, tree types, and detail object types can be removed from Terrain Inspector.

This is fairly important for stitching together massive landscapes and, combined with the recent networking tweaks, makes it very easy for rapid development of modules for MMO worlds.

You can see an example of something I created with the terrain engine here.

These are exciting times, it's getting easier and easier to pull off what were once considered as being technological feats. Development teams no longer need to number in the hundreds and the time taken to get a product out the door is quickly diminishing. All this while making the content easily accessible inside an internet browser.

I look forward to seeing what the future holds for Unity and browser based 3D engines in general. The World Wide Web Consortium also ought to be paying attention. ;]