Unity 3.5 to be released shortly, Flash support added

Revolutionary 3D web engine Unity will launch its 3.5 public beta at 4pm today, according to our superfriends over at Edge . The free engine will include Flash support for the first time, which means developers can export their projects quickly and easily to the ubiquitous Flash interface.

As reported in Edge earlier this year , the Flash export requires absolutely no additional coding on the developer's part, and will bring the engine to a larger userbase, albeit with fewer features. “In the beginning the Unity Player will have better performance, and some features that Flash doesn't have,” Unity engineer Lucas Meijer said. “But we hope that they will catch up with us - we're not happy that that feature gap exists, we're sad that it exists.”

The Flash engine has already been demonstrated with Unity's open source shooter Angry Bots, and you'll be able to download it from Unity's official site later today. Unity will also launch a competition to create a flash game, with $20,000 up for grabs.