DirectX 11 support, trial Linux deployment and bolstered animation abilities spearhead new feature set

Unity has revealed version 4 of its popular eponymous games engine.
The announcement of the engine comes with details of a wealth of new features, which demonstrate a continued focus by Unity on the triple-A space, and ongoing interest in the small studios with which the tech outfit established its early success.

Unity 4 includes a significant overhaul of the entire engine, and the tools suite that underpins the platform. A new high-end character animation system named Mecanim brings Unity users one of the most high profile features, which also include DirectX 11 support, 'hypermodern' mobile graphics, and the addition of Adobe Flash and Linux as new publishing platforms.
“We’ve been working on Unity 4 for a long, long time and are happy to finally be able to unveil its imminent arrival and outline its core features that will change the industry,” said David Helgason, CEO of Unity Technologies. “The revolutionary animation system and add-on deployments to Adobe Flash and Linux are some of the critical features introduced in Unity 4, which together maintain Unity as the strongest, fastest evolving modern games development platform available.”
The Mecanim technology promises to breathe life into games characters to life, apparently delivering fluid and natural motion with a highly efficient interface. Mecanim lets Unity 4 users create state machines, blend trees, IK rigging, and practice auto retargeting of animations, all from within the Unity editor.

http://www.develop-online.net/news/4...ity-4-unveiled