Something something Spock, no? Alright, enough Star Trek nonsense, as the Unity 5.6 beta isn’t really about that. I mean, Vulkan rendering is a thing now, sure, but that’s the only thing relating to a certain franchise. The rest of the feature list, beta or not, is still pretty darn groovy, though; so even if you aren’t creating something GPU-heavy… eh, take a look anyway.
On a related note, more / improved 2D support also shipped with this one. Something about a “new Axis Distance Sort” that “addresses Z sorting problems”, which is apparently beneficial when working with absolutely massive scenes. Oh, and 2D physics got a noticeable performance boost – particularly in terms of particle collision. Because things do collide, even without the third dimension.
Anyway, on the VR front, the team has managed to add support for both Google Daydream and Google Cardboard. Heck, Facebook Gameroom is included too as of this beta, alongside 4K and 360-degree video playback. Not bad at all, and there’s plenty more on top of all that.
While less important – in terms of functionality at least – Unity 5.6 will be the final 5.x, as, after that, it’ll be 2017.x.