pyunity package

Version 0.4.0 (in development)

PyUnity is a Python implementation of the Unity Engine, written in C++. This is just a fun project and many features have been taken out to make it as easy as possible to create a scene and run it.

Installing

To install PyUnity for Linux distributions based on Ubuntu or Debian, use:

> pip3 install pyunity

To install PyUnity for other operating systems, use pip:

> pip install pyunity

Alternatively, you can clone the repository here to build the package from source. Then use setup.py to build. Note that it will install Cython to compile.

> python setup.py install

Its only dependencies are PyOpenGL, Pygame and GLFW.

To install PyGame on Linux, use:

> pip3 install pygame

Note: we are having some difficulties right now. To install a working copy, you cannot use the simple pip install pyunity command. Instead, clone the repository from above. Next, you have to set the environment variable cython to a value that is not 1. Then you can run python setup.py install. This issue is being worked on and you can see its progress here: https://github.com/rayzchen/pyunity/issues/7

Importing

To start using pyunity, you must import it. A standard way to import is like so:

>>> from pyunity import *

Debug information is turned on by default. If you want to turn it off, set the PYUNITY_DEBUG_MODE environment variable to "0". This is the output with debugging:

Loaded config
Trying FreeGLUT as a window provider
FreeGLUT doesn't work, trying GLFW
GLFW doesn't work, trying Pygame
Using window provider Pygame
Loaded PyUnity version 0.4.0

If debugging is off, there is no output:

>>> import os
>>> os.environ["PYUNITY_DEBUG_MODE"] = "0"
>>> from pyunity import *
>>> # No output

Scenes

All PyUnity projects start with a scene. To add a scene, do this:

>>> scene = SceneManager.AddScene("Scene 1")

Then, let’s move the camera backwards 10 units.

>>> scene.mainCamera.transform.position = Vector3(0, 0, -10)

Finally, add a cube at the origin:

>>> cube = GameObject("Cube")
>>> renderer = cube.AddComponent(MeshRenderer)
>>> renderer.mesh = Mesh.cube(2)
>>> renderer.mat = Material((255, 0, 0))
>>> scene.Add(cube)

To see what you have added to the scene, call scene.List():

>>> scene.List()
/Main Camera
/Light
/Cube

Finally, to run the scene, call scene.Run(). The window that is created is one of FreeGLUT, GLFW or Pygame. The window is selected on module initialization (see Windows subheading).

Behaviours

To create your own PyUnity script, create a class that inherits from Behaviour. Usually in Unity, you would put the class in its own file, but Python can’t do something like that, so put all of your scripts in one file. Then, to add a script, just use AddComponent(). Do not put anything in the __init__ function, instead put it in Start(). The Update() function receives one parameter, dt, which is the same as Time.deltaTime.

Windows

The window is provided by one of three providers: GLFW, Pygame and FreeGLUT. When you first import PyUnity, it checks to see if any of the three providers work. The testing order is as above, so Pygame is tested last.

To create your own provider, create a class that has the following methods:

  • __init__: initiate your window and check to see if it works.
  • start: start the main loop in your window. The first parameter is update_func, which is called when you want to do the OpenGL calls.

Check the source code of any of the window providers for an example. If you have a window provider, then please create a new pull request.

Examples

To run an example, import it like so:

>>> from pyunity.examples.example1 import main
Loaded config
Trying FreeGLUT as a window provider
FreeGLUT doesn't work, trying GLFW
GLFW doesn't work, trying Pygame
Using window provider Pygame
Loaded PyUnity version 0.4.0
>>> main()

Or from the command line:

> python -m pyunity 1

The 1 just means to load example 1, and there are 8 examples. To load all examples one by one, do not specify a number. If you want to contribute an example, then please create a new pull request.