Unity on Facebook?

Question

Hey, I know Flash works using Facebook, and I think I've seen some Java stuff on there too, but does anyone know if the Unity Player can be used in Facebook?

Answer 1

The Unity Player can be used on facebook.

One relevant thread on integration: http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/7812-Unity3D-meet-Facebook!

And one very popular game: https://www.facebook.com/uberstrike

Here's a thread on Unity Answers that also has some more details: http://answers.unity3d.com/questions/82/how-can-i-make-my-unity-application-work-inside-facebook

Answer 2

This is kind of a nonsensical question based on a poor understanding of how Facebook apps work. Facebook doesn't really have anything to do with what technology exactly you are using; they simply embed your app as an iframe on their site. You build your app using whatever technology you want on your own server, and then simply tell Facebook what URL to point to.

So basically anything that can be done in a web browser can by done as a Facebook app. Now there are certain technologies that get used more often for Facebook apps, but those trends are due to reasons that have little to do with Facebook, like the fact that most browsers have the Flash plugin.

Also, while you can build your app with pretty much any web technology, you will need to work with PHP or JavaScript (does Facebook provide an API for any other languages?) if you need to interface with their API (eg. to retrieve the player's friends list). That doesn't mean you actually have to build the entire app using PHP or JavaScript, but that you need to have at least a small script acting as the middle-man between your app and Facebook's API.

(I'm not criticizing you btw; until recently I didn't understand how Facebook apps work either, and thought they were hosted on Facebook's servers or something.)