Unity

2026-10-07

MODELS · 1 SOURCE · The Decoder

Google releases Nano Banana 2.1 image model and halves generation prices

Google released Nano Banana 2.1, an image-generation and editing model running on Gemini 3.6 Flash that the company says improves visual quality, text rendering, character consistency, wide panoramas, and infographics while supporting up to 14 reference images and keeping up to four characters and ten objects consistent. Google also cut Nano Banana pricing roughly in half (for example, 1K images from 6.70¢ to 3.36¢), is rolling 2.1 out across products including the Gemini app, AI Mode in Google Search, Google AI Studio, Flow and Stitch, and will shut down the prior gemini-3.1-flash-image model on October 29, 2026.

8.0

2026-10-07

COMPANIES · 2 SOURCES · Google · TechCrunch AI

Google launches Playground — browser tool to create games from text prompts

Google introduced Playground, an experimental browser-based platform that lets users create, play, share, and publish custom games using conversational text prompts with no coding required. The service launches in the U.S. (18+) with tiered creation access tied to Google One membership and promises features like multiplayer in select genres, leaderboards, safety screening for published games, and a forthcoming Unity Spark integration (closed beta).

7.0

2026-10-03

RESEARCH · 1 SOURCE · The Decoder

LEGO-Anything agents generate editable 3D scenes from single photos but misjudge correctness

Researchers at the University of Maryland and AWS introduced LEGO-Anything, an Image-to-Code approach where coding agents iteratively write Blender code to reconstruct an editable 3D scene from a single photo. They also released LEGO-Bench (208 images from 104 simulated scenes, 443 assets) to evaluate validity, reconstruction, and appearance, finding GPT-6 Astra achieved the best scores (≈53.4% indoor, 39.6% outdoor) but models struggle with self-assessment and geometric accuracy; a no-training extension, LEGO-Plugin, fixes some failure modes and substantially improves weaker agents.

7.0

2026-09-19

CODING · 1 SOURCE · The Decoder

Unity releases official plugins for Claude Code and OpenAI Codex

Unity has released official plugins for Codex and Claude Code with engine-maintained skills. Its Codex plugin starts with 31 skills for UI, 2D graphics, URP, audio, navigation, physics, in-app purchases, multiplayer, web and localization, and supports Unity 6+. Unity says the plugins help coding agents use current engine APIs and check their work against project context.

6.0