Category: Game Development

There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to developers, the Humble Level Up Your Python Bundle.  This one is an eclectic mix of Python related content including subscriptions to JetBrain’s PyCharm Python IDE, access to training courses, videos and books.  As always Humble Bundles are organized into tiers, with each tier giving complete access to all the tiers below it.  In this case however it is slightly different, in that subscription duration replace those from the lower tiers with a longer duration and are not cumulative.

Tiers of this bundle consist of:

1$ Tier

• PyCharm IDE Pro Subscription 2 Months
• MongoDB for Developers Video
• PyBites Code Challenge 20
• Python Tricks The Book
• Illustrated Guide to Python 3

14$ Tier

• PyCharm 4 Months
• Async Techniques and Examples in Python Video
• Pytbites Code Challenge 40
• Python  Basics
• Learning the Panda Library

20$ Tier

• Building Data Driven Web Apps with Flask and SQLAlchemy Video
• Pybites 60
• Managing Python Dependencies with Pip and Virtual Video
• Effective PyCharm
• PyCharm IDE 6 Month Subscription
• Python Morsels: Weekly Practice 6 Month Subscription

Please be aware that many of these items need to be redeemed before the end of 2019 or they will expire.  As always with Humble you can choose how your money is allocated between the publisher, humble, charity or if you choose (and thanks if you do!) GFS.  If you are interested in learning Python for Game Development, check out the following Python Game Engine resource.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZiX_wh6ENQ8&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News

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Fanatical have just entered the book market with a number of eBook bundles on a variety of subjects including Blender, Unity, Unreal and C++ development.  In the case of the Unreal and C++ books you can even buy individual books or smaller bundle packages to suit your needs.  Additionally there are bundles on machine learning, security, blockchain, WordPress, command line and more.

The primary bundles of interest to game developers are:

The books in this bundle are from Packt Press, which can vary massively in quality.  Several of the books have also been in prior Humble Bundles, so be sure to check your Humble library before making a purchase.  All of the above links contain an affiliate code that helps support the channel if you use them to make a purchase (and thanks if you do!). 

Learn more about the bundles in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rQzGqV3xEUA&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Unity Unreal Blender CPP

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Ambiera have released CopperCube 6.3.  CopperCube is a commercial 3D engine with a generous free version available that enables you to create games with little to no programing required.

New features in CopperCube 6.3 include:

• Publishing new apps to the google play store now works again (Google has upped their minimal API level)
  Android target version is now 29 (instead of previously 26).
• Improved iPhone WebGL support:
  • iPhone normal map rendering now also works on WebGL. Most iPhones don’t support 4 lights at the same time, so rendering is reduced to two lights at the same time for these.
  • Nicer fallback shaders for iPhones
• Added Italian translation
• Improved arabic translation
• When running your WebGL code on a device not supporting all shaders, the “could not link program” error messages isn’t displayed anymore.
• Various other minor improvements here and there

You can learn more about this and previous releases here.  If you are interested in learning CopperCube be sure to check out our complete tutorial series on our sister site DevGa.me or watch the video tutorial available below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LMNg9mKVHBQ&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News JavaScript

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Back in February we announced that Godot was a recipient of the annual Google Summer of Code.  Essentially this is an open source effort funded by Google where they pay students to work on open source projects.  This year the Godot game engine had 8 students working on various different projects.  At this point the GSoC is over and Godot released the results of this years efforts.

The projects consisted of:

You can learn more about the results of any individual project by clicking any of the links above or by clicking here.  If you are interested in learning how to use the Godot game engine, be sure to check out our complete tutorial series available here.  Learn more about the GSoC entries for 2019 in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mXdUQcblicY&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Godot

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PlayCanvas, the HTML5 based 3D game engine just released version 1.23.0.  The primary new features of the release is that PlayCanvas is now available via the NPM, the Node Package Manager.  Additionally you can now generate TypeScript definitions for the entire API.

Details of the release from the PlayCanvas GitHub:

• [NEW] PlayCanvas now available on NPM: https://www.npmjs.com/package/playcanvas (@aidinabedi)
• [NEW] Official TypeScript definitions for the entire PlayCanvas API (‘npm run tsd’)
• [NEW] Added pc.Vec2/3#distance (distance between 2 points)
• [IMPROVEMENT] Post effects now use MSAA render targets when WebGL 2 is available
• [IMPROVEMENT] Grab pass can now be used in combination with post effects (@aidinabedi)
• [IMPROVEMENT] playcanvas-latest.js renamed to playcanvas.js
• [IMPROVEMENT] WebVR Polyfill dependency removed from the engine
• [DOCS] Build a local copy of the API reference manual (‘npm run docs’)
• [DOCS] 100s of fixes and improvements to the API reference manual (@aidinabedi)
• [FIX] Right to Left text alignment fix
• [FIX] Entities cloned inside postInitialize now have their own postInitialize functions called

If you are interested in checking out or learning PlayCanvas check out our PlayCanvas Step by Step Bowling Game tutorial.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ajaiO9Wg20g&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News HTML5 3D

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Epic have just released Unreal Engine 4.23.  The star feature, the new Chaos physics and destruction engine announced back at GDC made it’s beta release in this version, although you currently have to build UE4 from source.  The new physics system enables you to destroy world geometry with fine tune control as well as tightly integrate with the Niagara particle system.

Details of this release from the Unreal Engine blog:

Thanks to our next-gen virtual production tools and enhanced real-time ray tracing, film and TV production is transformed. Now you can achieve final shots live on set, with LED walls powered by nDisplay that not only place real-world actors and props within UE4 environments, but also light and cast reflections onto them (Beta). We’ve also added VR scouting tools (Beta), enhanced Live Link real-time data streaming, and the ability to remotely control UE4 from an iPad or other device (Beta). Ray tracing has received numerous enhancements to improve stability and performance, and to support additional material and geometry types—including landscape geometry, instanced static meshes, procedural meshes, and Niagara sprite particles.

Unreal Engine lets you build realistic worlds without bounds. Fracture, shatter, and demolish massive-scale scenes at cinematic quality with unprecedented levels of artistic control using the new Chaos physics and destruction system. Paint stunning vistas for users to experience using runtime Virtual Texturing, non-destructive Landscape editing, and interactive Actor placement using the Foliage tool.

We have optimized systems, provided new tools, and added features to help you do more for less. Virtual Texturing reduces texture memory overhead for light maps and detailed artist-created textures, and improves rendering performance for procedural or layered materials respectively. Animation streaming enables more animations to be used by limiting the runtime memory impact to only those currently in use. Use Unreal Insights to collect, analyze, and visualize data on UE4 behavior for profiling, helping you understand engine performance from either live or pre-recorded sessions.

This release includes 192 improvements submitted by the incredible community of Unreal Engine developers on GitHub!

Be sure to check the full release announcement for more details on the release or watch the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KDh3hvJ_b24&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Unreal

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MagicaVoxel, the cross platform completely free voxel editing application, just released a new version, 0.99.4 (and 0.99.4.1).  The release is focused heavily on adding new rendering functionality.

Details of the release(s):

• Renderer [0.99.4.1]
  • Sky->IBL: Image Based Lighting. use “.hdr” format panorama images to light the scene.
  • Fog: add Equi-angular sampling back to reduce noises. support fogs in othogonal views in a bounding volume.
  • Media: enable Sample->TR-Shadow to allow single direct lighting; enable Sample->MIS-Cloud to allow multiple direct lighting (very expensive).
  • Color all color options have their own color pickers which support HSV, RGB, H-Block and Hex values.
  • Palette Menu right click the palette view to show the pop-up menu.
• Renderer [0.99.4]
• Matter->Cloud: Media material which supports multiple scattering inside volume.
• Sample->MIS-GGX: Multiple Importance Sampling (MIS) for GGX surfaces (Metal/Plastic/Glass) for better reflection.
• Sample->TR-Shadow: Tranlsucent Shadow which allows light passing though glass and cloud voxels. Only Glass->Attenuation can affect the light color.
• can adjust Bounce->Diffuse/Specular/Scatter path depths separately.
• can assign glass/cloud materials to sphere/cylinder shape voxels (for experiments only).
• the renderer pipeline is refactored, which needs more time to improve, optimize and fix bugs.
• some features such as fog scattering requires more researches.
• frame drops and noises are expected.

MagicaVoxel is available here.  For the basics on getting started with MagicaVoxel check out our earlier video available here.  If you are looking for an alternative Voxel editing application check out our list available here.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU-prvB7L7g&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News

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Announced a few months back at SIGRAPH, Maxon have finally released Cinema 4D Release 21.  Perhaps the biggest and most contraversial new feature of this release is the change to a single SKU, combined with a new subscription based licensing model.

Details of the announcement from Maxon:

Maxon, the leading developer of professional 3D modeling, animation and rendering solutions, today announced the availability of Cinema 4D Release 21 (R21). The next generation of the professional 3D application features a completely new Caps and Bevel system, new Field Force dynamics, interface speed enhancements, and numerous rendering, workflow and core performance improvements. With Release 21, Maxon initiates a new singular version of Cinema 4D and new low-cost subscription pricing plans to ensure easy access to creatives.

“Release 21 delivers innovations and efficiencies that extend our objective to help customers meet the shifting needs of the competitive content creation industry,” said Maxon CEO Dave McGavran. “Simplified access to Cinema 4D and low-entry pricing allow artists to focus less on budget and more on the creative process.”

You can learn more about Cinema4D r21 here with the full release notes available here.  Check out the video below to learn more about the new purchasing options and subscriptions available.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UUQFwkkyIjI&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News 3D

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Humble Bundle have just released another bundle of interest to game developers, the Humble Book Bundle: Become a Game Developer.  The title is slightly misleading as the majority of content are actually video courses and tutorials, although there are also half a dozen current Unity books from Packt in the bundle.  As always, the bundle is split into tiers.  Buying a higher tier also nets you all the contents from lower value tiers.

Bundle tiers:

1$ Tier

• Unity 2018 Artificial Intelligence Cookbook **
• Hands-On Game Development with Unity 2018.1
• Mobile Game Development with Unity 3D 2019
• Game Design with Unity 2019

8$ Tier

• Unity Artificial Intelligence Programming **
• Practical Unity Game Development
• Hands-On Augmented Reality with ARCore and Unity
• Introduction to Unity
• Skeletons vs Zombies MOBA With Multiplayer in Unity
• Beginner and Advanced Lighting in Unity
• Cinematics and Animation in Unity

15$ Tier

• Unity Virtual Reality Projects **
• Unity 2018 Shaders and Effects Cookbook **
• Unity 2018 Cookbook **
• Learning C# by Developing Games with Unity 2019 **
• Master ARCore 1.3 Unity SDK
• Create an Image Target Based AR Experience Using Unity 3D and Vuforia 7
• Create Augmented Reality Apps using Vuforia 7 in Unity
• Create a Game Environment with Blender and Unity

Items marked with ** are books, all other items are videos.  You can decide how your money is allocated, between Humble, the publisher, charity or if you choose to support GameFromScratch (thanks!!!) using this link.  You can learn more about this bundle in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hUcd0lBsO14&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Unity

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Every month Epic Games release several free assets on the Unreal Engine marketplace and this September is no exception.  Keep in mind you need to “purchase” the assets during the month of September for free then you can keep them forever.  Additionally Epic make a couple free assets available forever each month.

September Free Assets

Free Forever Assets

You can learn more about the asset giveaway on the Unreal Engine blog or by watching the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Nor2NMhGgo&w=480&h=270]

GameDev News Unreal

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