It’s the first Tuesday of the month and that means it time for Unreal Christmas in October. Every month Epic Games gives away several assets for Unreal Engine developer and this month we got more than double the normal amount of new assets!
This months “Free for October” assets include:
The “Permanently Free” collection grew a fair bit as well:
Just be sure to “buy” the free assets before the first Tuesday in November and they are yours forever. You can learn more about this months giveaway in the video below.
The NeoAxis game engine just had a new release, NeoAxis 2020.6. NeoAxis is a Windows based 2D/3D game engine we previously showcased here and that was recently open sourced, sorta. The biggest new feature of NeoAxis 2020.6 is initial support for the Android platform. Other NeoAxis 2020.6 features include:
Android support via Xamarin.Android and OpenGL ES with Vulkan support in the future
New GUI controls including:
Tab Control
Context Menu
Tooltip
Toolbar
Images on UI Buttons
Easy Skybox importing
Automatic material tuning
You can learn more about the NeoAxis 2020.6 release here. Our previous hands-on video is available below.
Beef is a new open source cross platform programming languages that attempts to take C#-like syntax and giving it performance similar to C++ including manual memory management. Beef is available for Windows, Mac and Linux and includes a custom IDE. The 0.42.7 release adds the following new features:
Dynamic boxing from System.Variant
decltype(val).MemberName expressions
Scope moved outward for ‘out’ variable declaration
Improvements to unassigned variable detection
Added explicit “Test” project type
Reflected interface method dispatch
Interface filtering for distinct build options
IDE file recovery after crash/power loss
Better handling of merge conflict markers in source code
If you want to check out Beef, their is an installer/binaries available for Windows platforms here. On other platforms Beef can be built from source, the source code is hosted on GitHub under the MIT open source license. Earlier in the year we checked out an earlier version of the Beef language and IDE, as you can see in the video below.
ParticleShop is one of the applications that is featured in the current Be A Creative SuperHero Bundle currently running on Humble. This bundle is a collection of graphical applications and add-ons from Corel. Today we are taking a hands-on look at ParticleShop, a PhotoShop plugin (also compatible with PaintShop Pro 2020 and Affinity Photo) that brings the particle system based brushes from Corel Painter to these other applications.
ParticleShop is described as:
Create stunning image enhancements with ParticleShop, a powerful Adobe® Photoshop® brush plugin powered by Painter. Experience NEW expressive Dynamic Speckle brushes and living grab-and-go Particle brushes and that are easy to use with a pressure sensitive tablet, touchscreen or mouse. Use your creativity and imagination to artistically enhance photos, designs and illustrations with strokes of genius.
We’ve done all of the work for you! Immediately start creating with one of 11 built-in custom brushes. Whether you’re looking to add playful Dynamic Speckle flourishes or compelling Particle flare to your work, you’ll find just the brush you need to artistically enhance your imagery and exponentially increase your range of painting expertise. Plus, explore the additional brush packs that were designed to match your specific workflow needs.
Out of the box ParticleShop ships with a pack with 11 brushes, although the Bundle contains more than a half a dozen additional brush packs. You can see ParticleShop in action, including instructions on how to install in PaintShop Pro and Affinity Photo, as well as showcasing several of the brush packs, in the video below.
The Blender user interface has come a LONG way in recent years, especially with the release of Blender 2.8. That said, if you are using Blender on a laptop, especially if you don’t have a numberpad or are stuck using a trackpad, some parts of the experience are less than optimal. Today we are going to look at ways to make using Blender on a laptop more pleasant. We will also show how to turn on experimental mode in case you want to check out some of the more… in development features in Blender.
Using a Trackpad in Blender
Using Blender without a 3 button mouse is not really recommended but sometimes you have to get by with the tools you have available. There are a few ways however to make Blender work better with just a trackpad. The first thing we need to do is turn on 3 button mouse emulation. In Blender go to Edit->Preferences:
Now select the Input tab on the left, then choose Emulate 3 Button Mouse.
Now you can control most viewport options using your trackpad + key combinations.
ALT + LMB
Orbit Camera
ALT + SHIFT + LMB
Pan Camera
ALT + CTRL + LMB or Two Finger Swipe
Zoom Camera
In addition to these key/mouse combinations, there are now icons available for performing many of these tasks.
Emulating the Numberpad
Blender also relies heavily on the numberpad for changing cameras (1/3/7/9) or rotating the camera (2/4/6/8) and on laptops 15″ and smaller numberpads are becoming increasingly rare. In this case you have a few different options. First you can leave it as it is and use the on screen controls mentioned above. Otherwise you can turn on NumPad emulation. This turns your standard number row (1 through 0) across the top of your keyboard, into a virtual numberpad.
To enable NumPad emulation, return once again to the Input tab in preferences by selecting Edit->Preferences. This time you want to enable the Emulate Numpad option.
There is a major downside to this approach, in that the use of the 1/2/3 keys to switch editing modes between vertex, edge and face in edit mode will no longer work! So let’s look at how we remap those keys next!
Remapping Edit Mode Keys
Remapping keys is another feature in the trusty preferences dialog (Edit->Preferences). Now locate the Keymap tab on the left. On the right drill down to 3D View->Mesh->Mesh Global then locate Select Mode currently bound to key 1, 2 and 3. You can simply click the 1, then hit 1 again, and with Numpad Emulation enabled it will now show as Numpad 1.
Of course you also have the option of remapping those keys to any value you wish. Simply click the arrow to the left to drill down for more details.
Here you can select multiple key combos in addition to remapping the primary key in the sequence.
Enabling Experimental Features in Blender
Finally we are going to look at the process of enabling Experimental Mode, in case you want to take a walk on the wild side of cutting edge features. This is once again a setting in Edit->Preferences. This time choose the Interface tab, then select Developer Extras. This will cause a new tab to appear, the Experimental tab.
Clicking the new Experimental tab will bring you to a new dialog where you can turn experimental features off and on. For example in Blender 2.91 if you want to check out the new Sculpting brushes, enable “Tools with Missing Icons”
You can see a detailed step by step demonstration of all of these processes in the video below (or on Odysee).
Nintendo has just released a brand new trailer for Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit, which gives us lots more information on the different modes featured, including Grand Prix, time trial, and custom race. Grand Prix is the primary mode, and includes fun themes and many items fans will be familiar with, such as the dastardly blue shell.
We also got a good look at how you create your tracks. Set up for the game is very easy, you place the four gates down anywhere you please, then drive through the gates in numerical order to set up your track. This setup process will lead to some great creativity among players as your route can be any shape you can imagine.
Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit is coming to Nintendo Switch on October 16 and is priced at $99.99 / £99.99 for a single kart, or a double pack is available in the UK for £209.99, this pack includes real-life Mario and Luigi Cap. Have you tried Mario Kart Tour on mobile? Check out our Mario Kart Tour challenges guide if you would like more information.
Mario Kart Tour‘s 1st Anniversary Tour is fast approaching, and it’s set to reintroduce a handful of popular city courses. You can also expect to earn some handy rewards during this limited-time celebration, including additional rubies and more. The current Los Angeles Tour will soon draw to a close, meaning time is of the essence if you want to grab its themed rewards.
It’s hard to believe that it’s already been a year since Nintendo’s kart racer arrived on the scene. The game has changed drastically over those 12 months, with its regular content drops helping to flesh out the core experience. Nintendo has also offered new ways to play, such as a fan-requested landscape mode, improved driving controls, and an extensive multiplayer component.
The 1st Anniversary Tour is slated to launch next Tuesday, October 6th. The main draw will no doubt be the five returning city courses, but you can also net yourself some decent log-in goodies by playing the game throughout the 14-day event. And, as a bonus, every reward you earn will also get you some extra rubies. Not bad at all.
If you’re an avid MK Tour player, you’ll no doubt find our Mario Kart Tour challenges guide to be of great use. And you can grab the game itself from over on the App Store and Google Play as a free-to-play title.
The Creator and Developer Advocacy group over at Unity have just launched a new initiative called Open Projects, a Unity lead effort to develop a vertical slice of a game that is open source and community driven. If you are looking to get experience at working with a team, or perhaps are a student looking to build up your resume, contributing to an Open Project could be a good fit. The intention is to create open projects for multiple genres, but initially they are starting with an action-adventure style game. The final results will be published (assumedly for free) on Steam, with all contributors credited for their efforts.
There is a bare-bones project in place now you can download from GitHub. In fact GitHub is central to the entire process, as this is where the project will be housed and where all code and asset collaboration will occur. In addition to GitHub they are coordinating the project in a dedicated Open Projects forum, as well there is a Contribution Guide on Google Docs available here. Project management tasks are managed here powered by Codedecks, an online PM tool specifically for game developers.
You can learn more about Unity Open Projects in the video below (or on Odysee here).
October, 1: Badlanders has now opened for pre-registration globally.
Badlanders is a new survival game from mobile behemoth NetEase that recently entered closed beta in select regions. You’re dropped into a warzone and challenged to scavenge for supplies in order to repel enemy forces, with your ultimate goal being to acquire items with the highest value, then make your daring escape.
Dotted around the map are some all-important escape points for you to reach. If you manage to hold one down successfully, you’ll leave the battlefield with your gear intact. Niko Partners Senior Analyst Daniel Ahmad likened the game to Escape from Tarkov, a gritty first-person shooter that shot to popularity earlier this year. As Ahmad said in a recent Twitter thread, NetEase is especially skilled at bringing popular PC or console genres to mobile.
There are three distinct trading systems to make use of in Badlanders. Exchange, as the name suggests, allows you to purchase and sell some basic supplies. Prism gives you the chance to acquire more premium loot with enhanced attributes, and Auction lets you set your own prices and trade freely with other players.
It’s all about supply and demand, so you have to be smart about your pricing strategies if you want to make some decent cash. And you’ll need every penny you can get in order to insure your favourite items. Doing so will allow you to regain, for example, your preferred gun after a certain amount of time. That is unless someone steals it from your corpse.
The persistent loot system is largely what will set Badlanders apart from similar games on mobile, and it already sounds like an interesting spin on several established genres. For now, only Android players in the CBT regions can give it a go, but the game has in fact opened for pre-registration globally with a few exceptions. If you’re in Belgium, Taiwan, Vietnam, Mainland China, or any of the CBT areas, you won’t currently be able to pre-register.
Here are some handy links to Badlanders’ App Store and Google Play pages. The former lists its expected release date as October 24th. And, while you’re here, why not check out our list of the best mobile multiplayer games?
There is a new Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, specifically the artists among us, in the form of the Be A Creative Superhero Bundle. The primary stars of this bundle are the suite of Corel graphics applications, specifically Painter 2020, Particle Shop and PaintShop, as well as Corel Draw Suite, which unfortunately is only a 6-month subscription. As with all Humble Bundles, this one is organized into tiers, and the tiers in this bundle are:
1$ Tier
AfterShot Standard
25$ Tier
PaintShop Pro 2020
ParticleShop + 11 Brushes
6 extensions for PaintShop Pro
30$ Tier
Corel CAD 2019
Painter 2020
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 2020 6-month sub
10 Brush packs
Light Leak Scripts for PaintShop Pro 2020
It should be noted earlier versions of Painter have been featured in prior bundles, but never 2020. PaintShop 2020 was also featured in a prior bundle so be sure to check your Humble inventory before purchasing. As with all Humbles you get to decide how your money is allocated between Humble, charity, the publisher and if you so choose (and thanks so much if you do) to support GFS by using this link. You can learn more about this bundle in the video below.
