Tag: GameDev News

CryTek have released version 5.6.3 of CryEngine, primarily a bug fix release.

Details from the release notes:

Animation

• Optimized: The attached characters cache to only update when attachments change.
• Fixed: An issue with the max view distance render node property (not being propagated through attachment hierarchies).

AI

• Fixed: Saving the level and generating an environment probe, triggers an assertion failure (NavigationSystem.cpp L 1172) and a warning which will pop up endlessly (Editor background thread is still running) making the Editor unusable.

Audio

• Tweaked: Updated to Wwise SDK v2019.1.4.

Core/System

• Fixed: Work around for compiler error with rsqrt_fast in VS 2019 16.3.
• Fixed: Compiler error with if_else_zero. if_else and if_else_zero are now overloaded to optimally use int or float version of SSE “and” intrinsic.

Default Entities

• Fixed: Added missing include for RoomscaleCamera.

CMake

• Fixed: Disabled Oculus VR plugin when using VS2019 16.3.0 (due to compilation issue)
• Tweaked: Fix Oculus VR plugin version check and comments.

Core Systems

• Tweaked: Build error when using MSVCs Edit And Continue feature.

Graphics and Rendering

• Optimized: (Particles) Removed ILINE on huge SNoise and other functions.

Sandbox

• Fixed: (EE): Unable to switch between presets open in two docked EE instances.

Plugins and Projects

• Fixed: The player entity is not correctly spawned when loading subsequent levels in the Sandbox.

The 5.6.3 release also has some know issues to be aware of:

• Oculus VR Plugin cannot be compiled with Visual Studio 2019 v16.3.0.
• Starting a C++ Plugin only project in Editor/Game Launcher causes a crash.
• Drag and dropping brushes or entities with children into another layer crashes the Editor.
• Turning on the “Ambient” light option for the Point Light entity component triggers asserts and sometimes causes crashes.

If you are interested in learning more about CryEngine 5.6 in general, be sure to watch the video below.  The update is available in the CryEngine launcher.

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

GameDev News CryEngine

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If you’ve been looking at picking up either RPG GameMaker MV or Visual Novel Maker MV from Degica, now is the perfect time with the Humble Software Bundle: RPG Maker Returns bundle.  As always the bundle is organized into tiers, you buy the higher dollar tier, you get all the lower tiers as well.

The tiers of this bundle are:

1$

• RPG Maker VX
• RPG Maker 2000
• Game Character Hub: Portfolio Edition
• Game Character Hub: DS Generator Parts
• Game Character Hub PE: Second Story

8$

• RPG Maker XP
• RPG Maker 2003

15$

• RPG Maker VX Ace
• VX Ace Samurai Resource Pack
• VX Ace DS Resource Pack
• VX Ace DS + Resource Pack
• 8bit Fantasy RPG Tracks Vol 1
• Modern Music Mega-pack
• Samurai Force 8bit Tracks Vol 1

50$

• RPG Maker MV
• Visual Novel Maker + Live2D
• MADO
• SAKAN
• GENE
• Visual Novel Maker – Magical School Music Pack
• Visual Novel Maker – Japanese School Girls Vol 1
• RPG MV – Frontier Works: Futuristic Heroes and BGM
• RPG MV – Battle Girl Characters Pack 1
• RPG MV – Heroine Character Creator
• RPG MV – Beast Man Generator
• RPG MV – Ancient Dungeons: Base Pack
• RPG MV – RMBoy Graphics Pack
• RPG MV – Time Fantasy
• RPG MV – Time Fantasy: Side View Animated Battlers
• RPG MV – Symphonic RPG ME Perfect Collection
• Retro Fantasy Music Pack
• Horror Soundscapes
• Classic Fantasy Music Pack
• MV Monsters HIBIKI KATAKURUA Vol 1

As with all Humble Bundles, you can decide how your money is allocated, between the Publisher, Humble, Charity and if you so choose (and thanks if you do!) to support GameFromScratch using this link.  Learn more about this bundle in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AmBAz4SQVbg&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Engine 2D

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There is another Humble Bundle of interest to game developers, this one is the Computer Productivity & Coding by Mercury Learning.  Be aware, a few of the books in this bundle were offered in this previous bundle!  As always Humble Bundles are organized into tiers.  If you purchase a higher dollar value tier, you get all of the lower price tiers below it. 

The tiers in this bundle are:

1$ Tier

• C Programming
• Cloud Computing Basics
• Game Development Using Python
• Multimedia Web Design
• HDL with Digital Design
• Microsoft Office 2013/365 and Beyond
• Basic Electronics Video Tutorials (VIDEO)

8$ Tier

• 3D Printing
• Photoshop Photo Restoration Video Tutorials (VIDEO)
• MS Excel 2016
• Artificial Intelligence in the 21st Century 2nd Edition
• Autodesk Revit 2020 Architecture
• Software Testing
• SVG Programming Video Tutorials (VIDEO)
• AutoCAD 2019 Beginning and Intermediate
• AutoCAD 2020 3D Modeling

15$ Tier

• Data Cleaning
• Python 3
• Microsoft Excel 2019 Programming with VBA, XML and ASP
• Classic Game Design 2nd Edition
• HTML5 Video Tutorials (VIDEO)
• Excel Functions and Formulas 5th Edition
• Embedded Vision
• Tensorflow 2
• 3D Game Programming with DirectX 12

As always with Humble Bundles, you can design how your money is allocated, between Humble, the publisher, charity or if you wish (and thanks if you do!) support GameFromScratch using this link.  Check out the video below for more details on the bundle.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UE7JR4JHbWY&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Book

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The group at Mozilla behind the A-Frame Mixed Reality project just released ECSY, an experimental engine and framework agnostic entity component system written in JavaScript.

ECSY features include:

• Framework agnostic
• Focused on providing a simple but yet efficient API
• Designed to avoid garbage collection as possible
• Systems, entities and components are scoped in a world instance
• Multiple queries per system
• Reactive support:
  • Support for reactive behaviour on systems (React to changes on entities and components)
  • System can query mutable or immutable components
• Predictable:
  • Systems will run on the order they were registered or based on the priority defined when registering them
  • Reactive events will not generate a random callback when emited but queued and be processed in order
• Modern Javascript: ES6, classes, modules,…
• Pool for components and entities

ECSY is open source and MIT licensed with the source code available on GitHub.  It is well documented and contains several examples included examples for BabylonJS (tutorial here) and Three.js (tutorial here).  The ECSY homepage is available here.  You can learn more about ECSY, including future plans by reading the announcement blog available here or by watching the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zVF4giVyp08&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News JavaScript HTML5

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Unity just announced the acquisition of ChilliConnect, a provider of game networking and live operations services.  This is their second such acquisition in less than a month after they purchased DeltaDNA back in September.

Details from the Unity blog:

Today we’re excited to confirm that Unity has acquired ChilliConnect, the live game management services company. With the addition of ChilliConnect to the Unity ecosystem, we’re adding even more options for developers. ChilliConnect provides cloud-based game services to enable backend operations at scale allowing anyone to add online game features without needing to stand up individual servers. But that’s only part of it. Their full-stack toolkit includes LiveOps capabilities and real-time analytics, so building and operating a connected game becomes more of a reality.

A deeper look at ChilliConnect

ChilliConnect’s strengths lie in flexible backend services, powering a variety of solutions to help game developers of all sizes.

• Game Services: Backend management tools that are proven to scale to millions of players, including a custom player account system, cloud coding mechanism, and cloud data storage (among other things).
• Analytics: An integrated analytics dashboard gives developers an inside look at essential KPIs, such as Player Retention, MAU, DAU and more.
• LiveOps: A toolkit in and of itself offering downloadable content, notifications, A/B testing and promotions.

Currently ChilliConnect is platform agnostic, offering SDK support for both Unreal and Unity as well as an HTTP interface.  Unity announced they have no intention of changing this and that ChilliConnect will remain an independent company.  You can learn more about the acquisition and about ChilliConnect’s products and services in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZCf1TdtMCqU&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Unity

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It’s the first of the month so that means free Unreal Engine stuff!  Since November of 2018 Epic Games have been giving away free UE4 marketplace content in the form of  at least 5 free assets that need to be “purchased” during the month, as well as at least two permanently free items.  Once you have “purchased” the monthly content, it is however yours to keep forever.

This month’s content consists of:

• Dynamic Locomotion + Blueprints
• EMS Easy Multi Save
• Flowers and Plants Nature Pack
• Loading Screen System
• Close Combat Swordsman

The new permanently free content additions are:

• jRPG Template
• Modular Sci-Fi Season 2 Starter Bundle

You can find the monthly content here, while the entire collection of free forever content is available here.  You can also locate and purchase the content using the Epic Game Launcher. 

In a bit of possible bad news, a marketplace provider reached out to me to let me know that this might be the end.  It was initially planned that the marketplace giveaways would be a year long program and sadly this month represents the 12th such month of giveaways.  Epic have not confirmed that there will or won’t be another such giveaway come November or if there will be a replacement program offered.  I suppose we will find out on November 1st, won’t we?  You can learn more  about the assets and the program in the video below.

[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HQx_52ZZ3q4&w=853&h=480]

GameDev News Unreal

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While not strictly about game development, Humble are running a ebook bundle of Unix and Linux Books by O’Reilly Press.  As always the bundle is broken into tiers, where if you buy a higher dollar tier, you get all of theirs below it.

The tiers of this bundle include the following books:

1$ Tier

• Shell Scripting
• Linux Device Drivers
• Regular Expressions
• Grep
• GNU Emacs
• UNIX Power Tools

8$ Tier

• Learning the bash Shell
• vi and Vim Editors
• Linux in a Nutshell
• sed & Awk

15$ Tier

• bash Cookbook
• Linux System Programming
• Regular Expressions
• Effective awk Programming
• Linux Pocket Guide

As with all Humble Bundles, you can decide how your money is allocated.  If you use this link you can direct it towards the publisher, Humble, Charity or if you so choose GFS (and thanks if you do!).

No video for this bundle as it’s a bit far to far from game development (although would certainly be useful for server programming as an example), also in an attempt to prevent Humble burnout! 😉

GameDev News Book

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