[Dev News] Flax Engine 1.13 Released

[xSicKxBot]

Flax Engine just released Flax Engine 1.13. This game engine has many similarities to Unreal Engine, both in scripting, licensing terms and more, although obviously it is MUCH smaller in scope.

Key features of Flax Engine 1.13 include:

• DDGI improvements: The real-time global illumination system now samples and filters better in areas far from probes, keeping indirect shadowing intact. A new option also renders indirect lighting at half resolution with bilateral upscaling for better performance.
  
  
• DDGI specular reflections: DDGI can now place a set of specular probes so rough surfaces get dynamic reflections, removing the need for Environment Probes. On the demo level this costs about 49 MB of VRAM and 0.5–0.9 ms of GPU time on a 2080 Ti.
  
  
• .NET 10 and C# 14: Since .NET 8 reaches end of life this year, Flax moved its base runtime to .NET 10 LTS, bringing C# 14 and major performance gains. The team showed it running on Nintendo Switch.
  
  
• Editor UI improvements: The properties panel now has a search field. The wireframe debug view was also rebuilt, drawing lines over the lit model.
  
  
• Split-screen local co-op: Flax can now render multiple viewports into the main window, each with its own GUI region. A new local co-op racing sample, built on the Arizona Framework, shows split-screen with multiple HUDs.
  
  
• PCSS shadows: A new soft-shadow algorithm adjusts penumbra size to the light source’s size. It works with point, spot and directional lights.
  
  
• Occlusion culling: New hardware-query and HZB-based culling skip hidden objects to cut draw calls, especially in interior scenes. It covers models, particles, terrain, foliage and dynamic shadows, and you can plug in your own culling methods.
  
  
• Hardware instancing for animated models: Skeleton bone data now lives in a shared GPU buffer, so identical skinned meshes can be drawn in one call. A demo ran 5,000 animated characters at 60 fps.
  
  
• FSR 4 and TAAU: Temporal anti-aliasing can now upscale the image itself (TAAU), and the FSR plugin has been updated to AMD FSR 4.
  
  
• Reversed Z: The depth buffer now runs from 1 to 0, which gives more precision at a distance and improves rendering of large worlds. It’s on by default.
  
  
• Online Platform sample: A new sample project shows how to get player avatars, achievements and friends lists. It also uses new
  Code:

  IOnlinePlatform
  features for overlay UI and rich presence.
  
  
• Audio device detection: On desktop, games now automatically switch audio output when the player changes devices, such as moving from headphones to speakers.
  
  
• Other editor and tooling updates: Nodes such as comments can be resized from any side, and the GPU memory profiler can preview and save resources. Behavior Tree decorators now show condition text, colored by the result during play mode.
  
  
• Scripting and UI extras: A new
  Code:

  ScriptingObjectInterfaceReference<T>
  lets you reference objects by interface in both C++ and C#.
  Code:

  RenderToTextureControl
  can now apply a custom material shader to rendered UI, for effects like curved HUDs.
  
  
• Roadmap: Flax 1.14 is planned for Q1 2027 and 1.15 for Q3 2027, with Flax 2.0 targeted for late 2027. The team aims for full backward compatibility when projects move to 2.0.
  
  

Key Links

Flax Homepage

Flax 1.13 Release Details

Flax Discord Server

Flax Engine GitHub Repository

Web Racing Demo Repository

You can learn more about the Flax Engine 1.13 release in the below.