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Game Launcher release plan

Since the community has done their part and we are approaching 100 game, it's almost time to take Game Launcher out of early preview mode make it a full release. When it becomes a full release on Steam the number of people playing your games will go up, a lot.   There are still some odds and ends in the interface to finish up. The thumbnail loading routine needs to be improved. There are some changes that need to be made so it will work better with Big Picture mode. So I am aiming for a re
Josh

Josh

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Leadwerks Game Engine 4.2 RC2

A new build is available on the beta branch: Reverted to Visual Studio 2015 for final release. Information on downgrading your 2017 projects can be found here. Added soft particle shader. Added smoke and soft smoke particle prefabs. Added SSR post-effect (by Igor, Shadmar, and myself). Added trigger material and updated doors example map.
Josh

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Leadwerks 4.2 Release Candidate

A full update is available now on the beta branch.   Leadwerks Game Engine 4.2 features: Visual Studio 2017 support Compatible with the latest C++11 / GCC on Linux Refraction and heat haze effects. Analytics through gameanalytics.com New animation commands Spotlight texture: you can add a material to a spotlight and the first texture will be rendered onto the light (for flashlights). New material blend mode can be used to make objects that only appear in editor.   An
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Steam client update for Workshop Store

A Steam client update has gone out which improves the checkout process in the Leadwerks Workshop Store. When the user clicks the "Buy" button in the editor, the item will now be opened in the Steam client for purchase. You do not have to log into the Steam website with a browser to purchase Workshop items anymore.   You must opt into the beta branch of Leadwerks for this behavior to work. This will be the default when 4.2 is released.   More information here: http://store.steampowered.co
Josh

Josh

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Dev Stuff

I've been working to upgrade Leadwerks to the latest Newton Dynamics 3.14, and I want to change it so the engine imports Newton as a DLL. This will allow the Newton developer to debug some of my applications when needed.   World Factions has raised an important bug / issue and this the best route to solve it.   I've been tinkering with some improvements to some of the physics stuff with promising results, but it needs more work and I don't want to say anything else about it yet. If I can g
Josh

Josh

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More Drawing Features

I've added an optional radius for rectangle corners, for use with the DrawRect() command, along with a new gradient mode that uses a second color to draw a linear gradient on primitives. I like the interface for the program Vue, and I am modeling my default widget scripts after this style.     Here it is rendered at 800% scale. This is rendered directly on a window and sub-pixel antialias is used (Microsoft ClearType):     The appearance of the button widget at this point is somethin
Josh

Josh

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Beta update available

I've updated the beta branch with a full build to address the following issues: GI / water bug where everything would get brighter (the blend mode wasn't being reset to "solid"). "Cannot blit backbuffer" bug fixed. VC .usr file added back into template, which contains info on the default working directory. This is why games weren't launching in the right directory. SDK version set to 8.1 since the 10 SDK isn't installing on Windows 7 (what I'm on now).   FYI, I tested on an AM
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Analytics

I'm hoping to add analytics to both the editor and the engine API. I need to know how many people are actively using the engine on a week to week basis, and how many of those users are opening the Workshop browser in the editor. There will be an option to opt out of stats collection (a real one, not like Windows 10), and even if you do allow stats to be collected no data will be traceable back to your SteamID or IP address.   I've chosen the GameAnalytics.com API for this.   This will also
Josh

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4.2 Beta

An early build of Leadwerks Game Engine 4.2 beta is available on the beta branch on Steam. This release will update the engine with the latest C++ tools and add new graphics and other features. Visual Studio 2017 support Compatible with the latest C++11 / GCC on Linux Refraction: apply "Materials\Effects\glass.mat" onto any object to see this in action. Heat haze: drag the heat haze emitter prefab into the scene to view ("Prefabs\Effects\heathaze.pfb"). Spotlight texture: you can
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Josh

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New Animation Commands

I've built a modified version of ReepBlue's C++ animation manager class (based off my Lua script) into the engine. This adds a new command and eliminates the need for the animation manager script.   void Entity::PlayAnimation(const std::string& sequence, const float speed=1.0f, const int blendtime=500, const int mode=0, const std::string endhook="") void Entity::PlayAnimation(const int index, const float speed = 1.0f, const int blendtime = 500, const int mode = 0, const std::string end
Josh

Josh

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Three New Features in C++11

C++11 modernizes the C++ programming language with many new features and techniques. Below are just a few of the new ways you can use C++ with Leadwerks.   auto You can automatically declare a new variable type by the data that is assigned to it: auto i = 42; // i is an int auto l = 42LL; // l is an long long auto p = new foo(); // p is a foo*   Here's a more practical use that saves a lot of typing. The code below: std::map<std::string, std::vector<int>> map; for
Josh

Josh

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Visual Studio 2017 Support

The beta branch of the professional version is upgraded to use Visual Studio 2017. You can download the release candidate for free here: https://www.visualstudio.com/vs/visual-studio-2017-rc/   Your existing projects should work with VS 2017 with no changes, but you might want to hold off while we test if you are in the middle of a project. New projects you create should open with VS 2017 by default.  
Josh

Josh

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Game Launcher now runs on SteamOS

Leadwerks Game Launcher can now be used on SteamOS. I fixed a bunch of little issues that were preventing this from running. The interface is not optimal right now for controllers, and there is much left to do, but your games do run. It's pretty fun to play your games on a console, when most of them were developed on Windows and never even run on Linux before.   If you have a Steam Machine give it a try!  
Josh

Josh

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Workshop Store checkout process improved

Valve has delivered on their plan to add a new Steam browser protocol for paid Workshop items. The Leadwerks Game Engine beta branch on Steam has been updated so that Workshop Store purchases go through the Steam client instead of requiring you to log into a web browser. You must also opt into the Steam client beta for this functionality to work. At the moment, this feature is only available on Windows.     This removes the biggest source of friction in the checkout process and makes the
Josh

Josh

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Clearing up Baggage

In this non-technical blog I will give you more of Josh's useful tips on how to live. In this blog I am talking about baggage, in the form of data physical possessions.   Archive and Delete The first thing you need to do is organize. If you have all your files in dozens of different folders all over your computer, it will be very difficult to track them all down. This is why Leadwerks and most other programs store files in your Documents folder on your computer. Leadwerks projects, along
Josh

Josh

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Running Your Computers in 2016

I was optimizing and downsizing my computer systems yesterday, and I thought I would write a blog about how I keep my Windows, Mac, and Linux systems running, along with email on my iPhone.   Install Windows and Linux on Two Separate Hard Drives The best way to run Windows and Linux side by side is on two separate drives. Try anything else and you will run into trouble. You should unplug the other drive when installing the OS to make sure they don't interfere with each other. Use the boot
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Josh

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Workshop Download Issue Solved

I figured out why some Workshop items weren't installing correctly. There's a series of steps I need to go through to make a paid item ready for sale, and I omitted one button press in the Steamworks interface.   If you experienced downloading problems with the nature model pack, zombies, or any of the scifi material packs, they should work now.   Let me know if you still have any problems.
Josh

Josh

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Slogging On

Everything I'm working on right now is a real grind. Trying to get some window code to run on Mac and chatting with Valve on how to optimize the Workshop Store. If I didn't have a plan this would not feel like I was going anywhere. I think that's why programmers often fail to reach beyond a certain level of success. I don't mean simply financial success, I mean they don't go big enough to make a really complete product. They make a car with 22 different gears and no seat. If you don't have
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Josh

5

Hello Mac

Being reasonably confident that my GUI design will work on Windows and Linux, I wanted to make sure it would also work for Mac computers. The first step was to compile Leadwerks Game Engine in Apple's Xcode IDE. Like Visual Studio and Code::Blocks, I was able to create two targets so that the same project can be used to compile both the static library and standalone executable.     At this point the Window class for Mac contains mostly empty functions that don't do anything, but this is a
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Josh

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Pre-Steam Dev Days small update

A small update is available on the beta branch. This just changes it so that surfaces using the leaves or groundplant vegetation shader will be skipped when computing a convex decomposition. This was implemented specifically to make it easier for Nenero to get his Tree Pack approved for sale in the Workshop Store. At this time, only the Windows build is affected.     I will be in Seattle tomorrow evening for Steam Dev Days, along with some other people from the Leadwerks community.  
Josh

Josh

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The Ancient Forbidden Knowledge of X11

The most interesting thing about the development of Leadwerks is digging into low-level X11 libraries that no one really understands. If the stock answers of "use GTK" or "use QT" were sufficient, this project would not be necessary. No one really knows how X11 works anymore, so it's like we are exploring an archaeological ruin and discovering ancient forbidden knowledge.     Here's me looking at the X11 documentation.     X11 doesn't really have a concept of non-embedded child wind
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Josh

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Steam Dev Days 2016

I got back last night from Steam Dev Days 2016 in Seattle. This year focused heavily on VR, with Valve mentioning they are working on a new unannounced title built for VR. Valve also announced Steamworks will begin supporting the PS4 controller, with other controller support in the works.     This was also an opportunity for me to meet with a bunch of people on the Steam dev team and chat with other developers. I got a lot done! We're getting our Steam controller integration fixed, as I
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Josh

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Digging Deeper

The general GUI elements for LeadwerksGUI are more or less done, and I have turned my attention to another problem. The LeadwerksGUI system is built around the notion that GUI widgets have a discrete bounding box in which they are contained. All events and drawing occur within these bounds, which are further constrained by either their parent widget's bounds or the area of the window they are created on. However, there are three situations where this paradigm breaks down.   Menus   Wind
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Top Sellers in the Leadwerks Workshop Store

These are the top-ten top grossing items in the Leadwerks Workshop Store over the last three months: Nature Model Pack SciFi Materials 1 Modern Sewer Construction Kit Zombie Action Figures Old Furniture Pack SciFi Materials 5 Mercenary Action Figure Morgue Strike Troop The Stalker   First of all, we can see that outdoor vegetation and rocks sells best. This is consistent with what I have seen with our DLCs and with products in the past.   We also see four c
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Leadwerks Game Launcher on Linux

If you opt into the beta branch of Leadwerks Game Launcher on Steam, you can now try the application out on Linux, using the new LeadwerksGUI user interface.   LeadwerksGUI is a cross-platform GUI library that features DPI scaling for any resolution, supporting 4K and retina screens.    
Josh

Josh

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