Ultra Engine 0.9.7 Adds Decals, Particles, and More
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The latest update to Ultra Engine, version 0.9.7, introduces an all-new decals system, particle emitters, enhanced entity and material properties, and improved flowgraphs. New features and enhancement make it easier than ever to create performant games and simulations that look great and run smoothly.
Decals
A new decals system built on our clustered forward+ renderer allows you to display stains, graffiti, puddles, and other details to enhance the appearance of your scenes. Because they are rendered in a single pass, there are no z-fighting issues, and decals work great with transparent surfaces.
Color, normals, metalness / roughness, and even light emission are all supported and blend seamlessly with PBR surfaces in your world. The new decal layer setting give you control over which objects decals will appear on.
Particles
Particle emitters make their first appearance in Ultra Engine 0.9.7, for simulating fire, smoke, and other special effects.
Extended Entity and Material Properties
Ultra Engine now allows per-entity control of emission color, texture offset, and texture scaling. Materials have a new auto-scrolling feature that can be used for easy animation of moving textures like conveyer belts, tank treads, and rivers.
Enhanced Flowgraphs
The flowgraph has been given a makeover with an updated appearance that is not only more beautiful, but more functional. Entity icons are shown next to the node titles to provide a quick visual cue about what type of object the node represents. Zooming with the mouse wheel has also been added to the interface, for faster navigation of complex scenes.
And Much More...
- More than 30 bug fixes
- Updated to latest Steamworks 1.60.
- Animation hooks are improved and will more reliably be triggered when they are supposed to.
- Steam timer update slowed down from 30 hz to once per second, since freezing issue seems resolved.
- Lua string documentation updated.
- Materials can now be dragged from the asset browser onto a model in the model editor.
- Asset browser will emit WIDGETDROP events for windows and interfaces an item is dragged onto.
- Added animation properties in model editor.
- Added per-mesh "Update Normals" in model editor right-click popup menu.
- Shadow maps have been switched to bindless textures, instead of using array textures.
- Light::SetShadowmapSize() method is added.
- Improved compatibility with some cards.
- Added shadowmap size property in scene editor.
- Added SelectDevice.cpp to C++ project template. You should add this file to your VS project to ensure your game uses a Discrete card on machines with switchable graphics.
- GetMemoryUsage() is now accurate in debug builds.
- Model animation will now correctly take into account the speed value set in model files.
- Model editor animation speed property now uses float values so you can slow down an animation.
- Libzip and zlib sources are now compiled into engine instead of using an external static lib. Only the editor is updated at this time.
- New package class methods: Package::SetComment, Package::SetFileComment, Package::CountFiles, Package::GetFile.
- Added World::GetSpeed method.
Updating Projects
When the editor detects a project that was built using an older version of the engine, it will display the project manager at start. This allows you to sync your projects and receive important shader updates before loading them. If you need to access the previous version for any reason, it is still available as an archived branch.
Please note that in 0.9.7, a new extra parameter was added to the Load and Save Component methods. Your custom C++ component overloads will not be called unless they include this parameter.
Weeklong Deal
You can get Ultra Engine on our website or on Steam. Use coupon code DREAM in our store for a discount this week.
Got Leadwerks on Steam? Grab an extra discount with the Leadwerks to Ultra Engine Pro upgrade bundle.
About Ultra Engine
Ultra Engine was created to solve the problems we saw while working on virtual reality projects at NASA. We are developing game engine tools to provide order-of-magnitude faster performance for 3D and VR applications in entertainment, defense, and aerospace.
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