The Ogre 3D open source renderer just released version 1.10.11, the final version before moving on to 1.11 releases that will allow for changes that breaks the existing API.  Ogre 1.10 received several new features including PBR (Physically Based Rendering), a pre-compiled Android SDK option, improved RTSS (real-time shading system) as well as improved logging.

Full details of the release from the release notes:

• Main
  • allow creating camera without a RenderSystem
  • allow passing point size & attenuation via AutoParamDataSource
  • VertexPoseKeyFrame: fix typo in iterator that broke exporting
  • Fix OgreBillboardChain element counting (#607)
  • forward useShadowBuffer setting in VertexData::reorganiseBuffers
  • Log - add LML_WARNING and color output if on xterm
  • use new logging facilities for better output
  • reset TextureProjector on destroyShadowTextures
  • SkyBox - avoid index by using triangle strip
  • Unified Program - log if we are delegating to wrong program type
  • HardwareBuffer: _updateFromShadow - use HBL_WRITE_ONLY
  • do not register duplicate resource that supposed to be ignored
  • Use std::unordered_xxx #if OGRE_USE_STD11
  • Since VC++ 10.0 aka 2010 std::hash is made available in tr1 namespace via using-declaration, we can use it directly without ABI breakage
  • Since VC++ 11.0 aka 2012 std::unordered_xxx are made available in tr1 namespace via using-declaration, we can use them directly without ABI breakage
  • deprecate CompositionTargetPass::PassIterator
  • deprecate HardwareBuffer::UploadOptions
  • RenderSystem - deprecate legacy FFP PointSprite API
  • CompositionTechnique: deprecate TargetPass & TextureDefinition
  • KeyFrame - deprecate getPoseReferenceIteratorIterators
  • generate deprecation warning on using Any::isEmpty
• CMake
  • Add Win10 SDKs to DX11 search script
  • Android Build SampleBrowser library using CMake instead of android makefiles
  • Bugfix: FindDirectX11 would fail to detect old DX SDK June 2010 + MSVC 2008 + Windows 8. Other combinations may also not be working.
  • enable ETC and disable FreeImage by default
  • Do not use the new DX SDKs when building for MSVC 2008.
  • FindDirectX11: Try harder to find DX11 SDK as part of Modern SDK, use version passed by CMake or highest available, search in standard and obtaines from registry location, restored support for ARM and ARM64 library archs.
  • Fix feature summary
  • the debug/ release split is a win32 thing and annoying elsewhere. Remove on other platforms.
• Bites
  • ApplicationContext - query Cg availability at runtime
  • CameraMan - try to replicate the camera configuration
• RTSS:
  • add AssignmentAtom for simple "a = b;" statements
  • avoid sorting function atoms by using a map of groups - deprecate obsolete internalOrder parameter
  • decide isProgrammable per pass and not per technique
  • FFPTexturing - implement texturing of point sprites
  • FFPTransform - set the point size in shader
  • GLESProgramWriter - fix call to StringUtil::replaceAll
  • GLSL - directly rename params instead of using a rename map
  • GLSL - factor out writeFunctionDeclaration
  • GLSL - globally forbid assignment to "in" and remove local hacks
  • GLSLProgramWriter - reuse the normal swizzling path
  • GLSLProgramWriter - skip parameter names in forward declarations
  • GLSLProgramWriter - small refactoring of writeMainSourceCode
  • port FFPColour and FFPLighting to addAtomAssign
  • SampleLib_ReflectionMap - drop now obsolete flip for GL
  • ShaderGLSLESProgramWriter - remove unused FunctionVectorIterator
  • ShaderParameter always include decimal point for float values
  • use overloading to create const parameters. Deprecate old way.
  • deprecate FFP_FUNC_ASSIGN
  • derive GLSLES program writer from GLSL writer to share code
  • NormalMapLighting - derive from PerPixelLighting to share code
• Java: generate Ogre jar
• GL: remove arbitrary point attenuation factor
• GL3Plus
  • correctly handle reading from HBU_WRITE_ONLY buffers
  • Hardware*Buffer::copyData - also update ShadowBuffer
  • HardwareBuffer - drop superficial glFlushMappedBufferRange
  • respect useShadowBuffer setting - fixes bboxes with HW skinning
• GLES2
  • enable RSC_MAPBUFFER for GLES3 at runtime
  • hardware based locking requires EXT_map_buffer_range
  • HardwareBuffer - drop superficial glFlushMappedBufferRange
  • prevent crash on shutdown
  • GLSLESProgram: fix overloaded-virtual
• GL*
  • simplify reading/ writing to shadow buffers
  • slightly clean up EGL/WIN32
  • update EGL implementation for Win32
• D3D11: Use DXGI_SWAP_EFFECT_FLIP_DISCARD if all stars are aligned: Win10 SDK && Win10 runtime && useFlipMode = true
• D3D9:
  • compatibility with USE_STD11 and THREADS=3
  • fix wrong operator precedence in _canAutoGenMipmaps
• Terrain
  • properly handle loading in synchronous mode
  • Do not remove terrain instance if it's being processed in the background thread. (#587)
• HLMS
  • correctly set blendFactor & set to replace by default
  • not finding template (parts) is an error
• XMLConverter: fix errors in the DTD
• Samples
  • add PBR demo based on the glTF2.0 reference implementation
  • force strip SampleBrowser library on android
  • ShaderSystem - correctly enable reflection map SRS on GL
  • Shadows - fix wrong material name for MAT_DEPTH_FLOAT
  • Shadows - simplify material script and code
  • SkeletalAnimation - make sure vertex buffers are readable
  • Media: upgrade meshes to latest format to silence warning
• Tests
  • extend MeshSerializer tests to pose animations
  • add DTD validation tool for XMLConverter output and run it on CI
  • convert SceneQuery VTests to unit tests
  • correct case for UniqueModel skeleton in strict mode
  • fix building on old MSVC
  • gtest - silence tr1 deprecation warning for VS2017
  • improve MeshLodTests.LodConfigSerializer test
  • PlayPen_PointSprites - correctly configre pass
  • RootWithoutRenderSystemFixture - HBM must be deleted after Root
  • PlayPen_PointSprites: adapt point size parameter again
  • PlayPen_StencilShadows*: use modulative shadows
  • VTests: allow test to pass if SSIM > 0.999
  • VTests: more tests work on all GL RS by now
  • PlayPen_TransparencyMipMaps - use correct pass for second TU
• Docs
• fix duplicate labels and override typo
• fix parsing of GLSupport/GLSL and GLES2 classes
• further improve the RTSS tutorial (referencing examples)
• improve RTSS and HLMS tutorials
• OgreShadows - use actual code and drop obsolete tex file
• port "Shadow Mapping in Ogre" to doxygen
• RTSS - document all currently available material attributes
• RTSS - reference normal_map_space descriptions
• Bites: document all keys handled by AdvancedRenderControls

You can learn more about the release here.  Ogre3D is free and open source and can be downloaded here.

Tiled is a popular open source map editor supported by almost every single 2D game engine available these days.  If you are interested in learning more about Tiled, be sure to check out our Tiled Tutorial series.  The 1.1 release is absolutely packed with new features inluding infinite sized map support, Wang tile support, context sensitive tool bars and object template support.

Details from the change log:

• Added support for infinite maps (by Ketan Gupta, #260)
• Added support for Wang tiles and related tools (by Benjamin Trotter)
• Added support for reusable object templates (by Mohamed Thabet)
• Added working directory setting for custom commands (by Ketan Gupta, #1580)
• Added output of custom commands in Debug Console (by Ketan Gupta, #1552)
• Added autocrop action based on tile layers (by Ketan Gupta, #642)
• Added tool bar with tool-specific actions and settings (by Ketan Gupta, #1084)
• Added shape fill tool for filling rectangles or circles (by Benjamin Trotter, #1272)
• Added option to lock/unlock a layer (by Ketan Gupta, #734)
• Added .xml as possible file extension for TMX files
• Added keyboard shortcut for Save All (by Thomas ten Cate)
• Added actions to remove a segment from polygon or to split a polyline (by Ketan Gupta, #1685)
• Added icon for animation editor in the tileset editor (by Ketan Gupta, #1706)
• Added display of flip bits for hovered tile in status bar (#1707)
• Added ability to capture tiles while using fill tools (#790)
• Added option to have mouse wheel zoom by default (#1472)
• Added tab closing actions to context menu, and close by middle-click (by Justin Jacobs, #1720)
• Added ability to reorder terrain types (by Justin Jacobs, #1603)
• Added a point object for marking locations (by Antoine Gersant, #1325)
• Added ‘New Tileset’ button when no tileset is opened (by Rhenaud Dubois, #1789)
• Added ‘Open File’ button when no file opened (by Rhenaud Dubois, #1818)
• Added support for custom input formats and TMX output to the –export-map command-line option
• Added island RPG example based on Beach tileset by finalbossblues
• Added file-related context menu actions to tileset tabs
• Added action to reset to default window layout (by Keshav Sharma, #1794)
• Added support for exporting tilesets, including to Lua format (by Conrad Mercer, #1213)
• Keep object types sorted alphabetically (by Antoine Gersant, #1679)
• Improved polygon node handles and drag behavior
• Fixed %executablepath variable for executables found in PATH (#1648)
• Fixed Delete key to delete selected polygon nodes when appropriate (by Ketan Gupta, #1555)
• Fixed Terrain Brush going wild in some scenarios (#1632)
• Fixed the “Embed in Map” checkbox to be persistent (#1664)
• Fixed crash when saving two new maps using the same file name (#1734)
• Fixed issues caused by paths not being cleaned (#1713)
• Fixed suggested file name for tilesets to match the tileset name (by killerasus, #1783)
• Fixed selection rectangle’s shadow offset when zooming (by Antoine Gersant, #1796)
• Fixed save dialog to reopen after heeding the file extension warning (by Antoine Gersant, #1782)
• Fixed potential crash when zooming out too much (#1824)
• Fixed potential crash after deleting object or group layers
• Fixed Object Selection tool clearing selection on double-click
• Enabled building with Qbs on macOS, including the Python plugin (by Jake Petroules)
• Automapping: Don’t fail if an input/inputnot layer isn’t found
• Automapping: Added a “StrictEmpty” flag to input layers
• GMX plugin: Added support for defining views with objects (by William Taylor, #1621)
• GMX plugin: Added support for setting scale and origin for instances (#1427)
• GMX plugin: Added support for setting the creation code for instances and the map
• GMX plugin: Start counting default tile layer depth from 1000000 (#1814)
• tBIN plugin: Added read/write support for the tBIN map format (by Chase Warrington, #1560)
• libtiled-java: Generate classes from XSD, some fixes and build with Maven (by Mike Thomas, #1637)
• libtiled-java: Added support for manipulating non-consecutive tile IDs in a tileset (by Stéphane Seng)
• Python plugin: Adjusted example scripts to API changes (by spiiin, #1769)
• Flare plugin: Various changes (by Justin Jacobs, #1781)
• TMW plugin: Removed since it is no longer needed
• Updated Dutch, Bulgarian, English, French, German, Korean, Norwegian Bokmål, Spanish and Turkish translations

You can read more about this release and the new features here.  Tiled is available for download here while the source code is available here.

For several years now, the Unity installer has included the ability to install MonoDevelop, the open source C# IDE by Xamarin.  With the upcoming release of Unity 2018.1 this will no longer be the case, as it is being removed from the installer and support is being dropped.  This isn’t really a huge development however, as since Microsoft purchased Xamarin last year they have released a version of MonoDevelopment/Xamarin Studio called Visual Studio for Mac, which will continue to be supported.

Details from the Unity blog:

With the (currently experimental) .NET 4.6 scripting runtime upgrade in Unity we are moving towards supporting many of the new exciting C# features available in C# 6.0 and beyond. It very important for us at Unity that we also provide a great C# IDE experience to accompany the new C# features.

MonoDevelop-Unity 5.9.6 that we ship with Unity today does not support the latest C# features and is also not compatible with debugging C# scripts in the new .NET 4.6 scripting runtime in Unity. To address this we are making 2 changes.

1. Removing MonoDevelop-Unity 5.9.6 from the Unity 2018.1 installer on macOS and Windows and no longer supporting it for Unity development starting from Unity 2018.1.
2. Including Visual Studio for Mac as the only C# IDE on macOS in Unity 2018.1.
   On Windows we will continue to include Visual Studio 2017 Community and no longer include MonoDevelop-Unity as an alternative.

Visual Studio for Mac already includes Unity integration out of the box and has since Unity 5.6.1, supporting both the latest C# features and debugging of C# scripts on the .NET 4.6 scripting runtime.

MonoDevelop-Unity users on macOS can download and install Visual Studio for Mac and start using it today.

The first release of the Unity game engine is available in beta form, Unity 2018.1.  Keep in mind this is a beta, so of course it should not be used for production code.  Wii U, XP and MonoDevelop users should note this release marks the end of support for these products.  There are however a load of new features in this release in addition to several bug fixes and improvements. 

The biggest new feature of this release is the new rendering pipeline referred to as Scriptable Render Pipeline (SRP) enabling users to customize the rendering pipeline using C# and material shaders.  The SRP also includes a new Shader Graph tool (pictured right) that enables developers to visually build shaders using a simpler flow chart graph system.  You can read more about the changes in this release here.

Details from the release notes:

System Requirements Changes

• Removed support for Windows XP in standalone player builds. Windows Vista is the now minimum supported OS for Windows standalone player.

• Deprecated support for MonoDevelop. VisualStudio is now the recommended and supported C# editor on both macOS and Windows.

Known Issues

• Audio: [Audio Mixer] Crash on play when duplicated audio group is assigned to audio source (962084)

• Build Pipeline: BuildObserver failed is thrown when building a project with Vuforia enabled. (984712)

• Editor: "Assertion failed" exception is generated on opening a project on Mac OSX (977901)

• Editor: Use of "external script editor" in editor preferences doesn't work with some editors. Workaround is to use "open by file extension". (974296)

• Editor: [Graphview] At some steps of zooming, texts on nodes appear blurry. (985084)

• Editor: [Mac] VS for Mac opens new instance after Unity was reopened (979897)

• GI: AddInstancePropertiesJob error while baking with specific assets (973689)

• GI: Baking pipeline still runs even if GI systems are disabled (985795)

• GI: Editor freezes on 'Writing Lighting Data' when baking multiple scenes in Build Settings (977913)

• GI: [Progressive Lightmapper] Scene is completely black after clicking Generate Light button (973666)

• GI: [UI] New parameters are incorrectly introduced for directional, spot and point lights (972240)

• Graphics: [UI] Multiple debug scene visualization modes are broken (969889)

• Particles: Line renderer is rendered in scene/game window when selecting object in the Project window (972298)

Features

• 2D: [Experimental] Added ability for user to add functionality for Sprite editing in the Sprite Editor Window.

• 2D: [Experimental] Added experimental API to support Sprite animation.

• Android: Added an interface with a callback that is called after the Android Gradle project is generated but before it is built.

• Android: Added ARM64 (also known as AArch64) experimental support.

• Android: Added Sustained Performance Mode setting, which sets a predictable, consistent level of device performance over longer periods of time without thermal throttling. Based on the SustainedPerformance API from Google.

• Animation: Added PositionConstraint, RotationConstraint and ScaleConstraint components.

• Animation: Added the AimConstraint component.

• Animation: Added the ParentConstraint component.

• Animation: Added weighted tangent support to AnimationCurve.

• Asset Import: (Also see API changes) Added OnPreprocessAsset callback in AssetPostprocessor.

• Asset Import: Added support for importing Aim constraints from FBX files.

• Asset Import: Added support for importing Parent constraints from FBX files.

• Asset Import: Added support for importing Point, Orient and Scale constraints from FBX files.

• Asset Import: [Experimental] Added experimental API to generate Texture/Sprite from importer settings.

• Audio: Added Google's Resonance Audio plugins.

• Build Pipeline: Added a new API for changing platform icons; it supports platform specific icon kinds(types) and multilayer icons.

• Build Pipeline: Added ability to store and retrieve object references by name through EditorBuildSettings.

• Build Pipeline: Added new BuildReport API. Building players and assetbundles will now return a BuildReport object that allows you to query information about the build process and outputs.

• Build Pipeline: Android Build & Run has now target device selection in the build dialog. It allows users to deploy to either a specific single device or to all supported devices simultaneously.

• Cache Server: Added -CacheServerIPAddress command line argument to connect Editor to specified Cache Server on startup.

• Editor: New ObjectFactory API that allow to create Object using default values - See ScriptingAPI and Presets for more details.

• Editor: Preset class that allow to save serialized informations of an Object to a .preset asset and apply it later to the same Object type.

• Editor: The profiler window now contains a 'clear on play' button.

• Editor: When running PlayMode and EditMode tests in batch mode it is now possible to specify scriptingBackend to use trough a test settings file.

• GI: Added experimental API for baking sky occlusion in Progressive Lightmapper. The sky occlusion value for a given input position denotes what fraction of the sky is visible for that point. It takes into account any lightmap static object. The sky occlusion allows you to apply the correct amount of sky lighting to objects that are otherwise hard to lightmap, such as trees and foliage.

• GI: [Experimental] Added new experimental C# interface to pass light information to the GI baking backends.

• Graphics: Added dynamic resolution support for PS4.

• Graphics: GPU Instancing now supports GI.

  • Objects affected by light probes, occlusion probes (in shadowmask mode) or lightmaps can now be automatically batched by Foward and Deferred pipeline.
  • Light probe and occlusion probe data can be sent to Graphics.DrawMeshInstanced using LightProbeUsage.CustomProvided mode.
  • New APIs are added for calculating probe data and copying to MaterialPropertyBlock: -- LightProbes.CalculateInterpolatedLightAndOcclusionProbes -- MaterialPropertyBlock.CopySHCoefficientArrayFrom -- MaterialPropertyBlock.CopyProbeOcclusionArrayFrom

• Graphics: Metal: Added support for DX11 tessellation through hull/domain shaders.

• Multiplayer: Added support for callbacks that the user can define to be notified when there is something to read or connection is ready to send.

• OSX: Added support for IL2CPP scripting backend for Mac Standalone player.

• Particles: Added support for GPU instancing of Particle System mesh rendering.

• Particles: Added support for Orbital Velocity to the Velocity over Lifetime module.

• Particles: All particle emitter shapes now support reading a Texture for masking and color tinting.

• Physics: 2D Physics is now able to use all the cores on a device to run its simulation. See 'Job Options (Experimental)' in 2D physics settings.

• Player: (Alse mentioned under API changes) Added an experimental API which allows to change the order in which engine systems are invoked, remove engine systems from the update order, or insert new C# entrypoints at any point in the update cycle: UnityEngine.Experimental.LowLevel.PlayerLoop.

• Scripting: Added command line option "overrideMonoSearchPath" for desktop standalone players (OSX, Windows). "overrideMonoSearchPath" specifies an extra folder to search when Mono is loading assemblies. One intended use is two versions of the same project i.e. trial and full version. The assets are the same but the scripts are different. This command line option can be used to re-use the assets but load different scripts.

• Video: Audio sample output API for the VideoPlayer with support for access from C# or C++.

• Video: Support for reading videos from AssetBundles on Android.

• Web: Added UploadHandlerFile for UnityWebRequest: sends file contents as request body without loading entire file to memory.

• Web: Custom certificate validation support added to UnityWebRequest. See CertificateHandler script documentation for more info.

• Windows: Added support for IL2CPP scripting backend for Windows Standalone player.

• XR: 360 stereo image capture with support for conversion of rendered texture (cubemap) to stereo/mono equirectangular format for display in VR. Added script API: RenderTexture.ConvertToEquirect() for converting rendered cubemap textures to stereo and mono equirectangular format.

• XR: Added a new option in the Windows MR Player Settings called Enable Depth Buffer Sharing. This allows the OS to better stabilize images without the need to manually set the focus plane. For more information on the benefits of image stabilization, see Microsoft's documentation on Hologram Stability.

• XR: Added support for capturing stereoscopic 360 images for VR and non-VR projects. Added omni-directional stereo (ODS) support in shader pipeline for rendering to 360 stereo cubemap.

  • Support for 360 stereo cubemap rendering in forward/deferred pipelines, directional/point light shadows, Skybox, MSAA, HDR and post processing stack. All pipelines and modes are tested.
  • ODS rendering support for screenspace shadows via separate ods world space pass and render texture to avoid incorrect shadows per eye.
  • Added stereo RenderToCubemap API script support: camera.RenderToCubemap with stereo eye parameter.

• XR: Standalone player support for stereoscopic 360 image capture for VR and non-VR projects. Currently supported on Win64/OSX platforms.

  • Generate 360 capture shader variants when building standalone player according to the '360 Stereo Capture' UI checkbox in the VR editor settings panel.
  • Added PlayerSettings.enable360StereoCapture binding and doc page.

Krita is a popular open source painting application and they just hit a pretty major milestone today, the release of Beta 1.  This is a feature complete test version of what will ultimately become Krita 4.  Unfortunately the new text tools didn’t make the cut, so a stop gap solution was implemented lack some features.  Also be very aware of this warning before you start using the Krita 4 beta!

THE FILE FORMAT FOR VECTOR LAYERS HAS CHANGED. IF YOU SAVE AN IMAGE WITH KRITA 4.0 THAT HAS VECTOR LAYERS, KRITA 3 CANNOT OPEN IT. IF YOU OPEN A KRITA 3 FILE WITH VECTOR LAYERS IN KRITA 4, THE VECTOR LAYERS MIGHT GET MESSED UP. BEFORE WORKING ON SUCH FILES IN KRITA 4, MAKE A BACKUP.

Simple put, documents created or saved in Krita 4 will no longer work in Krita 3 if it uses new vector or text functionality!

New features from the release announcement:

• SVG vector system, with improved tools and workflow
• New text tool
• Python scripting
• SVG import/export
• Improved palette docker
• Bigger brush sizes
• Improved brush editor
• Refactored saving and exporting: saving happens in the background, and export shows warnings when your file contains features that cannot be saved to a given file format
• A fast colorize brush
• The default pixel brush is much faster on systems with many cores
• Lots of user interface polish

The beta is available for download from a link at the bottom of this page.

Unity just released an experimental AutoLOD, a system for automatically creating LOD (level of detail) scenes and optimizing their performance.  Once again, the entire thing is experimental, so expect warts and dont expect support.  The extension requires Unity 2017.3 or newer as well as git-lfs and git-submodule.

Details from the Github page:

Features

• LOD generation on model import with sensible defaults
• Project-wide and per-model LOD import settings
• Asynchronous, pluggable LOD generation framework
• Hierarchical LOD support via SceneLOD

Useful classes (for your own projects, too!)

• MonoBehaviourHelper - a way to run coroutines in the editor + main thread execution from worker threads
• LODGroupExtensions - useful extension methods (e.g. GetCurrentLOD)
• TimedEnumerator - a way to control maximum execution time of coroutines
• TextureAtlasModules - automatically generate texture atlases
• WorkingMesh - a thread-safe mesh class

You can learn a great deal more about AutoLOD in this blog post.

Defold technical artist Martin Dahlin just released the Photoshop extension they use in house at King for exporting GUI designs from Adobe Photoshop to the Defold game engine.  The extension enables you to export such information as layer name, size and position, with additional data such as pivot position and slice9 properties stored on a per layer basis.  The results are ultimately exported in Defold’s .gui format.

You can learn more about the extension here.

Epic have just released the first preview version of Unreal Engine 4.19, Preview 1.  Of course this is a preview release and is certainly not meant for use in a production environment!  This release adds dynamic resolution support, Vive Pro support, Live Link animation plugin improvements, general animation improvements and a number of fixes and quality of life improvements across the entire release.  As always the latest release can be installed using the Epic Game Launcher.

Full details of the release from the Unreal forums:

• Rendering Updates:
  • Temporal AA Upsampling. This is a spatial and temporal upscaler that happens in the Temporal AA pass to produce consistent geometry sharpness from varying primary screen percentage from 50% up to 200%.
  • Dynamic resolution. To go with Temporal upsampling, Unreal Engine 4.19 also introduces Dynamic Resolution to automatically adjust screen percentage according to previous frame GPU workload.
  • Landscape Rendering optimizations.
    • The LOD system was changed from distanced based to be specified in screen size, like static mesh.
    • The LOD distribution was also changed to give more coherent triangle size in distance.
• VR/AR Updates:
  • VR Resolution Settings. Significant change from Screen Percentage to Pixel Density (see blog)
  • Vive Pro Support. All existing UE4 content that supports SteamVR is compatible with HTC’s newly-announced Vive Pro.
  • Motion Controller Component Visualization. Motion Controllers in Unreal Engine 4.19 now have a new Visualization category.
• Audio Updates:
  • Upgrade to Steam Audio Beta 10
  • Oculus Audio plugin has been updated and includes a reverb plugin, as well as support for Android and playing back Ambisonics files.
  • Added Resonance Audio plugin
  • First-Order Ambisonics File Support. First-order Ambisonics files can now be imported into Unreal projects and played back using Spatialization plugins.
  • Improvements to UE4’s native VOIP implementation. Spatialization, Distance Attenuation, Reverb, and custom effects for a player's voice can now be controlled using the UVoipTalker scene component.
  • Pre and Post Source Effect Bus Sends Types
  • Added support for Multichannel file import
  • Enabled bAllowAnyoneToDestroyMe on audio components
  • Added ability for submixes to define their own channel format. Currently Stereo, Quad, 5.1, 7.1, and first order ambisonics are supported.
• Animation/Physics Updates:
  • Live Link Plugin improvements
    • Added UI to Maya, displaying connection status to UE Editor
    • Stream active camera as EditorActiveCamera
    • Display currently streamed subjects
    • Allow add and removal of streamed subjects
    • Refactored entire plugin so that streaming has a manager and streaming objects/interfaces
    • Reworked editor update hook so that streaming is more robust and facial rigs / leaf bones now correctly update
    • Live Link now integrated as a first class feature into Persona
    • Added Virtual Subjects to Live Link
  • Animation improvements
    • Added “Hide Unconnected Pins” for button BreakStruct nodes
    • Added control of Post Process Animation Blueprint
    • Copy Post node now supports copying curves as well as Bone transform
    • Fixed motion blue when changing skeletal mesh properties
  • Animation Tools Updates
    • Added auto-range feature to cloth view ranges
    • Additional Skel Mesh Component Debug info
    • Exposed Sequence Recordings Settings in Animation Editors
    • Improved Clothing Visualizations
    • Clothing Create Menu now defaults to use the Skeletal mesh Physics Assets
    • Improved bounds following in Animation Editor Viewports
    • Added Pinnable Command List to animation editors
    • Added the ability to follow and orbit specified bones
    • Added up to 4 separate viewports to all Animation Editor viewports
  • Editor and Tools Updates
    • Added Contect Menu to HLOD level nodes in HLOD outliner treeview
    • Added a hotkey and command for toggling Post Processing in Preview Scenes
    • Added a new shortcut for switching foreground and background colors in the Mesh Painter
    • New Proxy LOD System (Experimental). An experimental plugin for producing low poly LOD with baked materials for multiple meshes. The new system is used by HLOD and is a replacement for Simplygon.
    • Added support for RGBA Masks in Mesh Painter
  • Physics Updates
    • Saved BodyInstance runtime memory
    • Added “Show Only Selected Constraints” to the physics asset editor
    • Added Ctrl+T keyboard shortcut to toggle between Body and Constraint Selection
    • Added “Set Use CCD” function for changing Continuous Collision Detection option at run-time
  • Sequencer Updates
    • Added Anim BP Weight control
• Sequencer Updates:
  • Workflow improvements
    • Level sequence dynamic transform origin. You can now offset the actors controlled by sequencer transform tracks with a global offset at runtime
    • Copy/Paste/Duplicate Object tracks. You can now copy/paste/duplicate object tracks and their child tracks;copy a spawnable to the same level sequence or another sequence; copy a possessable from one level sequence to another and the object will be bound to the same object in the other level sequence; copy from one UMG animation to another.
    • Improved Sequencer Editor performance. Sequencer is now able to compile partially or completely out-of-date evaluation templates from the source data as it needs.
• Gameplay/Scripting Updates:
  • Blueprint Debugging: Call Stack Display. A control that displays the current Blueprint call stack has been added to the Developer Tools menu. Double-clicking entries in the call stack will focus the corresponding node in the Blueprint Editor.
  • Blueprint Debugging: Single stepping improvements. You can now ‘step into’ (F11), ‘step over’ (F10), or ‘step out’ (Alt+Shift+F11) when stopped at a Blueprint breakpoint, making debugging sessions quicker and easier.
  • Improved Tools For Optimizing Disk Size. Several tools have been added or improved to help analyze disk/download size for packaged games.
• Tools Updates:
  • Folder Favorites for the Content Browser. You can now favorite any folder in your Content Browser to be easily accessible. Can be enabled/disabled using the View Options for Show Favorites.
  • Material Parameters Editing and Saving. New to the Material Editor and the Material Instance Editor is the ability to save parameter values to a new Child Instance or to a Sibling Instance.
• Core Updates:
  • Encryption/Signing Key Generator. It is now possible to configure .pak file signing and encryption fully from the Editor via a single unified settings panel.

Today Oculus announced a new developer program, Oculus Start.  If you are accepted to the program you can get a year free of Unity plus or a royalty free Unreal Engine license!  Additionally you get access to additional support directly from Oculus as well as addition SDK and beta tools access.

From the Oculus blog:

Today, we're launching a developer program called Oculus Start aimed at providing access, support and savings to qualifying VR developers. We're launching this program to offload some of the development costs of qualified developers so that they can focus on what's really important - creating amazing VR applications. We know there is no shortage of inspired ideas and creative minds breaking ground in VR. Creativity isn't the barrier. Resources shouldn't be either. If your first app is underway, we can help you optimize for more success in this project and your next. Just as we're scaling VR through our devices, we're scaling support to the developer ecosystem.

We're accepting applications starting today!

To see if you qualify, fill in the appropriate info in the application form.Once submitted, we'll review your submission and we'll get back to you shortly.

There are no fees or catches (but, be sure to check out the important info and link to governing terms. We simply want to help support developers on their VR journey and continue to build the VR future together.

The criteria to qualify for Oculus Start is as follows:

Oculus may approve your application in its sole discretion, and approval may be withheld or withdrawn without notice. You are eligible to participate if you: (a) have a valid email address; (b) are at least the age of majority in your jurisdiction of residence; (c) have never yourself or through a VR project received funding from a platform (e.g., without limitation, Oculus, Google, Microsoft, Valve, Steam, HTC), venture capital, or crowdsourcing over USD$10,000.00; (d) as of the date of application, must have published an app on the Oculus Store or another virtual reality platform; (e) have an Oculus developer account; and (f) if you are participating in connection with your VR work within an organization, that organization must be privately held. Limit of one (1) application per person and up to two (2) per organization. Each of up to two (2) developers working on VR projects within the same organization may apply to the program, however, no developer’s application will be accepted if they work with more than one (1) other developer on VR projects within an organization.

So then, what are the benefits of Oculus Start?  They are threefold, access, support and savings as follows:

Access

A direct path to early tech and networking opportunities get you going faster, first. Benefits may include:

Get developer kits for new and existing hardware.

Receive access to beta tools and services.

Gain new knowledge and bond with fellow developers at industry events like Oculus Connect.

Support

Oculus experts will help you troubleshoot and elevate your VR creations. Benefits may include:

Receive dedicated technical support.

Meet 1:1 with our veteran VR team at local events.

Connect with the community of VR developers to share your development experiences.

Savings

Oculus partnerships and network benefits will help offset development costs. Benefits may include:

Receive one year free Unity Plus license or a royalty free Unreal license.*

Get to know the Oculus Store better with Oculus wallet credits.

Learn more at the Oculus Start homepage.

BladeCoder Adventure Engine 2.0 was just released today.  BladeCoder is an adventure game focused game engine that is open source (Apache 2) and built over the LibGDX Java game framework.  I previously featured the BladeCoder engine in the Closer Look series available here.

New changes to this release include:

• HelpScreen doesn't stretch in 4:3 aspect ratio.
• InkManager translation files support.
• Import ink texts in order. Better I18N checks.
• Add music volume fade support in MusicVolume action.
• VoiceManager doesn't hide texts, now waits to the calc time.
• FIX: bug when saving ink cb.

I recorded a video going hands-on with the newest version available here and embedded below.

Epic just released a pretty awesome pair of assets packs completely free for Unreal Engine developers.  Soul:City and Soul:Cave are both AAA quality packs containing maps, models, textures, blueprints and more for creating a futuristic city as well as a cave environment.  The only real catch is the license requires the assets be used only in Unreal Engine projects, which seems reasonable enough all things considered!

Details of the two packs:

Soul City
Texture Sizes: 256, 512, 1024, 2048
Collision: Yes
LODs: No
Number of Meshes: 419
Number of Materials and Material Instances: 234
Number of Textures: 198
Supported Target Build Platforms: Desktop, Mobile
Usage: Licensed for use with the Unreal Engine only.

Soul Cave
Texture Sizes: 256, 512, 1024, 2048
Collision: Yes
LODs: No
Number of Meshes: 173
Number of Materials and Material Instances: 167
Number of Textures: 171
Supported Target Build Platforms: Desktop, Mobile
Usage: Licensed for use with the Unreal Engine only.

You can read more about the release and download both packs from this link.  For a quick video showing the assets in action check here or the video embedded below.

The Leadwerks game engine just released the very first alpha release of the 5.x branch.  Obviously as the very first alpha release, this is not meant for production use and only C++ and debug builds are currently supported. 

New features of this release include:

• String commands now accept a unicode overload. Add "L" in front of a string to create a wide string in C++.
• Now using smart pointers. Simply set a variable to nullptr to delete an object. There is no Release() or AddRef() function.
• Exclusively 64-bit!
• Global states are gone. There is no "current" world or context. Instead, the object you want is passed into any function that uses it.
• We are now using constant integers like WINDOW_TITLEBAR instead of static members like Window::Titlebar.
• Now using global functions where appropriate (CreateWorld(), etc.).
• Renderer is being designed to be asynchronous so Context::Sync() is gone. 2D drawing is not implemented at this time.

Access to the alpha is available with a $5 a month subscription that grants you access to the forums and alpha builds of the engine.  You can read more about the release here.

Hot on the heals of the first release earlier this month, Unreal Engine 4.19 Preview 2 is now available.  As always, preview releases are not meant for production use, so you have been warned.  The update is available from the Epic Game Launcher.  This release is entirely composed of fixes.

Details of the release from the Unreal Engine forum:

Fixed in Preview 2
Fixed! UE-54045 Animation Blueprint Editor Crashes on Compile if the Debug Instance Selection is Other Than No Object or Preview Instance
Fixed! UE-53944 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_Engine!FHierarchicalStaticMeshSceneProxy::GetDynamicMeshElements() hierarchicalinstancedstaticmesh.cpp:1431
Fixed! UE-53941 Failed to import Alembic files
Fixed! UE-53741 Applying Clothing Data Causes Mesh Vertex Color to Turn Black (or crash)
Fixed! UE-53440 Unable to select assets within modal Asset Selection dropdowns after navigating with keyboard entry
Fixed! UE-53236 New MotionSource node for MotionControllers does not hide dropdown when connected
Fixed! UE-52685 Move material baking out of experimental
Fixed! UE-54220 When using anim data modifiers the Set Root Motion Enabled node doesn't update the anim sequence
Fixed! UE-54174 Some anim blueprint nodes have duplicated guids
Fixed! UE-53967 Setting preview pose asset does not trigger animation in persona
Fixed! UE-53955 FRootMotionMovementParams::Accumulate can trigger an exception in debug-editor when using a cached pose
Fixed! UE-53224 Colouring removed from "Animation is being edited" warning messages
Fixed! UE-51303 Optimize 'redundant key removal' for anim curves
Fixed! UE-54087 GitHub 4419 : Fixes a crash due to nullptr dereference
Fixed! UE-53910 Audio channel volume behaves inconsistently when attenuation applied
Fixed! UE-53903 Crash on load with oculus audio
Fixed! UE-53938 Crash when Refracturing Destructible Mesh after adding Material Slot
Fixed! UE-54339 TP_HandheldARBP missing from Binary Build
Fixed! UE-54325 TP_HandheldARBP.upack is missing from FeaturePacks directory
Fixed! UE-53996 #includes with backslashes will crash UHT
Fixed! UE-53053 Instance Static Mesh element not rendered if array element is removed and another is added
Fixed! UE-54009 Crash while opening QA-Blueprint map from nativized package
Fixed! UE-53923 Breakpoint triggered in Visual Studio after running "{,,UE4Editor-Core}::PrintScriptCallstack()" command
Fixed! UE-31662 Renaming function in parent class that is overriden by child breaks the function in the child class
Fixed! UE-54141 OutExtendedCppType shadow warning when compiling UE4Editor on Linux
Fixed! UE-53701 Blueprint thumbnails do not automatically update after component edits
Fixed! UE-52975 Transform of duplicated element of an InstancedStaticMeshComponent isn't set to the transform of the original element but set to 0
Fixed! UE-54056 HTML5 crashes inside browser upon pressing windows key
Fixed! UE-54026 GitHub 4417 : Add missing include SecureHash.h to AndroidTargetPlatform.inl
Fixed! UE-53592 Assertion right after rendering scene on Lenovo S939
Fixed! UE-53550 Level doesn't render on Lenovo 939
Fixed! UE-53541 Bring over the slightly better iPhone X fullscreen code from 4.18.2 into Releases-4.19
Fixed! UE-53247 Web browser widget doesn't load url on mobile
Fixed! UE-53177 Mac Fails Preparing QAGame for Deploy to iOS: Directory ‘/Volumes/Storage/Workspaces/Dev/QAGame/Build/IOS/Build/IOS/Resources/Graphics’ not found
Fixed! UE-54354 Oculus Plugin error opening projects on Windows 7
Fixed! UE-54276 Editor crashes on Restart after Enabling Pre-Exposure in Project Settings
Fixed! UE-54039 Vulkan support for Nexus Player
Fixed! UE-53963 Missing warning when enabling dynamic resolution on unsupported platforms
Fixed! UE-53815 Shader library does not work with iterative cooking
Fixed! UE-53434 Crash when launching QAGame in DX12 on AMD
Fixed! UE-52784 Vector field particles are not behaving as expected
Fixed! UE-50449 Show Vulkan GPU times when the CPU doesn't block on getting results
Fixed! UE-50265 Ensure condition failed: SrcLayout != VK_IMAGE_LAYOUT_UNDEFINED opening a project when running the editor with -vulkan
Fixed! UE-54248 Sequencer LevelVisibilty does not update correct without restarting Sequencer window
Fixed! UE-54173 Crash deleting a sequence that is nested inside another sequence
Fixed! UE-54104 Copy/pasting a spawnable track with components will break the reference to the component tracks
Fixed! UE-54095 Crash setting Actor to Track on a camera while part of a sequence
Fixed! UE-54084 Crash copy/pasting a light from one sequence to another
Fixed! UE-54060 Actors Fail to Override Bindings: Both Original and Override Meshes Animate Together
Fixed! UE-54047 Animation does not reset when being blended in a level sequence.
Fixed! UE-54046 Track Sections Set to Blend Relative Do Not Update Until Sequence Is Played or Reopened
Fixed! UE-49778 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_SequenceRecorder!FAnimationRecorder::UpdateRecord() [animationrecorder.cpp:464]
Fixed! UE-54247 ImgMedia: Image media player doesn't finish initialization if loading failed
Fixed! UE-54073 Audio stops playing when selecting another video track
Fixed! UE-54019 Selecting Rewind during video playback disables audio
Fixed! UE-53328 Video capture input artifacty after latest sync (as if the stride is off)
Fixed! UE-53027 Unable to loop in reverse with AvfMediaPlayer
Fixed! UE-51631 Ensure cooking ImgMedia - Failed to load Primary Asset Type class /Script/ImgMedia.ImgMediaSource!
Fixed! UE-54345 Binary build Python plugin is non-functional
Fixed! UE-53738 Unable to change the Brush Shape of a BSP
Fixed! UE-53775 Enabling Thumbnail Editing does not give immediate control
Fixed! UE-54144 ARM Servers fail to link with relocation R_ARM_CALL out of range error
Fixed! UE-54136 Linux to Linux launch on fails: error while loading shared libraries: libApexFrameworkPROFILE.so
Fixed! UE-54050 Linux - Crash exiting Pie in QAFaceFxAudio: invalid attempt to read memory at address 0x0000000000000000
Fixed! UE-54040 4.19 editor crashes on start on Linux if built with clang 5.0
Fixed! UE-53893 Crash when destroying/interacting with menus/windows in an animation persona window on Mac
Fixed! UE-51327 Streaming Audio from the Editor will play while minimized even with Allow Background Audio disabled
Fixed! UE-54181 Painting foliage while simulating causes a crash
Fixed! UE-52289 Foliage Instanced Static Meshes disappear when FISM Component BP is compiled
Fixed! UE-53904 Landscape cooking takes as much as 6 times longer in 4.18
Fixed! UE-54170 Cannot use a dot as a decimal separator when entering numbers with a German locale set
Fixed! UE-54166 Access Violation crash deleting a dirty Material
Fixed! UE-54092 Layer Parameters panel takes focus by default in new Material Instances
Fixed! UE-54064 Material Layers asset pickers not filtering
Fixed! UE-53942 Renaming a Material Layer asset removes references to it in a Material Instance Layer Stack
Fixed! UE-52250 Disabling "Show Environment" within the Material Editor Preview Scene's "Show" menu does not hide the Environment Cubemap
Fixed! UE-52215 Disabling 'Show Environment' in Material Editor Preview Scene Settings fills the scene's background with Black
Fixed! UE-53137 ShooterGame - Crash changing scale of game windows
Fixed! UE-54037 Editor crashes when calling a "scroll into view" node with missing parameters
Fixed! UE-53901 Arm Servers fail to build due to GetVulkanInstanceExtensionsRequired override error
Fixed! UE-54042 Assert on a drawing policy removal

The Defold game engine just released version 1.2.120.  The two biggest features of this release are support for Android MultiDex as well as the ability to pre-warm particle systems.  If you are interested in learning more about the Defold engine, we have a tutorial series available here.

Details of this release:

• DEF-2888 - Added: Android MultiDex support for NE.
• DEF-2373 - Added: Option to pre-warm ParticleFX emitters.
• DEF-3087 - Added:label.get_text_metrics function for label component.
• DEF-3086 - Fixed: Memory leak when loading two collectionproxies async that shared resources.
• DEF-3098 - Fixed: Reenabled render.draw_line and render.draw_text for release builds.
• DEF-2434 - Fixed: Bug when stopping one ParticleFX component would stop any other PFX on same GO.
• DEF-3049 - Fixed: LiveUpdate resources could sometimes be invalidated when upgrading an Android app.
• DEF-3027 - Fixed: LiveUpdate resource header verification.
• DEF-3062 - Fixed: Bug where Spine rotations did not behave as expected.
• DEF-3099 - Fixed: Childed GOs to model and Spine bones were delayed one frame.
• DEF-3091 - Fixed: Added a build error check for Collada files with more than one root bone.
• DEF-3093 - Fixed: Better error message when bundling and no iOS provisioning profile was specified (Bob.jar).
• DEF-3073 - Fixed: Added rdynamic and "-Wl,option" support for platforms that support it on NE.
• DEF-3076 - Fixed:dmBuffer::GetStream doesn’t crash on null arguments anymore.
• DEF-2540 - Fixed: Performance issue when muting all sounds. (This also fixes the fast forward issue.)
• DEF-3071 - Fixed: Optimized render update to sort less during each draw call.
• DEF-3059 - Fixed: User can now set break points in the user render script (and not the builtin one).
• DEF-3090 - Fixed: Fixed components that previously sent wrong world matrix to shaders. (Spine, Model and ParticleFX).

Substance Painter, the popular Physically based renderer (PBR) texturing application, just released update 2017.4.2.  If you are interested in learning more about Substance Painter, be sure to check out our feature of an earlier release of Substance Painter as part of the GameDev Toolbox series.

Details from the release notes:

Added:

• [Export] Get the status of an export with step progress
• [Export] Allow cancelling an export
• [Export] Export textures to Sketchfab without loosing normal map quality
• [Export] Export in glTF binary format (glb)
• [Export] Allow resizing columns in configuration tab of the export window
• [Shader] Add a changelog for the shader API
• [Scripting] Add Before and After callback functions when exporting textures
• [Iray] Upgrade to SDK 2017.1 (support of Volta GPUs)

Fixed:

• Crash when quitting the application before the main window is displayed
• [MAC] Crash when loading grayscale maps with IRAY
• [MAC] VRAM detection is not correct with the new High Sierra OS
• [Plugin] Downloading assets from Substance Source does not work anymore
• [Scripting] Incorrect minimum plugin version detection
• [Export] Fail to save export preset after exporting textures
• [Instancing] Issue on generators instantiated in a TextureSet with no Additional Maps
• [Viewport] Dithering does not work with resolution above 4k
• [Viewport] 2D View material display is covered with noise
• [Shelf] Improve loading time for shelf presets
• [Engine] Incorrect blending when painting under color selection

Yesterday Microsoft announced the acquisition of PlayFab, a cloud based back end for games.  PlayFab enabled you to provide features like multiplayer, leaderboards, messaging, content updates and commerce while providing real-time analytics and reporting via their dashboard.  Most platforms were supported as targets with support for Unity, Unreal, Corona, Lumberyard, Cocos2d-x and the Defold game engines.

One of the biggest flaws with outsourcing your gaming back end has always been reliability.  If the provider goes out of business, you are out of luck.  Becoming part of the Microsoft team and a good fit for their Azure cloud offerings, this concern should be greatly allayed with this acquisition.

Details of the acquisition from Microsoft’s blog:

PlayFab’s backend services reduce the barriers to launch for game developers, offering both large and small studios cost-effective development solutions that scale with their games and help them engage, retain and monetize players. PlayFab enables developers to use the intelligent cloud to build and operate games, analyze gaming data and improve overall gaming experiences.

The PlayFab platform is a natural complement to Azure for gaming (Visit azure.com/gaming for more info). Azure, with locations in 42 regions worldwide, provides world-class server infrastructure, allowing creators to focus on building great games with best-available global reach. For gamers, this leads to a higher, faster degree of innovation and better experiences.

Incorporating PlayFab’s experience, growing network of game developers and powerful gaming-as-a-service platform into our product offering is an important step forward for gaming at Microsoft. PlayFab has served more than 700 million gamers and is currently powering more than 1,200 games with companies like Disney, Rovio and Atari. Its gaming platform powers some of the most prominent titles in the industry, such as “Idle Miner Tycoon,” “Angry Birds: Seasons” and “Roller Coaster Tycoon Touch.”

Together, Azure and PlayFab will further unlock the power of the intelligent cloud for the gaming industry, enabling game developers and delighting gamers around the world.

Godot 3.0 is finally here!  Godot is an open source 2D/3D game engine and the 3.0 release brings a massive number of new features including a new 3D renderer, Bullet physics, C# support, OpenVR and Cardboard support, GDNative plugins and much more!  Stay tuned to GameFromScratch for some great new Godot 3 tutorials and more.  Our existing tutorial series is still about 90% valid if you are looking to get started today.

New features of this release taken from the Godot announcement blog:

• New physically based 3D renderer
  • Full principled BSDF
  • Global illumination (GI)
  • Mid- and post-processing
  • Materials and shaders
  • GPU particles
• New asset workflow
  • glTF 2.0 support
  • Improved OBJ support
  • SVG support
• GDNative
• Mono / C# support
• Visual Scripting
• GDScript
• New audio engine
• VR support
• Bullet Physics backend
• New networked multiplayer API
• Rewritten export system
• IPv6 support
• WebAssembly and WebGL 2.0 support
• New editor theme and customization
• Auto-tiling in tile maps
• Improved flat style box
• Font oversampling
• Custom hardware cursor
• Greatly improved 3D editor viewport
• Console support
• And hundreds of other improvements

You can get more detail in our hands on video available here and embedded below.

CoaTools, or Cut Out Animation Tools, 1.0 was just released.  Coatools is a free and open source plugin for Blender that enables users to create 2D animations directly in Blender, bringing IK based animation techniques to traditional 2D art.  It’s very similar in scope and function to other animation packages such as Spine, Spriter, Creature and Dragonbones.  The 1.0 release was quickly followed by a 1.0.1 update.

Details of these releases:

1.0 Release:

This is the first official stable release of the COA Tools.
It features a rich set of tools to create 2D Cutout Animation in Blender.

Some of the features that were in the Alphas and Betas available are disabled now. They can still be enabled in the Addon Preferences. But it is not recommended as they are going to be removed in the future releases. Thats the reason why I wanted to release an official release where they were still present, but deprecated. Some people may have used such features in older projects.

So here are the tools that probably won't work properly right now:

• Experimental Json export (was used to export to godot. Will be removed.)
• Spritesheet mechanics (Is replaced by so called Slot Objects. Will be removed)
• Dragonbones Export( Many things have changed so this exporter will need a proper rewrite. Going to be modified in the future)

The addon features a complete new Addon Updater thanks to the CGCookie Addon Updater Module. Via this module I will make sure to autoupdate the addon in the future. So you can easily keep the addon up to date.

1.0.1 Release:

Trying to do publish new features/bug fixes now more often in maintainence releases.
Thanks to the new updater module people should get those features right away.

Additions:

• Improve Sprite import (importing json files lets you choose which images should be imported. Updating images is now also integrated)
• Improve Sprite Outliner (Sprites are now sorted based on the z depth. Rearranging sprite orders is now also included into the Outliner. AZ icon in the upper right corner)
• Picking edge length for contour drawing in Edit Mesh Mode. Shift+Click on an edge will now pick that edge lenght for drawing contours.

You can download CoaTools on Github.  For more details be sure to check out this video, which is also embedded below.

Unreal recently started releasing preview versions of Unreal Engine 4.19 with some great new features and apparently one stealth one… glTF support.  This is actually excellent news for the industry as a whole, as the current standards FBX and COLLADA or convoluted, proprietary or both.  A good, game ready, cross platform, cross application open and free 3D file format is desperately needed and more and more it seems that glTF may finally be that format.

User vlbanco did an in-depth post on his experiences with the new format on the Unreal forums.

My tests have resulted in this:
Basic static mesh support works. Skeletal meshes and animations are not supported yet.

Each of the objects in the scene will become a single static mesh in unreal. This is good for a modular pack, but very bad for complex multiobject files. An option to merge objects would be great (like in FBX import). This fails spectacularly if you try to import one of the complex models from https://sketchfab.com/features/gltf , like the unity robot model (he imports as a ton of tiny objects) The same happens with the drone mode;.

Interestingly enough, Blender export works by default, without any setup. There are no more scale ******** to deal with as with FBX, and also it will use the correct axis by default, so no flipped models or badly scaled models. Great improvement over FBX. It "Just Works"

All objects in the scene will import as static meshes, with their scale and position reset. If you have any scale or position at "object" level in blender, when importing into unreal this will be reset. An option to apply the scale/position would be great, but working around it is absolutely trivial.

Smooth groups export perfectly by default, exactly as they are with blender (no more import normals or not as with FBX). Another great improvement over FBX
Whole scenes cant be imported well, as every object will just become a separated static mesh centered at origin, but without the "scene hierarchy". The importer having the option to create a blueprint that holds the scene information would be a huge plus, and would allow one to create a whole scene in blender and import it as 1 object into ue4.

The material/texture import is a lot better than i expected, and its what makes this a superior format and workflow over FBX (for static meshes) right now. A blender cycles node tree will get completely translated to UE4, as long as it follows the roughness/metallic workflow. The fact that the importer already supports textures and recreates the material is awesome.

Do keep in mind, this is very much an experimental feature, but for many Blender artists, it’s already sounding like a superior experience.  Let’s hope skeletal animations get added soon!

If you are a Corona developer, you now have a pretty good idea of what is coming down the pipeline with the recently released 2018 roadmap.  Corona is a cross platform Lua powered 2D game engine that has recently become freely available.  It’s been a bit of a rocky road over at Corona Labs the last couple years, having been acquired not just once but twice.  This layer of uncertainty makes such a roadmap even more valuable for their community of developers.

Roadmap details from the Corona blog:

Q1 2018

• Continue working on implementing HTML5 builds
• Better support for emitters when added to display groups
• Android API level 27 support
• New Android sound subsystem based on modern APIs
• Improve Appodeal plugin
• Auto-click masks
• Marketplace 2.0
• Animation plugin
• Rebuild internal statistics system
• Open source Lua frameworks like timer.* and transition.*

Q2 2018

• Improve Live Builds by adding console logging
• HTML5 to public beta
• Support arm64 architectures
• Investigate Linux builds
• Move the Android build system to Gradle based
• Move the Plugin build system to Gradle based
• Investigate wireless install for iOS, tvOS
• Revenue-share version of the AdMob plugin

Q3 2018

• Explore Windows Universal Builds
• Amazon IAP improvements
• Per-vertex meshes coloring
• Optimize touch events.
• Tile engine support
• Text rendering plugin

Q4 2018

• Open Source efforts
• Explore the Nintendo Switch platform
• iOS Offline builds from Corona Simulator