In Unity 2018, Unity released a new programmable graphic pipeline.  Alongside this release they implemented two pipelines, the new HD pipeline and the Lightweight Render Pipeline(LWRP).  Today they released a new version of the LWRP, 4.0.0 preview.  If you are using the existing lightweight pipeline in your project be sure to pay close attention as there are code breaking changes in this release.  This release includes a switch to physically based lighting that will see lighting reduced from three render passes to one.  The forward renderer in the LWRP also has the ability to reduce draw calls by half.

Details of the new pipeline from the Unity blog:

This version changes the light attenuation computation to be physically based. This change means that you don’t have to increase the range of your light to control the attenuation. Instead, you should control the attenuation with the light intensity. Baked GI has changed to match the realtime attenuation. When you upgrade to LWRP 4.0.0-preview, it is likely that you have to upgrade your light settings as well.

We are pushing work to have LWRP out of preview as soon as possible. Therefore for this version, we focused most of our time in API design to implement much feedback we received over the past months and evolve both our C# and shader API to be more easy to use, extensible and flexible.

This version introduces API breaking changes. Breaking changes are the reason we bumped the major version number. If you didn’t fork LWRP or authored custom shaders without using ShaderGraph, upgrading your shaders to this version requires some work. We apologize for the nuisance, but this is required so we can evolve. Once out of preview, there won’t be any more breaking changes.

Please check the changelog to help you upgrade shaders to version 4.0.0-preview and reach out in this thread with upgrading issues so we can help you.

Be sure to watch the following video for details on how to install and configure the 4.0.0 preview LWRP.

Since Phaser 3 was released back in February it has seen a rapid release schedule, bringing it to todays 3.14 (Happy Pie day!) release.  Phaser 3 is a complete HTML5 based game engine built on top of a redisigned modern renderer.  If you are interested in learning more about using Phaser 3, check out our getting started video, also embedded below.  One major part of the 3.14 release is support for the recently released Tiled 1.2 map editor.

Details of the release from the Phaser change log:

What's New in 3.14.0?

Tilemap New Features, Updates and Fixes

• Both Static and Dynamic Tilemap layers now support rendering multiple tilesets per layer in both Canvas and WebGL. To use multiple tilesets pass in an array of Tileset objects, or strings, to the createStaticLayer and createDynamicLayer methods respectively.
• Tilemap.createStaticLayer now supports passing either a Tileset reference, or a string, or an array of them as the 2nd argument. If strings, the string should be the Tileset name (usually defined in Tiled).
• Tilemap.createDynamicLayer now supports passing either a Tileset reference, or a string, or an array of them as the 2nd argument. If strings, the string should be the Tileset name (usually defined in Tiled).
• Tilemap.createBlankDynamicLayer now supports passing either a Tileset reference, or a string, or an array of them as the 2nd argument. If strings, the string should be the Tileset name (usually defined in Tiled).
• Static Tilemap Layers now support tile rotation and flipping. Previously this was a feature only for Dynamic Tilemap Layers, but now both have it. Close #4037 (thanks @thisredone)
• Tilemap.getTileset is a new method that will return a Tileset based on its name.
• ParseTilesets has been rewritten so it will convert the new data structures of Tiled 1.2 into the format expected by Phaser, allowing you to use either Tiled 1.2.x or Tiled 1.1 JSON exports. Fix #3998 (thanks @martin-pabst @halgorithm)
• Tilemap.setBaseTileSize now sets the size into the LayerData baseTileWidth and baseTileHeight properties accordingly. Fix #4057 (thanks @imilo)
• Calling Tilemap.renderDebug ignored the layer world position when drawing to the Graphics object. It will now translate to the layer position before drawing. Fix #4061 (thanks @Zax37)
• Calling Tilemap.renderDebug ignored the layer scale when drawing to the Graphics object. It will now scale the layer before drawing. Fix #4026 (thanks @JasonHK)
• The Static Tilemap Layer would stop drawing all tiles from that point on, if it encountered a tile which had invalid texture coordinates (such as a tile from another tileset). It now skips invalid tiles properly again. Fix #4002 (thanks @jdotrjs)
• If you used a RenderTexture as a tileset then Dynamic Tilemap Layers would render the tiles inversed on the y-axis in WebGL. Fix #4017 (thanks @s-s)
• If you used a scaled Dynamic Tilemap Layer and rotated or flipped tiles, the tiles that were rotated or flipped would be positioned incorrectly in WebGL. Fix #3778 (thanks @nkholski)
• StaticTilemapLayer.tileset is now an array of Tileset objects, where-as before it was a single reference.
• StaticTilemapLayer.vertexBuffer is now an array of WebGLBuffer objects, where-as before it was a single instance.
• StaticTilemapLayer.bufferData is now an array of ArrayBuffer objects, where-as before it was a single instance.
• StaticTilemapLayer.vertexViewF32 is now an array of Float3Array objects, where-as before it was a single instance.
• StaticTilemapLayer.vertexViewU32 is now an array of Uint32Array objects, where-as before it was a single instance.
• StaticTilemapLayer.dirty is now an array of booleans, where-as before it was a single boolean.
• StaticTilemapLayer.vertextCount is now an array of integers, where-as before it was a single integer.
• StaticTilemapLayer.updateVBOData() is a new private method that creates the internal VBO data arrays for the WebGL renderer.
• The StaticTilemapLayer.upload() method has a new parameter tilesetIndex which controls which tileset to prepare the VBO data for.
• The StaticTilemapLayer.batchTile() method has a new parameter tilesetIndex which controls which tileset to batch the tile for.
• StaticTilemapLayer.setTilesets() is a new private method that creates the internal tileset references array.
• DynamicTilemapLayer.tileset is now an array of Tileset objects, where-as before it was a single reference.
• DynamicTilemapLayer.setTilesets() is a new private method that creates the internal tileset references array.

New Features

• bodyDebugFillColor is a new Matter Physics debug option that allows you to set a color used when drawing filled bodies to the debug Graphic.
• debugWireframes is a new Matter Physics debug option that allows you to control if the wireframes of the bodies are used when drawing to the debug Graphic. The default is true. If enabled bodies are not filled.
• debugShowInternalEdges is a new Matter Physics debug option that allows you to set if the internal edges of a body are rendered to the debug Graphic.
• debugShowConvexHulls is a new Matter Physics debug option that allows you to control if the convex hull of a body is drawn to the debug Graphic. The default is false.
• debugConvexHullColor is a new Matter Physics debug option that lets you set the color of the convex hull, if being drawn to the debug Graphic.
• debugShowSleeping is a new Matter Physics debug option that lets you draw sleeping bodies at 50% opacity.
• Curves.Ellipse.angle is a new getter / setter that handles the rotation of the curve in degrees instead of radians.

Updates

• The Loader has been updated to handle the impact of you destroying the game instance while still processing files. It will no longer throw cache and texture related errors. Fix #4049 (thanks @pantoninho)
• Polygon.setTo can now take a string of space separated numbers when creating the polygon data, i.e.: '40 0 40 20 100 20 100 80 40 80 40 100 0 50'. This update also impacts the Polygon Shape object, which can now also take this format as well.
• The poly-decomp library, as used by Matter.js, has been updated to 0.3.0.
• Matter.verts, available via this.matter.verts from within a Scene, is a quick way of accessing the Matter Vertices functions.
• You can now specify the vertices for a Matter fromVerts body as a string.
• TextureTintPipeline.batchTexture has a new optional argument skipFlip which allows you to control the internal render texture flip Y check.
• The Device.OS check for node will now do a typeof first to avoid issues with rollup packaged builds needing to shim the variable out. Fix #4058 (thanks @hollowdoor)
• Arcade Physics Bodies will now sync the display origin of the parent Game Object to the body properties as part of the updateBounds call. This means if you change the origin of an AP enabled Game Object, after creation of the body, it will be reflected in the body position. This may or may not be a breaking change for your game. Previously it was expected that the origin should always be 0.5 and you adjust the body using setOffset, but this change makes a bit more sense logically. If you find that your bodies are offset after upgrading to this version then this is likely why. Close #4052 (thanks @SolarOmni)
• The Texture.getFramesFromTextureSource method has a new boolean argument includeBase, which defaults to false and allows you to set if the base frame should be returned into the array or not.
• There is a new Animation Event that is dispatched when an animation restarts. Listen for it via Sprite.on('animationrestart').
• All of the Animation Events now pass the Game Object as the final argument, this includes animationstart, animationrestart, animationrepeat, animationupdate and animationcomplete.
• Curves.Ellipse.rotation is a getter / setter that holds the rotation of the curve. Previously it expected the value in degrees and when getting it returned the value in radians. It now expects the value in radians and returns radians to keep it logical.
• Set.size will now only set the new size if the value is smaller than the current size, truncating the Set in the process. Values larger than the current size are ignored.
• Arcade Physics shutdown will check to see if the world instance still exists and only try removing it if so. This prevents errors when stopping a world and then destroying it at a later date.
• Text.setFont, Text.setFontFamily, Text.setFontStyle and Text.setStroke will no longer re-measure the parent Text object if their values have not changed.

Bug Fixes

• GameObjects added to and removed from Containers no longer listen for the shutdown event at all (thanks Vitali)
• Sprites now have preDestroy method, which is called automatically by destroy. The method destroys the Animation component, unregistering the remove event in the process and freeing-up resources. Fix #4051 (thanks @Aveyder)
• UpdateList.shutdown wasn't correctly iterating over the pending lists (thanks @felipeprov)
• Input detection was known to be broken when the game resolution was !== 1 and the Camera zoom level was !== 1. Fix #4010 (thanks @s-s)
• The Shape.Line object was missing a lineWidth property unless you called the setLineWidth method, causing the line to not render in Canvas only. Fix #4068 (thanks @netgfx)
• All parts of Matter Body now have the gameObject property set correctly. Previously only the first part of the Body did.
• When using MatterGameObject and fromVerts as the shape type it wouldn't pass the values to Bodies.fromVertices because of a previous conditional. It now passes them over correctly and the body is only set if the result is valid.
• The Texture.getFramesFromTextureSource method was returning an array of Frame names by mistake, instead of Frame references. It now returns the Frames themselves.
• When using CanvasTexture.refresh or Graphics.generateTexture it would throw WebGL warnings like 'bindTexture: Attempt to bind a deleted texture'. This was due to the Frames losing sync with the glTexture reference used by their TextureSource. Fix #4050 (thanks @kanthi0802)
• Fixed an error in the batchSprite methods in the Canvas and WebGL Renderers that would incorrectly set the frame dimensions on Sprites with the crop component. This was particularly noticeable on Sprites with trimmed animation frames (thanks @sergeod9)
• Fixed a bug where the gl scissor wasn't being reset during a renderer resize, causing it to appear as if the canvas didn't resize properly when autoResize was set to true in the game config. Fix #4066 (thanks @Quinten @hsan999)
• If a Game instance is destroyed without using the removeCanvas argument, it would throw exceptions in the MouseManager after the destroy process has run, as the event listeners were not unbound. They're not unbound, regardless of if the parent canvas is removed or not. Fix #4015 (thanks @garethwhittaker)

MagicaVoxel 0.99.2 was just released and can be downloaded here.  MagicVoxel is a complete free Voxel painting application that just got even better with the 0.99.2 release.  In this release the UI got a lot of love, including slide out and resizable panels, a new clay render option, pixelated illumination and perhaps best of all, a completely scalable UI, making MagicaVoxel much nicer to use on high DPI models.  If you are interested in learning more about MagicaVoxel check out existing hands-on video.  To see the new functionality in 0.99.2 in action, check the video embedded below.

Details of the 0.99.2 release:

• New Interface
  • Redesigned the interface
  • Slidable and resizable panels
  • SDF font rendering
  • CTRL+Wheel or CTRL+/- to scale UI size
  • a basic object list to show the scene graph, will be improved in future updates
• Renderer
  • Large Sparse Volume: Sample->Geometry->SV the rendering volume increases to 2048x2048x1024. But the total number of solid voxels is still limited. SV Mode works with cubic voxel only
  • Voxel Shapes: new Clay shape with the previous supported shapes (Lego, Marching Cubes, etc.)
  • World Scale: rectangular voxels
  • Pixelated Illumination: Sample->PX
  • Can show sun disk in the sky; added Ozone attenuation
  • Fix bugs in orthogonal views
  • Voxel shapes and SV mode will be improved in future updates
• Palette
  • CTRL+Drag: swap (move) color
  • CTRL+SHIFT+Drag: duplicate color
  • cmd pal sort [+-hsvrgb]: sort palette colors (e.g. pal sort vsh)
• Voxel Shader
• add xs_shader in config.txt
• can execute subfolder shaders: xs sub/poly

Video

YoyoGames have just released version 2.2.0 of their seminal GameMaker Studio game engine.  In addition to some bug fixes and improvements, by far the big feature is the full release of the Nintendo Switch export module.

Details from the announcement blog:

This is the full release of our new Nintendo Switch module (although some GMS2 games are already released on the Switch store, which is amazing!) and brings a number of important fixes.

• See this FAQ for a summary of the Nintendo Switch changes from 2.1.5 to 2.2.0. Note:This link will only work if you have the Switch license

Further changes include a new Preference to automatically log users out when closing the IDE, audio fixes and we changed how the Android NDK build process is done which caused issues with building YYC on specific devices namely API 23 devices when using a newer version of the NDK such as 17b or higher. This change also fixes the issue users were seeing with the error "Unable to find library for armv7l". Note:This change also raises the minimum API level you must set in-game options to 16 (up from 9).

Misc IDE Fixes:

• Fixed the runtime installation process so it uses fewer temporary drive mappings, which should stop "Z:\manifest" errors.
• Fixed issues where projects got an asset compiler error and couldn't build because a resource had no audiogroup or texturegroup set.
• Fixed the macOS Finder dialogue so it now adds the correct file extension onto the filename is chosen when exporting files from the Mac IDE.
• Fixed an issue where for some users with corrupt installations the sound editor would not open when opening or creating sound resources. Note:The change here is to simply allow the sound editor to open - you still won't be able to play the sound, and instead you will get a dialogue informing of the corrupt install.

You can read more details about this release in the IDE and Runtime release notes.  If you want to learn more about working with GMS 2.0, be sure to check our complete Closer look review.

Today Mojang announced they will be partially open sourcing the Minecraft game engine, starting today with two key libraries, with additional portions of the game engine being released over time.  The released Java source code is available on GitHub under the MIT open source license.  The two parts released today are composed of Brigadier and DataFixerUpper.

Details from Minecraft.net:

Well, the lovely folks on Stockholm's Minecraft Java team are giving you just that, by opening some of Minecraft's code as libraries so they can be used however you like! Want to use them to improve your Minecraft mods? Great idea! Want to use them for your own projects? Go for it, just don't forget to credit us! Want to use them to help improve pieces of the Minecraft Java engine? Thanks, we really appreciate it!

On Brigadier:

“I’m so proud of that name!” Nathan says. “Brigadier is the name of the command engine that Minecraft uses.” Brigadier is also the first library we've opened up!

“So in the game you can type something like /give Dinnerbone sticks and then that goes internally into Brigadier and breaks it down into pieces. Figures out what are you trying to do with this random piece of text.”

On DataFixerUpper:

“The name is so stupid that we had to keep it,” explains Nathan, unapologetically. DataFixerUpper does exactly what it sounds like, and it's one of the most important parts of the Minecraft game engine. It's also the second library we're opening up!

“The problem that we have in Minecraft, that I’m pretty sure every game has, is that data changes over time,” says Nathan. “we add a thing into Minecraft and then we kind of have to change how we store level data, how we store all the save files and stuff to accommodate it.

On the future:

The Java team will be opening up more libraries soon and we'll update this article when they do. One library under consideration is Blaze3D - a complete rewrite of the render engine that we're aiming to implement for 1.14. For now, why not use your programming expertise with our existing libraries? Don't forget to leave feedback on the GitHub page or reach out to Nathan on Twitter!

The video:

Epic Games have recently completed the acquisition of Kamu, the makers of the anti-cheat software used in Fortnite as well as several other popular AAA games (such as FarCry 5, Paladins, Vermintide 2, DragonBall Fighters and many more).  In addition to anti-cheat software, kamu also create game community and analytics software.  While no announcements have been made yet, I assume it’s only a matter of time until this technology is integrated directly into the Unreal game engine.

Details of the acquisition from Epic Games:

Today we are pleased to welcome Kamu to the Epic family. Kamu is a Helsinki-based company supporting the live management of player satisfaction, community building, and game integrity.

Founded in 2013, Kamu offers a suite of services focusing on game security, game telemetry, and game management. Kamu’s Easy Anti-Cheat service protects more than 80 games and is installed by over 100 million PC players globally.
“Kamu’s team and tools have been key to building a vibrant Fortnite multiplayer experience that’s fair for all players,” said Tim Sweeney, founder and CEO of Epic Games.

Simon Allaeys, CEO of Kamu said, “Joining the Epic family is not only a childhood dream come true, but a huge boost for our mission to help developers create beautiful gaming experiences. Battling cheating in games was just the start; today our products also help developers stay competitive by identifying player needs as quickly as they emerge.”

Sweeney continued, “Building and launching games today is incredibly challenging, and only half the battle. Kamu’s tools for managing live games help developers grow and sustain their games successfully after launch. At Epic, we succeed when developers succeed!”

The Kamu team will continue to expand its services in support of all customers and all of the engines they’ve chosen, while Epic’s new presence in Helsinki will serve as a base for recruiting technology, engine, and online service developers in Finland.

Today AppGameKit 2018.10.10 was released with several new commands added to the cross platform game framework.  AppGameKit is an interested game development framework that exists in two tiers, a lower level C API and a higher level easier to use framework built on top of it.  You can learn more about AppGameKit from our earlier Closer Look game engine review.

Details of the 2018.10.10 release:

I/O

• Added GetCharBuffer and GetCharBufferLength to return any text entered on physical keyboards since then command was last called
• Add GetRawJoystickSlider and GetRawJoystickPOV to support additional features on joysticks
• Increased the number of joystick buttons to 64
• Added support for more keyboard keys on Windows and Linux, including left/right shift/ctrl/alt keys and distinguishing between numpad and top row number keys
• Updated the scan code list at https://www.appgamekit.com/documentation/guides/scancodes.htm for the new list of keys

Edit Boxes

• Fixed edit boxes flickering if the edit box width was less than the width of two characters

Networking

• Added CopyNetworkMessage command to copy a network message so that it can be resent
• Changed GetInternetState on iOS to better detect the lack of network connectivity

Sound

• Fixed audio failing to play on some iOS devices after sleeping the device with a magnetic cover
• Fixed sounds on iOS sometimes failing to play if the app is sent to the background and then resumed

3D

• Fixed some 3DS models failing to load on ARM devices

Push Notifications

• Fixed GetPushNotificationToken sometimes returning an empty string on Android, you will now need to call SetPushNotificationKeys for it to work

File I/O

• Fixed OpenToWrite on Android failing to create the necessary folders on some devices and failing to create the file

HTTP

• Fixed GetHTTPFile on Android failing to create the necessary folders on some devices and failing to create the file
• Fixed GetHTTPFile failing to save the file if SetFolder is used whilst it is running

Exporting

• Fixed installing new versions of AGK over old versions on Windows causing APK export errors
• Fixed APK export sometimes not parsing the Firebase JSON file correct

Android

• Fixed GetDeviceID on Android sometimes returning an empty string

Deep Linking

• Added the option to add a URL scheme during Android and iOS export, so that the exported app can be opened by a browser link
• Added GetURLSchemeText to return the URL used to open the app on Android and iOS, if any

Sprites

• Changed sprite and text scissors to allow one dimension to be 0 in size and still be a valid scissor

This weekend (Oct 11-14th, 2018), AppGameKit is available on Steam as part of their Free Weekend offer.   This enables you to download and use the AppGameKit game engine as if you owned it, at least until Sunday night.  AppGameKit is an interesting cross platform two tier game engine that does 2D,3D, AR, VR, etc.  The Tier 1 is a lower level C/C++ layer, that provides functionality similar to SFML, SDL or RayLib.  The Tier 2 engine (which is featured on Steam for free), is a higher level BASIC-like scripting language and editing environment that makes developing and testing games easy.  The Tier 1 portion of the engine is not included as part of the free weekend.

If you want to learn more about AppGameKit, check out our earlier Closer Look review.  Keep in mind, a lot has changed since that review was written, but it will still give you a pretty good idea of what to expect when working with AGK.  If you are interested in trying out Augmented Reality (AR), we also have a video tutorial showcasing how to do this using AppGameKit available here.

In addition to being available to try for free this weekend, AppGameKit is also currently 70% off on Steam.

Teaming up with Resonai, Unity have released a new Visual Search add-on for their popular game engine.  Powered by machine learning, AI and other buzzwords, Visual Search has indexed the massive database of content in the Unity asset store.  This enables you to search the asset store from directly within Unity, and filter on price, materials and polygon counts.  You can also search by shape, using a primitive shape sketched with ProBuilder, enabling you to block in shapes, then replace them with similar models from the asset store later.  Once you have located a model you wish to sample, you can preview it directly in your scene.

Highlighted features for the plugin from the Unity Store:

Major Features
≣≣≣≣≣≣≣≣≣≣≣≣
✔   Visual search for 3D assets
✔   Search by text, objects or 3D sketch
✔   Intuitive and inspiring similarity search
✔   Rapid prototyping
✔   Easy access to a vast dataset of content
✔   Preview assets before buying
✔   Polygon count, material and price search

You can also read more about the new Visual Search over on the Unity blog.  To see the new Visual Search in action, with step by step installation and usage instructions, be sure to watch the video below.

Nevercenter, the makers of Silo and CameraBag, have just released Pixelmash, a new take on how to create pixel art.  Pixelmash includes tools to create your own pixel art from scratch using a resolution independent editor, or by importing photos which are pixelated automatically.  Additionally the package contains animation and transformation tools, special layer effects and more that all work in a non-destructive workflow.  You are able to export your work to a variety of image formats, sprite sheets and even as animated gifs.

Pixelmash is currently $25 and is available for Mac OS and Windows.  There is a fully functioning 7 day trial available if you want to give Pixelmash a try.  If you are interested in seeing Pixelmash in action, be sure to watch the video below.

The academy award winning book Physically Based Rendering from Theory to Implementation 3rd Edition is now available free online in it’s entirety at http://www.pbr-book.org/.  This book is hugely important to the game and film industry as this is where the expression Physically Based Rendering (PBR) was coined, and it is the underlying rendering technology behind every major modern 3D game engine.

Description of PBR 3rd Edition from the book homepage:

Physically Based Rendering, Third Edition describes both the mathematical theory behind a modern photorealistic rendering system as well as its practical implementation. A method known as “literate programming” combines human-readable documentation and source code into a single reference that is specifically designed to aid comprehension. Through the ideas and software in this book, you will learn to design and employ a full-featured rendering system for creating stunning imagery.

This new edition greatly refines its best-selling predecessor by adding sections on bidirectional light transport; stochastic progressive photon mapping; a significantly-improved subsurface scattering implementation; numerical robustness issues in ray-object intersection; microfacet reflection models; realistic camera models; and much more. These updates reflect the current state-of-the-art technology, and along with the lucid pairing of text and code, ensure the book's leading position as a reference text for those working in rendering.

The author team of Matt Pharr, Greg Humphreys, and Pat Hanrahan garnered a 2014 Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences based on the knowledge shared in the first and second editions of the book this book. The Academy called the book a “widely adopted practical roadmap for most physically based shading and lighting systems used in film production.”

Additionally you can still buy print (and digital) copies on Amazon via this affiliate link, should you desire the feeling of paper in your hands.  This is not an easy text, and isn’t required reading for everyone, but if you are working on rendering technology or want a peek behind the curtain this is definitely a book you should check out today.

Click here to read the book now.

Materialize was just released for free.  What exactly is Materialize?  In the creators own words:

Materialize is a stand alone tool for creating materials for use in games from images. You can create an entire material from a single image or import the textures you have and generate the textures you need.

Materialize is production tested, having been used to generate metallic, smoothness and occlusion textures for the Uncharted collection.  It is very similar in scope and functionality to Substance’s B2M or the free ModLab.

Essentially you start by feeding it a diffuse map, which you can then edit as you desire, then create a height map, normal map, edge map, smoothness map, AO map and metallic map automatically.

Each step of the way you have fine tune control over how each individual map is created.  For example, here are the controls governing the creation of the normal map.

You also have the ability to provide your own maps from file if you have them, simply use Materialize to generate the maps that you are missing.  There are also features in place for creating tiled maps.  Of course to go along with all of it, there is a real-time preview of the map you are creating, including multiple skyboxes and control over the post processing effects show in the preview.

When you are done you are able to export your generated maps to a variety of different texture formats.  Just an all around amazing application and one that should be added to every texture makers toolkit!  Watch the video below to learn more and see Materialize in action!  There are also some tutorials available here if you wish to learn more.

Adobe have just released Adobe Animate CC 2019, the product previously known as Flash Professional.  This vector graphics drawing and animation package gained a number of new features in the 2019 release including auto lip syncing, new free form mesh deformations, webGL gltf export  (in beta), improved export options, a new launch window and more.

New features from the Adobe blog:

Asset sculpting for vector and raster content

Create new poses faster for vector or raster content using handles on a shape to change the mesh. No need to redraw assets on every frame — just tween between poses and create animations.

And yes, asset warping works with Raster content as well.

Layer parenting and layer effects

Organize your assets on different layers in a parent-child hierarchy. When an object on the parent layer is moved, the child layer moves along with it.

In addition, the layer effects feature provides you the capability to add filters and tint effects on frames. Create interesting in and out fades, depth of field, etc.

Auto Lip-Sync

Don’t waste time matching mouth poses to sound inflections. The new auto lip-syncing feature will use machine learning to make it happen automatically.

Animate After Effects workflow

Use the new simplified workflow to carry your Animate compositions into After Effects. Just drag and drop an FLA file into the new After Effects and proceed to add cool effects.

VR authoring and publishing (beta)

Use an existing 2D skill set and export 360 or Panoramic VR animations. Stitch your existing 360 or panoramic images and create a virtual walkthrough, or let your imagination run wild and create a 360 animated experience using the drawing tools.

New start screen

The all-new start screen in Animate provides a new intent-based onboarding experience. In addition, learn more about the existing or new features using the training videos in the learn tab — without leaving the product.

Other new features

• Export to GL transmission format (glTF).
• Texture publishing to enhance the performance of HTML5 Canvas compositions.

Key enhancements

• Paint bucket tool,
• Quick tween creation,
• Support for Microsoft Surface Pen,
• Redesigned timeline,
• And much more.

You can learn a great deal more about this release on in the What’s new document available here.  You can see Adobe CC in action in the video embedded below.

Back in August, Discord announced a limited launch beta of their upcoming game store.  Yesterday, that store came out of beta and became available world wide.  With it’s heavy focus on indie games, this is a development most smaller game developers should certainly pay attention to.  In addition to a new game store, they are also launching an exclusivity program for developers called First on Discord, where developers promise Discord a timed exclusivity Window on PC (console launches are not included) in exchange for unspecified assistance in bringing your game to market.  The first batch of First on Discord games was announced the end of September.  The program must have been somewhat of a success as their Discord Store blog launch announcement contains the following:

P.S. If you’re a game dev and interested in working with us, fill out this form (EDIT: WE’RE SWAMPED. FORM IS CLOSED RIGHT NOW) and sign up for our developer newsletter here.

In addition to a new indie focused store, Discord have also launched Discord Nitro with a new $9.99 price tag, that also includes several titles in a Netflix/EA Origin like subscription service.  There are currently 42 titles in the program including titles like Shadow Tactics, Metro Last Light Redux, This War of Mine, VVVVV, Psychonauts, System Shock 2 Enhanced and more.  

You can learn more about the store, details about platforms, refund policies, communication features and more right here or by watching the video below.  The store link is available here.

Beta 54 of GDevelop 5 was just released with a major change to the way you develop in GDevelop 5, functions.  Using functions and extensions, you can easily structure you code in a way that is easily reused and shared across your GDevelop games, as well as possibly with other developers.  In addition to functions, this release also integrates the jsfx sound effects generator, enabling you to create sound effects directly within GDevelop.  If you are interested in learning more about GDevelop, check out our earlier hands-on video available here.  Also be sure to watch the video embedded below to see beta 54 in action.

Details of the release from the release notes:

New features

• Introducing Functions⚙️. Functions allow you to create new actions, conditions or expressions using events.
  • This is an advanced and very powerful feature: Functions will be shareable in the near future, allowing for even faster game creation and sharing of features between games.
  • Read more about functions on the wiki.
  • This feature is in alpha mode (and may slightly evolve). You must enable it manually in the preferences. Please report any issue!
• Added jsfx, a sound generator that can be used to create sound effects in record time for your games.
  • Open it by clicking on the pen next the audio file in actions to play sounds.
  • Thanks @blurymind for suggesting and implementing this addition.

Improvements

• Objects can now be positionned on the scene by drag'n'dropping them from the list of objects to the scene.
  • You can also click on an object in the list, right click on the scene and choose the option to add an instance of it. (Thanks @blurymind!)
• Added 3 new examples (Thanks @ddabrahim!)
  • including a simple level editor with an example of a function.
• Add more JavaScript annotations (for autocompletion) (Thanks @Wend1go!)
• Add option to scan for new image resources or remove unused images in Resource Editor (Thanks @blurymind)
• Press Alt while moving an object to ignore grid (Thanks @kdparkinson)
• Add Edit Object and Delete options to context menu on Scene Editor (Thanks @blurymind!)
• Performance improvements in the IDE
• Add word wrapping for Text Object (Thanks @Lizard-13!). Resize an instance of a text object on the scene to have it wrapped (you can also use events to do the same).
• Snap position of objects to the grid when inserted (Thanks @blurymind!)
• Add "Add event", "Add Subevent" and "Add Other" options in context menu in the EventsSheet (Thanks @blurymind!)
• Add option to customize particles rotation speed (thanks @Lizard-13!)
• Add button to rotate the selected instances in the Scene Editor (thanks @blurymind!)

Bug fixes

• Fix selection of instances on hidden layers (Thanks @blurymind!)
• Fix action to open URL in games
• Fix True/False buttons in events sheet
• Fix missing support for Escape key in "Key Pressed" condition.
• Fix long action/condition words not breaking properly in the editor.
• Ensure confirmation of project closing is shown when pressing Ctrl+W (or Cmd+W).

You can download the beta here.  GDevelop is available for Mac, Windows and Linux and is completely free and open source software.

Amethyst 0.9 was just released.  Amethyst is a Rust powered data driven open source game engine built for highly parallel and performant code and implements an Entity Component System.  The 0.9 release included a new way to draw sprites, a new networking system, an experimental runtime editor support and more.

Complete details of the release from the release notes:

Added

• Added base networking implementation and the amethyst_network crate. (#969)
• Support for debug lines using DebugLines pass, and DebugLines component or resource. (#917, #957)
• Added JsonFormat (#950).
• SpriteRender pass to draw sprites without using Material and Mesh. (#829, #830)
• Sprite animation uses the SpriteRenderChannel. (#829, #830)
• State::handle_event can now handle multiple types of events. (#887)
• Added Named Component. (#879)(#896)
• Support for progressive jpeg loading. (#877)
• New application_root_dir() function in amethyst_utils. (#831)
• Load node names for glTF prefabs. (#905)
• Added automatic camera matrix resizing to allow clean screen resizes. (#920)
• Added the Removal component to facilitate manual entity removal and scene cleaning. (#920)
• Added DestroyAtTime and DestroyInTime components to easily destroy entities. (#920)
• Support for loading TGA images. (#934)
• GltfPrefab adds MeshData as a component on loaded entities. This is not configurable until the Prefab rework. (#946)
• Added implementation of From<Vector3> for Transform which creates a Transform using Vector3 as the translation vector. (#946)
• New vertices() method on MeshCreator trait. (#946)
• Support for text alignment (align left, center, right). (#965)
• Support for multiline text. (#965)
• Added custom aspect ratio to OrthoCamera. (#983)
• Added AntiStorage documentation to the book. (#997)
• You can now stop the rotation of the FreeRotationSystem by setting HideCursor.hide value to false. (#997)
• Support for logging to file, toggle for logging to stdout. (#976, #994)
• Added a Hidden Component, that hides a single entity, and a HideHierarchySystem that toggles Hidden on all children when used. (#1001)
• Documentation for drawing sprites. (#971)
• Added shadow_update() and shadow_fixed_update() to the State trait. (#1006)
• Added configurable width for debug lines. (#1016)
• Added TextureMetadata::srgb_scale() for default texture metadata with nearest filter. (#1023)
• Added motivation to use Amethyst over gluing the building blocks yourself in the book. (#1057)

Changed

• Sprites contain their dimensions and offsets to render them with the right size and desired position. (#829, #830)
• Texture coordinates for sprites are 1.0 at the top of the texture and 0.0 at the bottom. (#829, #830)
• Made get_camera public. ([#878)]
• Simplified creating states with SimpleState and EmptyState. (#887)
• Updated ProgressCounter to show loading errors. (#892)
• Replaced the imagefmt crate with image. (#877)
• Optimize Sprite rendering via batching. (#902)
• Derive Debug and PartialEq for amethyst_input::Axis. (#903, #904)
• Updated winit to 0.17 (see Winit's changelog). (#906)
• Updated glutin to 0.18 (see Glutin's changelog). (#906)
• Updated gfx_window_glutin to 0.26. (#906)
• Updated hetseq to 0.2. (#906)
• Removed unwraps from StateMachine (#940)
• Renamed ArcBallMovementSystem to ArcBallRotationSystem. (#946)
• Moved the ArcBallMovementSystem::get_axis method to amethyst_input/src/utils: get_input_axis_simple (#946)
• Ui Y axis is now from bottom to top. (#946)
• Fixed issue with global anchors not actually aligning ui elements and containers properly. (#946)
• Fixed issue with ui events not triggering at times. (#946)
• Reduced the complexity of the UiPass and associated shaders. (#946)
• Added comments to UiPass and shaders explaining what is going on. (#946)
• The z in UiTransformBuilder now defaults to 1 instead of 0, allowing to skip defining the z in the ui prefabs. (#946)
• Added comments to ui prefab. (#946)
• Summarized all use amethyst:: statements to allow collapsing in IDE's. (#974)
• Application now uses EventReaders to determine what events to send to the States, more information in the State book chapter (#996)
• Breaking: Refactor TextureMetadata so filter method and clamping can be configured more easily (#981)
• Renamed PrefabData functions to be easier to understand (#1008)

Removed

• LMenu and RMenu key codes, following the winit update. (#906)

Fixed

• Material ids in GLTF loader caused multiple GLTF files to get incorrect materials applied. (#915)
• Fix render gamma for most textures. (#868)
• Joint entities can only be part of a single skin: Materials are not swapped anymore. (#933)
• Fixed regression in sprite positioning after batching. (#929)
• Now loading default fonts from the system for UiButton (#964)
• Fixed single frame animation (#1015)
• Improved compatibility with older drivers (#1012)
• Forgotten channel field on examples/ui prefab (#1024)
• AssetPrefab loaded files at an incorrect time (#1020)
• Removed unreachable code in TexturePrefab (#1020)
• Fix OpenGL not rendering on window creation due to glutin bug (#972)
• Fix debug lines panic when no lines are rendered (#1049)

More information about Amethyst is available here.  The game engine is available under the MIT and Apache licenses on GitHub.

Materialize, a free texture generating tool we featured last week has just been open sourced under the GPL 3 license.  Materialize enables you to quickly create texture maps such as Normal, Edge, Ambient Occlusion and Height from a single Diffuse map.  It was built using the Unity game engine and the author is hoping to see Mac and Linux ports as a result of the open sourcing.  The source code is available on Github right here.  Simply clone the repository and import into a recent version of Unity game engine to run.

If you are interested in learning more or seeing Materialize in action, be sure to check out this video also embedded below.

At the Unite LA developer conference, Unity just announced the release of a new cutting edge AAA quality multiplayer FPS sample.  The sample is available on Github, be aware you require git LFS support to be installed before you clone the repository.  Also be forewarned, the repository is huge, at least 18GB in size!  So what do you get in the sample?

Details from the Unity blog:

• 1 fully populated arena level, including high-quality assets for HDRP
• 2 fully rigged characters with 4 unique weapons
• Up to 16 players
• Deathmatch and Assault game modes
• Support for PC with more platforms scheduled to follow
• FPS netcode based on an authoritative  server architecture

The source code is released under the Unity Companion License instead of a standard open source license, so be sure to give that a read before continuing.  You need to have Unity 2018.3 installed to use this example, and it uses the HDRP pipeline, so a solid graphics card is also recommended.  Have some patience when first running and building the project, it is large and will take a significant amount of time the first time you build and run the project.  At least for now, due to a bug in the 2018.3 Unity beta, please do be aware of the following additional steps you need to perform to run the sample.

1. Search for t:prefab in the Project search field. Then click on the first prefab and shift+click on the last to select them all. Right click and select Reimport.
2. Search for t:model in the Project search field. Repeat the same steps as for prefabs to reimport them all.
3. IF you are on a version older than beta 6, you may have had a few crashes during import. In that case you need to find GooRocket and GooRifle in project, right click and select Reimport.

You can see the FPS Sample in action and learn more about using it in this video, also embedded below.  The video was recorded on a i7 7700 with 16GB of RAM and a 1080 GPU running in Windowed mode at 1080p on Ultra graphics settings.

From Raspberry Pi, the home brew computing manufacturer, comes a new magazine called Wireframe.  While a game about gaming in general, it is going to have an indie developer focus, and more importantly, focus heavily on game development, both by interviewing game developers, as well as focusing on the tools and techniques of game development.  If you are interested you can get a free copy of the first issue mailed to you (plus shipping) by signing up here.  Issues will also be available on line in PDF format starting November 9th.  The website for Wireframe magazine is wfmag.cc.

Details of the magazine launch from the Raspberry Pi blog announcement:

Cutting through the hype, Wireframe will have a more indie-focused, left-field angle than traditional games magazines. As well as news, reviews, and previews, we’ll have in-depth features that uncover the stories behind your favourite games, showing you how video games are made, and who makes them.

On top of all that, we’ll also help you discover how you can make games of your own. Our dedicated Toolbox section will be packed with detailed guides and tips to help you with your own game development projects.

If you are looking for great but now somewhat dated Game development magazines to bide yourself over until November 9th, be sure to check out the archives from Game Developer Magazine in the GDC Vault.

Unreal Engine 4.21 just got one step closer to reality with the release of Preview 4.  This update is composed entirely of fixes, adding no new content the UE4.  These preview releases are not meant to be used in a production environment.  As always, you can download the latest releases and previews using the Epic Game Launcher.

Details from the Unreal Engine forums:

Fixed in Preview 4
Fixed! UE-60171 Crash Occurs When Importing a .ABC File as Skeletal Mesh Into Project That Already Contains Asset's Materials
Fixed! UE-51935 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_Engine!FSkeletalMeshObject::UpdateMinDesiredLODLevel() [skeletalrender.cpp:81]
Fixed! UE-59914 Editor freezes after reimporting alembic asset
Fixed! UE-61761 Importing an Alembic File with "Skip Empty Frames at Start of Alembic Sequence" Enabled Causes Crash
Fixed! UE-62036 Merge Actors tool leads to crash when the selected list is not matching current existing objects due to construction script.
Fixed! UE-62176 Regression: Importing an Alembic File with Geometry cache or Skeletal leads to crash.
Fixed! UE-64886 LODTo Frame Skip Map isn't causing asset to skip frames
Fixed! UE-64873 ThirdPerson AnimBP arm not affected by Fake Velocity as expected
Fixed! UE-64845 QAGame Get Transition Crossfade Duration Node to Blend Result setup does not produce expected result
Fixed! UE-62337 Alembic Problem - Missing keys in animations when selecting time range
Fixed! UE-61429 Assert importing an ABC as GeomCache
Fixed! UE-63401 Cant save HLODs for an unsaved level & opening mesh causes assert/crash
Fixed! UE-65832 Crash when adding invalid preset chain
Fixed! UE-64622 TestEqual(TCHAR*, TCHAR*) function is testing pointer equality instead of values
Fixed! UE-64484 Garbage is not collected increases during CompileAllBlueprints test
Fixed! UE-65620 Cooked game crashes when launching with -memoryprofiler argument in the command line
Fixed! UE-65572 Engine - Ensure GIsRequestingExit is set before broading termination delegate in FWindowsPlatformMisc::RequestExit
Fixed! UE-63571 Cook-on-the-fly generates corrupt materials
Fixed! UE-65430 Missing Receipt' error after disabling plugin in binary build and repackaging
Fixed! UE-65286 Unable to GenerateProjectFiles with multiple client targets
Fixed! UE-65278 Binary editor and projects compile shaders during first open
Fixed! UE-65771 Add ShowdownDemo to the Wait to Build Launcher Samples Mac job
Fixed! UE-65432 GitHub 5180 : Fix wrong .natvis file path in generated Visual Studio solution
Fixed! UE-65702 Remote Building for iOS with Nativization fails with "ERROR: Precompiled rules assembly '...QAGame_4.21/Intermediate/Plugins/NativizedAssets/IOS/Game/Intermediate/Build/BuildRules/NativizedAssetsModuleRules.dll' does not exist."
Fixed! UE-65617 GitHub 5200 : Log file path issue
Fixed! UE-65588 New plugins include developer modules by default
Fixed! UE-65539 ShooterGame build from the launcher does not include client target
Fixed! UE-65006 Packaging failed with disabled plugin
Fixed! UE-65413 Match 3 - Edges of screen are cut off during gameplay
Fixed! UE-65426 [ActionRPG] Spamming potion button decreases potion count without consuming them
Fixed! UE-65235 ActionRPG has For Distribution enabled in Packaging Settings
Fixed! UE-65562 ActionRPG - Can't find file '/Script/EnvironmentQueryEditor'
Fixed! UE-65559 ARPG Linear Color Curve Warning
Fixed! UE-50730 SunTemple quality is low on iOS tablets
Fixed! UE-61752 ARPG trail emitters render with solid blue texture on Mali GPU
Fixed! UE-61751 ARPG roll no longer has a trail emitter
Fixed! UE-61323 Having an empty slot between weapons only lets player use top weapon in ActionRPG
Fixed! UE-60454 ARPG - Removed unused assets
Fixed! UE-65783 Content Examples MathHall - Error: T_1x1_Grid T_1x1_Grid Same lighting guid
Fixed! UE-65715 Deprecated DOF Warning When entering Post Processing Volumes
Fixed! UE-65861 Content Examples - Lighting needs to be rebuilt in Niagara level
Fixed! UE-65449 [ActionRPG] Weapon swapping does not update icons in HUD
Fixed! UE-65456 Crash when changing the UDP Messaging Tunnel Unicast Endpoint address
Fixed! UE-65634 TP_MultiUserViewer misc issues
Fixed! UE-65551 Duplicate nDisplay template project
Fixed! UE-65646 FlakesAccess shader doesn't compile on vulkan
Fixed! UE-65442 Crash running a game with Variant set - Assertion failed: RecursionNotAllowed.Increment() == 1
Fixed! UE-64661 Blackmagic sync output hiccups sometimes
Fixed! UE-65576 STUN and TURN servers needs start scripts for first time users
Fixed! UE-65014 Multi-User Template Project holds at 95% for a very long time
Fixed! UE-65611 Crash indexing Blueprints- LongPackageNameToFilename failed to convert 'None'. Path does not map to any roots.
Fixed! UE-65586 //UE4/Release-4.21 failing to compile - error in KismetReinstanceUtilities.cpp
Fixed! UE-63310 Sky box renders as black when packaged with nativization enabled.
Fixed! UE-63834 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_Kismet!FBlueprintCompilationManagerImpl::ReinstanceBatch
Fixed! UE-64888 Packages with Inclusive/Exclusive Nativization crashing referencing AsyncLoading.cpp
Fixed! UE-65759 (Regression) Risk of PostLoad() assert crash in all cooked, nativized builds with async load thread enabled.
Fixed! UE-65389 Ensure reopening map after changing a blueprint's component to a derived class and keeping the same name
Fixed! UE-64576 Pawn Velocity dramatically different on server and client with Client Authoritative Position
Fixed! UE-64544 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_Engine!AGameSession::RegisterPlayer() [gamesession.cpp:235]
Fixed! UE-64431 When a client sends an Unreliable RPC to the Server in same frame with a Reliable RPC, Unreliable RPCs are Reliable
Fixed! UE-62952 "Enabled per poly collision" under "Support compute skincache" is ON causes a crash at runtime
Fixed! UE-61399 Objects get stuck when hit location is same as start ray location
Fixed! UE-62714 Physics replication is not working correctly and clients receive different results
Fixed! UE-62345 Replicated Movement doesn't replicate itself to all clients on Dedicated Server
Fixed! UE-65390 CrashReportClient callstack has cut off text on Linux
Fixed! UE-64312 Vulkan projects crash when alt-tabbing on Linux
Fixed! UE-64798 Crash when Fracturing Mesh - Assertion failed: (Index >= 0) & (Index < ArrayNum)
Fixed! UE-58866 Tooltips are not readable on Linux with Vulkan and NVidia drivers
Fixed! UE-62199 AArch64 server crashes when opening
Fixed! UE-65567 Linux: initial movie is not scaled full screen
Fixed! UE-65656 Cannot rotate camera while shooting if mouse cursor is over the edge of Mac window
Fixed! UE-65343 Skeletal Mesh with more than 75 bones crashes Mobile Preview
Fixed! UE-65311 SunTemple - package crashes on device when initializing on iPhone 6+
Fixed! UE-65464 Typo in Support Software Occlusion Culling tooltip in Project Settings
Fixed! UE-65622 CLONE - Add detection and device profiles for iPhone XS / XS Max / SR
Fixed! UE-65540 TextureFormats list in GameActivity for PVRTC has comma in wrong place
Fixed! UE-61970 Templates fail to package for Android - AAPT: error: resource android
Fixed! UE-63725 Blueprint Projects can't make APK without compiled .so Error when packaging for Android with any Plugin Disabled
Fixed! UE-63682 There is no force feedback on iPhone 6S devices
Fixed! UE-65016 OpenGLES API deprecated warnings when packaging AR Samples
Fixed! UE-64536 iOSClient is not built. Just creates {OS}Client target.
Fixed! UE-65647 Crash starting Strategy Game in OpenGLShaders.cpp
Fixed! UE-65022 Vulkan template project crashes on Android
Fixed! UE-65459 Remote Building for iOS Fails During Build Step: "File for download 'UBT-UE65273Verif-IOS-Development_Remote.txt' is not under the engine or project directory"
Fixed! UE-65860 tvOS crash on launch: "this class is not key value coding-compliant for the key"
Fixed! UE-63540 Black bars seen when launching app on iPhone X packaged with DebugGame build configuration
Fixed! UE-40545 TVOS images are throwing errors when attempting to deploy to iTunes Connect
Fixed! UE-65417 iPhone X devices do not use all available screen space causing black bars in game
Fixed! UE-65825 Rect lights emit backwards light to volumetric lightmaps from the rect backside.
Fixed! UE-65513 Crash when switching to windowed mode in OpenGL with Media Textures
Fixed! UE-65458 Texture Painting in -vulkan throws an ensure and blacks out the texture
Fixed! UE-65129 Samples rendering darker than expected or ideal
Fixed! UE-65694 Crash opening TM-Decals in -DX11 with Forward Shading enabled
Fixed! UE-65711 Instant crash when selecting viewmode "Material Texture Scales"
Fixed! UE-65697 Crash opening TM-Decals in -DX12 or -Vulkan with Forward Shading enabled
Fixed! UE-65533 One off crash launching packaged Infiltrator Demo with -dx12
Fixed! UE-64820 Hang when Merging Actors QAGame asset SM_Proxy_Box with Merge Materials Enabled
Fixed! UE-64695 Lighting from Directional Lights Dims While Moving Around in Editor with Forward Shading Enabled
Fixed! UE-65102 Exposure Metering Mode "Auto Exposure Basic" Disables Histogram Min/Max Control
Fixed! UE-65717 Crash in PostProcessAmbientOcclusion.cpp when opening TM-Decals with -DX12/Vulkan/OpenGL4 and ForwardShading
Fixed! UE-65730 Decals with Forward Shading Render Black
Fixed! UE-65470 Crash opening package with Forward Shading
Fixed! UE-65585 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_Engine!FMaterial::GetShaderMapToUse() [materialshared.cpp:562]
Fixed! UE-62873 UMG Animation spin box not updating when key is at the end of the playback range
Fixed! UE-65672 Tracks with empty space sometimes do not compile correctly in Sequencer UI
Fixed! UE-63336 Fix ranges in 4280319
Fixed! UE-64742 Crash opening ActionRPG with -game
Fixed! UE-65097 Unreal Studio: Multi User Viewer Template Menu: Next Arrow Bug
Fixed! UE-65351 QAGame Samples Build - Various errors in Rob Gray map preventing job from completing successfully
Fixed! UE-65355 Recursion crash creating a child of a blueprint component and giving it the same name
Fixed! UE-65257 Scrollbars in Output Log can become incorrectly sized when scaling the window horizontally or clearing the output log
Fixed! UE-65543 Copy & Paste are missing from Static Mesh Asset Picker List
Fixed! UE-65521 Editor crashes when attempting to reimport multiple Data Table assets that do not have an associated data source file
Fixed! UE-64838 Reset Layout option does not reset layout to default in Subeditor Windows
Fixed! UE-64981 Morph Targets have black sections when animating
Fixed! UE-64501 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_UnrealEd!UReimportFbxStaticMeshFactory::Reimport() [editorfactories.cpp:5426]
Fixed! UE-65302 SyncPathsFromSourceControl crash
Fixed! UE-65570 Generate and Invalidate Project ID do not function fully
Fixed! UE-65554 Disabled High Resolution Screenshot option still functions as enabled
Fixed! UE-65548 FBX Import Options has missing space on an option
Fixed! UE-65427 Media Texture source file browse button does not open the file explorer
Fixed! UE-61968 [CrashReport] UE4Editor_MediaAssets!UMediaPlayer::GetPlaylistRef() [mediaplayer.h:890]
Fixed! UE-65400 Niagara InitRHI crash when opening QAGame TM-ShaderModels
Fixed! UE-65279 Custom HLSL nodes crash the editor when dragging any output onto empty input pin
Fixed! UE-65510 Crash when cooking Niagara for DirectX 10
Fixed! UE-65693 Ensure occurs when attempting to create a blank emitter from the New Emitter Wizard
Fixed! UE-65568 TM-ShaderModels game crashes in DX11 if Vulkan or OpenGL is included in package
Fixed! UE-65552 Niagara GPU particles do not render in Dx12
Fixed! UE-63380 The options drop-down arrow for inputs in the stack shouldn't be a tab-stop.
Fixed! UE-63496 Niagara GPU Particles do not render in Vulkan
Fixed! UE-64927 Niagara GPU emitters are not displayed in non-cooked game
Fixed! UE-65110 Renaming a Niagara emitter from the Selected Emitters dialog clears module parameters
Fixed! UE-65796 Niagara Systems in world fail to reinitialize when DataInterface parameters are changed
Fixed! UE-59768 Crash: spawning more than 6k particles in this nearly empty map results in a crash
Fixed! UE-65768 Skeletal Mesh DI does not post an error in stack when a Skel Mesh is not assigned
Fixed! UE-65794 Log Spam from some DataInterfaces that fail to initialize
Fixed! UE-65199 Widget blueprint details continuously shift when moving objects in the widget designer
Fixed! UE-65490 Crash when undoing a copy in VRMode
Fixed! UE-65393 Empty Controller Json Files Generated by the Editor Are Not Being Recognized by SteamVR Input As Binding Options
Fixed! UE-65495 Magic Leap: Red tint on vulkan media player
Fixed! UE-65476 Editor Crashes when running with -Vulkan and a Connected Vive Headset
Fixed! UE-65107 Orientations are inverted on GoogleAR
Fixed! UE-65099 Spawned actor does not remain in fixed world location when device moves
Fixed! UE-65479 Decals are only rendering in the left eye
Fixed! UE-65720 Haptic Feedback Effect must decompress before submission
Fixed! UE-61753 Excess deferred depth copy added in for 4.20
Fixed! UE-64034 Scene Depth Buffer corruption with VR on AMD GPUs
Fixed! UE-65726 Lumin updates for 4.21
Fixed! UE-65550 Crash when physical size is 0 for a candidate image to be detected in a scene
Fixed! UE-65780 Image Write - Improve cryptic error message