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Learn about game development technology

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The Happenings

The Steamworks SDK has been updated with some new functionality I need to transition Leadwerks Workshop to the SteamUGC system. This will result in unlimited file sizes, more reliable downloads, and other new features. However, the documentation isn't updated yet, so I am going to wait for that before moving forward, and focus on non-coding things this week. Once the Workshop edits are finished and tested, Leadwerks 3.5 will be released.   At the same time, Jorn and I are working on the new
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3.5 release candidate available

An update is available which is a release candidate for version 3.5. Version 3.5 adds carve and hollow CSG operations, an improved project template system, and customizable filters for scene objects. In this update I reverted the group selection behavior to the same way it works in 3.4, and decided to hold off on adding an extra grouping feature. I expect a lot of new users soon, so stability is my most important goal.   The summer games tournament is coming soon! We had a really great tur
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Using Visual Studio Code with Leadwerks

Microsoft has released a cross-platform code editor called "Visual Studio Code". It's just a lightweight text editor like Notepad++. You can get it here for Windows, Linux, and Mac.   Although the editor is focused on web development it actually does support Lua syntax highlighting. If you are curious to try to use it with Leadwerks, add this text to your launch.json file: { "version": "0.1.0", // List of configurations. Add new configurations or edit existing ones. // ONLY "n
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Game Launcher taking shape

Aesthetics are important in a consumer-facing product like this. Your games should have the best possible presentation to the end user. With that in mind, I've revised the Game Launcher interface to be more content-focused. The same interface will be available on our site, and launching a game works exactly the same either way.   The program log has been hidden away since it is a "developer" thing most users don't need to mess with. It can be brought up by pressing F10.  
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Game Player Preview

Here is a preview of what the Leadwerks Game Player Workshop looks like. A rotating banner shows the top games, like a mini-Steam within Steam. The difference is this distribution channel has no restrictions on when you can publish your game, and you can deploy games to all supported systems, including SteamOS, without having to actually compile on those systems.   I envision a time in the near future when everyone with a small fun playable game can pick up tens of thousands of new users pla
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Expansion

Jorn Theunissen has been hired on a part-time basis to help design a new set of documentation for Leadwerks. We're taking a top-down approach whereby he designs an outline that encompasses everything you need to know, assuming the reader starts with zero knowledge. The goal is to explain everything in one set of information, down to the level of describing what a mipmap actually is.   The organization of the material will be a linear list of lessons, with no nesting or sub-sections. This ma
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Further refinement of physics shapes

I added more options in the model editor for single convex hulls, polymesh, and no collision. Also changed the physics render mode to wireframe so it's easier to see the physics and visual geometry together:     This makes it easier than ever to enable collision on a model, and it works better with the navmesh system:     A new "shrink wrap" method has been added to generate low-poly convex hulls.   Exact convex hull:   Shrink wrap method:   This really saves a huge amount o
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Project Templates

The project templates system is being revised. Project templates are going to be oriented around game types rather than programming languages.   Picture is worth 1000 words:   If you have the standard edition, the common project files will still include the C++ files, so any new project you create will be usable in C++.
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Improving the Publish Game Dialog

Leadwerks 3.4 (now coming up to 3.5) has retained the core design philosophy from it's inception with Leadwerks 3.0 of easy level design and simple Lua scripting, but has changed quite a lot in other ways. Publishing of games to Steam Workshop wasn't even a thought until Leadwerks came to Steam in January 2014. Consequently, the current publishing interface isn't quite as intuitive as it could be and requires too many clicks.   To make publishing easier, a Publish menu item has been added in
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Carve, hollow, and cleaning up the scene tree

CSG carving now works very nicely. The hardest part was making it work with the undo system, which was a fairly complicated problem. It gets particularly difficult when brushes are in the scene hierarchy as a parent of something or a child of something else. Carving involves the deletion of the original object and creation of new ones, so it is very hard to describe in a step-wise process for the undo system, especially when all manner of objects can be intermixed with the brush hierarchy.  
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Leadwerks Game Player enters beta

Leadwerks Game Player is now in beta. If you recently posted a game on our site or entered one of the recent game tournaments, you were sent a pre-release Steam key to access the application.     Leadwerks Game Player provides you with a route to self-publish your games to Steam Workshop. Because it is a free application, the entire Steam userbase of 125 million people can access your game. Your Lua game is run in sandboxed mode using an interpreter application we provide, so that Steam
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Dev Blog

Documentation is being organized into a built-in help browser. Documentation simply falls into two categories, "Tutorials" and "Commands". Tutorials are laid out in a linear sequence of lessons divided into subchapters. "Commands" displays the command reference, which remains pretty much the same as it is now, with the exception of additional function syntax declarations for Lua. Search and index will be added, but right now I want to focus on content.   The sequence of tutorials is meant
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3.4 Recap and Beyond

I've got a couple days sales data from the 3.4 launch and it went well. Our conversion ratio and all that boring businessey stuff is good, and I know more now than I did last week. I think our intro video could use some updating and a little more professional polish, so I am looking for a video production company to create something new.   I was planning to make a trip back to Caifornia soon. I was going to skip the GDC, but I then got invited to the Valve party. I guess they're hiring the
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Growing Leadwerks

As of this morning, the most recent Steam sale is now complete. The sales figures were excellent and we picked up a lot of new users. Most importantly, we've got a lot of new data on how people behave and what can be done to make them happy.   There's three stages a new Leadwerks user goes through to become a happy productive developer. The first is to actually buy the software. The main ingredients here are the demo, website pages describing the benefits of our approach to game developmen
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Leadwerks 3.4 Launch Prep

Leadwerks 3.4 will be launched as soon as AMD releases their new driver, preferably by Monday. The three big features this introduces are: Vehicles Water Built-in Workshop browser   As well as over 100 small fixes and improvements.   The launch will coincide with a week-long sale. The results of the sale will give me an estimate of cash flows for 2015 and let me make decisions about what to invest in the company and continued development.   Following the launch, we'll have a
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Hardware Upgrades and Minimization

I've had an urge lately to minimize my PC setup. Maybe it's the experience of an interstate move with five computers, but I find myself valuing small size and practicality more lately over quality.   I purchased a Dell Ultra Sharp UZ2715H monitor with built-in speakers. This allows me to eliminate three cords and an extra power adapter from my external speakers. Interestingly, the two-speaker setup was a downgrade from my old speakers+subwoofer system, because I got tired of kicking that bi
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Beta update available

Asset browser search bug fixed: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/11966-searching-for-any-string-in-the-asset-browser-that-includes-a-will-crash-to-desktop/   Low-quality fallback for water on Intel graphics implemented. At this point it is hard-coded to the manufacturer, but in the future an adjustable setting will be added.   Water shaders moved into "Shaders/Water" folder. Make sure you update your project to get the shaders.   Post-processing effects in the editor are disable
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Leadwerks 3.4 beta now available

A beta of Leadwerks 3.4 is now available on the beta branch. Texture lock rotation on brushes now fixed (really). Vehicle orientation fixed (it was inverted on the Z axis). Engine version incremented to 340.   Vehicle and water documentation is written. Here's a simple example on how to build a car: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/documentation/_/command-reference/vehicle/vehiclecreate-r861   We have about a week before this is released on the default branch. There wi
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Bug fix update

A new update is available on the beta branch which fixes two bugs.   Undo not working correctly with copied objects: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/11888-undo-after-ctrl-duplicate-is-messed-up/   Water plane movement and culling problem: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/11895-water-plane-doesnt-cover-all-terrain/
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Beta update available

A new update is available on the beta branch.   Fixed CSG texture / texture mapping bugs: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/10401-leadwerks-texturing-bugs/#entry85790 http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/10433-csg-prefabs-cannot-be-retextured-using-drag-and-drop/   Fixed a long-standing script properties bug: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/topic/11672-script-editor-incorrect-parameter-fields/   Fixed script editor recent files list: http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/top
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Beta update available

A new update is available on the beta branch. My goal is to get a stable build and move that over to the default branch before adding any new features.   A bad bug in water rendering has been fixed.   Memory usage in the editor is reduced.   Additional checks have been added for potential rendering problems. These are for situations that should not happen, but It is possible these could raise errors when running in debug mode.   Thank you for testing, I will continue to resolve any bug
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Beta update available

A new update is available. This will cause the problem when the editor would crash on auto-loading a map with water on Linux at startup, and also fixes the problem where Lens flares weren't being hidden when you got close to them.   Right now I am working towards a stable build that can go onto the default branch and am not adding new features before then. If you have opted into the beta branch, thank you for the feedback you're providing.
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Water Update [beta]

A new update is available. I believe this will fix any problems you may have previously experienced with the water rendering. If this is not the case, please let me know, preferably with a link to download your project.   Although Intel's new drivers work well, I have noticed that enabling, then disabling, then enabling water in the editor causes a crash. The crash occurs in the driver DLL and is not an OpenGL error. This will be reported to Intel. (It just occurs when a shader reads a de
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Water beta now available

An update is now available on the beta branch which adds water. This can be controlled in the scene properties or in code with the following commands: World::SetWaterMode(bool mode) World::SetWaterHeight(float height) World::SetWaterColor(float r, float g, float b, float a) bool World::GetWaterMode() float World::GetWaterHeight() Vec4 World::GetWaterColor()   You must update your project to get new EXEs and shaders. All model shaders have been modified to handle the slice plane used whe
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Development

I've been working on water. It's a challenge to get it to work properly with the post-effects stack and lighting, something I never did quite right in Leadwerks 2. However, the results are turning into the best implementation of water I've ever made. Water blends naturally with post-effects stack. Water reflection/refraction equation and behavior is improved over Leadwerks 2. Water ripples don't have an obvious direction of flow and look very realistic, without looking "wrong" when pla
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