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Ultra Software Company Blog

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Ultra Engine Beta Update

The Turbo Game Engine beta is updated! This will allow you to load your own maps in the new engine and see the speed difference the new renderer makes. LoadScene() has replaced the LoadMap() function, but it still loads your existing map files. To create a PBR material, insert a line into the material file that says "lightingmodel=1". Blinn-Phong is the default lighting model. The red and green channels on texture unit 2 represent metalness and roughness. You g

Josh

Josh

Beta Branch Updated

The beta branch has been updated. The following changes have been made: Rolled beta branch back to release version, with changes below. Added new FBX converter. Fixed Visual Studio project template debug directory. Fixed Visual Studio project template Windows Platform SDK version problem. If everything is okay with this then it will go out on the default branch soon.

Josh

Josh

Summer Game Tournament Roundup

Here are the results of the Summer Games Tournament. Make sure you update your mailing address, because posters are being sent out immediately! Invade The arcade classic "Space Invaders" has been re-imagined with modern graphics and cute 3D aliens! Constanta Constant is an abstract game about capturing cubes. Make sure you read the instructions! Death Rooms Procedurally generated levels and a lot of interesting rooms make this FPS worth trying. Watch out for traps

Josh

Josh

View Your Sales in Leadwerks Marketplace

You can now view detailed sales records of your game assets in Leadwerks Marketplace. First, log into your Leadwerks account and navigate to the Leadwerks Marketplace main page. In the bottom-right, below the categories, a link to your paid files will appear. Here you can see a list of all your paid items: When you click on an item, you can see a list of people who have purchased it, along with sales dates. If you wish to give a free license to any member for any

Josh

Josh

How to Request a Payout from Leadwerks Marketplace

Some of you are earning money selling your game assets in Leadwerks Marketplace. This quick article will show you how to request a payout from the store for money you have earned. First, you need to be signed into your Leadwerks account. Click the drop-down user menu in the upper right corner of the website header and click on the link that says "Account Balance". On the next page you can see your account balance. As long as it is $20 or more you can withdraw the balance into you

Josh

Josh

Introducing Leadwerks Marketplace

Steam Workshop was a compelling idea to allow game asset authors to sell their items for use with Leadwerks Game Engine. However, the system has turned out to have some fundamental problems, despite my best efforts to work around it. Free items are not curated, causing the store to fill with low quality content. Some people have reported trouble downloading items. The publishing process is pretty tedious. The check-out process requires adding funds to Steam Wallet, a

Admin

Admin

Summer Game Tournament

Summer is here, and you know what that means! Yes, it is time for another LEGENDARY game tournament. This year the theme is "Retro Gaming". Create a modern take on an arcade game hearkening back to the days of NES, Neo Geo, Sega, or just make anything you want. Either way, you get this totally radical poster as a prize! How does it work?  For one month, the Leadwerks community builds small playable games.  Some people work alone and some team up with others.  At the end of the mont

Admin

Admin

What Makes a Good Brand Name?

In evaluating possible company names I have come up with the following criteria which I used to choose a name for our new game engine. Spelling and Pronunciation The name should be unambiguous in spelling. This helps promote word-of-mouth promotion because when someone hears the name for the first time, they can easily find it online. Similarly, the name when read should be unambiguous in pronunciation. This helps the name travel from written to spoken word and back. Can you imagine telli

Josh

Josh

Plugins in Leadwerks Game Engine 5

Internally, Leadwerks Editor uses an EventHandler class for every interface in the program. The material editor is a class extended from the EventHandler. So is the little window that has all the controls to calculate normals. So is every viewport. The event handler class has one important function: Event ProcessEvent(Event) Every EventHandler has access to events as they occur. This is how all program actions are handled in the editor. The plugin system will work by hooking int

Josh

Josh

"Cirque de Jeux" Game Tournament wrapup

The latest game tournament brought in a small number of games, but they more than made up for it in quality. Each title that was submitted was pretty fantastic. The tournament was held during an odd month and there was no banner across the forum to remind people about it, so that is something that can be improved in the future. Each entry will receive an 11"x17" poster in the mail. Please make sure your name, address, and phone number (for customs) are correct and up to date in your Leadwerks ac

Admin

Admin

Announcing Leadwerks Projects

We've added a new website feature called Projects to help teams collaborate on their games. A project can be created with several privacy features so you can use this for public open-source games everyone can participate in, or for your team's secret project. I myself have started a project I intend to develop to demonstrate Leadwerks multiplayer capabilities: You can add a forum, blog, and downloads section to your project and use it to host files, carry out discussions, and post updates

Josh

Josh

4.6 Beta Available with Multiplayer Support

An update is available on the beta branch on Steam that adds support for multiplayer games with the following features: NAT punch-through with relay server fallback. Connectionless peer-to-peer UDP messages with multiple channels and optional reliable flag. Public server list of available games to play. Voice-over-IP for in-game chat (and taunts). The new multiplayer system will open up a new range of game types that can be easily created with Leadwerks Game E

Josh

Josh

Leadwerks Enterprise Edition Updated

The standalone enterprise edition has been updated to the now-stable version 4.5. The new installer is available in the client area when you are logged into your Leadwerks account on our website.

Admin

Admin

Version 4.5 Updated

An update for Leadwerks Game Engine 4.5 has been pushed out on Steam. The following fixes have been made: View projection for Oculus Rift VR headset is fixed. Added VR.AButton, VR.BButton, VR.GripAxis for improved compatibility with Oculus Touch controllers. Fixed terrain collision bug. Added missing Workshop toolbar icons on Linux. Fixed script editor not opening on Linux. Fixed LoadAnimation bug. Fixed missing fall damage on player controller.

Admin

Admin

"Cirque des Jeux" Game Tournament

Ladies and gentlemen, come one, come all, to feast your eyes on wondrous sights and behold amazing feats! It's "Cirque des Jeux", the next Leadwerks Game Tournament! How does it work?  For one month, the Leadwerks community builds small playable games.  Some people work alone and some team up with others.  At the end of the month we release our projects to the public and play each other's games.  The point is to release something short and sweet with a constrained timeline, which h

Josh

Josh

Leadwerks Game Engine 5 Alpha Zero Released

I'm happy to announce the very first alpha release of Leadwerks 5 is now available. What's New 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

Josh

Josh

"The Zone" DLC Released

Explore our reimagining of the Chernobyl nuclear exclusion zone with The Zone asset pack.  This package contains over three gigabytes of high-quality game assets prepared to take advantage of the latest Leadwerks features.  Use our ready-made map (included) to start your game or create your own post-apocalyptic environment. Get it now on Steam with a discount during launch week. "The Zone" DLC includes the following assets: 24 terrain textures 11 buildings (plu

Josh

Josh

Leadwerks Game Engine 4.5 Released, Enables Easy VR Development

Today we are pleased to announce the release of Leadwerks Game Engine 4.5. Version 4.5 introduces support for VR headsets including the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, and all OSVR-based hardware, allowing developers to create both room-scale and seated VR experiences. The Leadwerks virtual reality command set is robust yet incredibly simple allowing you to easily convert your existing 3D games into VR titles. To help get you started the source code for our Asteroids3D game has been updated for VR a

Admin

Admin

Game Launcher and game distribution

Three years ago I realized we could safely distribute Lua script-based games on Steam Workshop without the need for a binary executable.  At the time this was quite extraordinary. http://www.develop-online.net/news/update-leadwerks-workshop-suggests-devs-can-circumvent-greenlight-and-publish-games-straight-to-steam/0194370 Leadwerks Game Launcher was born.  My idea was that we could get increased exposure for your games by putting free demos and works in progress on Steam.  At the same time

Josh

Josh

Why Leadwerks is the clear choice for VR simulations

Leadwerks has historically had a small group of customers outside of the game industry who use our software for simulations, training, and visualization.  Customers using our software products include NASA, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman, and the British Royal Navy.  Today I am happy to announce that in response to overwhelming demand we are now offering our services to build custom VR applications with Leadwerks.     This puts us in head-to-head competition with othe

Josh

Josh

4.5 Beta Now Available

A beta build of version 4.5 is now available on the beta branch on Steam.  This updates the engine to the latest Newton 3.14.  Versions 4.5 and 5 beta are now compiling side-by-side with the same source code.  Because of major engine changes in version 5, some bugs may need to be resolved before the final release.  Some preliminary information on updating C++ projects can be found in this thread. Version 4.5 is planned to include official support for VR (both Vive and Oculus) and a new impr

Admin

Admin

The Great Halloween Game Tournament Roundup

Our most recent game tournament was a smashing success.  We had fewer entries this time, but they more than made up for it with the great quality of this round of games.  Without further ado I am happy to present the entries... Behind Enemy Lines Wow!  This game by burgelkat features a variety of missions from blowing up drug manufacturing facilities to sabatoging a plane.  Although the same mechanic is usually used, the action never gets old and you will keep playing just to find out

Josh

Josh

Announcing Leadwerks Game Engine Enterprise Edition

Today we are pleased to announce the release of Leadwerks Game Engine: Enterprise Edition, a standalone version of our popular 3D development software. The Enterprise Edition allows business users to install and use Leadwerks without the need for the Steam client. The new product joins the existing Standard Edition with Lua scripting and the Professional Edition with C++ and Visual Studio support, both sold on Steam. The Enterprise Edition has already been approved for sale through N

Josh

Josh

Making Leadwerks.com More Scalable

Our website stores a lot of user generated content in the forum of images and attachments.  Before Leadwerks Game Engine was on Steam the demands were even higher, since we had our own downloads and gallery sections that stored data on our server.  Since the implementation of Steam screenshots and Workshop a lot of that has been offloaded onto the Steam servers, relieving our server from some of the data storage and transfer costs.  (If you're interested, all our old content is archived on Googl

Josh

Josh

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