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  1. Admin
    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 account info.
    Without further ado, I bring you the games:
    Dwarf Beard
    A solid base that can be turned into a nice RPG, Dwarf Beard pits you and your beard against a horde of goblin sentries. There are several interesting mechanics and the polish is very good.
    Zelrio
    This is a fun adventure game with a and well-done visual style that looks and plays great. Find stars, collect coins, evade monsters, and reach the end goal. I was not able to progress past the first level, so I am not sure if there are more levels or not, but it's definitely worth checking out.
    House in the Hollow
    A shooter that is literally on rails...actual rails! Have fun blasting balloons in this spooky funhouse ride.
    J-Train
    This is a very interesting learning game that teaches you Japanese characters. The interface still needs some work but it's a very cool idea and the polish and execution are excellent.
    Also check out "VR testje weer" in the game launcher if you like killing chimpanzee zombies in VR. There's no title image so it does not qualify for the tournament...but it has monkey zombies in VR:
    http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=1305570192
  2. Admin
    Developer @Ghost has released his excellent Leadwerks-powered game Concealment.

    Your life is in your hands
    Go to an abandoned village to find your missing brother. Explore the objects that come in your way. Solve the terrible mystery of this mysterious place.

    Concealment is a first-person psychological horror game. A game in which you need to solve the mystery of an abandoned ancient village.
    Story
    You receive a strange letter from your brother. He asks that you urgently come to an abandoned village where something strange is happening. Your goal is to find your brother and find out what caused the strange events.
    Features
    Open for research location - Go wherever you want, explore the territory to your heart's content. Interactive items - You can pick up and examine items. Non-linear plot - Change the plot with your actions. Get the game now on Steam to enjoy some some horror fun built with Leadwerks!
     
  3. Admin
    Winter has descended upon the land, and with it comes the frost. The nights are long and the days are cold and grey. How long it shall last we do not know. But we do know it is time for another Leadwerks game tournament!
     

     
    WHEN: The tournament will start Monday, January 18, and end Sunday, February 21th at 11:59 P.M. (Pacific Standard Time).
     
    HOW TO PARTICIPATE: Publish your winter-or-other-themed game to Steam Workshop or upload it to the games database before the deadline. You can work as a team or individually. Use blogs to share your work and get feedback as you build your game. If you need models for your game, we've got a bunch of new content coming out in Leadwerks Workshop for you to use.
     
    Games must have a preview image, title, and contain some minimal amount of gameplay to be considered entries. It is expected that most entries will be simple, given the time constraints.
     
    PRIZES: Rather than a competition, this tournamant is a "co-opetition". Everyone who participates gets a prize!
     
    If this is your first game tournament entry, you will receive a cool Leadwerks sticker in the mail.
     

     
    If this is your second game tournament entry, you'll receive a collection of three limited-edition professionally printed postcards featuring beautiful Leadwerks screenshots. Send them to a friend or put them on the wall.
     

     
    If this is your third game tournament entry, you'll receive a rockin' Leadwerks T-shirt in the mail. Wear it to show how cool you really are.
     

     
    If this is your fourth game tournament entry, you'll receive the new Leadwerks hoodie! This gorgeous garment makes you look like a Silicon Valley startup geek. This is the fashionable way to stay warm until summer!
     

     
    Go forth and make games, for the good of the kingdom!
  4. Admin

    4.3 Update Available

    By Admin,

    An update to version 4.3 is now available on the default branch. This fixes it so the editor is not DPI-aware and will be scaled correctly if scaling on Windows is used. Some small shadow update bugs were fixed, and the animation shaders were improved.
     
    If you are having trouble running your game from the editor in debug mode, you need to install the latest VC++ redistributable from Microsoft found here:
    https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/download/details.aspx?id=53587
     
    The version distributed with Steam is outdated and will not work correctly. Valve has been notified of this issue.
  5. Admin

    4.5 Beta Now Available

    By Admin,

    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 improved vehicle system.

  6. Admin
    The Leadwerks team will be hosting our second Google Hangout on Sunday, July 22, at 17:00 GMT (that's 10:00 AM in California). We'll spend 30 minutes talking about all the cool things happening in the community, and answer your questions about our upcoming new game engine.
     
    Follow us on our Google+ page before Sunday and check back to join the Hangout. We're limited to ten participants, so first come, first serve. See you then!
  7. Admin
    AMD has released a new driver which fixes a compatibility problem with Leadwerks. You can download the driver from their site here:
    http://support.amd.com/en-us/kb-articles/Pages/latest-catalyst-windows-beta.aspx
     
    Resolved Issues:
    [412702] Screens may blank out when enabling a 3x1 SLS with 3 HDMI monitors
    [411847] Leadwerks : Project Manager crashes with a "Pure Virtual Function Call" error
    [413076] Second Life : Rigged mesh objects are not rendered correctly when hardware skinning is enabled in the in game settings
    [413392] Star Trek Online : Block corruption is experienced when MSAA is enabled in the in game settings
    [410367] System hangs/BSOD upon resuming from S3/S4 sleep on AMD Radeon™ R9 285 configured in AMD CrossFire™ mode
    [410293] With AMD CrossFire™ enabled, Timeout Detection Recovery (TDR) occurs during actual gameplay when YouTube Mix moves to the next song in Firefox
    [407622] Screen tearing on enabling VSync with Alien: Isolation game
    [407175] Catalyst Control Center Video Quality settings may not be available or retained if the "Enforce Smooth Video Playback" option is not selected on some AMD HD series GPU's.
    [410391] Primary display may not be retained after disabling Crossfire while in Eyefinity mode
    [409705] Enabling or disabling Crossfire may lead to one side of the 4K MST display being shown as black
    [410393] Minor stuttering may be seen in Dragon Age Inquisition on Single and Multi GPU configurations​
    [414660] Total War : Attilla - The game may hang during in game cinematics on certain Kaveri platforms with a separate discrete GPU
    [414120] The Elder Scrolls V - Skyrim : Fog / Clouds may flicker on Radeon HD 5800 series products

  8. Admin
    Leadwerks Software has released an official Blender exporter for the Leadwerks model format. This allows Blender artists to export their models to Leadwerks with automatic materials generation and full animation, without going through the FBX format. The Blender exporter comes as the fulfillment of a stretch goal reached during the Leadwerks for Linux Kickstarter campaign, which achieved over 200% its goal of $20,000.
     

     
    The Leadwerks exporter for Blender can be downloaded on the Leadwerks forum. A free forum account is required.
     
    About Leadwerks Software
    Leadwerks Software was founded in 2006 to build powerful game development tools that are easy to use. The company launched Leadwerks 3, their first multi-platform product, in April 2013 at the GDC expo. Last summer, the company conducted a successful Kickstarter campaign to bring Leadwerks to the Linux operating system, reaching over 200% of their goal in just six weeks. A concurrent Greenlight campaign for Steam was also successful, making Leadwerks the first 3D game engine approved for distribution on Steam.
  9. Admin

    Data Loss Announcement

    By Admin,

    First, so you don't have to read through all my rambling, the website database is set back to November 2010, and there is no way around it.
     
    I was working with the forum software on Sunday, 4-17, and I was just very pleased with how things were working. I saw there was an update for the bug tracker application, and the change list just mentioned some bug fixes, so I felt okay installing it. The new version removed custom issue fields, which we use extensively for listing hardware, drivers, operating systems, etc.
     
    It's not very easy to revert to previous software versions. I had performed a full website backup earlier that day, so I figured the best way to revert the tracker app would just be to have the IT admin revert the server to the backup I had made. I'd downloaded it to my local hard drive and it was intact, and also still available on the server. I also had an earlier full website backup I made on April 2. I figured this would be a minor inconvenience that would take the forum offline for a few hours.
     
    Here's the interface in CPanel:

     
    I also talked to the IT admin and they assured me that the full website backup does includes MySQL databases. I sent the following message to them Sunday afternoon:
     
    My caution in this email might indicate I had a suspicion something was wrong. Did I somehow know something would go wrong? Should I have? This thought is nagging me right now.
     
    I've been on the phone with tech support for a couple days, but you don't need the whole story. The outcome is the server was erased and repopulated with the contents of the backup archive. All files were intact, but the databases were not saved when the backup was performed. The previous backup I had was from April 2, which would not be a terrible loss. It appears the same occurred then. In fact, since I have been dutifully saving full website backups since November, thinking I was making extra effort to be on the safe side, the databases were never being saved in the archive. So the last copy of the forum database I have is from November 2010. I've been quite diligent with backing the site up, but that doesn't mean anything if the backups aren't working. The host automatically backs up sites under 10 gb every 24-36 hours, but that size excludes us.
     
    Although it was easy to bring the forum software up to date, all forum data since November 2010 is gone forever. The loss of this is staggering. To me, and to others here.
     
    You can get your screenshots here in a single package. They're randomly named, but if you really need something you can find it, and it's divided up by month:
    http://leadwerks.com/werkspace/index.php?/topic/3098-screenshot-archive/page__pid__28584#entry28584
     
    I still have all the attached files from posts, blogs, downloads, etc., but they are randomly named and I don't know how possible it is to go through them.
     
    The thing that really hurts is the lost documentation that was created after November. That's going to take time to recover from. We'll recover, but the loss is still sinking in for me. Jorn worked really hard on that at a reasonable pay rate and I feel really bad about it.
     
    I have records of all registered users. If you registered for your Leadwerks account after November of 2010, your account will be recreated and your password will be set to your registration key you received.
     
    The wiki and old forum are fine.
     
    The new forum skin is fine, but not installed at the moment.
     
    This must never happen again.
     
    First, a better backup protocol is needed. The most important thing is that the backups actually be valid backups. Obviously, I've learned that MySQL databases must be backed up individually and that a full website backup from CPanel is not reliable. Data is saved to a 2 TB external hard drive. Additionally, I am opening a safe deposit box where code and site data are regular deposited. I already thought I was doing everything right, so at this point I feel like I can't be too careful.
     
    Second, I am locking the forum software at the current versions, unless a critical vulnerability is discovered. In 2009, all we had was an installation of PHPBB. The idea for Werkspace was something Annika came up with and gradually sold me on. We listed all the features we wanted and found forum software that would allow it. Customizing the look and feel of the software to fit in with the theme of Leadwerks was a long process, but we finally got a suitable skin made. I am satisfied with the features and functionality of the system, and now we can just leave it be, indefinitely. The data loss does not affect the skin we had developed. The skin will continue to get minor improvements, but those kind of changes are easily performed and rolled back, if need be.
     
    Third, semi-annual tests are needed to make sure data can be restored successfully to a test server. Backups don't help if you wait until you need them to find out they don't work. A test server will be used to install the latest backup on every six months, or before any restoration takes place. Maybe this is overkill, but nothing was supposed to go wrong before, and we found out otherwise.
     
    It seems redundant to say I'm sorry about this occurrence. I know we'll get back to normal, but it hurts pretty bad. The key point is my data backup technique was flawed, so all the backups I've been performing were worthless.
     
    -Josh
  10. Admin
    Dexsoft Games, producers of game content with a library of thousands of game assets, have released five new material packs in the Workshop Store. All materials and textures are ready to use with Leadwerks, with source image files included in TGA format.
     
    All of these can be purchased now through the links below, or through the Workshop interface in Leadwerks Editor. See the links below for more information and additional preview images.
     
    Sci-Fi Materials 1
     

     
    Sci-Fi Materials 2
     

     
    Sci-Fi Materials 4
     

     
    Sci-Fi Materials 5
     

     
    Sci-Fi Materials 6
     

  11. Admin
    Today we've got four new texture packs available for purchase in the Workshop Store.
     
    The Blood Decals pack provides 30 hand-painted textures for spatters, drips, and puddles of human, animal, or alien blood. This is perfect for adding atmosphere and a sense of foreboding to an otherwise ordinary scene. You can even create trails of blood going down hallways and around corners.
     

     
    Another creepy addition is the Spiderweb Materials pack. Create a sprite and use these materials to instantly age your level and the show years of neglect and abandonment your game setting has endured.
     

     
    The Industrial Materials pack provides a set of high-quality high-definition materials for building an old factory setting. Combine them with either of the packs above to make a rich atmospheric scene.
     

     
    Finally, Fire's Decal Pack provides additional bulletholes, cracks, and gore to decorate your scene with new decals.
     

     
    You can get these items by opening the Workshop interface in Leadwerks by selecting the Workshop > Browse Workshop menu item in the main window.
  12. Admin
    The Leadwerks FPS Weapons Pack is now available on Steam as a DLC. The FPS Weapons Pack provides a small arsenal of game-ready weapons, with no coding required. Drag these objects into your map for the player to pick up and use. Pulverize your enemies with a machete, .22 pistol, combat shotgun, MP5 submachine gun and an M4 carbine. Each weapon includes sounds, effects, animations, and scripted behavior that make it ready-to-use in your Leadwerks games.
     
    The pack can be purchased with a 15% discount during the launch period.
     


  13. Admin
    The book "Game Engine Gems 3" by Eric Lengyel is now available for purchase at Amazon.com (ISBN #978-1498755658). This title, set for release April 21, 2016, features 22 chapters of game programming knowledge, including a chapter by Leadwerks founder Josh titled "Vegetation Management in Leadwerks Game Engine 4". The accompanying CD even includes source code for an early version of the Leadwerks vegetation system, so you can see exactly what is going on under the hood of the engine. Pick it up now on Amazon.
     

  14. Admin
    Fall is in the air, which means evil spirits, good beer, and the annual Leadwerks Halloween Game Tournament.
     
    WHEN: The tournament will start Thursday, October 8, and end Thursday, November 5th at 11:59 P.M. (Pacific Standard Time).
     
    HOW TO PARTICIPATE: Publish your Halloween-or-other-themed game to Steam Workshop or upload it to the games database before the deadline. You can work as a team or individually. Use blogs to share your work and get feedback as you build your game. If you need models for your game, check out the Halloween Model Pack, and Graveyard Props, both available for free in the Leadwerks Workshop. And there's a Zombie Pack DLC available if you need it.
     
    PRIZES: Rather than a competition, this tournamant is a "co-opetition". Everyone who participates gets a prize!
     
    If this is your first game tournament entry, you will receive a cool Leadwerks sticker in the mail.
     

     
    If this is your second game tournament entry, you'll receive a rockin' Leadwerks T-shirt in the mail.
     

     
    If this is your third game tournament entry, you'll receive a collection of three limited-edition professionally printed postcards featuring beautiful Leadwerks screenshots. Send them to a friend or put them on the wall. (Pictures coming soon!)
     
    Entries will be reviewed Friday, November 6th. See the official forum thread for more information and discussion.
  16. Admin
    The 2015 Leadwerks Halloween Game Tournament is complete, with results above and beyond any previous game tournament. The quality, content, and fun of the lineup of games this tournament is really spectacular.
     
    Halloween Pumpkin Run
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=540259470
     
    If one game summed up the spirit of this year's tournament, it's this title. The atmosphere, gameplay, and fun of this title make it an instance classic in the Leadwerks catalog of user-made games.
     
    Try to collect all the pumpkins but beware the graveyard residents who don't like trespassers disturbing them. The more pumpkins you take the more dead will awaken!
     

     
    Siege
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/games/_/siege-r105
     
    SIEGE is an RTS where two teams fight to be the last one standing. Once a combatant has been slain, it will turn into a zombie and fight anyone who is near him. Make sure YOU are the one standing in the end.
     

     
    Island of Fear
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=534704938
     
    You live in a small house on a fishing island, One day Henry has caught an unknown species successfully. As the people of Island of Fear no longer have big catch more had they had for fish to eat before had. Henry cut off it was over the campfire and test it. He gave the people clear and thought it tasted great! Everyone grabbed a piece and thought it was also very tasty. Since you do not trust the test fish, you took some bread to yourself and went to bed. In the night you wake up and can not trust your eyes.
     

     
    Rolly: The Rollable Ball That Rolls To Much
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=535234474
     
    A coding exercise done for the Halloween Game Tournament. It's not "Halloween-ish" but I think it's something else that will make you scream and curse out loud. I'll continue to update the project a little at a time until the Tournament ends.
     

     
    Enter
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=537727897
     
    Unless there's some hidden features, there's not much to do here, but kudos for publishing something!
     

     
    WolfTale
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=543156064
     
    This is my first game created with Leadwerks! It's an entry for the Halloween 2015 games contest. It's not overly polished, some parts I couldn't figure out (for example, setting the camera to NOT go through buildings!). Hope you enjoy it!
     

     
    LEMaze
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=543617616
     
    Game by shadmar for the Halloween Game Tournament 2015
     

     
    Cobra
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=546727133
     
    A member of the Elite Cobra Squad has been dropped deep in enemy territory. It's just you and your trusty Sub Machine Gun... they are seriously out numbered.
     

     
    Crazy Scorpion
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=547820610
     
    Just a little concept level that was made for
    Halloween Game Tournament
     

     
    Crawler Defense
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=548449469
     
    A Tower Defense game , round based.
    Please leave a comment , if you like !
     

     
    The Hankinator's House of Pain
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=548835676
     
    Welcome to The Hankinator's House of Pain!
     
    This is my entry for the Halloween game tournament. A game of survival, kill enemies to get points, spend points to buy traps and weapons! Survive to the end! Higher difficulty yields more points!
     

     
    Noteworthy Additions
    The following games were not published strictly within the tournament timeframe, but deserve additional mention.
     
    Marblez
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=549467145
     
    This is a game I have been working on for a while. I started it with a Summer Game Competition entry, and have integrated many new features into it. I intentionally waited for after the halloween game competiton to end before posting this.
     

     
    The Borrower
    http://www.leadwerks.com/werkspace/page/viewitem?fileid=527801322
     
    Escape the dungeon using your power to control the elements.
     

     
    Prize will be sent out by mail shortly. This tournament brings our count of Leadwerks Games playable on Steam to 40. Together with recent updates in the Workshop system, we're nearly ready to make a final release of Leadwerks Game Launcher.
  17. Admin
    The Leadwerks team will be hosting our first Google Hangout on Sunday, July 1, at 17:00 GMT (that's 10:00 AM in California). We'll spend 30 minutes talking about all the cool things happening in the community, and answer your questions about our upcoming new game engine.
     
    Follow us on our Google+ page before Sunday and check back to join the Hangout. We're limited to ten participants, so first come, first serve. See you then!
  18. Admin
    The Leadwerks team will be hosting our next Google Hangout on Sunday, September 16, at 17:00 GMT (that's 10:00 AM in California). Aggror will talk about his experience leading the Leadwerks Community Project, and we'll provide a sneak peak at the new Leadwerks game engine.
     
    Follow us on our Google+ page before Sunday and check back to join the Hangout. We're limited to ten participants, so first come, first serve. See you then!
  19. Admin
    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, and is just not very streamlined. At the same time, three new technologies have emerged that make it possible to deliver a better customer and seller experience through our website.
    Amazon S3 offers cheap and reliable storage of massive amounts of data. Paypal credit card tokens allow us to safely store a token on our server that can't be used anywhere else, instead of a credit card number. This eliminates the danger of a potential website hack revealing your information. Invision Power Board has integrated both these technologies into our commerce system. it would not have been possible to build a web store a few years ago because the cost of server space would have been prohibitive, and storing hundreds of gigs of data would have made my website backup process unsustainable. So at the time, the unlimited storage of Steam and their payment processing system was very appealing. That is no longer the case.
    To solve the problems of Steam Workshop, and give you easy access to a large library of ready-to-use game assets, I am happy to introduce Leadwerks Marketplace.

    The main page shows featured assets, new content, and the most popular items, with big thumbnails everywhere.

     
    When you view an item, screenshots, videos, and detailed technical specifications are shown:

    How does Leadwerks Marketplace improve things?:
    Easy download of zip files that are ready to use with Leadwerks. You can use File > Import menu item to extract them to the current project, or just unzip them yourself. All content is curated. Items are checked for compatibility and quality. Clear technical specifications for every file, so you know exactly what you are getting. Cheap and reliable storage forever with Amazon S3. Any DLCs or Workshop Store items you purchased can be downloaded from Leadwerks Marketplace by linking your Steam account to your profile. Easy publishing of your items with our web-based uploader. We're launching with over 50 gigabytes of game assets, and more will be added continuously. To kick off the launch we're offering some items at major discounts during the Summer Game Tournament. Here are a few assets to check out:
    Get "The Zone" for just $4.99:
    Or download our Mercenary character for free! Just create your free Leadwerks account to gain access.
    Other items will be featured on sale during the Summer Game Tournament:
    After purchasing an item, you can download it immediately. All your purchased items will be shown in the Purchases area, which you can access from the user menu in the top-right of this the website header:

    Here all your purchased items will be available to download, forever:

    If you are interested in selling your game assets to over 20,000 developers, you can upload your items now. Sellers receive a 70% royalty for each sale, with a minimum payout of just $20. See the content guidelines for details and contact me if you need any help. If you have a lot of good content, we can even convert your assets for you and make them game-ready for Leadwerks, so there's really no risk to you.
    Browse game assets now.
     
  20. Admin
    Leadwerks Workshop provides a repository of free game items for game developers to use in their projects. Workshop content has been heavily used in several game tournaments to make many different games of different genres.
     
    Today we are rolling out the Leadwerks Workshop Store. This allows us to add new and better quality content for you to use in your games. All assets are curated and verified to work correctly with Leadwerks Game Engine. This includes material setup, sizing, and correct grid alignment of modular pieces.
     
    You can purchase items from the Workshop interface in the Leadwerks Editor. When you find a paid item you would like to purchase, click on the "Buy" button and you will be taken the purchase page for that item.
     

     

     
    You can checkout of the store page by adding funds to your Steam Wallet. The item will then be available to install in the editor, just like a free Workshop item. You can also purchase items from their page on our website. Your purchase will always be associated with your Steam account, so you never have to worry about backing up files or losing them.
     
    If you have any feedback on the purchasing process, content, or requests for future items, don't hesitate to let us know how we can improve. If the community finds this useful we will keep growing the library of available content ready to use with Leadwerks.
     



  21. Admin
    Leadwerks 3 is a new game engine purpose-built for mobile. By building the entire platform on pure native code, Leadwerks aims to bring a new level of performance and flexibility to 3D mobile games.
     
    After two years of development, the team is now beginning a closed beta test. Select members of the community will provide feedback and testing so that final bug fixes and refinements can be made.
     
    You can sign up to our mailing list for up to date information as we finish up development of the new Leadwerks. Visit www.leadwerks.com to learn more.
  22. Admin
    Leadwerks Software announced today the release of Leadwerks 3, their new development platform for building mobile games with native code. Based on the technology developed for their successful game engine for PC, Leadwerks 3 brings a totally new approach to mobile game development.
     
    While environments such as Unity and MonoDevelop use managed code...that is, code that is designed to be easily run on multiple devices...Leadwerks uses an approach called native code. Applications built with native code are optimized to work with each platform. That means games written with Leadwerks will run faster and be more powerful than their managed code counterparts.
     
    Mobile is growing rapidly, but there still exists a gap between mobile gaming and the larger game industry, which has traditionally focused on consoles. Professional game studios overwhelmingly favor native code because of its speed and flexibility. By focusing on the standard the game industry already uses, Leadwerks provides both professional studios and indie developers with an easy pathway into mobile. Games written in C++ can be ported to Leadwerks 3 without having to rewrite them in a new programming language.
     
    Leadwerks 3 brings some innovative new approaches to the table:
    The editor features tools for building game levels using a technique called constructive solid geometry. This streamlines the process of creating games, and makes it easier for artists to see what their games will look like as they build them.

    Leadwerks 3 uses automatic asset conversion. This means that images and objects can be reloaded on-the-fly, so an image file can be modified in Photoshop and the result will show up in the editor right away. This removes tedious steps from the game development workflow.

    AI is supported out-of-the-box. The traversable areas AI can travel within are highlighted in the editor as you build your game level. Pathfinding is dynamic, meaning that if a door opens or a drawbridge lowers, the AI is smart enough to take the new routes that appear.

    The script language Lua is also supported, and can be combined with games written in native code. Scripted objects can be linked together in a visual flowgraph editor. This makes it easy to set up game interactions, something that can be a challenge when working with development platforms based solely on code.

     
    Leadwerks CEO Josh said that “Leadwerks 3 is a big step forward for our company and our users. We’re bridging the gap between mobile gaming and the traditional game industry.” The product received a favorable response at the GDC 2013 expo. ”C++ is the game industry standard. Our market research at GDC 2013 revealed a huge demand for a cross-platform game engine built on native code. We found the design philosophy of Leadwerks resonates with a lot of developers.”
     
    Leadwerks 3 can be purchased from the company’s website for $199, with add-ons for iOS and Android publishing available separately. A source code license is available for professional studios. A 30-day trial can be downloaded from the company’s website.
     
    Leadwerks Software has provided game development tools to thousands of developers worldwide since 2006. It’s technology has been used in commercial games, education, training simulations, and military applications. To find out more, please visit www.leadwerks.com.
  23. Admin
    An update for Leadwerks 3 has been released, bringing new graphical enhancements to mobile games. Building on the efficient art pipeline and user-friendly tools of Leadwerks 3, the engine now supports projected shadows for characters and other dynamic objects. This technique works by casting a shadow onto the surrounding world geometry, to provide real-time shadows that run fast on all platforms.
     

     
    To enable dynamic shadows on a single object, just select it in the editor and choose the new "Dynamic" option in the "Cast Shadows" property. You can also do this in code by calling Entity::SetShadowMode(Light::Dynamic).
     

     
    Leadwerks 3 has also gotten a visual upgrade with the addition of post-processing effects. In Leadwerks 2, all post-processing effects like volumetric light scattering, screen-space ambient occlusion, depth-of-field, and bloom were hard-coded. That is, they were written into the core engine and it was difficult to customize the renderer. Leadwerks 3 has added a new command, Camera::AddPostEffect(), which allows the user to attach a shader right to a camera, to automatically render post-processing effects.
     
    The new update also includes features to make it easier to share projects. The Project manager has been outfitted with new Import and Export buttons. You can export an entire project as a single ZIP archive. You can also import a project from a .zip or .werk project file. This makes it easy to share projects and collaborate with other Leadwerks developers as a team.
     
    Leadwerks is a fast and flexible development platform for building mobile games with native code. You can download a 30-day trial version on the website here.
  24. Admin
    Leadwerks 3.1 has entered the beta testing phase on schedule according to our development plan laid out in the Leadwerks for Linux Kickstarter campaign. Supporters who chose the SUPER BACKER reward have been granted access to try the early builds of Leadwerks for Linux.
     
    We chose to use the excellent Code::Blocks IDE for Linux development. Beta testers can access the full Leadwerks API to program graphics, physics, and gameplay, along with a few new functions like Camera::SetMultisampleMode(), which sets the render antialiasing level.
     

     
    Although the beta is not a complete finished product, we've already learned a lot about building high-end graphics for Linux. First of all, the Linux OpenGL drivers for ATI and Nvidia hardware are fine. We've encountered no graphics drivers bugs (so far). This may be due to the streamlined nature of OpenGL 4, as it removes a lot of legacy functionality. Whatever the cause, OpenGL drivers for Linux work great, much better than Windows drivers did a few years ago in the dark days between OpenGL 2 and 3.
     
    The biggest remaining challenge is to get the editor running in Linux. We anticipate two difficult parts to this. First, although we have a GUI abstraction layer that uses GTK on Linux, we expect some amount of fiddling to be necessary to make it work right. Second, the case-sensitive nature of the Linux file system will cause issues that need to be dealt with since there are many placed where our editor stores file names in lower-case format. This will require a lot of effort to resolve, but it's not any harder than some of the other issues we have dealt with so far in the development of Leadwerks for Linux. The benefits of having a Linux game editor with a native look and feel will make it worth the extra effort it takes.

    Steam Dev Days
    Leadwerks founder Josh has been invited and will be attending Steam Dev Days in Seattle, Washington. Steam Dev Days is a two-day game developer’s conference where professionals can meet in a relaxed, off the record environment. Developers will share their design and industry expertise, participate in roundtable discussions and attend lectures by industry veterans on topics ranging from game economies to VR, Linux/OpenGL, user-generated content and more. Developers will also have direct access to Valve’s Steam Team, and will be given a chance to test-drive and provide feedback on Steam OS, prototype Steam Machines and Steam Controllers. 

  25. Admin

    Leadwerks 3.3 Released

    By Admin,

    Leadwerks 3.3 is now available. This update adds usability improvements and a few new features.
     
    Two new entity classes that extend the model class are present. Sprites are a quad that can face the camera, a specific direction, or can rotate around one axis. These are useful for lighting effects and the axis rotation is great for making laser beams or tracer rounds.
     
    The Lensflare class extends the sprite class and adds a simple glow effect for lighting.
     
    The editor now support shift-drag to select in the main window viewports.
     
    On Windows, the main window now uses resizable splitters so you can adjust the size of the side panel and program log, or click the separator to show/hide them. You can also right-click on a file or folder in the Asset Browser and select the Properties menu item to bring up the Windows file properties dialog.
     
    The Leadwerks Workshop, our system for publishing user-made game assets, has been streamlined to make the process of installing and removing items easier.
     
    Encryption has been added for your published games to protect your game files from tampering. This works with both Lua and C++ games.
     
    You can pick up Leadwerks 3 at a discount during the Steam Exploration Sale.
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