Alpha 7 is an incredible release packed with groundbreaking features and improvements that will take your game development experience to the next level. We have been working tirelessly to bring you the best possible experience, and we are thrilled to share with you what we have in store for you in this release. From the new Photon global illumination system to the improved material system, Alpha 7 is a game-changer for game developers. We can't wait for you to try it out and see the amazing things you can create with it! So without further ado, let's dive into the exciting new features and improvements in Alpha 7!
Photon Global Illumination
We added support for Dynamic Diffuse Global Illumination with our new system called Photon. This is a huge step forward for lighting in Atlas Engine, and it will allow you to create much more realistic and immersive lighting in your games. With Photon, you can now have dynamic global illumination that reacts to changes in the scene, which will make your games look much more realistic and visually stunning. We are very excited about the possibilities that Photon opens up for game developers, and we can't wait to see what you create with it!
This basically means that now our renderer takes in account the light that bounces around the scene, which will make the lighting much more realistic and immersive. This is a huge improvement over traditional lighting techniques, which only take into account direct lighting from light sources. With Photon, you can now have dynamic global illumination that reacts to changes in the scene, which will make your games look much more realistic and visually stunning.
Photon Path Tracing
We also released the newest addition to our rendering pipeline: Photon Path Tracing. This is a new ray tracing system that will allow us to have much more realistic reflections and shadows in our games. With Photon Path Tracing, you can now have accurate reflections and shadows that react to changes in the scene, which will make your games look much more realistic and visually stunning. We are very excited about the possibilities that Photon Path Tracing opens up for game developers, and we can't wait to see what you create with it!
We rendered a Cornell Box with Photon Path Tracing, and the results are amazing! The reflections and shadows are much more accurate and realistic than with traditional rendering techniques, which will make your games look much more visually stunning. This is a huge improvement over traditional rendering techniques, which only take into account direct lighting from light sources. With Photon Path Tracing, you can now have accurate reflections and shadows that react to changes in the scene, although since it's path tracing, it cannot be used in real-time, but it can be used for baking lightmaps and reflection probes, which will make your games look much more realistic and visually stunning.
Better installer
For this release, we also refurbished our installer to make it easier for users to install and update Atlas Engine. The new installer includes features like automatic updates, better error handling, and a more user-friendly interface. We want to make sure that installing and updating Atlas Engine is as easy and seamless as possible, so we hope you like the new installer!
What now?
We are very excited about the release of Alpha 7, and we hope you are too! We encourage you to download it and try it out, and let us know what you think! We are always looking for feedback and suggestions from our users, so don't hesitate to reach out to us on our Github Repository. But not just that - we also want to hear your thoughts on the new features and improvements in Alpha 7, and what you would like to see in future releases. We are committed to making Atlas Engine the best game engine it can be, and we can't do that without your feedback and support! So please, download Alpha 7, try it out, and let us know what you think! We can't wait to see what you create with it!
But talking about Alpha 8, we want to spoil a bit of what this release will include. The features planned for it are:
- Better UI for the engine (Graphite), including powerful UI components as never before. (This will have to power the UI editor in Alpha 9)
- Support for controller input, which will allow you to easily add support for gamepads and other controllers in your games.
- An event system that will allow you to easily create and manage events in your games, which will make it easier to create complex interactions and gameplay mechanics.
This is all for now. Stay tuned for more updates and announcements as we continue to develop Atlas Engine and push the boundaries of game development! We can't wait to see what you create with it!
Check the release in Github! Download Atlas Engine Alpha 7 Join our Discord Server
Max Van den Eynde, Lead Developer of Atlas Engine
