NeoAxis Game Engine Updated to Version 1.1 — New Features and Demos

NeoAxis Game Engine was updated to version 1.1 ! Since I contributed to this release, I'd like to share detailed description about it and some other cool stuff with my readers. Also I would mention that NeoAxis 1.1 is a pretty impressive and feature-rich release — don't miss it if you're a game developer or have interest in game engines. Next is the official part of the press-release for NeoAxis Engine 1.1.

NeoAxis Group is pleased to announce that NeoAxis Engine and its SDK was updated to version 1.1. NeoAxis Engine is an all-purpose 3D engine for game development, simulation and visualization systems creation. New version received big improvements in rendering, new pathfinding system, toolset localization support and some other improvements.

New Demos in NeoAxis Engine SDK 1.1

NeoAxis engine is often criticized for missing impressive and rich demo maps that actually can show all of the engine's power and graphics capabilities. And this is indeed was a major problem — many developers while searching for the engine for their projects pay s a close attention to graphics and overall visual quality. That's why NeoAxis Engine SDK 1.1 has three new demo maps included into its SDK, with first among them as complex and beatiful demo map to fill the gap mentioned above.

A new "Mountain Village" demo map has been added to the SDK. This new demo is a complex demo map, which demonstrates new vegetation shaders, special camera behavior based on splines and water plane reflection optimization.

Also there is a video demonstration prepared for this new demo map — check it out below to get the idea of what is this map about.

A new "BallGame" map has been added. This new game type demo is an example of a casual physics-based ball control game.

A new "DynamicGeometryExample" map has been added. This new map demonstrates dynamic mesh creation and updating.

Among the other things I have contributed to NeoAxis 1.1 SDK this all-new assault rifle mode — a SCAR-L with grenade launcher and additional equipment. With the NeoAxis Engine SDK 1.1 release anyone can download it from engine's website and try it yourself in-game — SCAR-L is the primary weapon for main character in demo maps. Details about 3D model and some other images available at following page in my Image Gallery.

What's New in NeoAxis Engine 1.1?

NeoAxis Group has done much since 1.0 to provide new and exciting features that certainly will be useful for 3D projects developers. The key new features is following:

• Depth buffer access — the long-expected option to use depth buffer as usual texture has been added. This feature allows to integrate numerous modern rendering features such as Soft Particles, Depth of Field, SSAO, etc.

• Soft Particles — built-in Soft Particles technology support based on the new depth buffer access feature. Soft Particles is intended to eliminate graphic artifacts that can appear when particle intersects with scene geometry.

• Animation Tree System — a new Animation Tree system has been added. With this major feature you can configure animations much easier. You don't need to write that much code for animation support anymore — now you can do this by means of an animation tree file, which is a scheme with operations and connections. Later the system will be complemented by visual editor that will be added in next versions.

• Navigation mesh pathfinding — new navigation mesh pathfinding has been added. In addition to grid based and way point navigation systems NeoAxis SDK now includes powerful pathfinding system based on navigation mesh technology. The engine uses the open-source Recast pathfinding system internally.

• Vegetation material — advanced Vegetation Material has been added. With this material it is now possible to make high quality trees, shrubs and grass.

• FXAA anti-aliasing — new anti-aliasing post-effect allows to achieve better image quality with less resources and higher performance, rather than when using FSAA or MSAA algorythms.

• Awesomium — the Awesomium library has been integrated into NeoAxis 3D Game Engine. The Awesomium library enables embedding full-fledged web browser functionality into applications and games. The library is provided as an additional engine plug-in.

• Localization — the toolset supports localization now and can be easily translated to another language. Russian localization has been added.

Among the key improvements in 1.1 it is possible to highlight:

• Autodesk Maya 2012 export support has been added.
• Physics Editor: You can now set body mass manually by specifying the Mass property. The old method, where body mass was calculated from shapes density will also remain.
• The TPS camera in the game has been improved. The camera no longer not penetrates through walls.
• ColladaMeshLoader: Better importing and exporting support. Google SketchUp support.
• Fixed Frame Rate support has been added. EngineApp.Instance.MaxFPS property has been added.
• Skeleton animation: Blend masks for animation states have been added.
• The engine will now automatically unload old textures before loading a new map.
• Weapon class has been improved. Now, it is possible to use two alternative weapon meshes separately, one for usual TPS camera, second for FPS camera.
• Better game character physics in PhysX.

Some optimization work has been done. Rendering system was optimized, clip volumes for reflections has been added, UISystem has been significantly optimized, less memory use during compilation for ShaderCacheCompiler. More than 15 known bugs was fixed in new version.

NeoAxis Engine 1.1 — Evolution of the All-Purpose 3D Engine

With the release of version 1.1 the all-purpose 3D engine NeoAxis has become even more powerful engine with rich functionality and tools. Improvements and new features that has been added in NA 1.1 made it even better solution for game and simulation development in any genres and areas, including quick prototyping and ideas visualization. NeoAxis Engine is not just an engine, but a complete powerful and easy-to-use toolset  for 3D applications creation. Demo maps included in the SDK make it possible to fast start the development, based on the demos "skeleton" that in fact are the templates/prototypes of games in different genres, and also to save additional resources, involved into development, meaning that is saves you your time — and money.

In conclusion I'd like to add that there is additional article prepared for this release, which gives a little deeper insight into technical details and feature descriptions that has been added to NeoAxis 1.1. I highly encourage you to read it if you're interested in game development and game engines.

NeoAxis Official Website | Download NeoAxis Engine SDK 1.1  | Full Changelog