Posted On: Dec 2, 2021
Today, AWS and the Open 3D Foundation (O3DF) announced the first stable release of Open 3D Engine (O3DE), an Apache 2.0 licensed multi-platform 3D engine that enables developers to build AAA games, cinema-quality 3D worlds for video production, and simulations for non-gaming use-cases unencumbered by licensing fees or commercial terms. Since the formation of O3DF and launch of the O3DE Developer Preview in July, over 250 developers from a wide range of industries have contributed thousands of pull requests, issues, and millions of lines of code changes to add developer features, improve stability, and increase performance to ensure that O3DE is ready for use in live games and simulations. As the successor to Amazon Lumberyard, O3DE offers developers and content creators a wide set of 3D content creation tools and a growing community of developers and foundation partners including AccelByte, Adobe, Apocalypse Studios, Audiokinetic, AWS, Backtrace.io, Carbonated, Futurewei, GAMEPOCH, Genvid Technologies, Hadean, HERE Technologies, Huawei, Intel, International Game Developers Association, KitBash3D, Kythera AI, Niantic, Open Robotics, PopcornFX, Red Hat, Rochester Institute of Technology, SideFX, Tafi, TLM Partners and Wargaming.
With today’s release, “Stable 21.11”, developers can build 3D games and simulations and customized versions of the engine on a stable foundation with support from the community and O3DF. Developers using Linux can now install a native version of the engine with the Debian-based Linux package distribution. Teams using Windows can get started faster with a verified Windows installer. This release also adds new developer features including performance profiling and benchmarking tools, an experimental terrain system, a Script Canvas integration for the multiplayer networking system, and an SDK to facilitate engine customization with platform support for PC, MacOS, iOS, and Android. In addition to core engine capabilities, Open 3D Foundation partners have contributed new capabilities to O3DE through the extensible Gem system. Kythera released an update to their artificial intelligence Gem to add support for pre-built O3DE SDK, enabling creators to include AI behaviors in their games and simulations. Cesium released a geospatial 3D tile extension. The Gem system has also been extended to enable external Gem repositories, making it even easier to add capabilities from 3rd party contributors.