GameStudio Information

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Contents

Overview

GameStudio is a commercial 3D computer game development system which allows the users to create 3D games and other virtual reality applications, and publish them royalty-free. It includes a model/terrain editor, a level editor, a script editor/debugger and comes with a collection of textures, models and artwork, as well as a game template system that allows the creation of basic shooter games or RPGs without programming. For complex games or other applications you can use either the integrated programming language named Lite-C or an external development language such as Visual C++ or Borland Delphi.

Gamestudio is for users of various skill levels, providing three different levels of usage (beginner, advanced, and professional) for hobbyists, artists, as well as programmers. There is a large online community of users in support of the development system.

The Acknex VR Engine 8

The engine is the core of the development system - it determines the rendering of 3D objects or virtual worlds. Gamestudio's A8 engine was developed in 2010 and is one of the fastest and most robust engines available. Its Adaptive Binary Tree scene manager switches seamlessly from indoor to outdoor sceneries and supports up to 200,000 objects per scene. The light manager generates an unlimited number of static and dynamic shadow-throwing light sources. Programmers can add new engine functions with the included Source Development Kit. The simple and straigthforward C-style API allows painless access to the engine from external development systems under C++, C#, or Delphi.

The A8 engine is designed to support a wide range of hardware and software. Gamestudio applications run fast and stable even on old PCs, without requiring the end user to update the 3D hardware or DirectX version. Still, Gamestudio is regularly updated in order to support the newest 3D features. Free engine updates are released about every six weeks.

Rendering engine

  • Adaptive Binary Tree (ABT) scene manager, up to 200,000 entities per scene
  • Binary Space Partitioning (BSP) / Potential Visibility Set (PVS) / Render Portals (Pro Edition)
  • Indoor and outdoor support, seamless LOD terrain renderer
  • Light manager for unlimited point and spot light sources
  • Static and dynamic shadow mapping, decal, stencil, and PSSM shadows
  • Fog areas, Camera portals, reflections and mirrors
  • Geometric LOD, detail textures, texture compression
  • Softskin models with multiple shaders; bones, vertex, and morph animation
  • Animated sprites and decals
  • Material properties for static and dynamic objects
  • Multiple cameras and render views, multiple monitors, widescreen support

Particle & Effect Engine

  • Programmable particle generators for multiple particle types
  • Beam generators for laser beams and tracer paths
  • Pre- and postprocessing shaders, supporting shader models 1.0, 2.0, 3.0
  • HLSL and FX file support; real time shader editing; multiple shader stages
  • Per pixel lighting, bump and environment mapping, multitexturing
  • Layered sky system with sky cubes, sky domes, clouds and backdrop bitmaps
  • Dynamic decal system for bullet holes, foot prints, tire marks etc.
  • Programmable effects like lens flares, distortion, fisheye, etc.
  • More than 40 included shaders: cartoon, environment, gooch, bump, lambert, blinn, phong, parallax, occlusion, wind animation, mirror, water, blur, bloom, dilate, displacement, erode, bleach, sepia, emboss, posterize, lens, PSSM, HDR, and many more
  • Source code for all effects; shader workshop and shader viewer

Physics & Collision Engine

  • Two polygonal collision detection systems with and without physics
  • Physics objects with gravity, damping, elasticity, friction
  • Highly realistic raycast vehicle simulation with easy-to-use template
  • Hinge, ball, wheel, and slider joints, configurable universal joint
  • Bezier path tracking for camera, actors or vehicles; path finding
  • Mouse picking and manipulating of 3D objects
  • Slow motion / quick motion effect

2D Engine

  • Multi-layer system
  • Animated 3D and 2D sprites, 2D particles, 2D shaders
  • Movie player for rendering videos fullscreen and on textures
  • GUI panels with button, slider, display and window types
  • Truetype and bitmap fonts
  • Screenshot generator

Sound Engine

  • Static and dynamic 3D sound sources with Doppler effect
  • Multichannel streaming sound player
  • WAV, OGG, MID, MP3, WMA, CD support

Network & Game Engine

  • Save / Load system for resuming games at arbitrary positions
  • Easy, tranparent client/server mode for LAN and Internet (UDP)
  • Multizone/multiserver support, MMOG capable (Pro Edition)
  • FTP and HTTP access to servers and databases (Pro Edition)
  • Input devices: Mouse, Keyboard, Joystick / Racewheel, SpaceNavigator®, WiiMote®
  • Control external I/O and relay modules over the network
  • Expandable through DLL plugins

The lite-C Programming Language

Gamestudio's lite-C language allows application programming from a beginner's to a professional level. Lite-C scripts can be attached to any object of the virtual world and react on events like being hit, touched with the mouse, coming close to something and so on.

Lite-C is a lightweight version of C/C++, the language used for commercial games programming. But unlike C++, it's extremely easy to learn and the best way to get introduced into 'real' programming. Anything that's scary to a beginner, like memory and pointer handling, is automatically managed in lite-C.

Still, lite-C is not a script language but a real programming language. It can access all functions from Windows libraries on your PC, including DirectX classes and OpenGL functions. You could write your own 3D engine in lite-C! Unlike many scripting languages like Basic, Python, LUA etc, lite-C is compiled - translated into optimized machine code. Thus a lite-C program runs up to twenty times faster than interpreted scripting languages. This is important as in an abitious game with several thousand actors, 10,000 program functions could run at the same time!

If you prefer to program in 'real' C++, C#, Delphi or other languages, you can implement Gamestudio's engine into your own programs using the engine SDK. You can even continue to use lite-C as a scripting language; lite-C functions and variables can be called from your program and vice versa.

Lite-C Features

  • On-the-fly compiler
  • Direct access to the Windows API, DirectX 9 and OpenGL functions
  • Remote control of arbitrary Windows applications
  • Control of external devices through port I/O functions
  • Easy, transparent multitasking
  • Console mode for manipulating variables and objects at runtime
  • Syntax-highlighting editor, single-step debugger
  • Expandable through external DLL and COM libraries

The Editors

Gamestudio comes with level, model and terrain editors so that you can start immediately.

Within the environment you can place actors, enemies, objects, shadow throwing light sources, sound sources, or actor paths that vehicles follow or guards walk along. Add normal mapping, parallax mapping, or other effects to surfaces with only a mouse click!

You can either create the landscape and buildings yourself, or import artwork created with 3D content editors like Worldcraft™, Milkshape™ or gameSpace™, or high-end editors like Maya™ or 3D Studio MAX™. All usual 3D file formats (FBX, X, 3DS, ASE, OBJ, MDL, MD2, MAP) are supported. Terrain can be imported through heightmaps from freeware terrain generators like Terragen™.

The new FBX level importer loads whole levels together with all included objects and lights, and allows to edit your level completely in your familiar third party editor. For quick results a library of over 1000 textures, sky boxes, building parts, furniture, vehicles, weapons and actors is included.

The Game Templates

Templates are a cool concept of creating game content without any programming. First select the genre of your game - like an action game, a car game, or just a walkthrough. Gamestudio will create a basic game script for you and open an empty level. With a mouse click, you can add further template scripts from a library, place objects in your level and attach behaviors to them. Scripts and behaviors can be customized with a wide range of parameters. All this without programming a single line of code - it's as close to the famous "Make Game" button as it gets!

The game generated this way is still a normal C script, anytime accessible for modifications. If the included game templates are not enough for you, add your own scripts or download templates from the user magazine or the resource site. As soon as your levels are finished, a button click generates the final game in a CD folder ready for distribution. The File Packer (Pro Edition) compresses all artwork belonging to the game into a tiny encrypted resource.

Select Your Edition

You have the choice of four upwards compatible 2D/3D application development systems. All include lite-C and the same powerful A8 engine and physics engine. They only differ in features:

  • Gamestudio Free is for classical game development. It comes with all tools for creating great casual 2D and 3D games.
  • Gamestudio Extra has similar features as the free edition, but precompiles your script - so games will start faster, and people can't see or modify your code.
  • Gamestudio Commercial can create network and online games, and supports high-end graphical effects such as postprocessing shaders, decals and beams.
  • Gamestudio Pro is for large scale games and MMOG projects. It contains special technologies for ultra-fast rendering, and special features for commercial distribution.

All editions are 100% up- and downwards compatible. Try before buying? Download the free version, open the tutorial, and start creating games!

What's new in A8?

Gamestudio/A8 can render almost twice as fast as A7, especially scenes with many portals, animated actors and shadows. It's script compatible to A7 and A6, except for projects using the physics engine. This is new in A8:

  • All editions: nVidia PhysX® subsystem for rigid body physics and raycast vehicles; improved editors; new collision system; improved content import workflow; accelerated dynamic shadows; unlimited terrain size; improved publish process; overlay windows; trigger regions; 2D particles; sprite vegetation.
  • Commercial Edition: accelerated bones animation, new network library, extended network functions, shader-based bitmap processing.
  • Pro Edition: portal renderer, shader compiler, instancing.

Educational editions

For developer teams or for education, multi-seat Team Editions are available. They can be installed on a network server or on a given number of PCs. All members of the team must use the software for the same project or for learning purposes, and may not use it for separate projects or outside the team or classroom. For a Game Programming course use our 25 lesson curriculum with an exit exam at http://tutorial.3dgamestudio.net. The Team Editions are based on the Commercial or Pro Edition, but don't include the license to publish and distribute games. For this, an additional single edition is required. Team Editions for 3 or more seats at a fraction of the normal edition price can be ordered in the online shop or by email to info (at) 3dgamestudio.net. Students can upgrade their team editions to personal full editions at a reduced price.

No royalties

As owner of any Gamestudio single edition you can freely publish and distribute your applications. You don't need to pay royalties, you don't need to show credits, you don't need to ask for permission. There is only one exception. It's illegal to use Gamestudio for games that propagate genocide against a certain group, race, nation or religion existing in today's real world.

System requirements

Gamestudio/A8 comes with a compatibility guarantee: It runs on all fully functional PCs that are newer than 2002 and fulfill the specifications below. Minimum: 512 MB RAM, 3D video card (32 MB), sound card. Recommended: 1 GB RAM, 128 MB video card, Shader 2.0 support. Windows ME / 2000 / XP / Vista / Windows7, 32 Bit & 64 Bit; DirectX 9.0c or above. Imported file formats: FBX, 3DS, X, OBJ, ASE, MAP, MDL, MD2, FX, BMP, PCX, TGA, JPG, DDS, PNG, WAD, MID, WAV, OGG, MP3, MPG, AVI, WMV. More formats through 3rd party import filters.

Further Information

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