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SDL 3 - The Next Evolution of a Classic Game Development Library

SDL (Simple DirectMedia Layer), a software development library designed for creating high-performance video games and multimedia software, has received its first major version update since the release of SDL 2 in August 2013. For those unfamiliar, SDL provides developers with low-level access to hardware features such as audio, input devices, and graphics hardware through APIs like OpenGL, Direct3D, Metal, and Vulkan. Written in the C programming language, SDL has served as the foundation for countless games and multimedia applications since its initial release in 1998.

Published: 27. Jan. 2025

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The Global Game Jam 2025 is starting!

The Global Game Jam (GGJ) is starting once again, offering yet another fun-filled game development experience! If you're not familiar with it, the GGJ is the world's largest game creation event, held at hundreds of physical and virtual sites across over 100 countries. Last year, over 35,000 participants across 796 locations in 102 countries took part. In just 48 hours, they created nearly 10,000 games, all centered around the theme "Make Me Laugh!". The 2025 edition starts today and runs until Sunday, January 26, with jam sites following their own schedules within this timeframe.

Published: 20. Jan. 2025

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SideFX's Project Grot offers free procedural tools for Unreal Engine

Project Grot is an in-house tech demo from SideFX (the creators of Houdini 3D software), unveiled in May 2024, to showcase the versatility and creativity that procedural generation can bring to game development. Along with the demo, SideFX has started releasing tutorials that explain how the Houdini tools used in the project's pipeline were created and later applied by layout artists in Unreal Engine. These tutorials offer valuable insights into how Houdini and Unreal Engine work together, and are accompanied by project files containing the resulting tools created by following the outlined steps.

Published: 13. Jan. 2025

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GDevelop 5.5 released with enhanced 3D support

GDevelop has been updated to version 5.5. This free and open-source "no-code" game engine, initially designed for 2D game development, has been increasingly focusing on expanding its 3D capabilities. In 2023, GDevelop introduced native 3D support, and with this latest update, it now includes 3D physics, making it an even stronger option for creating 3D games.

Published: 6. Jan. 2025

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DroneCam - A new Blender add-on for drone-like camera control

DroneCam is a new Blender add-on developed by 3D artist and add-on creator globglob. It allows users to control a camera like a drone using a gamepad, eliminating the need for manual animation when creating aerial shots. Users can add a drone to the scene, click record, fly around, and render the final footage, which closely mimics real-life drone videos.

Published: 30. Dec. 2024

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GitHub Copilot now available for free

GitHub Copilot, the AI-powered code assistant, is now available for free in Visual Studio Code, as announced in a recent post on the Visual Studio Code blog. To access the new free plan, users only need a GitHub account — no subscription or credit card is required. As it would be expected, the free plan comes with some limitations, offering up to 2.000 code completions and 50 chat requests per month. It also includes access to two AI models: GPT-4o and Claude 3.5 Sonnet.

Published: 23. Dec. 2024

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Camera Composition Overlays - A Toolkit to Enhance Unreal Engine's Cinematics

Camera Composition Overlays is a free pack of landscape camera composition overlays for Unreal Engine 5, created by Akintayo Adewole. It is designed to enhance in-game cinematics and other virtual productions by helping to create visually striking and engaging imagery.

Published: 16. Dec. 2024

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Nevercenter releases Silo & Milo 2025

Nevercenter has unveiled the 2025 versions of Silo and Milo, two versatile tools designed to streamline 3D workflows. Silo is a lightweight 3D modeler and UV mapper, featuring a robust toolset and an intuitive workflow that is easy to master. Milo, on the other hand, is an advanced real-time renderer and VR viewer powered by Unreal Engine. It is ideal for tasks like product shots, game asset visualization, architectural walkthroughs, portfolio rendering, and VR previews. Silo and Milo are both standalone tools, but they are designed to work seamlessly together.

Published: 9. Dec. 2024

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Abstraction Generator - A new tool for real-time abstract VFX in Unreal Engine

Abstraction Generator is a recently released tool for Unreal Engine that creates abstract visual effects in real time. Developed by Adam Drzazga, it is part of the author's Niagara Fluids series, using Unreal Engine 5's advanced Niagara VFX system to simulate fluid dynamics. The tool includes 21 Niagara Fluids systems: 8 that use a mesh renderer for spawning and 13 that use a sprite renderer. It offers around 50 user parameters to customize effects quickly, including settings for textures, shaders, and particle spawns in Niagara Fluids.

Published: 2. Dec. 2024

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Blender updated to version 4.3

Blender, the popular, free, and versatile 3D software package, has been updated to version 4.3. This release offers an array of improvements, including upgrades to Geometry Nodes, a Grease Pencil overhaul, a new brush workflow, and more.

Published: 25. Nov. 2024

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Unreal Engine 5.5 now available

Unreal Engine 5.5 has been released, just a month after its preview version and roughly six months after the 5.4 update. The latest version brings numerous improvements, with a focus on rendering performance, in-editor animation tools, mobile game development, visual production, and faster developer iteration. Let's briefly go over the highlight features in this release:

Published: 18. Nov. 2024

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Nanite Grass V3 - A visually impressive grass asset for Unreal Engine

Nanite Grass is a realistic grass asset for Unreal Engine, created by 3D environment artist Cloviren. It provides fully geometric grass for games and real-time rendering, without relying on alpha masks and it's optimized for Nanite (Unreal's virtualized geometry system). The asset includes an array of features and allows seamless interaction with characters and other objects.

Published: 11. Nov. 2024