O3DE, the free and open-source game engine under the Linux Foundation and capable of delivering AAA-quality experiences, has received a new update. Arriving roughly eight months after the previous major release, this update doesn't introduce groundbreaking features but streamlines the development process with better performance, stability, and over 250 bug fixes.
One of the major highlights of this release is the improved rendering performance, with gains of up to 40%. This enhancement is made possible by the addition of subpass rendering support and a new shader constants feature.
The Track View editor, the primary tool for creating and managing cinematic sequences in O3DE, has been overhauled to offer greater stability and ease of use.
Rendering support for multi-GPU setups is now considered mature, receiving multiple improvements and major feature refactorings. Additionally, vertex color support has been added to the BasePBR, StandardPBR, and EnhancedPBR materials. These can now blend vertex colors with base color using a configurable factor and blending method within the material settings.
The setup process for those working with extended reality (XR) has been simplified through the automatic installation of required OpenXR libraries by the 3rdParty packaging system. This eliminates the need for developers to manually install libraries such as the Meta Quest Mobile SDK, among others.
Other additions include improved support for Android builds, the implementation of standardized simulation interfaces for ROS 2 (Robot Operating System), and updates to the Asset Processor, which now analyzes how many assets are new, outdated, have altered dependencies, or use new builders.
Finally, the update reduces memory usage in both the editor and runtime environments, and includes several fixes and improvements for games leveraging multiplayer functionality.
For more information, be sure to check out the official release notes.
