I wrote sometime back about RIM’s open-source Gameplay SDK. GamePlay is a complete 3D engine that targets Blackberry OS 10/PlayBook OS, Android, iOS, Windows and MacOS X. They just announced the release of 1.4 and it’s full of some pretty nice additions:
New features
- Lua script bindings on all public interfaces of the framework.
- Script binding generator tool for creating user-defined Lua script bindings from Doxygen XML.
- AI state machine for AI programming/scripting on game objects.
- Virtual gamepad input support with custom theming using UI system.
- Optimizations using NEON math for mobile platforms.
- Compressed texture support for DXT, PVRTC, ATC and ETC1.
- Improved modular shaders with support for #include in shaders and new light map support.
- Optimizations and Improvements to the UI system such as inertial scrolling and scrollbars.
- Pre-built versions of the gameplay-encoder and gameplay-luagen tools.
- Optimizations in animation and physics.
- Fixes to support Maya 2012/2013 COLLADA DAE_FBX export.
- FBX 2013 format support.
The also announced their roadmap for future versions:
The ‘next’ branch features for v1.5, v1.6, v1.7
- Linux support.
- Vehicle physics.
- AI path finding with navigation meshes.
- Physical Gamepad input for Xbox 360, Wii, and Bluetooth® HID controllers.
- Terrain.
- Scene editor tool.
You can read the full announcement here or head over here to get started. Lua scripting is a very nice addition, especially for those that prefer not to work at the C++ level ( include me in that camp! ). Terrain and scene editing tools will go a long way towards helping adoption.
Nice work GamePlay team!
If I could make a suggestion if anyone on the team is listening, I would recommend a rebrand at this point. Gameplay is an apt name, but it is incredibly generic, meaning that your discoverability is going to be abysmal. You’ve created a great product here, it would be a shame that people didn’t use it simply because they couldn’t find it! Just adding a second word the next name (Gameplay NEXT GameplayGO Gameplay-A-GoGo) would help a ton and allow you to keep your existing documentation, website, etc… unchanged.
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