In nuce: Open 3D Foundation has released version 22.10 of the Open 3D Engine (O3DE). One of the most important new features is the terrain system. Version 22.10 is described as a Quality of Life Improvement, and therefore primarily offers improvements in terms of performance, workflow and user-friendliness. O3DE is based on the Lumberyard engine, is the successor to it and was developed by Amazon Web Services. The engine is aimed at developers of complex gaming productions.
Terrain: Designing Modular Systems in O3DE
In toto: Below are some of the interesting new features of O3DE 22.10. In the video, Amazon’s Software Development Manager Mike Balfour, who previously worked at Electronic Arts and Bioware, explains how the new terrain system works.
- New, experimental terrain system (called Terrain Gem): According to colleague Jim Thacker of cgchannel, who took a closer look at the O3DE 22.10 release note, the new terrain system can handle up to “16km x 16km worlds and more – and at a high framerate”. The release note also states that O3DE is now also suitable for developing larger and open environments – instead of smaller and closed environments, as was previously the case.
- New components for celestial atmosphere and stars: For example, the new so-called Star Component ensures that realistic, resolution-independent, animated stars can be generated.
- According to Jim, who is again following the release notes,workflow improvements can be found in the following areas: Importing animations, root motion extraction and motion matching.
Click further: Digital Production last reported on O3DE on 24 May this year, when version 22.05 was released. Our overview article “Fantastic game engines and where to find them” from DP 05 : 2021 by Alexandra Kaschny provides orientation in the jungle of game engines.
Sources: cgchannel (report by Jim Thacker), o3de.org ( publication reference)
