Leadwerks Engine
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| Leadwerks Engine | |
|---|---|
| Developed by | Leadwerks Software |
| Latest release | Version 2.0 / May 19, 2008 |
| OS | Windows XP,Windows Vista |
| Genre | Game engine |
| License | EULA |
| Website | http://www.leadwerks.com/ |
The Leadwerks Engine is a 3D game engine powered by OpenGL 2.1.2. It was designed by Leadwerks Software and made it's debut in The Game Creators May Newsletter[1] on May 1, 2008. The engine makes use of the new Newton Game Dynamics SDK 2.0 (Newton Archimedes) for physics, and OpenAL and EAX for sound and 3D sound effects. The engine is based around a forward renderer and a unified lighting system that allows for dynamic lighting and soft shadowing without the use of lightmaps or any pre-compilation. Occlusion culling is performed on the GPU to remove the need for binary space partitioning or portal zones. The engine was developed by Joshua Klint of Leadwerks Software, and was created in BlitzMax.
Modules have been created by members of the community to allow the use of the engine in languages such as C, C++, C#, VB.NET, LUA, and Python, but BlitzMax and Leadwerks Script were it's originally targeted languages. The engine is unofficially supported in any language that can load a DLL.
The Leadwerks Engine features listdetails all engine features.
Contents |
[edit] Leadwerks Script
Leadwerks Script is a scripting language developed by Leadwerks Software to allow a simple way for artists and unexperienced coders to create games using the Leadwerks Engine. Leadwerks Script is powered by Brisk Virtual Machine. The language follows a syntax almost identical to that of BlitzMax, but is different in way of keywords and general code structure. Since the language is run via a virtual machine, it uses Just-in-time compilation and is run using a precompiled executable known as the interpreter. This eliminates the need to recompile any source code when it is changed. The commandset of the language is easily adjusted or added to by editing the command set file.
[edit] Screen-Space Ambient Occlusion (real-time ambient maps)
Screen Space Ambient Occlusion is a technique used to simulate real-time global illumination. This technique has been used by Crytek in Crysis and has since been developed and added to the Leadwerks Engine. Leadwerks Engine also features real-time ambient maps. Soft shadows and lights are calculated dynamically with no pre-calculations or lightmaps. This allows level designers to place lights and geometry and see results instantly.
[edit] Compatibility
Leadwerks Engine is supported on Windows XP and Windows Vista. Feature support for MacOS has been proposed as well as support for XBOX360 via the Microsoft XNA platform.
The engine uses a combination of forward and deferred renderers. Geometry is calculated by the forward renderer, and all lighting is performed as a deferred step via shaders. The deferred shaders take input from the depth buffer, the color buffer, and normals and calculate light from there.
Leadwerks Engine 2.0 was originally intended to be a Shader Model 4.0 Compliant-only engine, but with the addition of Vertex Buffer Objects allowed backwards compatibility with Shader Model 3.0.
[edit] Documentation
Documentation has been provided in the past in both CHM help files, PDF files, and HTML documents. Leadwerks Engine 2.0 has a Wiki dedicated to documentation. It offers tutorials,documentation, an API of the SDK, and examples of different applications you can make and techniques you can use.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ The Game Creators May Newsletter Retrieved May 1, 2008.
