Open 3D Engine v22.05 out, O3DCon in October with proposals open

Originally Amazon Lumberyard that was donated to open source, the Open 3D Foundation just announced a big new release and they have an annual conference coming up.

Lots new in O3DE v22.05 including upgrades for core stability, installer validation, motion matching updates, user-defined property (UDP) support for the asset pipeline, and automated testing advancements.

Work to improve the game engine for artists came along with this release thanks to the ability to integrate user-defined properties (UDP) metadata into its asset pipeline from source assets so that scene-building and asset-processing logic can be customized using this metadata. Animation saw improvements too so animators can "utilize motion matching, a data-driven animation technique that synthesizes motions based on existing animation data and current character and input contexts to deliver photorealistic experiences".

Some of the other improvements include:

• Simpler customization of the render pipeline is now possible using a new set of APIs. Examples of gems that currently exploit this capability include Terrain, LyShine and TressFx.
• Developers can now re-use Material Types much more easily.
• Developers can now control the spawning of player-controlled, networked entities using an improved interface, a capability that is essential for building multiplayer games.
• Automated tests now verify that an installer build is valid, and ensures that all of the steps within the build are successfully executed. These tests are run nightly for O3DE, and have been designed so that anyone can plug them into their quality verification process.

For Linux specifically the whitebox module is also now supported. Full release notes here.

With biannual releases planned and the next due in October 2022, plenty more will be on the way. Do you have high hopes for this game engine? Let us know in the comments.

As for the conference it's happening on October 18-19, 2022, in Austin, Texas and they're looking for people to do various talks and so proposals are now open. This will be a hybrid event, so anyone interested in their quickly advancing open source game engine can attend in-person or virtually.

From the press release:

"I'm proud of the O3DE community's focus on core stability while delivering new capabilities aimed to simplify and enhance 3D development for developers around the globe," said Royal O'Brien, Executive Director of O3DF and General Manager of Games and Digital Media at the Linux Foundation. "I'm also incredibly excited about the opportunity O3DCon offers in bringing together diverse minds to collaborate on advancing the state of open 3D development across so many industries."