SEATTLE, WA — Amazon Game Studios has released Lumberyard 1.12, as well as a new video highlighting the engine's biggest milestones in 2017. Throughout 2017, the team continued to make improvements to the engine and replace the original codebase with newer systems.
According tot he company, this year was all about laying the foundation for what’s to come with Lumberyard. They introduced a brand new animation tool (EMotion FX) and a new visual scripting solution (Script Canvas). They also made hundreds of improvements to Component Entity workflows for streamlining development and launched seven new Cloud Gems that make it easier to engage players and create emergent gameplay using the AWS cloud. In addition, Amazon Game Studios provided an exclusive, free license to SpeedTree 8 for 3D vegetation modeling.
The Cloud Gem Framework makes it easy to build great gameplay and engage players in as little as few hours, using AWS. Add text to speech, in-game surveys, and speech recognition. Unlock new possibilities of game development and different gameplay experiences.
SpeedTree 8 is free for all Lumberyard developers. Seamlessly integrated with the engine’s advanced rendering and lighting technology, the SpeedTree editor makes it easier and faster to create lush vegetation in your games. Y
They swapped out CryAnimation for EmotionFX in 1.11, and are continuing to add improvements and functionality with subsequent releases.
Script Canvas provides an approachable solution for authoring behaviors while using the same framework as Lua and C++. That means users can take those cool characters animated using EMotion FX and quickly create scripted behaviors using Script Canvas—all without the need for engineers.
The Starter Game sample integrates a number of engine features for Amazon Lumberyard. It’s not just a quick path to get started with the engine, it’s also an example of what users can build using Lumberyard.