It finally happened
Today we are thrilled to announce that Flax Engine version 1.0 has been published. After over 8 years of constant development, including 1 year of Closed Alpha Tests followed by 1 year of Closed Beta Tests, Flax got mature and stable. It’s ready to be used in serious game production. 🎉
We’d like to thank all Alpha and Beta testers (over 400 people and companies) who tried Flax and gave us lots of feedback and great memories. Especially to our community on Discord. Thank you!
The newest update brings lots of tasty features such as Full Source Code release, Visual Scripting, Android support, Vertex Painting, Contact Shadows.
In this post, we will review this update highlights and focus on the most interesting stuff. To see detailed information visit the official release notes.
Wake up Samurai. We have Flax 1.0 to see!
We’ve prepared a special video with many great features to showcase. Share it and enjoy!
Highlights
Full Source Code Release
We did it! We’ve released the full source code of the Flax Engine including C++ core and C# editor with all tools and platforms. The sources are available on Github here. This repository is using Git LFS and is a mirror of our internal server. From now on, the previous FlaxAPI repo will be deprecated and we encouruge you to report issues on the new FlaxEngine repo. Also, we’re open for Pull Requests so feel free to contribute!
Of course, Flax Engine source can be used just like binaries we distribute via Flax Store. It’s licensed under our EULA license. For teams that want to use a custom version of the engine feel free to fork it and customize it (helper docs here).
New licensing
Along side 1.0 update and source code release we’ve increased the minimum limit for Flax revenue share from $3,000 to $25,000. Which means that if your game earns $25,000 (or less) per calendar quarter you don’t have to pay for using Flax. All sales above it are using 4% revenue share. More info about licensing here.
This change makes Flax cheaper for solo and indie developers.
Also, we disable restrictions for downloading Flax binaries via Flax Launcher – you don’t need to create an account nor login to access Flax. We want to be more open!
Visual Scripting
One of the key features in this release is a brand new Visual Scripting system. Visual Scripts can implement gameplay logic with custom properties just like C# and C++ scripts. This makes game prototyping a lot easier and the engine more accessible for non-programmers.
The editor supports debugging Visual Scripts execution with breakpoints, debugger stepping, local variables, and stack trace.
We also improved the context menu for Visject Surface that is used for materials, particles, animation, and now visual script editing. It runs faster and offers more tooltips for developers.
Android support
During this year we’ve added support for many new platforms such as Linux, PS4, and Xbox Series X/S. Now we’re happy to announce Android platform support. This includes all engine features: C++, C#, Visual Scripting, Vulkan renderer, stereo audio, multi-touch input, high-dpi UI, single-click deployment, and much more.
To learn more see the official documentation about Android platform.
We’ve updated all Flax Samples projects to support touch display input and run smoothly on Android devices.
Vertex Painting
Editor toolbox just got the vertex painting utility for coloring models vertices on the scene. By using it artists can easily enrich the level content for instance by using vertex color masking in the materials. Flax already supports importing vertex colors model meshes.
Height Layer Blend
The material graph contains now a new node for easier blending between two material layers using the height map which improves the transition quality. This can boost the terrain materials quality.
Foliage Shading Model
When working on the new Flax showcase video we’ve developed a new shading model shader for foliage materials. It improves the look and lighting for thin leaves of bushes, trees, and grass.
Contact Shadows
Another exciting feature is Contact Shadows rendering which gives more quality to small objects by adding more precise local shadowing. It’s implemented using depth buffer raytracing and works similary to a technique used in Cyberpunk 2077.
More Editor features
Every update brings even more features and tools to Editor. This time we did a great job of adding even more of them. Some examples of new useful stuff:
- cut-scenes rendering
- timeline editing improvements
- animation asset tracks editing
- custom scripting languages support
- output log window errors/warning coloring
- undo support for timeline editor
- BC7 and BC6H texture formats importing support (compressed HDR)
- curves editing improvements.
To learn more see the detailed changelog (but it’s long as always).
Get started
We cannot wait to see what you create with Flax! Thanks for all your patience and support. Now it’s time to spread the word, help our community to grow, and continue working on great new features (roadmap).
Stay safe and happy Holidays!
21 Comments
Casey · December 18, 2020 at 1:47 PM
Ey, congrats guys!
Ben · December 18, 2020 at 6:34 PM
Wow, this looks awesome! Well done!!!
joe bloggs · December 20, 2020 at 12:06 AM
It’s taken you 8 years to release, why should we spend resources to learn this? Will you still be around in a years time? Hos ars you funded?
Not trolling, genuine question as to why someone should invest time in this rather than say unity.
/unreal which probably will still be around in a few years? Even lumberjack has amazon behind it, they may get bored and cancel but we know theres no chance of them going bust.
You really need to sell yourself better.
Zebulon Pi · December 21, 2020 at 2:15 PM
I mean, they’re giving your the source code, AND you can fork it, so it’s not like it will simply disappear. If you can develop a game with it as it is, then the only things that happens if they fold is that you don’t have to pay the revenue share. It would be worse if it was a closed engine, but this seems safe to me.
Daniele · December 27, 2020 at 6:02 PM
I mean, it’s open source. As other said, fork it and you are good to go.
Making an engine is very hard and take time, i don’t think the team is so big and founded that they can actually deliver updates fast.
It’s more than enough.
Stephen Baynham · December 29, 2020 at 1:56 AM
“You’ve consistently worked on this for 8 years, how do we know you’ll work on it for 9?”
Wojciech Figat · January 3, 2021 at 10:27 PM
Simply because I love working on Flax! Over time project got more contributors and developers so at this point I’m pretty sure that it will stay for long. For instance, during the past 3 weeks after release, we’ve got over 30 PRs merged into Flax.
DoomHEADSHOT · December 20, 2020 at 6:20 PM
New Unreal Engine
schubbu · December 21, 2020 at 1:29 PM
1. I like the engine. Its lightning fast compared to the unreal engine.
2. There are much more examples and tutorials needed.
especially a third person shooter tutorial/example
+wind + realistic waves +weapon attach/detach
3. As soon as these are there i will try to port my current unreal project to
flax engine.
Philippe Côté · December 21, 2020 at 4:50 PM
Exciting! But where are iOS, macOS and Nintendo Switch?
Wojciech Figat · December 22, 2020 at 8:55 AM
Switch, macOS, and iOS are planned for early next year. We need those platforms to be supported 🙂
DesignForces · December 24, 2020 at 4:38 AM
I suggest the PC platform to the extreme, PC experience to do a good job, and marketing to do a good job, pull more people to join, documentation to do a good job. Experability is more important than power. Tool phased design (beginner, normal mode, advanced mode). Shortcut separation modes: shortcuts for the Alpha phase, shortcuts for the module design phase, shortcuts for the overall test phase, shortcuts for document writing, and reserved version history such as Git. Highly abstract code is best portable anywhere. Memory models can also be defined (such as CSharp). Then do an external shell-CMD, which can be combined with the program manager and the video sharing tool.
DesignForces · December 24, 2020 at 4:40 AM
But I know that every developer is obsessively different
Daniele · December 27, 2020 at 5:49 PM
Congrats!
疯奇奇 · January 25, 2021 at 12:36 AM
^_^ From China, I lkie It
Great Work!
Jay · January 26, 2021 at 9:14 AM
Congratulation！Happy to see this open source game engine~
Stefan Krauls · January 27, 2021 at 8:49 AM
Congratulations for the first official release. Great work and honestly, I am very impressed what you have created. Don’t let trolls bring you down by silly comments (those will come) and keep up the great work. The engine looks great and all the best from BiteTheBytes, the developers of World Creator.
Wojciech Figat · January 27, 2021 at 9:32 PM
Thanks for the kind words!
Lily · January 29, 2021 at 2:02 PM
I really like this game engine. Come on, look forward to better development
Voc007 · February 27, 2021 at 10:25 PM
Love to get Linux version of editor, any idea when that will be out ? Thank you!
Wojciech Figat · March 2, 2021 at 6:01 PM
Editor for Linux will come with 1.1 update within 1-2 weeks!