Features

Engine

• DirectX9 engine, using XAudio2 for audio
• Support for user-created HLSL shaders - model and post-process shaders
• Default shader supports: diffuse textures, normal mapping, specular mapping, cube mapping, ambient lighting, 8 lights
• Users can use their own models (x or obj format), textures, shaders, sound effects or music.
• Bone based animation.

Sprites

• Create sprites (bmp, jpeg, png, tga, dds, dib, ppm, hdr, pfm)
• Display in 2D or 3D space
• Billboard Sprites
• Animation

Particles

• 2D and 3D particles
• Control how particles appear over their lifetime - vary speed, colour, or opacity, for example.
• Particles can use Physics effects, and can collide with other objects.

Lights

• Point, Directional, Spotlights and Ambient lighting
• Unlimited lights can be placed in a scene
• Up to 8 active lights

Level

• Multiple levels per game.
• Many settings for customising Player, NPC, Weapon and Bullet behaviours – including Speed, Inertia, Friction, Maximum ammunition, Rate of Fire, Bullet distance, etc.
• Tags can be placed on any entity to identify interesting points, such as thrusters or the position of a gun.
• Sky boxes (Cubemap or custom model)
• Collision: Sphere, Box, Cylinder, Custom model. Pixel-perfect collisions
• Camera: Static, Follow Entity, Rotate in place, Move along spline, Transition effects, FOV.
• Triggers. Link triggers to other items to allow a trigger to activate an enemy, for example. Choose pre-defined effects (Kill Player, Game Over or Level Complete).
• Timers. Count up or down. Like Triggers, Timers can also be linked to other items, and contain pre-defined effects.
• Checkpoints. Options to respawn enemy, reset timers, etc, if the player returns to a checkpoint.
• NPC Generators to control NPC spawning position, frequency, maximum enemy active at once, maximum enemy created by the generator.
• Formations of NPCs. Formations may have their own AI behaviours.
• Splines can be placed and used by NPCs or the Camera. Splines can also be drawn as part of the scene.
• Ground planes can be placed for the Physics system.
• Multiple Level Complete criteria
• Use Gizmos to move, rotate and scale objects.
• Undo and Redo changes
• Copy and Paste items for quick editing.

Input

• Keyboard
• Mouse
• DirectInput compatible Joystick
• Xbox360 controller

AI

• Many types of ‘micro-behaviours’ (MoveTo, Chase, Evade, Fire, Wait) which can be combined to produce more sophisticated behaviours.
• Each micro-behaviour has a number of properties which allow the user to fine tune the behaviour.

Physics

• Uses nVidia’s PhysX physics simulation software
• Compatible with PhysX remote debugger.
• Set mass, static and dynamic Friction, linear and angular damping, and more.

Sound

• Streamed audio (wma and wav)
• Sound effects (wma and wav)
• Stereo, or 3D audio
• Panning (Stereo sounds only)
• Sound Range (3D sounds only)
• Volume
• Pitch variation
• Looping
• Support for subtitles
• Control how often sounds are used or repeated.

Behaviour Editor

• Create custom events and behaviours using a drag-and-drop interface.
• Behaviours can be created which will be triggered by many different in-game events.
• Any properties of the game or an entity can be used or modified.
• Use an object-oriented approach for ease-of-use.

Front End and HUD

• Customise many types of Front End pages
• Easily link text or graphics to data from the game to create health bars, for example.
• Select text font, size, style and colour.