Development Log | Unigine (3D engine for games and real-time virtual worlds)

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2008-12-10

New sound system is completed

Programmer news:

OpenAL-based (with EFX extensions) sound module is done.
Sound renderer can handle virtually unlimited number of sound sources with occlusion and supports single and multiple reverberation zones.
More robust loading of WAV files.
Updated sound samples.
Shader constants s_ilight_radius and s_ilight_shadow_radius are renamed into s_light_iradius and s_light_shadow_iradius.
Render speedup due to more effective shader caching.
Fixed rare flickering of transparent surfaces.
Fixed bug with recursive call of script functions through C++ API.
Added support of operator== and operator!= for user classes in UnigineScript.
Added data/core/scripts/math.h to simplify 3D math works.
New character system with adjustable camera presets, see data/core/scripts/character.h and "actor_04" sample.
Updated reference manual.

Artist news:

Faster and better Depth of Field implementation, you'll have to re-adjust settings a little.
Box occluders.
New random type of particle emitters.
Visualization of sounds and reverberation zones.
Independent tuning of specular power and specular scale for light sources.
Even more settings in scattering, independent adjusting of ray/mie colors.
Added color scale for reflections.

New version of OpenAL works well in Linux finally, so it's the right time to introduce our new sound system. There is also a pretty nice software implementation of OpenAL, which supports EFX extensions with a single reverberation zone.

By the way, recently AMD has issued a Unigine-related press-release: "Momentum for Microsoft(R) DirectX(R) 10.1 Grows with Major Game Titles, Next-Generation 3D Game Engines, and Windows(R) 7 API". There is also an interesting press-release regarding a Unigine-based project: First production stage of "Magus ex Machina" is completed:
A screenshot from 'Magus ex Machina', a Unigine-based 3D animated movie

PS: We have introduced a more affordable pricing scheme prior to January 1, 2009: indie developers can get a binary license starting with $4990 (or even just $1985 per month during 3 months). Take a look at "Licensing & Prices" page for more info. Moreover, full licenses are now with lifetime updates access.

PPS: Here is a photo of our new development studio's hall (yesterday TV reporters were here, so now one can see a story about Unigine via local TV network):