2D plans for Flax

General
#1

I am a new Flax user and so far I have enjoyed my time with it very much. After looking at the roadmap a couple of times, I see 2D improvements are considered for future versions, however I wonder what is the dev team’s vision on how much Flax will be able to do in 2D.

I think Flax being able to fully develop 2D games would definitely make it more popular and appealing to indies. Flax’s 3D capabilities are already very great and pairing them with robust 2D would establish it as a strong contender for overall game engine for small teams and individuals; especially for those seeking reliable performance and have experience in previous engines with C++ or C#.
For me, this would be an absolute win for Flax.

So, what are your thoughts on this regard? Anybody knows if the devs plan to add a 2D engine or suite of tools tailored for 2D?

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#2

I honestly think flax is targeted mainly towards 3d, but I think the devs can start considering 2d very soon, because from my observation the demand has been quite high, but I still feel it might take time because it’s still missing some features of a 3d engine,so until it’s main target has been achieved I think 2d would be started by contributors rather than the actual devs

#3

Yeah, it makes sense. I know it is no easy task, and trying to encompass everything in one software can lead to excessive complexity and even instability. Hopefully Flax keeps up the momentum and 2D development becomes a reality soon enough. :smiley:

#4

Honestly, with how many excellent 2D engine options that are already out there, I wouldn’t mind if they remained as a 3D-exclusive engine. It allows them to more easily target a niche and make sure that they do it well. IMO, if I wanted to create a 2D game, I’d use Godot or Defold.

(This is just my opinion, of course)

#5

BTW, welcome to Flax. :partying_face:

#6

Thank you very much Spectrix. And yes, I am also a Godot user, have backed Godot courses and in general really hope it gets its “2.8” release, like Blender. However, Flax seems so interesting and comfortable, at lest for me, that I would really hope it gets its 2D developed. This would bring in more people into the Flax engine and in turn help it gain momentum to even further improve its 3D. However it is easier said than done, and despite 2D not being as complex to implement as 3D, it is still quite some work, and as you mentioned the 3D side is still under active development.

I am also polishing my C++ skills, and, if possible, I would like to contribute to the engine, with any features or improvements as a whole.

1 Like
#7

I think 2D features (though not immediately) would help Flax Engine out in getting more users. In the game engine market where the most popular ones are also free to use and download, Flax will need to draw as many eyes as it can and a robust 2D feature set will certainly be a draw .

3 Likes
#9

I am also new to the engine, isn’t it a 2D engine based on an orthographic camera? Does the engine provides a way to have camera render order like in Unity when you can have a 3D camera and a 2D camera which will be rendered after the 3D one ?

#10

You can use ortho mode in 3D camera to have 2D-like effect. Or use Flax UI to make 2D game but in general Flax is more like 3D-oriented engine and we lack some 2D-tools.

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#11

Although 3D is important to me I agree that a 2D mode would be beneficial and I would use it to make some mobile games to supplement my main projects (3D based.) Also, the timing would be great to put some focus on the 2D because of all the Unity developers looking for a new engine to use.

#12

Excuse please, but this feels like the start of the same trap Unity fell into.
The 2D guys and gals want their tools a certain way, I get it…
but having that extra dimension for fx or something inventive might be a way to break that mold and stand out from the others who have a preference for the flat world.

1 Like
#13

Every 3d engine is a 2d engine if you’re creative enough :stuck_out_tongue:

3 Likes
#14

I’ve finally decided that using an orthographic camera is what I’m going to do for our two mobile games. I was considering Godot for those but I’m going to invest my time in doing it in Flax. I just like the engine too much and these two games don’t push the envelope in any way. I need to look into the documentation to find how to use a orthographic camera and handle touch events, etc. but I think it should be able to do what we need to do. We are only two devs (plus level designer) at this time but I’ll be the primary dev working on these at first. It should help me get more comfortable with working in Flax and prepare us to start porting our main 3D games over.

Well, here’s to learning something from scratch again but that’s the nature of development. :smile:

#15

Camera properties

Camera Propertiess

Property Description
Field Of View The vertical field of view (in degrees) used for perspective projection.
Use Perspective If checked, camera will use perspective projection, otherwise orthographic.
Near Plane The nearest point the camera can see (near clipping plane).
Far Plane The furthest point the camera can see (far clipping plane).
Custom Aspect Ratio Custom aspect ratio you specify. Otherwise, automatically adjust the aspect ratio to the render target ratio. Use value 0 to disable it.
Orthographic Scale Additional scale used for the orthographic projection size. This has the effect of zooming in and out.
Render Layers Mask The layers mask used for rendering using this camera. Can be used to include or exclude specific actor layers from the drawing.
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#16

Wow! I stepped away from the computer to take a break before digging in and came back to this. Looks like it’s pretty darn straight forward! Thank you!

#17

Besides, there are a lot of interesting methods in Render2D class, but not much covered in manual how to use them. Example / tutorial for them might be hugely helpful.