Another Flax update comes in! Flax 1.5 contains many new features like multiplayer support, gameplay framework, ImGui/DLSS plugins, Hierarchical Tags , and lots of other good stuff.
For this update together with our contributors, we’ve merged over 111 Pull Requests into Flax repositories. Thanks for your support!
Feel free to discuss the update here 
Contributors: mafiesto4, realDLPS, mlavik1, iainmckay, Tryibion, Crawcik, cristhofermarques, RuanLucasGD, PrecisionRender, plemsoft, GoaLitiuM, Withaust, envision3d, Swiggies, pacyfist, W2Wizard
PRs merged: 111
Changelog:
- Add scaling towards mouse position in Visject surface
- Add hiding tooltip while dragging UI control
- Add
FlaxEngineproject file generation for VS Code - Add
DontCompressconfiguration to build tool - Add support for deserialization of deprecated properties in scripting types
- Add sticky the content window search field so the search bars do not scroll with the content items
- Add new editor icons for actors
- Add performing layout when deleting actors and scrolling to duplicated/pasted actor when action is performed
- Add custom game viewport sizing in Editor
- Add scene panel to separate the tree from the search bar and made it not scroll when renaming
- Add actor virtual functions
OnDebugDraw/OnDebugDrawSelected/OnEnable/OnDisableto override in scripting - Add
TypeNameEditorfor editing typename reference as soft string value - Add game settings assets loading (not only objects)
- Add
Cook&RunandRun cooked gameutilities toGamemenu list for multilayer games testing - Add support for editing JsonAsset data at runtime (eg. modify game settings on the fly)
- Add support for custom types/members attributes parsing in scripting bindings
- Add support for custom Action Command in TaskGraph
- Add support for
DataContainerin scripting api bindings - Add support for custom icons for actors in
ViewportIconsRenderer - Add play/pause widget and keybind for particles preview in asset Editor
- Add custom Tags for scripting api types to be used by plugins
- Add Left Click to submit text in textbox
- Add
SceneReferenceto C++ scripting API - Add
AdditionalScenestoBuildSettings - Add
ViewFlags::Skyfor conditional sky/skybox rendering - Add
DefaultValuesupport for scripting parameters - Add
AfterGBufferPassandAfterForwardPassfor custom PostFx location - Add
Renderer::DrawActorsfor quick actors rendering in custom render passes - Add simplified collider for in-built primitive meshes
- Add new UI for Drop Panels in Editor (bigger header, expandable arrow icon and guidance lines)
- Add
RenderBuffers::LinkedCustomBuffersto reuse main game viewport rendered state (eg. GI) in sub-rendered view - Add
GPUContext::SetBlendFactor - Add SortOrder to drawable object types for transparency sorting override
- Add support for
StringAnsiin scripting api - Add
NetworkTransformcomponent - Add network stats API for transport layer
- Add GBuffer textures to the C# scripting
- Add Editor search fields usage on a single character query (instead of min 2 chars)
- Add
NetworkLagDriverfor lag simulation over low-level network transport layer - Add support for different access level for scripting property functions
- Add Layer and StaticFlags from parent actor after spawnign actor in Prefab Window
- Add support for non-const ref parameters with conversion (eg. string or array) in scripting api function parameters
- Add multi-threaded scene rendering with Job System
- Add draw call sorting keys generation during draw calls collection (async)
- Add
WorldPositionto postfx material scene textures for world-space position sampling at uv - Add
GPUDevice::CreateConstantBufferfor custom constants buffers usage - Add option to override Custom Editor for array of type
- Add
TagandTagsfor new tags system - Add
FindActor/FindActorswithTagtoLevel - Add
TagtoPhysicalMaterialfor physical surfaces tagging - Add unit tests for scripting features
- Add thirdparty files in the includes cache for build tool checks
- Add more test cases for various scripting bindings features
- Add bigger input value boxes to Visject Surface
- Add
UseAssetImportPathRelativeto Editor options and use it by default to store imported asset path relative to the project folder - Add VS2022 support for building for UWP platform
- Add navmesh update on terrain sculpt undo/redo
- Add
thistoAPI_PARAMfor static method extension of a type - Add defer to navmesh update when sculpting action ends to prevent stalls
- Add support for editing path to the asset within
AssetRefEditor - Add Procedural Texture Sampling material node (stochastic)
- Add auto save reminder popup on Editor status bar
- Add
Color.FromRGBA - Add
RandomStreamto C# - Add
RandomUtil.Randmethod to C# and Visual Script for quick random float in range[0;1] - Add scripts compilation failed status to status bar in Editor
- Add
TargetCompilertoFlax.Buildtoolchains - Add centered the context menu that is created from clicking the add scripts button on an actor
- Add C++ file includes cache serializartion to improve incremental build times
- Add cancel button to search fields in Editor
- Add hover begin and end event to button
- Add preventing from spawning abstract Actor/Script type
- Add
RenderSetupand allow customizing it by gameplay and postfx - Add
RenderingUpscaleLocationfor customizing upscaler location in render pipeline - Add scripts dragging support to scene tree for reparenting
- Add
Render2D.DrawTexturedTriangleswith index buffer - Add
FlaxEngine.Object.FromUnmanagedPtrfor native object raw pointer conversion to managed object - Add
ScriptingTypeHandlesupport for scripting bindings asSystem.Type - Add
WriteStructure/ReadStructureutilities forNetworkMessage - Add automatic network serializers generation for
NetworkReplicatedfields in C++ types - Add better location of renaming box for Actor/Folder tree node to start at the label for better UX
- Add project-independent saved windows layouts (stored globally)
- Add better organization to Content projects tree organization for better UX (game project first, ending project last)
- Add
Mono.CeciltoFlax.Build - Add profiler events for plugins init/deinit
- Add GPU Memory profiler to Editor
- Add
ViewFlags::Skyfor conditional sky/skybox rendering - Add pooled render targets naming for easier GPU memory usage debugging
- Add
SetResourceStateandForceRebindDescriptorstoGPUContextfor integration with external rendering libraries - Add support for
CanRenderin postFx to depend on specific render setup - Add
GetNativePtrtoGPUAdapter - Add changing mouse cursor to ibeam when editing text box
- Add
IsAnyButtonDownutility toMouseandGamepad - Add
NormalizedtoFloat2andVector2 - Add support for using system-installed Vulkan SDK on Linux
- Add
FLAX_X_Y_OR_NEWERto game code defines - Add engine version defines to C++ game scripts
- Add Canvas Scaler control for resolution-independent UI
- Add dev-only name to spawned Particle System
- Add support in
GetScriptto interface types - Add option for importing scale tracking to animation asset
- Add
BlurScaleWithSizetoBlurPanelfor resolution-independent blur - Add Actor Scale linking and unlinking in Properties window for uniform scaling (right-click)
- Add
MemoryUsageproperty to Asset for estimated CPU memory pressure - Add memory usage query for various asset types
- Add Assets profiler to Editor
- Add support for normal generation when using Assimp model importer
- Add side mouse button shortcuts to the Content window
- Add ability to drag maximized window in Editor
- Add Animation Instance Data node to Anim Graph for caching value per-model
- Add support for 32 bit indices for the terrain chunk geometry
- Add
JsonAsset.Save - Add updated transform Gizmos in Editor
- Add better support for file dialogs on Linux
- Add preferred LLVM linker over other linkers on Linux (faster link time)
- Add serialization to
PostProcessEffectfields and expose them in a sub-group in Editor - Add grouping for new assets creation in Content window
- Add
ContentContextMenuattribute for custom assets creation groupping - Add
ActorContextMenuattribute for custom actors creation groupping - Add
ActorToolboxattribute for actors grouping in Editor Toolbox - Add scroll bars and resiable window to materia;/shader source code viewer
- Add a new way for actor context menus creation (via
ActorContextMenuattribute) - Add to not close the child context menu on click in Editor
- Add Shift key for skeleton mask editor to affect children bones on click
- Add
KeyDownandKeyUpevents toTextBoxBase - Add value boxes hiding cursor and returning it to its position when done
- Add caching transform snapping enables and values for main Editor viewport
- Add visual cursor changes when sliding value box or resizing docked window
- Add cursor change for moving the property splitter
- Add support for importing WAV files that contain extra format bytes in fmt header
- Add support for MSBuild in preview version Visual Studio in build scripts
- Add better items placement in Editor content view
- Add support for imported LOD meshes using
_character (eg.mesh LOD_1) - Add
aiProcess_SortByPTypeto Assimp importer to reduce artifacts from multi-geometry types imports - Add rename on left click outside the Editor renaming popup
- Add
float3scaling to triplanar texture node - Add improvements for Editor Gizmo draw order
- Add running Tests on Windows in Github Actions CI
- Add improvement for drag&drop tooltip hiding on operation start
- Add improvement for normal maps detection when importing FBX model files
- Add DDS files import time improvements if already compressed
- Add faster scroll speed to feel less sluggish in Editor
- Refactor
GetNonTerminatedTextintoGetTextinStringView - Refactor raw data
ReadSttreamandWriteStreamto have easier to use API with more features - Refactor Actor tags into hierarchical reusable Tags system for better gameplay scripting
- Refactor material shaders to use separate constant buffer (slot 1) for shared per-view constants
- Refactor scene rendering to separate drawable actors
- Refactor enum flags with
__underlying_typeand newEnumHasAnyFlags/EnumHasAllFlags/EnumHasNoneFlags - Refactor scene rendering to use batched culling for main view and shadow projections
- Refactor
ObjectsRemovalServiceto skip double-buffering due to issues and complexity - Refactor
PostProcessEffectto support C++ scripting - UWP (Windows Store) platform has been deprecated and soon will be removed
- Remove double click to rename content item
- Remove
GPUResourcesCollectionand useGPUDeviceinstead to simplify code - Remove old
RT1_FloatRGBandRT2_FloatRGBin favor pooled render targets - Rename property
GetElementsCounttoElementsCountin C#GPUBufferDescription - Rename
DepthTestEnabletoDepthEnablein Graphics PSO to match actual logic - Reduce Render Targets Pool flushing frequency to prevent memory popping
- Update DefaultLensDirt and DefaultLensStarburst texturs to reduce GPU memory usage
- Upgrade GPU limits to support 16k textures
- Change the default for script members order to declaration
- Optimize Editor camera previews updating performance
- Optimize Depth Of Field effect usage of GPU memory
- Optimize
BoundingFrustum::Intersects(BoundingSphere) - Optimize Global SDF cascades updates intervals (max 1 cascade per frame)
- Optimize Global SDF performance on CPU when scene is mostly static
- Optimize
GPUBufferon D3D11 to not stall CPU on reading staging readback buffer - Optimize various debug views performance
- Optimize GPU Resource name to prevent memory allocs when changing name frequently
- Fix context menu and tooltips on Linux to be more stable
- Fix dragging timeline ending edge with a mouse cursor
- Fix math node size
- Fix potential rare issues with material shader constants containing invalid data
- Fix
Flipbookmaterial node bug when frames X was different than Y - Fix missing game scripts types when starting editor from IDE with
-skipCompilearg - Fix for Anchor drop down UI closing in Editor
- Fix textbox defocus on edit end
- Fix comparison operators on object reference types
- Fix the additional layers in the matrix when there is less than 4 layers in the layers and tags settings
- Fix missing
TraceModeblending in PostFx volume for SSR settings - Fix child menu arrow image to accommodate for the scroll bar showing when the amount of items exceeds the max
- Fix DPI query on Linux to handle value from KDE Plasma
- Fix process creation on Linux to prevent deadlock when reading process output pipe
- Fix centered window and message box locations on Linux (multi-monitor desktop)
- Fix
LinuxFileSystemWatchernot working in sub-directories - Fix running VC+±project build commands with Rider on Linux
- Fix compiler warnings with Clang 15 or later
- Fix error when joining exited threads
- Fix
Meshdata downloading to support not yet streamed vertex/index data gather - Fix linking against C#-only modules
- Fix rendering with custom feature-set
- Fix null String serialization over network via C# API
- Fix first property name letter to uppercase in Editor properties panel
- Fix temporal anti-aliasing to provide better quality output
- Fix
OnSceneUnloadedevent to contain valid scene object - Fix
GetNativePtron Vulkan - Fix leftover UI control state when it gets disabled/hidden/reparented
- Fix imported shader source last char value to prevent strange diffs in Version Control Systems
- Fix Intellisense issues with Visual Studio Code
- Fix native scripting interface method override in managed scripts on Clang-platforms
- Fix
ScriptingObject::FromInterfaceto return object if the pointer is already valid object - Fix recursive binary modules usage in scripting
- Fix reading type inheritance in bindings generation with comment at the end
- Fix Visject surface input box color for missing connection type but with type hint
- Fix Audio Source stop/play pait to properly restart streamed audio clips
- Fix missing output clear when reading text array in OpenFBX
- Fix position of child context menus when having to open left in Editor
- Fix typo fix in Graphics Settings, from ‘Uee HDR Probes’ to ‘Use HDR Probes’
- Fix displaying Game and Editor plugins to be batched in Editor
- Fix invalid NetworkMessage usage in C++
- Fix various aspects of the prefab editor window interface
- Fix when sliding the cursor slowly to a screen edge, mouse get flipped to the other screen edge and come back again (only on Windows)
- Fix mouse get cursor flipping (some sliders that use mouse tracking also update the frame of mouse flip, causing a wrong slide delta)
- Fix using dependency module from nested referenced build in C#
- Fix custom animation clip frames range import to properly treat frame indices
- Fix bug with
Screen.CursorVisibleset in scriptOnStart - Fix audio clips streaming to be thread-safe when audio sources play
- Fix asset registry issues when starting Editor on Windows with uppercase path if the cached was lowercase path
- Fix dragging maximized dock window in Editor to restore size
- Fix issue with
ParticleEffectproperties editor when no asset is selected - Fix VS Code cpp include paths in generated project files
- Fix compressing on Linux /Mac (when
zippackage is not installed) - Fix
FlaxEngine.CSharplibrary file referencing - Fix Global SDF rasterization when loading scene
- Fix incorrect skybox cubemap caching dirty interval
- Fix overlapping VC++ and CSharp projects in Visual Studio solution
- Fix custom json asset usage for game settings if loaded before game scripting module is loaded
- Fix comparison operator on
ArrayandBitArray - Fix threading issues with GPU buffers mapping
- Fix default value in viewport options
- Fix
xcopypath on Windows inFlax.Build - Fix missing scripting and serialization extensions for
SceneReferenceusage in scripts - Fix particle module initialization if it reuses graph from other module
- Fix ribbon particles triangle indices ordering to prevent artifacts
- Fix bug in
DownloadMeshDatato properly access data duringFinishedevent - Fix editor values comparison in properties panel to match serializer rules
- Fix Audio Settings not applying doppler factor on play mode start in Editor
- Fix to ignore warning due to missing NDA consoles packages
- Fix
Up Directiondefault value for Character Controller - Fix using
Centerproperty on Character Controller - Fix GPU Limits to be clamped to the compile-time limits
- Fix `Set Type button on UI Control to be centered
- Fix sub-context menu child popup still being open when parent context menu gets focused again by the user
- Fix missing virtual C++ function override in C# if the thunk points to vtable index at offset=0
- Fix
VisualStudioInstance.GetInstances()to be sorted from newest to oldest - Fix helper mouse button up event on drag drop end on Windows
- Fix passing reference types back to the native code from scripting event
- Fix assertion on thread double-free from registry
- Fix invalid
Math::RoundUpToPowerOf2 - Fix issues when passing new unit tests with edge cases of scripting bindigns usage
- Fix crash when returning
boolvalue in overriden scripting method - Fix crash in SSAO when using very low render resolution
- Fix crash when unboxing integer value type from managed callback via generated bindings
- Fix crash when using material in PostFx global graphics settings (asset loaded before GPU init)
- Fix crash on shutdown due to custom JsonAsset C++ instance
- Fix crash on root motion extraction if source animation has no valid root node animated
- Fix crash when unbinding from
Delegatefrom other thread during invocation - Fix crash when shader cache file is empty
- Fix crash in content storage crash due to file seek operation failure
- Fix cash in input actions/axis lookups to due to use of
StringView - Fix crash when copying empty span of data into
DataContainer - Fix crash when presenting task which swap chain is not ready
- Fix crash on exit due to remaining
DefautlInstanceobjects

