Flax Engine Update 1.8.6510

We’re happy to release Flax 1.8! It brings lots of great features such as .NET 8, ASTC texture support, new UI editor, new models importing pipeline, tank vehicles, Anim Graph live debugging, and lots of bugfixes.

We’d like to thank all the community members and contributors that are involved in Flax. During the past months, we’ve made over 810 commits into Flax repositories and over 108 Pull Requests.

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Feel free to discuss the update here :slight_smile:

Contributors: mafiesto4, Tryibion, stefnotch, abrasivetroop, Withaust, MineBill, z1dev, GoaLitiuM, NoriteSC, Menotdan, nothingTVatYT, plemsoft, GasimoCodes, whocares77, RuanLucasGD, envision3d, Tesla-J, Chikinsupu, rkrahn, dustytrailsdev, cNori, lifeformed

PRs merged: 108

Changelog:

  • Add red tint highlight for CPU profiler table entries based on event duration
  • Add selecting actor spawned in the prefab window
  • Add color box to ColorTrackBall
  • Add events tracing feature to Animated Model for animation playback insights
  • Add displaying playback position of animation in Anim Graph window
  • Add SourceState and DestinationState modes to State Machine interruption modes in Anim Graph
  • Add new collection editing UI
  • Add option to enable Depth Test on cloth painting debug preview (enabled by default)
  • Add sub-groups expanded state restoring in Properties window
  • Add directions to Slider control
  • Add IsValidIndex to Array
  • Add Vehicle Physics Improvements (new options, tank vehicles)
  • Add Create parent for selected actors context menu button
  • Add hiding Actor’s Transform for UIControlActor
  • Add RayCast utility to UI controls
  • Add MinCount and MaxCount to Collection attribute
  • Add require script and actor attributes
  • Add option to toggle focus game window on play inside context menu
  • Add reload project menu button
  • Add support for multiple physical materials in terrain - one for each painted layer
  • Add Material to RayCastHit for surface detection logic
  • Add API for runtime Terrain editing and expose Terrain patch and chunk to API
  • Add support for structure and script types in JsonAsset
  • Add improved Visject context menu items search
  • Add vertex snapping (gizmo with V key pressed)
  • Add support for importing material emissive and roughness from fbx file
  • Add support for using pointer in MarshalAs in scripting types
  • Add quick creation of scripts via * Add script button on Actor
  • Add ScriptingEnum::ToStringFlags for printing flag enums into readable text
  • Add font fallback for text rendering
  • Add spline editing improvements
  • Add focus selection lock input to scene tree window
  • Add SnapToGrid to vectors
  • Add NextUnitCircleVector2 extension method
  • Add the option to deselect all in Editor
  • Add rubberband-style selection in a Content View
  • Add the ability to quickly change window modes for the game window
  • Add improved category drop panel to look similar to other panels in scripts adding popup
  • Add parameter to change arrow cap size for Debug Draw
  • Add DrawAxisFromDirection and DrawRay with Ray structure for Debug Draw
  • Add Actor.GetPrefabRoot()
  • Add prefab link breaking to preserve nested prefabs links
  • Add skipping showing and applying changes to prefab root actor transform via Level
  • Add activeOnly parameter to Level::GetActors
  • Add parameter to finds only an active actor from the scenes
  • Add breaking node connection under mouse with middle button click
  • Add MoveFileToRecycleBin on Linux
  • Add support for VS 2022 v17.10 / MSVC 14.4x toolset
  • Add check to prevent incorrect NavCrowd::RemoveAgent usage
  • Add clamping multiblend value to the range set
  • Add partition mode and cascade spacing for Directional Light shadows
  • Add saving docking state for custom editor windows
  • Add Guid picker to support asset refs
  • Add AnimationRootMotionFlags to configure root motion component extraction
  • Add RootMotionMode to support extracting root motion from animated skeleton pose center of mass
  • Add skeleton mask asset parameter to Blend With Mask anim node
  • Add remaining clang options for Apple and Unix toolchains
  • Add initial ASTC pixel format support
  • Add ‘astc’ encoder lib
  • Add BehaviorTreeKnowledgeBooleanDecorator
  • Add automatic last dangling separator removal in context menu
  • Add better grid gizmo rendering in Editor viewport
  • Add save input and undo redo in Editor Options
  • Add support for animating LocalizedString value in Scene Animation
  • Add UI Control gizmo for editing UIs (in Prefab and Game windows)
  • Add resizing UI Control via widgets
  • Add cursor change and showing timeline edge duration when moving it
  • Add UI Widget to new asset creation for quick UI setup
  • Add physical units support to input fields in Editor
  • Add InputAxis and InputEvent integration with stdlib features
  • Add manual chunks loading before Binary Asset load in case content streaming flushed them out
  • Add changes to default post process settings
  • Add focusing search bar in content view and output textbox
  • Add normal logs for deps build subcommands
  • Add support for storing custom platform tools data in Game Cooker cache
  • Add auto focus to Editor Window when nothing clicked inside it
  • Add initial support for Precompiled Header Files (PCH) in MSVC compilation
  • Add support for building engine target as shared library on all platforms
  • Add Stopwatch for accurate duration measuring
  • Add OutputName to Build Settings for game output exe/package renaming
  • Add better win32 resource file injection to be done during linker call
  • Add printing stack trace even when not using log file
  • Add better stack trace reporting in crashes when running on non-Windows platforms
  • Add support for using Tracy profiler on Switch
  • Add removing dotnet libs for iterative rebuilds when AOT cache gets cleared
  • Add custom editor for buttons that allow listening for them inside the editor
  • Add support for multiple VisibleIf attributes
  • Add hold arrow key in tree to continuously scroll actors
  • Add drag drop for actor script items into scenes and prefabs
  • Add ability to use custom file proxy in Editor plugin for file type
  • Add an option to skip existing materials when reimporting
  • Add Start Time option for Audio Source actor
  • Add support for manually dirtying objects that use ReplicationFPS < 0 for manual-only replication
  • Add sanity check to prevent crashes when Animated Model has NaN in skeleton pose
  • Add support for stencil buffer on Vulkan and D3D11/D3D12
  • Add clickable parsing errors in build tool
  • Optimize Matrix decomposition to use Matrix3x3 for rotation
  • Optimize render targets freeing on the start of the game
  • Optimize UI Control serialization
  • Update Nintendo Switch support to he latest .NET 8 with Mono SGen
  • Update dotnet fork to the latest .NET 8.0.1
  • Refactor win32 exe icon updating
  • Refactor ThreadLocal when running on hardware with more cores than PLATFORM_THREADS_LIMIT
  • Refactor UI Control actor active state mirroring in UI via Visible properties rather than unlinked from parent
  • Refactor UI Control linkage in the prefab previews to prevent bugs
  • Refactor undo logic for actors reparenting in Editor
  • Refactor Editor UI style for selection and drag drop interactions
  • Refactor collider shape raycasting utilities to the PhysicsColliderActor class
  • Refactor PhysicalMaterial usage to utilize JsonAssetReference struct
  • Refactor 3D audio implementation in XAudio2 backend to match OpenAL
  • Refactor Visject Surface attributes data storage to use JsonSerializer instead of deprecated BinaryFormatter
  • Refactor engine systems to use platform time seconds rather than date time
  • Remove unused SaveTime/LoadTime from Scene
  • Remove unused ‘PixelFormatExtensions::ComputeScanlineCount’
  • Rename Navigation.ProjectPoint into Navigation.FindClosestPoint to have consistent API naming
  • Fix Animated Model slot animations clearing on start
  • Fix fog to be usable for transparent materials (if enabled)
  • Fix auto-docking windows on open when system DPI scale is not 1
  • Fix missing asset update when dependant asset gets saved in Editor
  • Fix unlink usag on Unix systems to properly use returned value
  • Fix PostFx Materials blending for duplicated entries
  • Fix stopping slot animations and playing the same frame
  • Fix unpacking Variant structure if input value is a scalar
  • Fix missing default value for new Visject method parameter if method uses Vector param
  • Fix shader source code preview in editor
  • Fix FileSystem::CopyDirectory not failing when source folder is missing
  • Fix mouse events handling over window title bar on Windows
  • Fix HeaderAttribute usage with default values
  • Fix invalid log timing when log file is disabled in cooked build
  • Fix unreliable RPC calls to silently drop if we failed to find an object
  • Fix for editor view’s cached CameraNearPlaneValue getting overwritten
  • Fix Dropdown panel to scale correctly
  • Fix ContextMenu short keys as needed to accommodate for scrollbar when visible
  • Fix combobox window position based on what direction it opens
  • Fix AlwaysShowScrollbars to update visibility state of the scroll bars
  • Fix drop location of multiple nodes to be vertical in Visject
  • Fix profiling hotkeys not working while profiler window is closed
  • Fix GPU profiler event percentage calculation and * Add tint highlight to spot slow entries
  • Fix opening projects with PostFx material assigned in Graphics Settings
  • Fix Plugins Window layout in UI
  • Fix Plugin Project creation when the user types in symbols
  • Fix new asset naming to always validate filename
  • Fix sprite atlas limit on 4096
  • Fix invalid shader codegen when using ddx/ddy in material vertex shader
  • Fix terrain painting when using multiple layers
  • Fix issue with CharacterController initialization when using Center offset
  • Fix copy/paste for UI brushes
  • Fix UI Control selection bounds drawing to handle rotations
  • Fix NextUnitVector2 to properly produce a vector within a unit circle
  • Fix asset thumbnails refresh to support multi-selection
  • Fix focusing editor camera on very large objects
  • Fix duplicating array values in Editor
  • Fix various Editor input shortcuts binding
  • Fix Slider deserialization if value range is invalid
  • Fix Transform diff serialization to properly handle prefab changes to a single component of transform
  • Fix model prefab issue with scaling and rotation
  • Fix differences between Assimp and OpenFBX imports in units scaling
  • Fix prefab transform on drag drop with parent
  • Fix Missing Script replacing in prefab
  • Fix for resetting local transform of newly created prefab child
  • Fix nested prefabs instance building logic
  • Fix creating prefab out of actor to reset local transform of it for better instancing
  • Fix cloth editing undo in Prefab viewport
  • Fix incorrect vehicle wheels collisions inside trigger volumes
  • Fix editor inputs processing in Game window to interferer with game inputs
  • Fix no available getter/setter node and item for private parameters in Visual Script
  • Fix Temporal Anti Aliasing ghosting and improve quality of blending
  • Fix marshaling custom type array to C# with MarshalAs used
  • Fix missing file error in Content::GetAssetInfo
  • Fix bug with saving Missing Script into file
  • Fix transform scaling applying to nested objects when drawing
  • Fix uninitialized value of NetworkConfig::NetworkDriver field
  • Fix networked objects dirtying for replication
  • Fix bug in NetworkReplicator::RemoveObject
  • Fix C++ Intellisense not working with latest version of Rider
  • Fix incorrect including editor modules in Game.Build.cs when git plugin pulling
  • Fix incorrect rigidbody rotation in AddMovement when using locked axis
  • Fix codegen skipping if and writing else if first
  • Fix codegen for nested enums
  • Fix missing networked object ID resolving
  • Fix JsonAsset::GetInstance to properly check base class
  • Fix problem with Procedural Texture Sample flicker if using scaled UVs
  • Fix getting file access time for Apple, Android and Linux
  • Fix DateTime::GetDate calculations
  • Fix render view panning when bug when no camera is active
  • Fix Json serializer for CSharp data to use UTF-8 text encoding
  • Fix editor exit with error code when game cooking CL fails
  • Fix sorting directories in build tool
  • Fix building macOS with the latest Vulkan SDK
  • Fix anim graph debugging to include nodes path for nested graphs
  • Fix root motion preview in animation window
  • Fix invalid Visual Studio solution folder nesting
  • Fix color grading issue with LUT texture used
  • Fix spatial audio playback in OpenAL with Large Worlds enabled
  • Fix terrain smoothing brush separation issue
  • Fix going into windowed mode on Windows
  • Fix rpath on Linux to handle plugins libraries loading in Editor
  • Fix error loggig in headless mode on platforms that use char16
  • Fix support for utf8 character in path on unix systems
  • Fix deadlock when stack overflows in the Anim Graph update
  • Fix timeline tracks dragging like recent improvements to tree UI
  • Fix Bone Socket transform when Animated Model pose is not yet evaluated
  • Fix error in Editor when Audio Clip duration is very small
  • Fix vehicle center of mass rotation used in wheels setup
  • Fix loading BehaviorKnowledgeSelectorAny from json object
  • Fix incorrect mouse cursor hiding on Windows when window is not focused
  • Fix preserving actors hierarchy order when performing undo of actor removal
  • Fix UI size changes when saving scenes or prefabs in Editor with different layout
  • Fix UI coordinate convertion in CanvasScaler
  • Fix split dragging not working in some cases
  • Fix carrot and selection height based on dpi scale to correctly scale with interface options
  • Fix missing debug shapes in prefab window
  • Fix loading shader cache when opened with different engine version
  • Fix d3d12 warning on initial gpu buffer state
  • Fix small GPU buffer update on Vulkan if data size align up overflows buffer size
  • Fix potential issues with shader resources bindings when using custom post processing effect
  • Fix TAA jitter in post-resolve passes such as editor primitives and debug gizmos
  • Fix Z-fighting issues in Debug Draw when using TAA
  • Fix bug in actors duplicate action due to incorrect actors list setup
  • Fix snapping to the ground actor when viewport is not focused
  • Fix drag and drop regression issue on tree UI
  • Fix Revert to Default option when property is marked as ReadOnly
  • Fix timeline playback control buttons visibility during seeking-only mode
  • Fix game ui inputs to UI when game is paused in Editor
  • Fix Mono.Cecil error in NetworkingPlugin when using external libraries
  • Fix duplicate generation of native variant conversion helpers
  • Fix PhysicsScene change not working in physics actors
  • Fix crash when scene graph node gets somehow duplicated by internal error in Editor
  • Fix crash in StaticModel::GetMaterial when model is not loaded or has invalid entries count
  • Fix crash on incorrect object destruction event
  • Fix crash on invalid string converted to managed string
  • Fix crash due to incorrect PhysX usage for vehicle setup
  • Fix crash while moving simulation disabled kinematic actors
  • Fix crash when adding physics scene with auto simulation
  • Fix crash when setting maanaged structure data via Variant
  • Fix crash when storage file gets deleted due to missing ref from async thread which failed to load it
  • Fix crash when finding actor or level with empty name text
  • Fix crash when using multi-threaded objects spawn and caching scripting VTables
  • Fix crash when replicating C# object with NetworkReplicated attribute on derived generic class
  • Fix crash when using degenerated triangle in Multi Blend 2D to properly sample animation
  • Fix crash when loading level with abstract script class
  • Fix crash when using generic interface in C#
  • Fix crash when using network replication or rpc after hot-reload in Editor
  • Fix crash when using invalid GPUTextureDescription
4 Likes

Engine is developing fast :kissing_heart:

Flax 1.8 requires .Net SDK 8, so Visual studio 2022 version 17.8 or above is required.
Prior versions of VS 2022 does not support .Net 8.

Every version of VS 2022 is .Net 7 capable, so some dev systems might need dev environments to be reversioned.

Thank you! :heart: Been looking forward to the UI editor for a long time.

I’m having so much fun with this. I’m going to take over the gaming industry with the Flax Engine. MWAHAHAHA :crossed_swords: :fire:AAA :fire: :earth_americas: