Blender Game Engine

Blender Game Engine

Creating a racing game in the Blender Game Engine
Developer(s)	Blender Foundation
Stable release	2.77a / 6 April 2016[1]
Written in	C, C++, and Python
Operating system	Cross-platform
Type	3D computer graphics
License	GNU General Public License v2 or later
Website	www.blender.org

The Blender Game Engine is a component of Blender, a free and open-source comprehensive 3D production suite, used for making real-time interactive content. The game engine was written from scratch in C++ as a mostly independent component, and includes support for features such as Python scripting and OpenAL 3D sound.

History

Erwin Coumans and Gino van den Bergen developed the Blender Game Engine in 2000. The goal was to create a marketable commercial product to easily create games and other interactive content, in an artist-friendly way. These games could run either as stand-alone applications, or embedded in a web page using a special plugin. This plugin was eventually discontinued, as the inability to sandbox Python resulted in security concerns, though there was a later effort to revive it (an updated alpha version for Internet Explorer, and Firefox and COLLADA support was considered). Another plugin has surfaced named Burster, which enables secure embedded gameplay on websites, with sandboxing and encryption support.

Key code in the physics library (SUMO) did not become open-source when the rest of Blender did, which prevented the game engine from functioning until version 2.37a.

Version 2.41 of Blender showcased a version that was almost entirely devoted to the game engine. Audio is supported in this version.

Version 2.42 showed several significant new features, including integration of the Bullet rigid-body dynamics library.

A new system for integration of GLSL shaders and soft-body physics was added in the 2.48 release to help bring the game engine back in line with modern game engines. Like Blender, it uses OpenGL, a cross-platform graphics layer, to communicate with graphics hardware.

The open-source navigation mesh construction and pathfinding libraries, Recast and Detour, were integrated during the 2010 Google Summer Of Code. The work was not merged to trunk until 2011. Audaspace was coded as part of the 2010 Google Summer Of Code to provide a Python handle for sound control. This library uses OpenAL or SDL as a backend.

Features

The Blender game engine uses a system of graphical "logic bricks" (a combination of "sensors", "controllers" and "actuators") to control the movement and display of objects in the engine. The game engine can also be extended via a set of Python bindings.

• Graphical logic editor for defining interactive behavior without programming
• Collision detection and dynamics simulation now support Bullet Physics Library. Bullet is an open source collision detection and rigid body dynamics library developed for PlayStation 3
• Shape types: Convex polyhedron, box, sphere, cone, cylinder, capsule, compound, and static triangle mesh with auto deactivation mode
• Discrete collision detection for rigid body simulation
• Support for in-game activation of dynamic constraints
• Full support for vehicle dynamics, including spring reactions, stiffness, damping, tire friction etc.
• Python scripting API for sophisticated control and AI, fully defined advanced game logic
• Support all OpenGL lighting modes, including transparencies, Animated and reflection-mapped textures
• Support for multimaterials, multitexture and texture blending modes, per-pixel lighting, dynamic lighting, mapping modes, GLSL vertexPaint texture blending, toon shading, animated materials, support for Normal Mapping and Parallax Mapping
• Playback of games and interactive 3D content without compiling or preprocessing
• Audio, using the SDL toolkit
• Multi-layering of Scenes for overlay interfaces.

Future roadmap

Ton Roosendaal has stated^[2] that the future of the Blender Game Engine will integrate the system into Blender as an "Interaction Mode" for game prototypes, architectural walkthroughs and scientific simulators. Blender developer Martijn Berger stated that "The sequencer and game engine are in serious danger of removal, if we cannot come up with a good solution during the 2.8 project."^[3]

Gallery

• 

  Blender Game Engine 2.42 screenshot

• 

  Blender Game Engine 2.42 screenshot

• 

  Blender GLSL shader node editor 2.42 screenshot

• 

  Logic Bricks and Python Scripting

Notable games

• Yo Frankie!
• Dead Cyborg – A free to play, donation-based sci-fi adventure game.
• Sintel The Game
• Boro-Toro – a side-scrolling platform puzzle game developed by DarkMatter Designs. It won the 2009 BAFTA "Ones to Watch" award.^[4]
• Krum: Edge of Darkness - A hack-n-slash adventure game available on Steam.
• Speed Racer a whole new world 2 - A blender Racing Game (Currently in Progress 2016)

See also

• Bullet (software), Game Blender's Physics engine
• Blender (software)
• Blend4Web, Blender-based engine for online games
• Panda3D
• Pygame
• Crystal Space

References

1. "Download - blender.org". Retrieved 2016-03-11.
2. "Blender roadmap – 2.7, 2.8 and beyond". Blender. Retrieved 2014-03-01.
3. "2.8 project developer kickoff meeting notes". Blender. Retrieved 2015-11-12.
4. "Ones to Watch Award in 2009". BAFTA. Retrieved 2010-03-03.

External links

• Manual on Blender's Wiki (Also lists tutorials and other resources)
• Blender Artists Forum - Game Engine
• Official Blender website