Drag[en]gine Game Engine 1.7 has been release including Actor Transmissions and new VR Behaviors.

If you have installed the Drag[en]gine and/or IGDE using repositories or market place updates arrive automatically. Otherwise get the 1.7 release files from the Download Section. You can install it over the 1.6 release but it is recommended to uninstalling 1.6 first to keep the game engine directory clean.

To develop games you do not need the game engine source code. Just install the IGDE, create a project, run and distribute to *.delga file and you are done.

This release focused on fixing problems and adding VR behaviors required for the upcoming DEMoCap 0.1 release.

Actor Transmissions

Added ECBehaviorActorTransmission. This behavior allows to display short conversation like speech boxes but without the need to use conversation scripts. This is faster and easier to do especially if you only want to display a one-liner or two-liner as shown in the video below.

Actor transmissions use regular conversation speech boxes so you can also do complex transmissions like top-HUD communication links with profile image and fancy box styling using GUI Themes.

VR Behaviors

Added new behaviors for VR use. This includes (besides others) ECBehaviorVRHandPointAt and ECBehaviorControlDesktop.

The ECBehaviorVRHandPointAt provides support to detect what world elements a VR hand controller is pointing at. The ECBehaviorVRHandPointedAt provides a laser pointer attached to the hand point at for visual feedback. The laser can be configured using element class properties and enabled/disabled as required. The BaseVRActor element class contains these behaviors by default.

Added also new behavior for interacting with ECBehaviorRenderableDesktop. The ECBehaviorControlDesktop behavior enables players to control Desktop renderables on elements. Add this behavior to an element with ECBehaviorRenderableDesktop support and players can interact with it. This can be used also with ECBehaviorLookAt for non-VR related games. This is a powerful behavior enabling full UI support using a Desktop widget as dynamic texture for elements.

If no keyboard is available (like under VR) you can now assign a WindowVirtualKeyboard to Desktop widget to get automatic virtual keyboard if supported widgets get focus. You can style the window using GUI Themes or subclass it to do your own thing. This is not only useful for VR but also games geared for game pads where you do not want to reach for a keyboard all the time.

Some other stuff added (besides others)

This had been though not the only work done. See the full Changelog of the latest release on this Perma-Link: Changelog Latest Release

If you find bugs or missing features please Please report them on GitHub or at the Developer Forum.

If you have questions, suggestions or other inquiries you can PM me here or stop by the Discord Channel.