Untold Engine Updates: Multi-Platform support and Camera Behaviors

Hi guys,

Me again with some updates on the status of the Untold Engine. As always, I’ve been working diligently on the engine. Over the past two weeks, I focused on implementing multi-platform support, fixing several async issues with scene loading, and starting work on a couple of camera behaviors that I needed for benchmarking and game testing. So let me walk you through what’s new Untold Engine Studio

Multi-Platform Xcode Project Support

With the Untold Engine, you’re no longer limited to building a game for a single platform. You can now create an Xcode project with multi-platform support, either through the CLI or directly from the Untold Engine Studio.

This makes game development a lot smoother: you code once, and your game runs on macOS, iOS, iOS + AR, and Vision Pro. The only platform still missing is tvOS, but that will be added soon.

Fixed Async Issues

There was an issue when loading large scenes in async mode that could cause a runtime crash. This was tricky to debug, but I eventually tracked it down, and the crash is no longer present.

If you’ve been following the progress of the engine, you’ll know that one of my core rules is that the engine should never crash. If you do encounter any crashes while loading a scene, please let me know by opening a GitHub issue.

Camera Behaviors

Finally, I started implementing the following camera behaviors:

• Camera path follow using waypoints
• Camera follow with a dead zone

It’s interesting that I still haven’t implemented first-person or third-person camera behaviors, yet I decided to work on these first. The reason is simple: I’ve been benchmarking the engine, and I needed a camera that could follow a predefined path using waypoints. The goal is to measure frame rate as the camera traverses a heavy scene. Since this behavior didn’t exist, I implemented it and made it part of the engine, as I do see it being useful for game development in general.

The second behavior is one you often see in soccer (fútbol) games. The camera only follows the entity if it moves beyond the boundaries of a box; otherwise, the camera remains stationary. I implemented this because I’m currently developing a soccer video game using the new Untold Engine and Editor.

There’s a clear purpose behind developing this game, and the effort has already paid dividends. I’ve run into several bugs and API confusions that I would not have discovered otherwise. Even though I’m not in the business of making games, I do see game development as a core part of building a game engine. I mean, how else would I really test my own tools?

That’s it for now. I’m going to get back to coding. Stay tuned for upcoming features.

Thanks for reading. And don't forget to download the Untold Engine Studio

Initial documentation for the Untold Engine

Hi guys,

Since releasing the Untold Engine, I've been swamped writing its documentation. Honestly, writing documentation takes a long time, but is those things, that even though we hate to do it, it must be done.

I've broken down the documentation into three sections:

• Fundamentals
• Tutorials
• User's Guide

Fundamentals

In this section, I provide an overview of how the Untold Engine works. I explain every component and provide a lot of illustrations. I also provide labs which should reinforce your understanding of the Untold Engine.

Tutorials

In the Tutorial section, I plan to teach you HOW to use the engine so you can create your games. As of today (8/12/18), I have written only one tutorial. It teaches you how to create a character and control it using a joystick.

User's Guide

The user's guide provides a quick reference to the functionality of the Untold Engine. For example, it gives examples of how to render and translate a character. It also shows how to link an animation, apply external forces and enable collisions.

It has only been two weeks since I released the Untold Engine. I'm aware that the amount of documentation currently available is not enough. But trust me, I'm working hard on adding documentation daily.

Click here to review the documentation of the engine.

Don't forget to follow the engine @untoldengine and me @haroldmserrano

Releasing the Untold Engine

After five years and thousands of development hours, I’m finally releasing the Untold Engine.

What is the Untold Engine?

The Untold Engine is a 3D game engine written in C++ and Metal Graphics (API). Its small API makes it ideal for new developers to focus on learning the fundamentals of game development.

I’ve been working on this game engine for the past five years, and the beta version is finally ready.

Untold Engine Features

The Untold Engine is still in its infancy, and it lacks many features you would find in other mature, commercial game engines.

However, my goal is not to develop the engine with the most features, but the most robust, easy-to-use game engine ideal for you to learn how video games work.

Therefore, the Untold Engine provides the following features:

• Detailed documentation ideal for novice developers.
• Labs to put into practice what you have learned.
• Easy to use API.
• 3D models ready to use (no need to look elsewhere).
• A game template to get you developing right away.
• Develop games for iOS devices and Macs.
• It's free.

I hope the materials provided, gives you the opportunity to explore, learn and create your games.

What types of games can you develop with the engine?

Here are some small games created with the Untold Engine:

Game Demo 1

Game Demo 2

Game Demo 3

Check out the Untold Engine

Thanks for reading