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Lumberyard Engine
Game Production
Short Description
In this series, the most common and well-known game engines in the computer game industry are presented. This article is about the development history and features of the "Lumberyard Engine".
About the Engine
The "Lumberyard Engine" is a cross-platform game engine developed by Amazon, which first appeared in 2016. "Lumberyard" is based on the "CryEngine" and is characterized by the integration of "Amazon Web Services" (AWS for short) and the Twitch services. With the help of AWS, developers can create their project on an Amazon server and then host it there for those playing. Thanks to the integration of "Twitch ChatPlay", viewers of a Twitch stream can influence the corresponding game via the associated chat. Probably the best-known games developed with the engine include the space flight simulation "Star Citizen" from 2013 and the MMORPG "New World" published in 2021.
History
"Lumberyard" was released by Amazon on February 9, 2016. As of March 2018, the software was in beta version. Smaller updates followed at irregular intervals until Beta 1.28. With version Beta 1.3, VR support finds its way into the engine. On August 16, 2017, the source code of the engine was finally published on the GitHub platform under a so-called source-available agreement. It was under a proprietary license until July 7, 2021. Since then, the engine no longer bears the name "Amazon Lumberyard" but "Open 3D Engine" and is being successfully developed further by the "Open 3D Foundation" of the same name.
Software and Technology behind Lumberyard
The code of the engine is developed with the languages C++ and Lua. "Lumberyard" is scripted using a FlowGraph system. The components of the software represent a modular system through which the developer can extend the engine as desired. In addition, entity behaviors, UI systems, and engine subsystems can be added to the modular components by the developer. The creation of assets is organized into slices (level prefab system). These can be used for any kind of level structure. Slices can also be applied to the engine itself. Additionally worth mentioning is that changes on higher levels affect all slices below. The so-called "Atom Renderer" represents the overall graphics engine of the software and is a sub-engine within "Lumberyards". Finally, let's talk about the user interface of the engine. The editor of "Lumberyard" is very similar in structure to that of Unity or the Unreal Engine.
Conclusion
"Amazon Lumberyard" is a modular and easily extendable game engine for developers, which can be used by everyone on an open source basis. The dependency on Amazon services and the fact that changes to individual components of the engine can negatively affect other subsystems are the main negative aspects. Furthermore, "Lumberyard" is highly specialized in the creation of multiplayer games, which is why certain types of games cannot be realized with it
Questions & Wishes
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Lumberyard Engine
This article describes the development history and features of the cross-platform game engine "Lumberyard Engine".
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