The Drag[en]gine is an free software project with a highly modular structure based on the GLEM System. Its design is similar to an operating system. The entire functionality is provided by Modules comparable to device drivers. The engine itself acts like a system kernel managing modules, resources and abstracting the underlying system. Due to the loose coupling of the modules with the system and other modules it is very easy to exchange or improve them without interfering with the rest of the engine. As a result the modularity extends from the developer to the end user who can now choose the optimal module combination for his personal computer even down to per game setups ( and even while running a game ) if required. Developers do not have to worry anymore about low level concerns keeping them concentrated on their game. In contrary to other engines (including high-end commercial ones) the Drag[en]gine provides true 0-Day portability of games with no extra costs and no troubles neither for the developer nor the end user.
Legal Information
The Drag[en]gine Game Engine is dual licensed under L-GPL (for commercial projects and proprietary use like on consoles) and GPL (for free game project). This affects only game engine modules, launchers and IGDE editors. Game projects do not link against the game engine and thus are not affected by the license.
In short: By using Drag[en]gine you do not have to worry about licensing at all.
Advantages of the Drag[en]gine
... for the Game Designer:
- Use your Scripting Language of choice.
- Hardware is fully abstracted. You only have to know how your chosen Scripting Language works
- Updating the engine and modules is handled by the respective teams. You only have to worry about updating your game
- No need to write specific content for specific systems. The users choice of modules takes care of this for you
... for the Module Coder:
- Play around with individual parts of the engine without disturbing any other part. Test easy and fast new algorithms or features
- Various debugging features help to debug fast and easy modules even during run-time
- Loose coupling and high encapsulation yields in a more stable game engine
- Platform specific code is only handled in modules increasing portability
... for the Customer:
- Choose the optimal combination of modules for your system. The Drag[en]gine adapts to match your system not the other way 'round!
- Open standards and free file formats ensure unrestricted and easy modding using free software applications
- Various Launchers allow you to use the Drag[en]gine for more than just gaming
- The Crash Recovery System prevents a game from crashing to desktop. While CRS is running change parameters or entire modules and continue your game from where it went out for lunch.
For more information check out the Drag[en]gine Wiki.
Features
Due to the modular nature a fixed list of engine features as other engines provide is not possible since it all depends on the customer's choices. To avoid cluttering the summary find the features list in this article:
Articles
The new Drag[en]gine Game Engine Release 1.5 is now globally illuminated with higher performance.
Drag[en]gine Game Engine Release 1.5
If you have installed the Drag[en]gine and/or IGDE using repositories or market place updates arrive automatically.
Otherwise get the 1.5 release files from the Download Section. You can install it over the 1.4 release but it is recommended to uninstalling 1.4 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. Have a look at the Examples DELGAs.
This release too longer than previous release because of to main work units required for the Epsylon Demo. The first being a major performance optimization and the second the adding of Global Illumination.
Sticking some rockets to the Dragon
The Drag[en]gine received a large amount of optimizations in the graphic rendering area. Various areas have been optimized using parallel tasks where possible and reorganizing some rendering steps. The performance went up from an unoptimized 17 FPS the Epsylon Demo up to 50 to 60 FPS with GI enabled. More optimization will be done later on.
Illuminate the Dragon
The larger part of the work revolved around adding Global Illumination. I hoped to get away without it for the Epsylon Demo. As you can see from the screenshots below it was necessary to get it done now instead of later.
Now outside is sunny and bright while inside can be pitch black if no light reaches it well or not at all.
This is though anythign else but your regular Global Illumination, it's True Dynamic Global Illumination. So what does this mean? There are three kinds of Global Illumination you can do:
Global Illumination: This is the traditional approach. Both lights and geometry have to be static and all lighting is preprocessed then shipped with the game.
Dynamic Global Illumination: Showing up more recently it is a bit of a misguiding name. Lights can be dynamic with this one but geometry still has to stay static. Here too lighting is preprocessed and shipped with the game but changes as lights change.
True Dynamic Global Illumination: This is the newest kid on the block and typically shows up whenever those fancy new DXR/RTX enabled GPUs show up. Here both lighting and geometry can be dynamic. Preprocessing lighting is not required here.
Drag[en]gine uses now a True Dynamic Global Illumination system but with a twist: No DXR/RTX enabled GPU is required for using it. What you get is instant global illuumination in your projects without any preprocessing, fully dynamic at runtime and no need for raytracing hardware.
The video below show the Global Illumination in action in the ExampleApp and the Editor. This is the lowest supported hardware version which means Fragment Shader only (no DXR/RTX, no Compute Shaders). CS and RTX will be added later on to crank up the performance and quality.
Some more Example Images
Some other stuff added (besides others)
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.
![Drag[en]gine Game Engine Relese 1.4](https://media.indiedb.com/cache/images/articles/1/289/288274/crop_120x90/dragengine-release-1-4.png)
Drag[en]gine Game Engine Relese 1.4
NewsThe new Drag[en]gine Game Engine Release 1.4 is ready for action.
Camera Adapted Emissivity Intensity
NewsImproved Tone-Mapping and added "Camera Relative Emissivity Intensity" solving lighting problems.
KDevelop DragonScript Language Support
NewsSimplifies using KDevelop to develop games with using the Drag[en]gine Game Engine together with the DragonScript Language.
Games
Epsylon
AdventureEpsylon - The Guardians of Xendron takes the player on a journey to a futuristic world investigating a very special Science-Fiction setup. With a team...
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Mod SDK & Community
Built a game for Drag[en]gine and want to support mods? Try mod.io, a cross-platform mod SDK created by Indie DB which makes it easy to get a mod community up and running in-game. Currently seeking games to integrate and promote
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Hey, I'd like to ask, I remember a feature that randomizes textures so that vast open space doesn't look artificial. Really useful for oceans or deserts and something that plagues many AAA games.
What was the name of said feature again?
This can be done using the "variation.u" and "variation.v" texture properties: Developer.dragondreams.ch .
If enabled you can use layered textures (3D textures) for individual texture properties (like color). Right now *.png3d is supported or using constructed textures: Developer.dragondreams.ch .
*.png3d is by the way just a *.tar file with "zX.png" files inside where X is the layer/depth (0,1,...).
I have been looking forward to seeing this engine working and downloadable but after all these years I do not see this happening. On a number of occasions you have stated you only have to clean up a few things and finalize before release, that was nearly 2 years ago.
Don't worry. The release is slated for within 2-3 weeks from now. What's left currently is brushing up the example project so people get a grasp of what can be done as well as brushing up the documentation (Wiki side). Then the public GIT repo will be set up with an initial cast of builds (linux and windows for the time being).
Thanks for the great news looking forward!
Hello. Can someone point me, where can I download Drag[en]gine? I can not find it on theyr website, can't find on their Wiki, nor could I find it here. No prebuilt engine, no modules, no sources, nothing. How can I try it?
It's not available to the public yet. There are a few things I need to clean up and finalize first before I open up the repository. I prefer a solid first release than endless patchwork.
wow, this engine looks really promising. Sadly I use a mac and can't run it, Is there any plans for a mac version? It wouldn't be to hard to port it if it runs on Linux.
The engine is POSIX based. Only thing that has to be ported is the launcher as the rest would work out of the box. Only problem: I've no access to a mac. If anybody donates a mac strong enough to run advanced graphics it could be done. Otherwise I'm afraid not for the near future.
Darn, the problem is that macs are fairly pricy, It would be hard to find a person willing to donate a up to date mac.
Also just wondering, what is the launcher written in?
They are written in C++. This is though not mandatory. Every language able to link to a C++ library can be used to write a launcher.