Category: Xenko

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VRTV’s Week In Recap: Tech Wizards, Space Wizards And Wizard Wizards

Life as a chestbursting alien, a world record, Oculus launches a contest to find the best wizard, Palmer Luckey returns from the social media wilderness and Nokia getting set to take you to a galaxy far, far away are just some of the virtual reality (VR) related technology, experiences and stories that have come out all within the last week.

As usual, Nina is here to guide you through all the stories of the last seven days with VRTV. What stories really caught your eye this week? Let us know in the comments.

This week’s stories, click here for more information on each:

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Xenko Game Engine: A New Way To Develop Better VR Games

Today Silicon Studio launched its videogame development engine Xenko, allowing developers no matter the size to build content across multiple platforms. Part of the team attended the Game Developers Conference (GDC) in San Francisco last month and VRFocus caught up with Silicon Studio’s Product Manager Pierre Rahier to find out more. 

The company want’s to make Xenko open to all content creators, so for solo indie developers, small teams, or education the software is free, while larger studio’s have to pay a monthly fee. One of the big additions for the commercial release today is that of virtual reality (VR) support, with dedicated features like binaural audio and single pass rendering.

Xenko screenshot

Rahier discusses Silicon Studio’s heritage, starting as a Japanese middleware company that’s been around for almost 20 years. Progressing into videogame development, the studio is known for Bravely Default before deciding to build its own game engine just over two years ago.

To encourage developers to try Xenko for the first time, Silicon Studio is offering limited time, unrestricted access to the pro version (normally $75 USD per month) until 31st July 2017.

Checkout the full interview below and VRFocus will continue its coverage of Silicon Studio and Xenko, reporting back with the latest announcements.

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Xenko Game Engine Launches with Free Edition

Silicon Studio has today launched the Xenko game engine, a new scaleable development platform for everything from mobile videogames to realistic virtual reality (VR) experiences and beyond. Xenko is free for educational use, small studios and individual users, with larger studios paying a nominal monthly fee. To celebrate the launch, Silicon Studio is offering all users access to the engine’s unrestricted Pro plan at no cost and with no registration requirements through 31st July 2017.

Xenko screenshotUsing the latest version of C#, the open source engine features high-end realistic rendering, multithreading with support for the latest graphic APIs (Vulkan & DirectX 12), nested prefabs, particle effects, a built-in script editor and more.

“We worked with developers to create a tool that lets them explore their creativity without running into some of the limitations they may find with other game engines,” said Terada Takehiko, CEO of Silicon Studio. “By offering advantages like C# and photorealistic rendering, we’re positioning Xenko as the top choice for creators working in 3D, VR and everything in between.”

Compared to the previously available beta version, the commercial release boasts major improvements including VR support – with features such as binaural audio, single pass rendering, multi-sampling anti-aliasing (MSAA), one-click VR setup; scene streaming management, a pipeline rendering editor, and light probes (a first step to global illumination), along with greatly improved stability.

Xenko screenshot“I’ve been developing with the Xenko engine for over two years now,” said beta user and game developer Filip Dusek, creator of the videogame Children of the Galaxy. “I’m really pleased with the performance and stability of the engine. The renderer is remarkable – both in terms of use and the visual results.”

To celebrate the launch, Silicon Studio is introducing the Xenko Welcome Campaign, allowing unfettered access to the Pro and Personal plans without registration and at no cost until 31st July 2017. Following the conclusion of the welcome program, users that took advantage of the Pro Plan who wish switch to the Personal Plan can simply register their account and select the Personal option (studio size restrictions apply). For more details, see the campaign page.
Pricing for Xenko is broken into four tiers:

Xenko Personal – Free for small studios, personal, and students
Xenko Pro – Designed for small to medium-sized studios; $75 per month (free until July 31, 2017)
Xenko Pro Plus – Designed for larger studios; $150 per month
Xenko Custom – Available to accommodate teams with a variety of special needs, projects, and requirements.

For full details, see the Xenko license plan page.

A Xenko Education version is free for students and universities for use in non-commercial education uses.

Xenko screenshotXenko is available for PC, and allows developers to build games for Windows, iOS, Android and Xbox One, with support for other consoles coming soon. Xenko can be downloaded directly through the Xenko website and VRFocus will keep you updated with all the latest VR updates for the platform.