The Code-oriented And Lightweight Wicked Engine Now Supports SSGI

If you are looking for a simple open-source C++-based game engine for Windows and Linux with Lua scripting supported dynamically at runtime and a full-functioning lightweight game editor, Wicked Engine is certainly worth a look. It's completely free, doesn't require an internet connection, and is a single executable with no extra installation.

Furthermore, this engine supports two major platforms, the Xbox Series and the PlayStation 5, and comes with a modern renderer utilizing DirectX 12 and Vulkan with the latest features like hardware-accelerated ray tracing. Wicked Engine also includes glTF 2.0 model support with physically based rendering features, meaning you can create characters in other software and import them easily in common 3D file formats.

János Turánszki, the developer of Wicked Engine, frequently shares new features and WIPs on his social media. For example, in March he shared two major updates focusing on character pathfinding and FPS sample enemy logic.

The demo below showcases a dynamic level with voxelized pathfinding now integrated into the character sample, so the NPCs not only follow the main character on a straight path but also avoid obstacles.

The other new features include:

• Editor: camera preview render for selected camera, and path-finding testing mode with optimization and fixes
• VoxelGI: removed low-resolution resolve mode
• Added Light Shafts, Lens Flares, and Volumetric Clouds to path tracing
• Added transparency map texture slot to materials that can be used for a secondary transparency texture
• Added Vertex Ambient Occlusion
• Ray-traced shadows changed to full-resolution

Another Wicked Engine FPS update continues to refine the enemy logic with the enemies now being able to patrol, shoot, and search for the player.

Just yesterday, János Turánszki teased a new Wicked Engine update implementing Screen Space Global Illumination, a feature that allows for natural-looking lighting by adding dynamic indirect lighting to objects within the screen view. The developer explained, that he plans to make it affect a large portion of the screen with decent performance without the use of Temporal Accumulation in order to avoid smearing and noise and promised a new devlog entry covering this technique.

If you're interested in Wicked Engine as a software developer, this project accepts contributors. Check out the GitHub page to fork the project and start working on it.

The repository also contains documentation, building instructions, tips, and other useful information.

Visit the official Wicked Engine site to learn more about the software and check out the devblogs. Also, join our 80 Level Talent platform and our Telegram channel, follow us on Instagram, Twitter, and LinkedIn, where we share breakdowns, the latest news, awesome artworks, and more.