Drag[en]gine 1.24 Release
This release adds the following major additions and improvements besides other improvements and fixes:
- Game engine updated to 1.24
- Remote Launcher support added
- Handling non-high-dpi games on high-dpi monitors
- Added long reliable message/linkState support
Remote Launcher Support
Remote Launching is a new feature of the Drag[en]gine game engine turning testing and iterating software on different platforms a pleasure instead of being a nightmare.
With other game engines and editors you have to install, configure and update your build environment on each development machine to be able to develop and test your game. And if you can not do this you have to do lengthy compilation/cooking of test builds and distribute them to your testing platforms. Both processes are complicated and time consuming.
With platforms like Android or VR (Quest for example) the problem becomes even more annoying. You have to use developer mode enabled hardware and you have to deal with Android Studio to get builds for testing on such hardware.
With the Drag[en]gine this all is no more necessary thanks to the remote launching support. This is possible since the Drag[en]gine separates games from the engine. Remote launchers are common applications that can be unpacked/installed like any other consumer application. No enabling of developer mode nor extra software (like Android Studio) is required. Remote launchers connect using DNP (Drag[en]gine Network Protocol) to a running instance of IGDE on the developer machine. From that point on you can easily synchronize the game data to all connected clients and launch the game remotely. Testers can then easily test the game with the developer seeing logs in real-time. When the testers find something you can quickly make a change to the code, synchronize and run again. A fast, clean and easy to use solution.
At the time being remote launchers exist for Linux and Windows PCs. Remote launching support for Android and VR headsets will be done in a future update.
At the time being remote launchers exist for Linux and Windows PCs. Remote launching support for Android and VR headsets will be done in a future update.
Download Drag[en]gine Remote Launchers
High-DPI support
Another addition has been the high-dpi support for games not supporting high-dpi. This is done using an automatic scaling approach by the graphic module. This ensures games can run on high-dpi displays without becoming tiny. This does not have the quality of true high-dpi support but it is better than tiny fonts.
The DragonScript module provides support for games to know what scaling factor is used on the display they are running on. This way high-dpi aware games can adjust accordingly not needing the automatic high-dpi support mode.
Long reliable message/linkState support
So far DNP (Drag[en]gine Network Protocol) supported only short reliable messages. Now DNP supports long reliable messages and state links. This frees the game from dealing with fragmentation and allows to better regulate the throughput. The remote launcher support uses this new system.
