New Evergine release 2023.9
A fresh new release of Evergine is now available! This marks our second major release in 2023 staying true to our outlined roadmap packed with numerous new features, this version equips you to tackle the upcoming challenges that are coming. We invite everyone to dive into this latest release, explore its capabilities, and provide us with valuable feedback that will help us enhance the engine further with each new release.
Evergine is the Graphics Engine we’ve meticulously crafted within Plain Concepts to power our internal products. Over the past decade, our licensing approach has remained consistent, emphasizing accessibility for all users:
- Evergine is completely free, available for commercial use.
- No registration required.
- We won’t monitor your usage or activity (telemetry).
- License valid for all industries.
What’s new?
In our commitment to continually deliver the cutting-edge features of the Microsoft DotNet Platform, we are thrilled to introduce several exciting updates in this release. Start your 3D application development journey today with our new .NET 8 based template. Additionally, we’ve unveiled our long-awaited adapter for the Apple Metal API, empowering seamless application development for iOS with optimal performance. To streamline the creation of native, cross-platform user interfaces, we’ve integrated the latest MAUI API.
Not stopping there, we’ve elevated our custom mixed-reality framework, XRV, by introducing a robust networking module. This enhancement facilitates effortless creation of shared mixed-reality experiences across various devices. And introducing a brand new morphing animation system designed to enrich avatar-based mobile applications.
This release is amazing, and in this post, we will go into the intricate details of these exciting updates.
Download and install:
Metal 3 low-overhead graphics API
Within this release, we’re introducing a significant addition: the Evergine.Metal adapter. This adapter is an implementation of the abstract low-level API used by Evergine, akin to other graphics APIs like DirectX, OpenGL, and Vulkan. The notable highlight is its alignment with Apple’s latest Metal 3 API, empowering developers to harness the full potential of every new iOS device, be it an iPhone or iPad.
With Evergine’s integration of the Metal 3 API, this low-level interface is now a powerful tool for rendering graphics and optimizing GPU compute tasks. What makes this especially compelling is the ability to use Evergine’s abstract API in a cross-platform development setting, seamlessly leveraging DirectX, Vulkan, or Metal based on the specific platform for maximum performance.
iOS support
This has been a highly anticipated feature, and we’re excited to announce the release of the iOS template, enabling seamless cross-platform mobile application development with Evergine. Now, when creating mobile applications, Metal 3 API is automatically utilized on iOS, while Vulkan API is default for Android devices. Furthermore, we’ve successfully compiled the Bullet Physics engine for this new platform, ensuring that the same physics engine with all its features is available across Desktop, Web, and Mobile.
We’ve crafted a detailed and informative post, providing step-by-step guidance to demonstrate just how straightforward it is to commence iOS application development and debugging in C# using Visual Studio
Continue reading more about this at Evergine expands to iOS with Metal API.
Morphing animation system
One of the cool new features added to this release is the new morphing animation system. This innovative addition allows you to load facial animations directly from GLTF and FBX formats. Morph target animation, known for its blend shapes and shape interpolation, provides a revolutionary method for visualizing 3D model transitions. It harnesses predefined shapes or poses, offering smooth transitions to portray lifelike actions, such as the intricacies of lip-syncing, eye blinking, or muscle deformations. Beyond its uncanny ability to deliver astoundingly realistic facial animations, it eliminates the need for complex rigging systems, saving precious development time and reducing setup complexities. Additionally, its compatibility with motion capture data ensures that animators can capture and infuse genuine human nuances into their 3D models.
Dive deep into this new feature at Morphing animation system.
Dotnet MAUI support
In this latest Evergine release, we’ve introduced support for MAUI, an API that represents the evolution of Xamarin technology. MAUI not only enables the creation of native cross-platform interfaces based on XAML but also offers advantages such as a streamlined development process, consistent UI/UX across platforms, and reduced code duplication. With single project structure and integrated platform-specific optimizations, developers can effortlessly tailor applications for various devices. By embracing MAUI, we aimed to be at the forefront of integrating this new UI technology, empowering developers to craft mobile and desktop applications with heightened productivity.
Check out the linked article for a step-by-step guide on how to get started: New MAUI support and templates.
XRV networking module
Many VR and MR applications exist, but a significant number don’t offer spectator view modes or are limited to single user experiences. The advancement we’re striving for is the ability to develop MR applications compatible with a diverse range of headsets, such as the Meta Quest VR device and the HoloLens 2 MR device, concurrently. Sharing experiences between these devices can be a challenging endeavor.
To simplify this process, we’ve introduced a new networking module within our XRV framework. We invite developers to explore the capabilities of XRV, leveraging this new module to seamlessly craft and share experiences across an array of headset devices.
More details about this at Unleashing Collaborative Power with XRV Networking.
Windows .NET 8 RC1
In this latest Evergine release, we’re excited to introduce a new template leveraging .NET 8 RC 1.0, enabling developers to kickstart their projects with enhanced capabilities. By harnessing the power of this integration, developers can now enjoy the benefits of significant performance improvements in .NET 8, including substantial enhancements such as Arm64 performance improvements, Single Instruction, Multiple Data (SIMD) optimizations, support for Intel AVX-512 (Advanced Vector Extensions) ISA extensions, Profile-Guided Optimization (PGO) improvements, Just-in-Time (JIT) throughput improvements. These enhancements collectively optimize app performance, resulting in faster and more efficient execution. With these advancements easily accessible through Evergine’s template, creating high-performing applications is now more efficient and effective.
Studio performance improvements
The latest Evergine Studio update introduces transformative performance enhancements tailored for resource-intensive 3D projects. Two primary advancements stand out: an optimization of process communication, dramatically reducing delays in value updates, leading to a heightened productivity and smoother user experience when working with intricate scenes; and a revamp of the viewers. We’ve streamlined rendering processes, ensuring viewers only render when necessary, optimizing system resource utilization. Additionally, a “Continuous rendering” functionality has been embedded, giving users granular control over custom rendering behaviors. Together, these improvements not only provide a notable performance boost on laptops and portable devices but also elevate the overall 3D development journey in Evergine Studio.
More details about this here.
Future work
At Evergine, our passion for innovation never wanes. As we look ahead, our commitment to delivering outstanding features and improvements to our graphics engine remains unwavering. While our next major release is slated for February 2024, rest assured that interim updates will roll out, offering bug fixes and incremental enhancements.
In our ongoing collaboration with companies building on Evergine technology, we strive to encapsulate both present-day requirements and anticipate future needs. A notable inclusion in this release, support for the Metal 3 API, positions Evergine and XRV favorably for compatibility with Apple’s forthcoming Vision Pro device, launching in Q1 of 2024.
We’re excited about our evolving WebGPU adapter. Leveraging a custom wgpu-native wrapper, we’ve accelerated our development across Windows, Linux, and MacOS platforms. For the developer community, we’re pleased to share that our custom WebGPU binding is now open-sourced and available on GitHub: https://github.com/EvergineTeam/WebGPU.NET.
Our collaboration with companies in the realm of Digital Twins, leveraging PointClouds and NeRF, continues to grow. We’re currently investigating a potential integration with 3D Gaussian Splatting, aiming to usher in real-time NeRF quality to both desktop and web applications. For enthusiasts and professionals alike, we recommend keeping an eye on this blog to stay abreast of these exciting developments.
Thank you for supporting Evergine. We’re happy to work with you and make our tool better together.
Have a nice day!
