Tools

Microsoft's last major update to their Games For Windows Live online service was a few months ago with the 3.0 client update. Today the company released a minor update to the the client that can be downloaded when you sign onto the service.

Besides unnamed bug fixes there are two notable upgrades that Microsoft mentions in its release notes. One is an update to the in-game client to "support DirectX 11 for future titles". That's good since the first out-of-the-box DirectX11 title, Codemasters' Dirt 2, is due for release on December 1. The other update is for the downloadable stand alone client "to make finding content for games easier."

[Thanks to TheWax for the tip]

This benchmark provides detailed information about its performance on various graphical modes and find out how well your system is balanced for gaming and S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat.

"This benchmark is based on one of the ingame locations - Pripyat . The testing process includes four stages, those utilizing various weather and time of the day settings (day, night, rain, bright sun). In order to test your system thoroughly the benchmark is provided with a number of presets and options including different versions of DirectX (9.0, 10.0, 11), screen resolutions, antialiasing etc, all at your disposal.

If you like competitions pay attention to the special Test and Rate feature we included into this benchmark. The Test and Rate mode enables you to compare your performance results with those of other players. Be assured, when sending us your test results, we collect only the data explicitly visible in the query; GSC Game World has no commercial or harmful purpose with this test."

Download S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat Benchmark (421 MB)
Check out all S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Call of Pripyat downloads

Epic Games made huge news recently with their release of the Unreal Development Kit, which gave anyone free access to most of Epic' Unreal Engine 3 tools to make their own stand alone games. Now Crytek is doing something similar with its new CryEngine 3 game development tech but on a smaller scale.

Today Crytek announced that it will allow its CryEngine 3 tools to be made available for free to schools for use in their courses and for research projects. While not as broad as Epic's offer with their UDK release, having a powerful tool like CryEngine 3 in game development classes and other educational projects is certainly going to be a big help for budding game creators and others wanting to learn more about 3D graphics development. The first actual game that is scheduled to use CryEngine 3 is Crytek's own FPS Crysis 2 which is due out in 2010.

It's been just over a week since Epic unveiled the free-to-use Unreal Development Kit (UDK) for aspiring game designers to use for learning to put together top quality games. The UDK has got an update, bringing it to Beta 2, which offers a number of repairs and improvements. Visit the official UDK website for more information and documentation. Continue reading after the jump for the list of changes.

Download Unreal Development Kit (Beta 2) (562 MB)
Check out all Unreal Development Kit related Downloads

A week ago today, Big Download was one of the first web sites to launch the Unreal Development Kit. The stand alone free game development tool that lets anyone make their own Unreal Engine 3-based game has turned out to be very popular indeed with its creator Epic Games now saying the tool has experienced over 50,000 downloads since its launch. Three stand alone free UDK game demos (The Ball, Whizzle and Prometheus) have already been released.

That;s a pretty impressive figure for a piece of software that is designed to make a game rather that an actual playable title. If you still feel intimidated about using such such software, don't fret. The web site 3DBuzz.com plans to release a number of free video tutorials that will specifically show how to use the UDK. The site previously has done the same for the standard version of Unreal Engine 3.

[Via email press release]Download Unreal Development Kit (562 MB)
Download HD Unreal Development Kit Launch Trailer (80 MB)
Download HD UDK Psyonix Developer Diary (344 MB)

The Torchlight Editor (TorchED) allows users to create custom content for Torchlight. Much of what users are can look forward to getting their hands on is detailed in a video, where Runic Games highlights the features of its development tools.

Download Torchlight Editor v1.0 (383 MB)
Download the Torchlight v1.12 Demo (418 MB)
Check out all Torchlight downloads

With the Dragon Age: Origins Toolset, users can create custom adventures for Dragon Age. The toolset can only be installed on a machine that has the full Dragon Age: Origins game installed. The EclipseRay Lightmapper Source Code is an optional add-on.

Download the Dragon Age: Origins Toolset (472 MB)
Download the EclipseRay Lightmapper Source Code (6 MB)
Download HD Dragon Age: Origins Toolset Trailer (80 MB)
Check out all Dragon Age: Origins downloads

Epic has released the Unreal Development Kit (UDK), a free version of Unreal Engine 3 for aspiring game developers. It's absolutely free for noncommercial and educational purposes. Those that wish to use Unreal Engine 3 for commercial use will need should refer to licensing terms at www.udk.com/licensing. The press announcement, demonstration video and features list can be seen after the jump. For more information, users can visit the official forums or the UDK documentation page.

To demonstrate the power and versatility of the development tool, there are two free games available, made using the UDK. They are:

Whizzle: A vertical scrolling puzzle game in which players swim through levels as Whizzle, an adorable sea creature that collects items and frees tiny comrades from captivity. Avoid the electrifying stingers of the jellyfish! More information about Whizzle, including a developer diary video, can be seen after the jump.

The Ball: An episodic, puzzle-based action game. Known as one of the most award-winning Unreal Tournament 3 mods in the $1 Million Intel Make Something Unreal Contest, "The Ball" has won honors for Best Use of Physics, Best Game Type and Best FPS Mod. Toltec Studios has ported over its UT3 mod to UDK, and the free, standalone version of The Ball is available for download.

Download Unreal Development Kit (562 MB)
Download HD Unreal Development Kit Launch Trailer (80 MB)
Download HD UDK Psyonix Developer Diary (344 MB)

Download Whizzle (112 MB)
Download The Ball (359 MB)

Unity is a multiplatform game development tool, designed from the start to ease creation. This 30-day trial version gives aspiring developers a chance to build their own games without laying down thousands of dollars. It's available in both PC and Mac versions.

Download Unity Game Development Tool 30-Day Trial (162 MB)
Download Unity Game Development Tool 30-Day Trial [Mac] (290 MB)

It's only been a day since Windows 7 officially released, and there is less than a handful of games that currently support DirectX 11, but there is now a benchmark available to gamers to see how well their hardware performs.

Developed by Unigine Corp using its proprietary Unigine engine technology, Heaven the first benchmark that measures the performance of DirectX 11 while showcasing its beauty. System requirements are shown after the jump along with a video of what the benchmark looks like.

Features include:

• Native support of OpenGL, DirectX 9, DirectX 10 and DirectX 11
• Comprehensive use of tessellation technology
• Advanced SSAO (screen-space ambient occlusion)
• Volumetric cumulonimbus clouds generated by a physically accurate algorithm
• Dynamic simulation of changing environment with high physical fidelity
• Interactive experience with fly/walk-through modes
• ATI Eyefinity support

Download Unigine 'Heaven' DirectX 11 Benchmark (127 MB)

As some developers continue to dodge the question on whether or not they will release or support third party mods for their games (*cough* Infinity Ward *cough*), Valve is actually fulfilling a promise they made last month. Namely they have now released all of the character model and animation sources for their multiplayer shooter Team Fortress 2.

But Valve is throwing out some extras as well. They have gone ahead and released some of the models and props they used for their various "Meet The" movies they made for the various Team Fortress 2 characters (the first ones come from the "Meet The Sniper" film). These models are not meant to be used in playable maps but they are still kind of cool for mod makers to have for use in maps and/or fan-made films.

The fantasy RTS game BattleForge from EA's Phenomic studio has changed a lot since it's release as a retail game earlier this year. It has since turned into a free-to-play downloadable game and a few weeks ago it became the first official PC game to support DirectX11 graphics via a patch.

Today BattleForge players get another bonus; a free map editor to play with. The editor, which players can download via the game's latest automatic patch, will allow anyone to make PvP or PVE maps and share them with others. The player created maps don't allow for rewards to be given to players like extra cards, experience points and the like. They also can't be used in ranked games. Otherwise you can go nuts. There's even a PDF tutorial to get you started.

While Crytek first announced their plans for CryEngine 3 some time ago, today the game developer announced that their third version of their game graphics engine technology is officially available for purchase by third party developers. While this version is designed to work for PC game development team, CryEngine 3 is the first version to be made for console developers as well.

Crytek emphasizes the fact that CryEngine 3 will allow game developers to work on a single PC but see and play the results of their work on the PC, Xbox 360 and PS3 platforms. That means we could see a lot of multi-platform games using CryEngine 3 in the future. It's likely that the first CryEngine 3 game will be Crytek's own Crysis 2 that's due out sometime in 2010.

Earlier this year, NCsoft announced that they would be launching a Guest Author program for their super hero MMO City of Heroes, allowing major outside talent to create new storylines for the game via the Mission Architect tools. Today NCsoft announced that acclaimed comic book author Bill Willingham will be added as one of the first people or teams involved in the Guest Author program.

Willingham is best known for his work on Fables, the DC Vertigo comic that takes a new spin on familiar fairy tale characters. He will be creating a City of Heroes mission called The Quest for Magic. He joins Red Vs Blue creators Rooster Teeth and PvP comic strip creator Scott Kurtz in making new missions for the MMO. All are scheduled to be made available to players of the game for free beginning on October 13.

In related news, City of Heroes is allowing all inactive accounts in good standing to be reactivated from now until Sunday at 11:59 pm PT. Also all characters will receive double their normal experience points during this weekend.

Last March, Emergent Game Technologies seemed to be doing well for itself. The maker of the popular Gamebryo game graphics engine (used, among other games, for Fallout 3) had secured some new funding and launched a new product, Gamebryo Lightspeed. Now it appears there's a bit of a bump in the road as Develop reports that Emergent will restructure the company with some jobs lost as a result.

The number of jobs lost in the restructuring is currently not known. However, it does plan to continue development of Gamebryo Lightspeed with a spokesperson saying the restructuring will "actually provide greater resources to answer immediate tech needs, but also creates greater opportunities for Emergent to collaborate with development studios throughout the development process."