Turbulenz Engine Goes Open Source

[ianballantyne]

Turbulenz are happy to announce that the Turbulenz Engine is open source under the MIT License!

 

We'll continue releasing SDKs along side the open source repository which will be actively maintained by Turbulenz.

If you can't wait to try a feature in development or want to contribute, now's your chance!

 

You can find the Git repository at https://github.com/turbulenz/turbulenz_engine

For more details see: http://news.turbulenz.com/post/49430669886/turbulenz-engine-goes-open-source

 

Enjoy!

 

Here are a few games that have been built using the Turbulenz Engine:

 

Polycraft

 

Save the Day

 

Space Ark

 

Score Rush

[nem0ff]

It is WebGL only, so no iOs, no stock Android browser

http://docs.turbulenz.com/end_user_support.html

[rich]

This is really quite exciting because of the nature of this game engine (it's basically excellent). I'm pretty sure it's still WebGL only (but may be wrong), but even so, it's pretty awesome news!

As devs we are literally spoilt for choice right now.

[benny!]

Cool!

[Joe]

It is WebGL only, so no iOs, no stock Android browser

http://docs.turbulenz.com/end_user_support.html

 

We are working on our own native client for mobile platforms, so all is not lost for those devices!  

[jamesaustin]

To say it's "WebGL only" is not accurate. The graphics engine and renderers do depend on WebGL. This implies the Turbulenz Engine is just a WebGL renderer.

 

However, all the other engines: animation, physics, collision, audio, networking, web services, etc - don't required WebGL.

 

The libraries are completely modular so you can easily use the Turbulenz Engine with an alternative "Canvas 2D" renderer.

 

Someone could add a "Canvas 2D" renderer that didn't depend on WebGL. We didn't do this because there are already many maturing "Canvas 2D" renderers available. Some of the basic samples don't do any WebGL rendering for example.

[rich]

Well there's a challenge if ever I heard one

 

With WebGL coming to IE11 I still honestly see this as being one of the best ways of making an advanced desktop html5 game right now.

 

On a very similar thread I'm curious to see what Unity will announce at their Unite conference (I'm expecting native 2D and possibly WebGL)

[nem0ff]

We are working on our own native client for mobile platforms, so all is not lost for those devices!  

This is very promising. Any details and ETA?

 

To say it's "WebGL only" is not accurate. The graphics engine and renderers do depend on WebGL. This implies the Turbulenz Engine is just a WebGL renderer.

 

However, all the other engines: animation, physics, collision, audio, networking, web services, etc - don't required WebGL.

It is obvious

 

The libraries are completely modular so you can easily use the Turbulenz Engine with an alternative "Canvas 2D" renderer.

 

Someone could add a "Canvas 2D" renderer that didn't depend on WebGL. We didn't do this because there are already many maturing "Canvas 2D" renderers available.

Support mobile browsers for iOs and Android is extremely important in my opinion.

Wait until someone adds it to your engine is not a good idea imho.

 

[edit] Guys, your Engine is certainly brilliant and I really appreciate you share it with us.

But if you would work a little and add Canvas2d renderer, it will be much better for many developers.

[Gaëtan Renaudeau]

This framework looks very interesting,

 

I have some questions though:

 

1.  You said it is multiplayer, how and in what language can I implement my game on the server side, is the source code shared?
2. Is it possible to use the engine in standalone way? (without any the turbulenz server)
3. Can I just only code Javascript to benefit all the features (I've saw some "tsscripts" in you samples, do I have to implement it)?
4. Technically, what the "NetworkDevice" object do more than pure WebSocket? (is there some "buffering", how does it handle the lag compensation?)

 

Thanks

[ianballantyne]

1. Turbulenz supports a client-to-client multiplayer session API using a low latency websockets server as a relay. This functionality is available in the local, hub and turbulenz.com. Our examples (multiworm) have a player as the host and migration if that player leaves the session. You could write your server in JavaScript (as we have in our FPS demo) or in any language with a server that supports websockets. The source is in the turbulenz_local.

2. Yes, the Turbulenz services can check to see if there is a service available and handle it appropriately. You will need turbulenz_local if you want to use badges (achievements), leaderboards, multiplayer, payments, gamesessions, mapping tables, user profiles, game profiles, user data (save).

3. Yes, all the libraries compile to JavaScript. The TypeScript definitions are if you want to program in TypeScript and use the type checking feature of the language. If you run the build command for the jslib, samples and apps, there will be JavaScript equivalents of the files used.

4. The network device is a higher-level interface so that we could implement networking on platforms that don't support websockets. The native implementations process the messages as quick as they receive them so you can decide what to do with each message.

[Gaëtan Renaudeau]

Thanks for the reply!

 

That's interesting