Improvements and Changes

Lumberyard Beta 1.20 provides improvements and changes to Lumberyard systems and functionality.

Animation Editor

The Animation Editor has the following improvements and changes:

• You can now use motion extraction to move an actor in the game world without having to add a PhysX Character Controller component. Adding the PhysX Character Controller component is now optional.

  Note

  A PhysX Character Controller component is still required for the character to interact with entities in the world that have physics.

Asset Pipeline

The Asset Pipeline has the following improvements and changes.

Shader Serialization Changes

The function calls to RT_ParseShader no longer have to parse all .cfx and .cfi files to determine shader reflection information at runtime. r_shadersExport is now enabled by default in the ShaderCacheGen.cfg file. This causes ShaderCacheGen to now generate a binary .fxb file for each base shader type when you compile shader paks.

RT_ParseShader now has a code flow that depends on the value of r_shadersImport as follows:

• r_shadersImport=0 – All .cfx and .cfi files are parsed at runtime to determine shader reflection information. This setting is identical to the previous code and data flow in Lumberyard.

• r_shadersImport=1 – Imports preparsed shader reflection information from .fxb files if they exist for a related .cfx file. This skips the expensive parsing of .cfx files in RT_ParseShader. If an .fxb file exists for a shader but an individual permutation is missing, this setting falls back to slow .cfx file parsing for that permutation.

• r_shadersImport=2 – .fxb files are required for all shaders, and no fallback is allowed. Lumberyard doesn’t parse .cfx or .cfi files at runtime.

Note

If r_shadersAllowCompilation=1 is set and r_shadersImport=2, r_shadersAllowCompilation takes precedence and turns off r_shadersImport. Because compiling new shaders can generate new .fxb files, this behavior is by design.

• r_shadersImport=3 – (New default) Based on your build configuration, the default setting makes a determination at runtime for how shader loading, parsing, and compiling behave. For Debug or Profile configurations, it compiles shaders. For Performance or Release builds, it runs optimally, as shown by the following equivalents:

  • For Debug or Profile builds, r_shadersImport=3 uses the same setting as r_shadersImport=0.

  • For Performance or Release configurations, r_shadersImport=3 uses the same setting as r_shadersImport=1.

Workflow Changes

You should notice no changes if you use the following standard Lumberyard workflow:

• For Debug or Profile builds, you generate shader permutations.

• For Performance or Release builds, you use only precompiled shader pak files,

If you follow a different workflow for Performance and Release builds, be aware of the following points:

• Performance and Release builds now disable runtime shader compilation by default. If you want to discover shader permutations at runtime in Performance and Release builds, use the r_shadersImport=0 setting in your platform system_*_*.cfg files.

• If you have custom scripts for building shader pak files, ensure that your scripts add the shader .fxb files that ShaderCacheGen now generates wherever the scripts include the compiled shader .cfxb and .cfib files.

• Debug and Profile builds function identically to how they functioned in previous versions of Lumberyard, irrespective of whether you use loose shaders or shader paks.

Audio

The audio system has the following improvements and changes:

• Hooks for AK::SoundEngine::Suspend and AK::SoundEngine::WakeFromSuspend for mobile and console developers were added. For more information, see Handling system-specific events in the audiokinetic documentation.

Debugging

The e_memoryProfiling console variable displays onscreen statistics that show how much GPU memory is being used.

Mobile

You can now add a custom AndroidManifest.xml file, which will be merged into the final manifest that goes into the Android Package (APK).

1. Place the custom AndroidManifest.xml file in your module.

2. In the module’s wscript file, specify a path to the custom manifest file.

   Example ​

   android_manifest_path = [ <path_to_custom_manifest> ]

For an additional example of how to add a custom manifest, see the Microphone Gem topic in the Amazon Lumberyard User Guide.

PhysX

• The debug Draw Collider option for the PhysX Collider component is now on by default

SDK Compatibility

Lumberyard 1.20 is compatible with the following SDK versions:

• AWS SDK for C++ version 1.4.34.3

• Amazon GameLift Server SDK version 3.2.1

Miscellaneous

The following APIs, systems, and tools are planned to be removed in a future release:

• CrySystem (specifically, APIs that duplicate functionality in AzCore)

• CryEntitySystem and CryAction

• CryScriptSystem

• CryPhysics

• CryAnimation

• CryInput

• CryAISystem

• Boids

• Editor CBaseObject (including Cry prefabs, CSelectionGroup and related code)

• AzCore: DirectSocket

• Tools and Tooling

  • Woodpecker Tool (The Driller Visualizer)

  • Max and Maya Plugins (planned for replacement by FBX Pipeline)

  • Behavior Tree Editor

  • Legacy source control plugin

  • Statoscope integration

  • LiveMocap

  • Editor Plugins:

    • Asset Tagging

    • Editor Animation

    • Legacy Folder and QML view pane

• PRT Library

• CryEntityRemoval Gem

• Legacy Feature Tests (/dev/Code/FeatureTests/…​)