Amazon Lumberyard goes open source
AWS is a founding member of the newly created Open 3D Foundation, which aims at supporting open source projects
Amazon's game engine Lumberyard is soon to be made available as an open source project.
The move is part of the creation of the Open 3D Foundation, an initiative led by the Linux Foundation that aims at supporting "open source projects that advance capabilities related to 3D graphics, rendering, authoring, and development."
An updated version of Lumberyard will be made available under the name Open 3D Engine (O3DE) under the Apache 2.0 license, with a developer preview already available. The full release is planned for late 2021.
Founding members of the Open 3D Foundation include AccelByte, Apocalypse Studios, Amazon Web Services, Carbonated, Huawei, Intel, the International Game Developers Association, Kythera AI, Niantic, and Wargaming, among others.
The newly created foundation will be hosting its inaugural O3DECon in October.
Bill Vass, VP of engineering at Amazon Web Services, commented: "We're proud to offer the 3D development community an unencumbered, AAA-capable, real-time 3D engine with one of the broadest arrays of integrated 3D authoring tools in the industry including a new photorealistic renderer, built for both modern gaming hardware and distributed cloud rendering.
"We believe that creating a first-class, community-driven, open-source option will revolutionize real-time 3D development, as Linux did for operating systems and Apache did for the web."
If you want to learn more about Lumberyard, the GamesIndustry.biz Academy dedicated a guide to Amazon's tech, as part of its ongoing series on game engines.