Autodesk Launches Bitsquid-derived Stingray Game Engine

At GDC Europe 2015, Autodesk announced what’s become of its Bitsquid acquisition: Stingray. This engine is designed to work well with Autodesk’s other development products, such as 3ds Max and Maya, but focuses on ease-of-use. Stingray’s ultimate goal is to allow people to create the best-looking games possible as easily as possible. While that’s a promise shared by most game engines, Autodesk offers the perk of tying into its own well-established asset-creation tools.

Autodesk even gives an example of this interoperability. A user could import Revit data into 3ds Max, add content to the scene, and then place that scene inside of Stingray to work with. A couple of example scenes can be seen below:

An important feature nowadays is vast platform support, and Stingray has it. You’ll be able to target the PC, mobile OSes, consoles, and of course, VR. Pricing is competitive as well, at $30/mo (with no royalty fees), and for those who subscribe to Maya LT, which also costs $30/mo, there’s an even sweeter perk: Stingray will be included for free this fall.

Here’s some highlights of Stingray, straight from Autodesk’s 3D-rendered mouth:

— Seamless Art-to-Engine Workflow: Import, create, iterate, test and review 3D assets and gameplay faster with a one-click workflow and live link between Stingray and Autodesk 3D animation software.
— Modern Data-Driven Architecture: A lightweight code base gives game developers the freedom to make significant changes to the engine and renderer without requiring source code access.
— Advanced Visuals and Rendering: Produce visually stunning games with a powerful rendering pipeline, physically-based shading, advanced particle effects, post processed visual effects, lightmap baking and a high-performance reflection system.
— Proven Creative Toolset: Stingray includes proven solutions like Beast, HumanIK, Navigation, Scaleform Studio (UI technology built on Scaleform), FBX, Audiokinetic Wwise and NVIDIA PhysX.
— Versatile Game Logic Creation: Stingray includes a wide range of development tools, making game creation more accessible for game makers with varying levels of experience – including visual node-based-scripting and Lua scripting. C++ source code will also be available as an additional purchase upon request.
— Multiplatform Deployment and Testing: Quickly make and apply changes to gameplay and visuals across supported platforms: Apple iOS, Google Android, Microsoft Windows 7 and Windows 8, Oculus Rift DevKit 2, Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One.