The Linux Foundation has formed the Open 3D Foundation to accelerate developer collaboration on 3D game and simulation technology. The Open 3D Foundation will support open-source projects that advance capabilities related to 3D graphics, rendering, authoring, and development.
The first project is ongoing
AWS’s Open 3D Engine (O3DE), under the permissive Apache 2.0 license, is the first project governed by the new foundation. The Open 3D Engine enables developers and content creators to build 3D experiences unencumbered by commercial terms and provide the support and infrastructure of an open-source community through forums, code repositories, and developer events. A developer preview of O3DE can be reached on GitHub.
Bill Vass, VP of Engineering at AWS, said,
“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.”
The Open 3D Engine has significant features, including a new multi-threaded photorealistic renderer, an extensible 3D content editor, a data-driven character animation system, and a node-based visual scripting tool. It also gives developers the flexibility of authoring code with C++, LUA, and python.
Developers can collaborate on building games and simulations, the underlying engine under the Open 3D Foundation and Open 3D Engine Project.