Amazon Lumberyard Engine Now Open Source as Part of the Open 3D Engine

Alessio Palumbo
Open 3D Engine

Amazon Web Services announced to have contributed an updated version of its Lumberyard Engine to the Open 3D Engine project, now available in a completely open source fashion through the Apache 2.0 license.

Bill Vass, VP of Engineering at AWS, stated:

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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.

Chris Aniszczyk, CTO of the Linux Foundation, added:

The new Open 3D Foundation finally gives gaming and engine developers an opportunity to influence the direction of a major AAA class 3D engine that is sustained for the long term by a worldwide open source community. Furthermore, other industries such as automotive and healthcare can take advantage of embedding the engine and supporting the advancement of the engine to benefit all.

The Open 3D Engine project is backed by several companies, including some of the biggest in the tech industry: AccelByte, Adobe, Apocalypse Studios, Audiokinetic, AWS, Backtrace.io, Carbonated, Futurewei, GAMEPOCH, Genvid Technologies, Hadean, HERE Technologies, Huawei, Intel, International Game Developers Association, KitBash3D, Kythera AI, Niantic, Open Robotics, PopcornFX, Red Hat, Rochester Institute of Technology, SideFX, Tafi, TLM Partners and Wargaming.

An event called O3DECon is already scheduled to take place on October 11- 12 in Los Angeles, California, while an Open 3D Engine panel will air during the virtual GDC 2021 event on Thursday, July 22, 8:30 am - 9:30 am (Pacific Time).

As a reminder, Amazon Lumberyard was first released in February 2016. Originally based on Crytek's CryEngine, it has been used in a handful of games such as the now-canceled Breakaway and Crucible, The Grand Tour Game, and the upcoming titles Star Citizen/Squadron 42, Deadhaus Sonata, and New World (which enters Closed beta on July 20th, with a full release planned for August 31st).

Alessio Palumbo Photo

About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.

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