• News Archive
This is an archive of news more than one year old.
Upgrade from Torque to C4 for 50% Off!
In response to the announcement that the makers of the Torque engine product line are going out of business, Terathon Software is currently offering a 50% discount on C4 Engine licenses for any previous owner of any Torque engine license until the end of 2010. To take advantage of this discount, simply use the discount code TORQUE on our order page, and then send a copy of your original Torque license email to sales@terathon.com, with any sensitive information removed, so we can verify your eligibility.
C4 Engine Version 2.1.2 Released
C4 Engine version 2.1.2 is now available to licensed users. This release is primarily a tuning update and contains several miscellaneous performance and robustness improvements.
C4 Engine Version 2.1.1 Released
C4 Engine version 2.1.1 is now available to licensed users. This release contains vastly improved physics code with much greater stability and performance. There are also several miscellaneous new features and bug fixes.
Bounce! Demo Released
Race-Away has released a new demo featuring five levels from the indie game Bounce!. The game features fun, simple gameplay by using C4 ball physics to create a new genre of puzzle game.
C4 Engine Version 2.1 Released
C4 Engine version 2.1 is now available to licensed users. This released contains new “impostor” features designed for rendering large forests with high performance. Thousands upon thousands of trees can now be rendered in a single world with fully dynamic lighting and shadows.
Video of forest rendering features
C4 Engine Version 2.0 Released
The long-awaited final release of C4 Engine version 2.0 is now available to licensed users. This release represents the single largest update in the history of the C4 Engine. The huge list of new features and improvements can be seen in the official release notes on the wiki.
C4 Engine Basic Edition Announced
A new low-cost option for licensing the C4 Engine, the Basic Edition will become available when version 2.0 is released this month. The regular price for the Basic Edition will be $100 per user, but it can currently be pre-ordered for the discount price of $80 per user.
The Basic Edition is intended for hobbyists who do not intend to sell a product made with the C4 Engine. The main difference between the Basic Edition and the Standard Edition is that the Basic Edition does not include source code for the core engine, tools, or demo game.
C4 Engine Version 2.0a4 Released
The fourth and final alpha release of C4 Engine version 2.0 is now available to licensed users.
Game Engine Gems at GDC 2010
The new book Game Engine Gems, Volume One will be released on March 11 at GDC 2010. Eric Lengyel, the series editor, will be at the Jones and Bartlett booth (#1843) on the expo floor on Thursday and Friday, March 11–12. He will also be available for book signing at the IGDA booth on Friday, March 12 between 2:00pm and 3:00pm.
Official Game Engine Gems website
IGDA Demo Night Video Posted
Eric Lengyel presented some of the newest features of the C4 Engine at the Silicon Valley IGDA Demo Night hosted by Cogswell Polytechnical College in September. A video of that presentation is now available at the link below.
Video of Eric Lengyel's presentation
C4 Engine Version 2.0a3 Released
The third alpha release of C4 Engine version 2.0 is now available to licensed users.
C4 Engine Version 2.0a2 Released
The second alpha release of C4 Engine version 2.0 is now available to licensed users.
C4 Engine Version 2.0a1 Released
The first alpha release of C4 Engine version 2.0 is now available to licensed users.
C4 Engine at SV IGDA Demo Night
Eric Lengyel will be presenting some of the newest features of the C4 Engine at the Silicon Valley IGDA Demo Night. The event takes place on Wednesday, September 30, 2009 at Cogswell Polytechnical College from 6:30pm to 9:30pm in the Dragons Den Auditorium.
C4 Engine Contest Winners Announced
Congratulations to Thomas Einsporn for winning first prize in the C4 Engine shader contest. Thomas designed a sky shader that implements atmospheric scattering effects to produce physically accurate sky colors. More information about the shader, including the material file itself, is available in the wiki article linked below.
Second prize in the contest goes to Teemu Väisänen for designing a car paint shader, and third prize goes to Andrew Marx for designing a shader that renders Julia sets. Details about these two shaders are also available in the wiki article.
C4 Engine Version 1.5.9 Released
Version 1.5.9 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes several miscellaneous additions that include new skinned model capabilities and a new normal map compression option.
C4 Engine Version 1.5.8 Released
Version 1.5.8 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes new skinned model optimizations, a new generic model placement tool in the World Editor, and several other miscellaneous additions.
World of Subways Wins Serious Games Award
The C4-based game World of Subways, Vol 1 – The Path, made by TML-Studios, was awarded “Best Corporate Game” at CeBIT 2009 in Hannover, Germany. The trophy shown to the right was presented to the World of Subways team at the Serious Games Conference (SGC) along with a cash prize of 7000€. The judges cited the game's complexity and attention to detail as reasons why World of Subways was chosen as the winner.
Screenshots from World of Subways – Vol 1
C4 Engine Version 1.5.5 Released
Version 1.5.5 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes several World Editor enhancements, some new miscellaneous features, and a preview of the upcoming physics tools.
C4 Engine Version 1.5.2 Released
Version 1.5.2 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a few workarounds for various driver bugs and a couple minor enhancements.
C4 Engine Version 1.5.1 Released
Version 1.5.1 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a number of small enhancements and bug fixes.
C4 Engine Version 1.5 Released
Version 1.5 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes two huge new features, a graphical shader editor and a voxel terrain system. The shader editor, shown in the left image below, allows artists to create detailed custom shaders without the need for any programming. The engine automatically translates the graph-like stucture of each shader into the low-level code needed to run on each platform. The voxel terrain system gives artists the power to create intricate landforms with intuitive tools for sculpting and painting terrain. The arch shown in the right image below is an example of what can be done in seconds without the restrictions of traditional height-based terrain systems.
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More details about the shader editor and voxel terrain system can be found on the C4 Engine wiki at the following locations:
The Beginner's Guide to the C4 Engine Now Available
The 808-page book The Beginner's Guide to the C4 Engine has been released and is now available for electronic download in the Terathon Marketplace. Written by four members of the C4 Engine community, the guide contains 21 chapters of valuable material for both beginners and experienced C4 users.
Listing in the Terathon Marketplace
C4 Engine Contest Winners Announced
Congratulations to James Brady for winning first prize in the C4 Engine scripting contest. James implemented a fully functional video poker machine using only the built-in scripting features of C4. His script is shown in the image to the right and weighs in at a hefty 218 methods. The script is divided into sections that perform tasks such as dealing the cards and determining what hand (pair, straight, flush, etc.) the player has received. When the player finally loses his last dime to the machine, he's met with a rather hostile escort out of the building.
Second prize in the contest goes to Chris Boyce, who designed a script to light up the correct bars in a two-digit LED counter. And third prize goes to David Vasquez for a large number of scripting functions implemented in his Material Showroom project.
The next contest will be for the best custom shader and will begin at the time that version 1.5 of the C4 Engine is released. Prize values can be expected to increase.
World of Subways Released
TML-Studios has released their C4-based train simulator World of Subways – Vol 1, published by Aerosoft. Called “THE PATH: New York Underground”, the first volume puts players on trains running along the route connecting New Jersey to New York City. The simulator combines a realistic subway experience with both underground and above-ground scenery like that shown in the screenshot to the right.
Official World of Subways website
Screenshots from World of Subways – Vol 1
C4 Engine Version 1.4.10 Released
Version 1.4.10 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a new cross-platform voice chat feature that lets players talk to each other over the internet in real time. Voice chat works even in games where the players are using a mixture of PC, Mac, and Playstation 3 client machines.
C4 Engine Build 149 Released
Build 149 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a completely new graphical scripting system that supports conditional execution, loops, and variables. The new script editor is shown in the screenshot to the right. There are also several other new features in this release such as support for Xbox 360 controllers under Windows, a new and improved texture format, extensible streaming audio, and generalized multi-zone visibility functionality.
Technical information about the graphical scripting language can be found on the following wiki pages.
C4 Engine Build 148 Released
Build 148 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes new post-processing effects for glow and bloom, several World Editor enhancements, and an expanded plugin system.
C4 Engine Build 147 Released
Build 147 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes the new content that was shown at the Game Developers Conference.
C4 Engine Build 146 Released
Build 146 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a large number of new features, including path editing tools, distortion post-processing effects like heat haze, and enhanced surface marking capabilities. With this release, the C4 Engine also runs on the Intel GMA X3000 series of graphics processors.
Terathon Software at GDC 2008
Terathon Software is excited to be an exhibitor at the Game Developers Conference in 2008. The event will be held at the Moscone Center in San Francisco, and the expo runs from Wednesday, February 20 to Friday, February 22. Terathon will be demonstrating its C4 Engine technology at booth #5749 in the north exhibit hall.
C4 Engine Build 145 Released
Build 145 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains a new GUI rendering system that allows custom skins to be created. This release also contains several new optimizations for scene rendering and resource management.
C4 Engine Build 144 Released
Build 144 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains a completely redesigned Resource Manager with support for pack files.
University of Kempten Licenses C4 Engine
The University of Kempten (Fachhochschule Kempten) in Germany has acquired an educational license for the C4 Engine, extending the list of universities now using C4 as a tool for teaching games-related engineering design. Combined with the usage of the book Mathematics for 3D Game Programming and Computer Graphics as a textbook, the work of C4's creator Eric Lengyel influences the education of students at a large number of universities worldwide.
C4 Engine Build 143 Released
Build 143 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains new text handling capabilities, dynamically-expandable referenced worlds, and several new miscellaneous features.
C4 Engine Build 142 Released
Build 142 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains several new miscellaneous engine features, new level-of-detail capabilities, World Editor improvements, and demo game additions.
C4 Engine Build 141 Released
Build 141 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains several new World Editor features and some improvements to existing features.
McMaster University Licenses C4 Engine
McMaster University, in Ontario, Canada, has acquired an educational site license for the C4 Engine. Students in the Software Engineering and Game Design Program who are participating in the honors-only Capstone design course have voted to use the C4 Engine in their studies, and Terathon is happy to provide a solid technological foundation for their projects.
C4 Engine Build 140 Released
Build 140 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains the much anticipated rewrite of the internal geometry building code. This opens the door for more rapid implementation of many new features currently on the C4 roadmap. In this build, many new capabilities have already been added to the World Editor, and the Collada Importer has received several enhancements. There are also quite a few miscellaneous updates throughout the engine, as detailed in the release notes.
C4 Engine Builds 138 and 139 Released
Build 139 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. Build 138 contains new scripting capabilities, editor enhancements, and many small requested features. Build 139 includes a workaround for a crash being reported under ATI drivers.
Georgia Tech Licenses C4 Engine
Georgia Institute of Technology has acquired an educational site license for the C4 Engine. Students in the Computer Science and Computational Media degree programs will be using the engine in the Video Game Design and Programming class (CS 4455) during the next school year to aid in the teaching of game architecture, design, and implementation.
Lockheed Martin Licenses C4 Engine
Corporate giant Lockheed Martin (NYSE:LMT) has recently acquired a company-wide site license for the C4 Engine. Initially, the engine is being used at the Radical Innovation Technology Center at Lockheed's King of Prussia, Pennsylvania location to develop applications characterized as “serious games”. This license adds a new dimension to the C4 Engine market by expanding its utilization beyond entertainment and education.
C4 Engine Build 137 Released
Build 137 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains a completely new Sound Manager with a large number of new features. Also included in this release are the much anticipated multi-node Get Info dialog in the World Editor and several weapon upgrades in the demo game.
C4 Engine at Siggraph Collada BOF
Eric Lengyel will be demonstrating the Collada import capabilities of the C4 Engine at the Siggraph 2007 conference in San Diego on Wednesday, August 8. The Collada Birds-of-a-feather (BOF) event will feature the C4 Engine in Conference Room 2 of the San Diego Convention Center between 2:00 and 3:45 PM.
C4 Engine Build 136 Released
Build 136 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release addresses some input problems that appeared on the Mac after installing the latest security updates. There are also minor updates to several engine components.
C4 Engine Build 135 Released
Build 135 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes new anti-aliasing support, several new World Editor features, and a spiffy new gun to play with—the proton cannon.
C4 Engine Build 134 Released
Build 134 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This is a minor update that includes several miscellaneous improvements.
C4 Engine Build 133 Released
Build 133 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes several world editor upgrades and new particle system capabilities.
C4 Engine Build 132 Released
Build 132 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release is the first part of a major two-part upgrade to the built-in world editor. Build 132 also includes a new enemy character, new features for rendering remote camera images in interaction panels, and a major speed boost for ATI hardware.
Eric Lengyel Speaking at GDC 2007
Eric Lengyel will be giving a short lecture about mathematical projection matrix tricks at the 2007 Game Developers Conference in San Francisco. These techniques are implemented in the C4 Engine and handle things such as projected depth offset for surface markings and zero-cost oblique near-plane frustum clipping for mirrors and portals.
C4 Engine Build 131 Released
Build 131 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes many improvements to the built-in Collada support and some miscellaneous tweaks.
C4 Engine Build 130 Released
Build 130 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a powerful new animation blending system and several miscellaneous improvements.
C4 Engine Build 129 Released
Build 129 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a lot of miscellaneous enhancements such as horizon mapping, new particle capabilities, better normal vector calculation, improved multiplayer APIs, and batch texture importing. The foundation of a new animation blending system is also in place, and this will be completed for the next release.
C4 Engine Build 128 Released
Build 128 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes a fully functional multiplayer game and new world designed specifically for multiplayer deathmatch games. The multiplayer game makes use of many new features in build 128 such as jump pads, protection shields, splash damage, power-ups, and mid-air propulsion.
C4 Engine Build 127 Released
Build 127 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes many small enhancements such as a new beam effect, expanded Collada support, and scripting improvements. Some large additions to the multiplayer systems were also made in this build, and work on a fully functional deathmatch game continues for the build 128 release.
C4 Engine Build 126 Released
Build 126 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release includes several much-anticipated features such as support for multiple submaterials per geometry and new environmental interaction functionality. This build also includes a new editor for creating interactive in-game interface panels.
C4 Engine at Siggraph Collada BOF
Eric Lengyel will be demonstrating the Collada import capabilities of the C4 Engine at the Siggraph 2006 conference in Boston on Wednesday, August 2. The Collada Birds-of-a-feather (BOF) event will feature the C4 Engine in room 206A of the Boston Convention and Exhibition Center between 6:00 and 8:00 PM.
C4 Engine Build 125 Released
Build 125 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains new entity placement tools in the World Editor, updated Collada 1.4 support, and several miscellaneous improvements.
C4 Engine Build 124 Released
Build 124 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This release contains full support for version 1.4 of the Collada format, improves full-scene motion blur, adds some new lighting features, and includes some major shadowing optimizations.
C4 Engine Build 123 Released
Build 123 of the C4 Engine is now available to licensed users. This is a minor update.
C4 Engine User Integrates Tactile VR Suit, Appears on Discovery Channel
Robert W. Lindeman, Assistant Professor in the Department of Computer Science at Worcester Polytechnic Institute (WPI), recently integrated support for a tactile virtual reality suit named the “TactaVest” into the C4 Engine. A documentary featuring the TactaVest aired on the Discovery Channel show Daily Planet in Canada on May 26.
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