Asset Forge
Development update #1
Introduction
Starting this month I'll be posting a development update on Asset Forge 2.0 each week. The new version has been in development for a while and is expected to release later this year. Over the coming weeks I'll keep you updated on features being added, do keep in mind that Asset Forge 2.0 is built from the ground up. That means that features that were already present in previous versions have to be added again.
Developer
Asset Forge is currently solely developed by me (Kenney), during development I might hire freelancers or ask the community for certain code components but overall I'll be the sole developer. There are no resources available to hire additional programmers at this point.
Components
Over the next weeks I'll be working on implementing and improving the following components. If/when all components are finished Asset Forge 2.0 will be released, I'll soon upload a roadmap. These components have to be created:
Collections
Includes showing all available built-in blocks, custom blocks and creating cache.
Gizmo
The widget used to move, rotate and scale blocks.
Selections
Selecting multiple blocks, copy/paste and undo.
Saving/loading
Saving and loading model files.
Hotkeys
All hotkeys for quick manipulation of the model and blocks.
Materials
Applying materials, creating UV maps, textures and (new in 2.0) custom textures.
2D exporting
Exporting a model as 2D sprite including effects and batch processing.
3D exporting
Creating 3D files out of a model.
New components
Groups
Creating groups and manipulating blocks as groups.
Properties
Allow users to manipulate block settings like position, rotation, scale, name and more.
Presets
Presets for 2D and 3D exporting (i.e. "Export for Unity"), plus testing in different engines.
Documentation
Extended documentation on custom blocks and instructions for importing into game engines.
Closing
Hope you're all excited for Asset Forge 2.0 (free update, btw). Feel free to comment below this post and under all future posts to share your ideas. Cheers!
Comments
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Sounds real good! Keep it up! :)
Hoping there are more 2D export options planned than the current version, things like moving the camera zoom / rotation / height etc and ability to manually "frame" a shot rather than preset increments.
The ability to use layers would be awesome (toggle on/off and export seperate layers to 2D)
and would allow easy exporting of seperate sprites that could be pieced back together afterwards to allow easy animation on the engine side.
Also very important would be the "visible seams" bug I posted about which has made the 2D export in the current version useless for me since I purchased.
Keep up the good work, looking forward to 2.0!
So far , all I wanna say is thank you and good luck . Please keep making us dream.
What's your direction for Asset Forge? Personally I want Asset Forge to be a Simple, Easy way to create Any asset. Basically intuitive; simple to use, learn, and grasp; with infinitely manipulable block based creation allowing for the most basic and complex design. That's my dream for this, so I want to know what yours is?
So the direction is pretty clear, just like it is now it'll keep being a simple editor for assets. All assets? Certainly not, there will always be limitations especially when trying to keep the interface easy to learn and use. Characters won't be supported, animations won't be supported.
when does it have macOS version?
There's already a Mac OS version available, as well as Linux.
Thanks for the open transparency on this! Looking forward to version 2, I love asset forge, keep up the great work and good luck! :)
Thanks! Yeah having the development open allows me to gather feature requests from users along the way.
can we make iso pictures and other 2d snaps?
there will be an easy "ingame" editor for making new models ground up new?
Yes, this is already a future. You can only make models using blocks, this is not a complete modeling tool.
am excited 🤩
Great! :D me too.
To pair with groups, will the 3D export be able to only merge at the group level? This way you could have say the lid of a chest, separate from the base (but each made up of multiple blocks).
At this moment I can't confirm that this will be an option, it depends a bit on how the code will be done. It's a good idea though and I will certainly consider it.
Thanks! Looking forward to 2.0.
This is amazing news!
Thanks, good to hear :)
Cant wait for more rotation, scaling and move options !!!!
Yeah absolutely! So in that regard there will be a brand new gizmo for quick moving, and of course the new properties pane which is very similar to how it works in Unity. I'm also working on a new "greeble" tool which will basically stick (automatically position and rotate) blocks on other block faces, this is helpful for adding smaller details.
Sounds wonderful!
Excited about this update. I hope increased number of sprite rotations are in this (64 or >). Either way can't wait to see what is added to this tool!
That should be fairly easy to add! I always thought the 2D exporting didn't have enough features so that'll certainly be a big focus point for the next update.
Great news !