The beta of Leadwerks 3.3 is now available on the beta branch on Steam.

Two new entity classes that extend the model class are present. Sprites are a quad that can face the camera, a specific direction, or can rotate around one axis. These are useful for lighting effects and the axis rotation is great for making laser beams or tracer rounds.

The Lensflare class extends the sprite class and adds a simple glow effect for lighting.

The editor now support shift-drag to select in the main window viewports.

Vehicles are supported. However, the vehicle class is not documented and there are no examples yet. Expect updates that demonstrate how to use these before the final version is released.

On Windows, the main window now uses resizable splitters so you can adjust the size of the side panel and program log, or click the separator to show/hide them. You can also right-click on a file or folder in the Asset Browser and select the Properties menu item to bring up the Windows file properties dialog.

A surprise bonus I did not anticipate until a few days ago is a reworked, easier to use Workshop system. Files are now extracted into a subfolder in an "AddOns" folder in your project's directory. This makes it so scripts and shaders work properly, and prevents broken file linkages we were experiencing with more complex Workshop content. The system for uploading Workshop items has also gotten more intuitive and friendly. The change was not as dramatic as I feared; all Workshop assets and games still work with no changes. After working with this approach for just a couple of days, it feels so much faster and easier to use than keeping everything in encrypted zip files all the time.

Finally, the publish dialog will now export a copyright-protected game using zip file encryption. This works with both Lua and C++ games. A cross-platform game folder is now exported instead of an installer, so you can use Inno Setup or another free program to make your own installer.

The community has provided some really good feedback lately, and I'm really proud of how 3.3 is turning out. I think you'll find Workshop is a lot more useful now.