The case for making art when the world is on fire | Amie McNee | TEDxManchester
6. May 2025

The case for making art when the world is on fire | Amie McNee | TEDxManchester

6. May 2025 By admin

As an artist, do you also feel overwhelmed by this loud, screaming, and over-commercialized world?
Do you feel that your creative work has little or no impact on the overall fabric of our society?
That there is no longer any room for art in a burning world?

And does it even make sense to explore your own creative process and create something yourself in the age of CRAP (“Computer-Rendered Artificial Images,” or sometimes called „Generative AI“) (by @mthie@fedi.mthie.com)?

I can understand the feeling of paralysis in the face of these major threats to your own art only too well.

I find this short TED Talk by Amie McNee so inspiring and encouraging; it speaks out of and to my soul.

The case for making art when the world is on fire | Amie McNee | TEDxManchester:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2XZ9z6OewR0

Through my shamanic worldview, I am convinced that the creative process is an important, intrinsic human act of creation. It cannot be replaced. That’s why I enjoy “personal art.” Hence my love and commitment to Indies.

Happy creating 🙂

Helge

P.S. You inf this and other of my articles also on my (free) Patreon:
https://www.patreon.com/c/pixeltrain3d

3D & GameDev Trainer Helge Maus in a remote Godot training.
3. February 2025

My first “Godot Grundlagen Schulung”

3. February 2025 By admin

Done – my first German-language “Godot Fundamentals” (“Grundlagen der Game Entwicklung mit der Godot Game Engine”) course took place last week. Further advanced courses are already planned.

More information here: http://www.pixeltrain.net/events/

This marks another milestone in the restructuring of my training offerings towards FOSS:
In addition to “Blender for Production” now also “Indie Game Development with Godot”.

I believe indie productions are important for the creative future!

Godot Game Engine gets Jolt
12. December 2024

Godot 4.4 – Jolt Physics as an alternative 3D physics engine integrated

12. December 2024 By admin

https://www.patreon.com/posts/godot-4-4-jolt-117824214?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

Yesterday was a big day for all Godot Engine game developers working on 3d games using physics.

Since yesterday the Jolt Physics Engine was added as an alternative 3D Physics Engine to the source code of the coming Godot 4.4 version.

A little bit of background for that:

The stable version of Godot has it’s own 3d physics engine, which is used for all kinds of physics simulation in 3d games. These types of engines are really tricky to maintain, also to make their simulations performant and stable and also give you all the features your need.

(Image credit: Horizon Forbidden West by Guerrilla Games)

Many developers using Godot for 3D with heavy use of physics are working with an external open source physics engine with the name “Jolt”. This engine is written / maintained by Jorrit Rouwe and many other contributors and is battle-proofed, because it is used in “Horizon Forbidden West” by Guerrilla Games. It is suitable for games and VR applications.

The Jolt Physics Engine is a multi core friendly rigid body physics and collision detection library. Written in C++. Suitable for games and VR applications.

You can read more about this engine here:

https://github.com/jrouwe/JoltPhysics

Before yesterday devs wanting to use this engine had to use “Godot Jolt” an Godot extension that integrates the Jolt physics engine. This was a separate extension you had to install.

Now this code was integrated and re-written. Here the statement of Mikael Hermansson, the developer behind the extension:

This new module is a port of the Godot Jolt extension, developed by myself over the past two years, in large part as a personal project, but with the last year (including this port) being sponsored by W4 Games. I’ve also received a significant amount of assistance and contributions from @jrouwe during this development, which I’m very grateful for. In fact, several major features have been added to Jolt largely to cater to the needs of Godot.

Here the full thread of the merge into Godot 4.4:

https://github.com/godotengine/godot/pull/99895

So, I’m looking forward to Godot’s future as a full fleshed and performant 3D Games Engine.

Have fun!

Helge

BTW, if you want to learn Godot from the ground up I offer some German classes in beginning of 2025: http://www.pixeltrain.net/events/

Also I’m planing a pixeltrain Godot Academy in English beginning next year.
If you are interested, please let me know.

The Magic of Indie Productions by Do Park
9. August 2024

The Magic of Indie Productions by Do Park

9. August 2024 By admin

Today I want to share an article I found online about Indie productions in animation, games or even other media, why they exist and most importantly what drives them.

It answers questions like “Why can an animated short can be produced, when companies like Disney or Pixar need millions of dollars and huge teams?”
Why are indie productions really often more attractive than mainstream media?

“Indie stories are magic. They have an unfair advantage.
They are often more personal and relatable than what any large studio can produce.”

And for me, it describes also why I’m falling in love with more and more indie projects.
👉 https://www.palette.tools/stories/magic-of-indie

If you want to learn more about Indie Animation Production with Blender or Indie Game Development with the Godot Game Engine, here is my Patreon:
👉 https://www.patreon.com/pixeltrain3d/posts

Have fun!

Second Dinner game studio invests in W4 Games and will make Godot games - Patreon article by Helge Maus - pixeltrain
8. August 2024

Second Dinner game studio invests in W4 Games and will make Godot games

8. August 2024 By admin

Great Godot news – W4 Games and Second Dinner studio announced a strategic partnership.
Some thoughts and info here on my (free) Patreon:

👉 https://www.patreon.com/posts/second-dinner-in-109646377?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

I am so thrilled, that the Godot as a free and open-source Game engine gets more and more visibility in the Games Develpment World.
If you are looking for training or coaching in Godot Game Development please reach out to me: https://www.linkedin.com/in/pixeltrain/

26. March 2024

Godot Game Engine – W4 Games and Meta Team Up to Expand Open-Source Godot Ecosystem on Meta QuestGodot Game Engine

26. March 2024 By admin

Shortly before GDC 2024, W4 Games and Meta announced a new collaboration in the area of XR under the title “W4 Games and Meta Team Up to Expand Open-Source Godot Ecosystem on Meta Quest“.

As you probably know, I’m not necessarily a big fan of Meta, but I see this type of collaborations in the area of XR as a big boost for development and value for the development of Godot on these platforms.

The strategic cooperation covers the following areas:

  • Improving functionality, performance and usability of OpenXR features within Godot for the benefit of all VR developers
  • Providing an integration of the Meta Quest SDKs via plugin and exposing more Meta Quest features to end-users
  • Developing an optimized release template specifically for Quest users that leverages Meta Quest technology
  • Creating high-quality samples and documentation to help Godot users develop for Meta Quest

The strategic partnership also contemplates the development of educational materials and joint marketing activities in the coming years. Meta and W4 Games are dedicated to contributing as much of this work as possible to the Godot project as part of our shared commitment to the open-source community.

Here is the entire press release on the W4 website:

https://www.w4games.com/blog/w4-games-news-1/w4-games-and-meta-team-up-to-expand-open-source-godot-ecosystem-on-meta-quest-28

I believe, that Godot is on a good track at the moment to get the same momentum as Blender some years ago.

If you want to learn more about Godot or even need training, please let me know info(at)pixeltrain.net. I would love to help.

Godot Game Engine - Cooperation with Google and The Forge
15. December 2023

Godot Game Engine – Cooperation with Google and The Forge

15. December 2023 By admin

Yesterday a new partnership between Google, The Forge and the Godot Foundation was announced on the Godot Blog. The goal is to optimize and expand Godot’s mobile engine for Vulkan-enabled devices, i.e. Android devices. However, changes and enhancements in this area will also be useful for other mobile devices as the Godot code will be optimized.

From the announcement and the social media posts from Godot Foundation Members you can read that Goole Engineering and the developers at The Forge are optimizing the code base in cooperation with Godot contributors.

I’m very happy about that, because this principle has also worked very well at the development of Blender, for example when you see the collaboration with Apple (Metal Backend), AMD, Intel or NVIDEA.

This commitment makes the open-source product better and more valuable for all users.

So, great news in my opinion 🙂

Helge

More information here:
https://godotengine.org/article/collaboration-with-google-forge-2023/

Link to my (free) Patron article:
https://www.patreon.com/posts/godot-game-with-94709607?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link

27. June 2023

Godot Game Engine – Let’s support FOSS

27. June 2023 By admin

One thing I really love about working with FOSS (Free and Open-Source Software) is that there are so many different ways to help and collaborate with each other. Anyone can use the software immediately, no matter what their budget or where they are in their creative career.

However, I am just as happy to give something back to the projects so that others can benefit as well and not just a small number of investors or senior management.

This “giving back” can have many different faces: 
Actively developing, writing documentation, teaching :-), doing PR and also giving something financially (in the personal possibilities). Even small amounts give the projects more planning security.

Godot as a free game engine is one of those projects that I’ve grown fond of. Glad to be here on this list now too.

👉 https://godotengine.org

Perhaps you will also find such a project that inspires you?

Helge

#3d #godot #gamedev #gamedevelopment #games #godotengine #gamedesigner #indiedev #gamedevelopers #pixeltrain#helgemaus