Leadwerks Game Engine 5 is an all-new version that makes game development easier than ever. Dive into our video tutorials and learn everything you need to bring your ideas to life. Create with ease using our intuitive visual editor and Lua script. When you're ready to publish, you keep 100% of your profits with our royalty-free license.

Optimized by Default

Our new multithreaded architecture prevents CPU bottlenecks, to provide order-of-magnitude faster performance under heavy rendering loads. Build with the confidence of having an optimized game engine that keeps up with your game as it grows.

Advanced Graphics

Achieve AAA-quality visuals with PBR materials, customizable post-processing effects, hardware tessellation, and a clustered forward+ renderer with support for up to 32x MSAA.

Built-in Level Design Tools

Built-in level design tools let you easily sketch out your game level right in the editor, with fine control over subdivision, bevels, and displacement. This makes it easy to build and playtest your game levels quickly, instead of switching back and forth between applications. It's got everything you need to build scenes, all in one place.

Vertex Material Painting

Add intricate details and visual interest by painting materials directly onto your level geometry. Seamless details applied across different surfaces tie the scene together and transform a collection of parts into a cohesive environment, allowing anyone to create beatiful game environments.

Built-in Mesh Reduction Tool

We've added a powerful new mesh reduction tool that decimates complex geometry, for easy model optimization or LOD creation.

Stochastic Vegetation System

Populate your outdoor scenes with dense, realistic foliage using our innovative vegetation system. It dynamically calculates instances each frame, allowing massive, detailed forests with fast performance and minimal memory usage.

Fully Dynamic Pathfinding

Our navigation system supports one or multiple navigation meshes that automatically rebuild when objects in the scene move. This allows navigation agents to dynamically adjust their routes in response to changes in the environment, for smarter enemies and more immersive gameplay possibilities.

Integrated Script Editor

Lua script integration offers rapid prototyping with an easy-to-learn language and hundreds of code examples. The built-in debugger lets you pause your game, step through code, and inspect every variable in real-time. For advanced users, C++ programming is also available with the Leadwerks Pro DLC.

Visual Flowgraph for Advanced Game Mechanics

The flowgraph editor provides high-level control over sequences of events, and lets level designers easily set up in-game sequences of events, without writing code.

Integrated Downloads Manager

Download thousands of ready-to-use PBR materials, 3D models, skyboxes, and other assets directly within the editor. You can use our content in your game, or to just have fun kitbashing a new scene.

Learn from a Pro

Are you stuck in "tutorial hell"? Our lessons are designed to provide the deep foundational knowledge you need to bring any type of game to life, with hours of video tutorials that guide you from total beginner to a capable game developer, one step at a time.

Royalty-Free License

When you get Leadwerks, you can make any number of commercial games with our developer-friendly license. There's no royalties, no install fees, and no third-party licensing strings to worry about, so you get to keep 100% of your profits.

Graphics

• Multi-threaded rendering architecture

• Clustered forward+ renderer with uniform lighting model and optional depth prepass

• Multi-display support

• PBR materials

• Load 3D models from glTF, OBJ, MDL, and FBX (using glTF converter)

• Image loading, saving, processing

• Vertex, pixel, geometry, and tessellation shaders

• Normal mapping with specular

• Customizable post-processing effects stack

• Crack-free hardware tessellation

• Environment probes

• Instanced rendering

• Real-time mesh modification

• Imposters

Editor

• Build-in level design tools using constructive solid geometry

• Edit level geometry in 2D and 3D viewports

• Carve and hollow boolean operations

• Build-in mesh reduction tools to optimize models or generate LODs

Programming

• Integrated script editor

• Easy-to-code Lua API with over 800 commands

• Auto-completion

• Hover mouse to show command syntax

• Visual flowgraph connects script functions to set up sequences of events

• Advanced programmers can use C++ (requires Leadwerks Pro DLC)

Terrain

• Dynamically sculpt and paint terrain

• Cut holes in terrain

• Up to 256 material layers

• Terrain foliage system

3D Models

• Load and save Khronos glTF files

• Load and save Wavefront OBJ files

• Convert FBX files to glTF and load

• Convert Collada files to glTF and load

• Build-in mesh reduction tools for optimizing models or generating LODs

Animation

• Animated skinned characters

• Share skeletons across multiple characters

• Attach objects to bones

• Built-in animation transition and update system

• Hardware skinning

• Blend and transition animations

Physics

• Fast and accurate asynchronous rigid body physics

• Constraints including hinge, ball, kinematic, plane, and sliding joints

• Motorized joints with limits

• Generate physics shapes

• Swept collision

• Raycasting with lines or spheres

Pathfinding

• Navmesh pathfinding

• Crowd avoidance and steering

• Navigation areas visible in editor

• Physics-based character controller

• Automatic AI following

Sound

• 3D sound spatialization

• Head-related transfer function (HRTF)

• Audio filters including distortion, flanging, echo, and EAX reverb effects

• Emit a sound from any entity

• Automatic channel management

• Skip to any time in sound

GUI

• Resolution-independent for any DPI

• Extensible widgets system

• Load SVG vector images

• Set widget and item image

• Change mouse cursor

• Custom color schemes stored in JSON files

Supported File Formats

• Model files can be loaded from and saved to glTF and OBJ format, or converted from FBX format.

• Textures can be loaded from DDS, PNG, JPG, BMP, TGA, PSD, and other image formats.

• Audio can be loaded from WAV, MP3, and OGG formats.

• ISPC Fast Texture Compression, including BC7 and BC6h pixel formats 

• Zip package loading and saving

System

• Thread management, with mutexes and semaphores

• File I/O

• File system watcher

• Memory allocation and management

• String manipulation (split, search, conversion, etc.)

• Message boxes and file / folder requester

Virtual Reality

• SteamVR integration with support for a variety of headsets

• Fast stereoscopic rendering

• Controller input and display

• Attach objects to hand controllers and headset

• Translation and rotation view offset

Steamworks Integration

• Authenticate application ownership

• Get user info

• Leaderboards

• Stats and achievements

• Multiplayer lobbies

• Peer-to-peer networking