Written by Joe Bryant, Executive Director of Open 3D Foundation
Hello Everyone!
2024 was a formative year for O3DE! We saw growth in both gaming and simulation users, with a 36% increase in downloads for 2024 across Debian and Windows packages. We had 1 major release (24.9.0) and 3 point releases. Our major release shipped with 94 major and minor new features, and hundreds of bug fixes. Thanks to the 300 contributors that helped make 24.9.0 possible!
Downloads by month and OS:
Notable features added in 2024:
- Full iOS/Android/AR/VR/XR support and optimizations
- Script Only mode (no need for C++)
- Full project runtime export for all supported platforms
- Shader variant support
- Entity silhouettes
- LLM framework to allow users to utilize their GenAI of preference
- Many networking/cloud improvements
- Ability to set quality settings per device type
- Many installation improvements and bug fixes
- ROS 2 Gem: added Georeference Component
- ROS 2 Gem: added possibility to spawn assets using WGS-84 data format in ROS2SpawnerComponent
- ROS 2 Gem: extended ROS2FrameComponent in Editor (split into Game and Editor components
- ROS 2 RobotImporter: added Gazebo data parsing for camera, GNSS, IMU, and Lidar sensors
- ROS 2 RobotImporter: added Gazebo data parsing for skid steering and Ackermann drive models
- ROS 2 RobotImporter: added Gazebo data parsing for joint pose trajectory and joint state publisher configuration
- Added an offline installer option for Windows installs.
We also had a few new gems created for O3DE:
- Pointcloud https://github.com/RobotecAI/robotec-o3de-tools/tree/main/Gems/Pointcloud
- ROS2ScriptIntegration https://github.com/RobotecAI/robotec-o3de-tools/tree/main/Gems/ROS2ScriptIntegration
- VehicleDynamics https://github.com/RobotecAI/o3de-vehicle-dynamics-gem
In 2024, we focused on the stability and ease of use of O3DE fixing 100’s of stability and ease of use issues. GameFromScratch reviewed our 24.09.0 release here , which attests to the improved stability and usability.
Additionally, the Open 3D Foundation had booths at the Game Developers Conference and shared a platinum booth with Robotec.ai for ROSCon (Robotics Operating System Conference). We also attended several other conferences focused around open source such as Open Source Summit North America and KubeCon + Cloud Native + Open Source Summit Hong Kong. We also attended AWE North America, and Siggraph. The goal of attending these conferences was to raise awareness about O3DE, and to answer questions from potential new users.
During 2025 we plan to attend many of the same conferences and events, along with attending more events in the Asia Pacific region, which has expressed a lot of interest in O3DE.
For 2025 we are continuing to focus on stability and quality of life. Features will not matter if users cannot reliably use O3DE. Importantly we will continue to improve the ease of installation of O3DE. We have also developed a feature roadmap, which can be found here o3de.org/roadmap. Note the roadmap is a living document and subject to change.
For 2025 we are equally focused between simulation and gaming needs, particularly in graphics and rendering. We are also looking to add features such as C#, making it easier for developers who are familiar with other engines to use O3DE. You can view a more detailed look into O3DE’s past and future via this video:
