Hazel 2023.1 - HUGE New Release! 🎉

Hey everyone! Just thought I'd write a post to announce the Hazel 2023.1 has been released! Let's talk a little about what that means exactly, and what's new.

Basically we've decided to do quarterly "releases" where we merge a QA tested version of the latest features from the dev branch into the master branch. This ensures that the master branch remains stable and useable while the team works on new features in the dev branch. The master branch will be renamed to "release" in the future.

As always, you can continue accessing the dev branch if you would like to see what the team is working on and want to be on the bleeding edge of Hazel - at the price of less stability of course.

As always, this wouldn't be possible without your support, so thank you so much! ❤️

Release notes will always be published to docs.hazelengine.com if you would like to view the complete list (we've fixed over 150 bugs!), but otherwise here is a glimpse (highly recommend you click here to view the complete list of changes!):

New Features 📈

• Added Multi-threading to runtime
• Added Asset Packaging
• Added Sound Graphs
• Added Gizmo support for multi-entity editing
• Added Editor camera in play mode (ALT+C for now)
• Added C# Animation Library
• Added Debug Renderer
• Added SpriteRendererComponentAdded ability to easily create 2D Sprites via Scene Hierarchy Panel
• Added script creation through Hazelnut HZ-41, HZ-37
• Added the ability to unparent an Entity via C#Setting Parent to null will now cause the Entity to be unparented
• New RigidBody features/changes
• Re-added equality operators for Entity and Prefab
• Runtime now pre-loads all required assets when loading a scenePreviously this was done on-demand which caused frame time spikes
  In the future requires a workflow with domains or something
• Reworked the editor console GitLab #200, HZ-63
• Added Depth of Field
• Added Spot LightsOnly one shadow casting spot light for now
  Added proper soft shadow support for spot lights
  Added discard to Renderer2D.glsl shader for better transparency
• Changed TransformComponent to store rotation as quaternion
• SHIFT-CLICK in viewport now selects "root" Entity
• C# Entities can now be compared using == and !=
• Added DOUBLE CLICKING on an asset field in a component now opens that asset in the relevant editor / window
• Some multi-entity gizmo changesRotation gizmo is now rendered correctly when rotating multiple entities at once
• Added AudioEventsManager class to process and dispatch Audio Events
• Material Tables now use AssetHandles instead of Ref<MaterialAsset>
• Added a way to set entities' transforms to the Editor Camera's transform + alternate ways to create cameras in scene