July 2026 Update
Welcome to your GameGuru MAX update announcement. This update brings important fixes and improvements to enhance your game creation experience. We've restored key systems to improve performance and added new features to expand your creative toolkit. Here’s a round-up of what’s now part of today’s release:
Major Features & Additions
We are excited to introduce the new SPRITELIB feature, developed thanks to Bolt-Action Gaming, which adds fresh possibilities for sprite management and usage in your projects. This addition aims to enrich your creative options and streamline sprite handling within GameGuru MAX.
Added SPRITELIB Feature thanks to Bolt-Action Gaming
Editor & UI Enhancements
Several improvements have been made to the editor and UI to ensure smoother workflows and better stability. The Resource Node and BUILDA Driver Test have been fixed to address issues with shadowcube corruption on some drivers, improving reliability during development. Additionally, the game creator store downloader now provides more useful information to keep you informed during asset downloads.
Fixed Resource Node and BUILDA Driver Test to prevent shadowcube corruption on some drivers
Lua & Scripting
Updates to Lua scripting have been implemented to improve export stability and functionality. The RESOURCE NODE tool requirement now persists correctly after export to standalone builds, and resource node collection logic has been enhanced to handle all weapon match types. A fix was also applied to the ImageInZone script to ensure images display correctly once as intended.
Fixed RESOURCE NODE tool requirement persistence after export
Enhanced resource node collection for all weapon match types
Fixed ImageInZone.lua to show image once properly
Bug Fixes & Stability
This update addresses several bugs and restores previous system states to improve stability and performance. The terrain system texture handling has been reverted to an earlier state from December 2025 to resolve lagging texture issues. The lighting shader has been restored to ensure working shadows for EARLYTEST build users. Additionally, the search term fix in M-GridEditB.cpp now preserves category selection and View All functionality unless pattern detection search is specifically used. The .gitignore file was updated to exclude the GameGuruMAX-MissingLIBs-v5 directory, preventing large unnecessary files from being committed to the repository.
Reverted terrain texture handling to fix lag issues
Restored lighting shader for working shadows
Fixed search term handling in M-GridEditB.cpp preserving category selection
Updated .gitignore to exclude MissingLIBs v5 directory
DirectX 12 Progress Update
We have made great progress with our internal DX12 port of MAX, with terrain, grass, trees, water, shoreline waves, ripples, caustics, atmospheric effects, shadow rendering, and performance all getting some serious attention. We are not quite ready for an early alpha release; we will test it out on some weary veterans first, then we will release an alpha generally so you can see how it performs with your DX11 projects. From our early performance tests comparing DX11 vs DX12, we have uncovered a drop in FPS in a few areas if you choose the DX12 engine, a simple result of the fact that the DX12 engine is doing a lot more and hitting a high-quality bar thanks to the latest Wicked Engine version. We will of course continue to chisel away at core performance, and also continue adding knobs so you can bring in the features you want to balance fidelity with speed. We'll get a clearer picture of which areas are affected and need more focus when we go out to our internal test team, and can compare results across a wider range of systems, but feel it's fair to warn users that some lower end systems might need to dial down the higher end features if you choose to move to the DX12 version. As no DX12 update would be complete without the obligatory random screenshot, chosen without thought and quickly snapped for this interim announcement.
This screenshot of the current internal version shows water shoreline, lush grass, nice terrain texture blending, new water and reflections, trees and shadows in the distance, and a modest almost-60fps. Much more work to do, but heading in the right direction!
New Model Pack DLC Available
We have two new models packs available this month.
From MonkeyFrog Studios, we have the SciFi Blades - a set of four futuristic bladed weapons that would slide seamlessly into any far future, post-apocalyptic or cyberpunk adventure. You can check them out here:
From Kasseyus, we have the Desert Ruins - a collection of ancient sandstone ruins in a modular format, allowing you to create a huge array of fortifications, temples and bastions. Also includes are over 30 items of debris to give your ruins an authentic weathered look. If that wasn't enough, it also comes with five brand new weapons. Worth checking out here:
If you have any questions, you will find a great community on our DISCORD channel (https://discord.gg/8eFKsXDema) and if you find a bug, it would be awesome if you could post a report on our GitHub issues board (https://github.com/Dark-Basic-Software-Limited/GameGuruRepo/issues). Until next time, happy game making!