Bevy 0.18 brings atmospheric occlusion, PBR shading, Solari improvements & font variations

Bevy 0.18 delivers notable improvements to its open-source Rust game engine. The release introduces atmosphere occlusion, allowing the new procedural atmosphere system to directly impact lighting conditions for scene objects. This procedural atmosphere is now highly customizable and supports arbitrary atmospheric types, giving developers control to craft desert skies, foggy environments, or non-Earth planetary settings.

Building on core rendering features, Bevy addresses persistent issues with its Physically Based Rendering (PBR) materials, resulting in clear quality enhancements. The experimental Solari renderer, which provides real-time raytracing, has also received several new features and improvements for developers seeking advanced visual pipelines. Additionally, the update adds a high-level full-screen material type to simplify the definition of post-processing shaders.

As part of its user interface enhancements, Bevy introduces robust font handling with support for variable weights, text strike-throughs, underlines, and OpenType features. Navigation within UI components is streamlined through automatic directional navigation, enabling easier interaction when using gamepads or keyboards. For developers managing build options, scenario-driven Cargo features now allow selective compilation for 2D, 3D, or UI functionality. Finally, built-in camera controllers for fly and pan camera setups reduce the need for external solutions.