CryEngine, the engine, and tool set that power AAA franchises like Crysis, Far Cry and others had a brand new version unveiled yesterday at the Games Developer Conference in San Francisco. Titled CryEngine V this brand new iteration of the development toolkit from Crytek focuses on making game development more accessible for AAA, developers on a budget and indies alike.
How exactly does Crytek hope to make their engine available to more developers? By shifting away from an expensive paid licensing model to a more flexible “pay what you can” model. This means that developers can gain access to the CryEngine source code, toolkit and feature set without paying any royalties to the original developers.
CryEngine V also puts an emphasized focus on emerging Virtual Reality headsets. It will support the development of games for Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR, HTC VIVE and Razor’s Open Source VR Platform.
Like other leading engines CryEngine V will also support the sale of assets through an online marketplace for use in developer’s projects. This new marketplace not only gives developer’s access to thousands of community created assets but also a vast library of objects, sounds & code developed by Crytek themselves. Alongside the announcement of the new structure Crytek and Humble Bundle launched a PWYC asset bundle – so if you want to grab some resources that are engine ready, these start as low as $1!
In a press release issued by Crytek the following features were highlighted:
· C# Enabled: A new API that allows developers who know C# to start scripting in CRYENGINE V right away.
· Reworked Low Overhead Renderer: Significantly increases the performance of today’s hardware in graphically intensive applications.
· DirectX 12 support: Utilize the latest branch of DirectX to take greater control of hardware resources.
· Advanced Volumetric Cloud System: Optimized for VR to give clouds full 3D spatial rendering for higher quality with minimal performance hit.
· New particle system: Create stunning real-time fluid effects, handled almost entirely on the GPU.
· A new launcher and UI: Navigate CRYENGINE more intuitively thanks to a streamlined UI which includes realigned features and new icon groupings.
· FMOD Studio support: Allowing greater flexibility in audio middleware selection.
· CRYENGINE Answers: A dedicated channel where the CRYENGINE community can share questions and answers.
Want to see the new engine in action? CryTek released the following 2-minute trailer to show off CryEngine V.
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