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Announcing the release of Cryengine3 editor for Crysis 2 and Free CryENGINE SDK.

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1 year ago, we reported that following Unity's and Epic's UDK push to release a commercial grade engine for free (or at a price) that casual and indie game developers can afford, we expected Crysis and the CryENGINE to follow. Today it seems that announcement has been made, by none other than the CEO of Crytek, Cevat Yerli.

In an open letter to the Crytek Modding Community, Cevat discussed how important the modding community is to them, and how much they enjoy witnessing the creativity their community produces when working with CryENGINE. And in a move that mimics earlier announcements from Unity and Epic, Cevat says "This time around, we're going to do things in a different way - offering you the right tools to achieve your vision."


What does this mean? Three things:

  1. An Editor for Crysis 2 will be released early in summer. This will allow you to build new maps, items and more custom content for Crysis 2.
  2. In August 2011 they will be launching a free CryENGINE SDK. It is essentially similar to all of the previous modding SDK's, which will allow you to go above and beyond just building custom content for Crysis 2.
  3. The most significant announcement by far however, is "We'll be giving you access to the latest, greatest version of CryENGINE 3 - the same engine we use internally, the same engine we give to our licensees, the same engine that powers Crysis 2."

To put the 3rd announcement into perspective, CryENGINE 3 is commonly regarded as the most powerful engine in the market, and fetches an equally high licensing price by the companies that use it which includes game developers, the army, movie studios and more. Furthermore this engine is not a stipped down version with limited access to the source. As Cevet's says "This will be a complete version of our engine, including C++ code access, our content exporters (including our LiveCreate real-time pipeline), shader code, game sample code from Crysis 2, script samples, new improved Flowgraph and a whole host of great asset examples, which will allow teams to build complete games from scratch for PC."

While they didn't explicitly state how indie teams license the engine, it looks like it will be similar to Epic's UDK model whereby a rev share % will be put in place to sell the game digitally. Traditional commercial developers will continue to license the engine on a per-seat basis via MyCryENGINE.

My thoughts

This is simply astonishing and brilliant news. While UDK and Unity currently dominate and we haven't seen a huge number of large total conversions released on the Cryengine, though a recent Crash Bandicoot remake on the CryENGINE has been doing the rounds (see video below) which shows the potential. I'd attribute this to the fact that the current tools have largely been locked down by Crysis and only fully available to a few handpicked teams. It looks like that barrier to entry has just been smashed down and with full source code access the sky is the limit.


Your thoughts?

So are you happy with UDK / Unity or are you going to explore the CryENGINE?
Do you feel like the engines power is simply too much for an indie team to utilize, given the sheer amount of art assets and detail CryENGINE games typically demand?
Please share your opinion below, because this is a significant step forward for all game developers.

Post comment Comments  (0 - 50 of 118)
isaktamin
isaktamin

Good for Crytek, the modding industry will explode in popularity even more.

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INtense! Staff
INtense!

This goes beyond just modding, but it is great for everyone agreed

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Nilghai
Nilghai

could not agree more! this goes way beyond just modding

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Helmerdrake
Helmerdrake

Will Tension use CryEngine 3 now?

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Nilghai
Nilghai

not official, we are considering. It's really depending on how the tools will be for the engine. :)

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cinco
cinco

(buried)

thanks to worthy mod tools like udk. cryengine is good for tech demos only. try making a tc with crysis 2. oh wait crysis 1 doesn't even have a tc yet. my bad. nothing to see here except limited modding potential.

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Duruk Author
Duruk

There are some Crysis Total Conversions. For Example: Mechlivinglegends.net . So saying there are none isn't entirely true.

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Sev-RC-
Sev-RC-

It is not limited just not as many things for it.

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arieas
arieas

Just because there may not be as many TC's as other engines, does not mean the engine is limited, and does make any other mod unworthy. Seen the same argument from a non-troll 'it has no Total Conversions, modding failure' is a ignorant argument.
If cinco even knew anything about the effort and time that needs to go into making a total conversion of playable quality, he would probably not make that statement.

Cryengine is still rather unknown in a way, some mods I see for Source would be much better with CE. The SDK may just change that, with hundreds of people trying it on day one.
Its one of the best engines for modders today.

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DIFTOW
DIFTOW

Crytek can talk about it, but I'm not holding my breath.
If there is no misquoting here, these are big commitments to be upheld.
Not just talk about their engine being free to indies, but also being open source?

I hope Crytek does this; it is a smart move, and will prevent CE3 from sharing the sad fate that CE2 has.

I honor the CE2 engine, the achievement there and the game Crysis.. but the modding scene is dead, and I can say from experience that it is due to poor support, bugs in the engine, lack of freedom.

At this point of Crytek doesn't do it, they just won't be able to compete at all. Epic offers an engine that I think since its many updates over the past several months, have really put it ahead of CryEngine 3, and manages to keep a very generous license deal for indies, considering the facts.

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arieas
arieas

Not sure about misquoting but its right from the Crymod website, which confirms all about the modding, SDK etc. :)

I think they stand a pretty good chance. Big open worlds, real time, graphics are not everything... but pretty powerful graphics plus more. If they could just get full dx11 features in there its a perfect competitor/alternative to UDK. More people now also have the hardware to run cryengine, and the cryengine is much less demanding, so also a good thing.

Not trying to big up the engine, and by no means is better than UDK, or vice versa, hopefully Crytek will keep true to their word, it's going to be great indies get another engine to toy with. :)

Would certainly be good to know a lot more about the royalties etc when going commercial with a game, and who then owns the rights to IP, would Crytek be entitled to use the IP at their own will, sort of thing.

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TheRedThing
TheRedThing

That's good news for everyone, will they go onto iOS like UDK too?

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closed-account
closed-account

I doubt many UDK users will switch. But the release of C++ code access might push Epic will do the same.

We've contacted Crytek for more licensing information as it is something we are keeping an eye on.

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INtense! Staff
INtense!

I doubt many will make the switch either, _BUT_ new developers now have more choice than ever and CryENGINE games certainly have a unique look to them which I imagine would help sell copies.

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ImABot
ImABot

I feel you thats why i dont use the UDK but if unreal where to release a C++ alternative i would jump on that **** asap

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newbie2356
newbie2356

oh my god, I haven't started creating my game project just yet, but the fact that c++ source code for free? I may use the cryengine 3 and abandon my unreal engine 3 books just for the fact i can use my newly learned c++ skills.

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cinco
cinco

(buried)

too little too late. crysis engines are all quite unflexible, stupid and painful to use. oh and low mod output for that reason.

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SteveUK
SteveUK

Source is unflexible, stupid and painful to use but that didn't stop the community in coming out with great mods did it? And since Crytek are giving out FULL C++ source access to the engine as well as their internal documentation, I think your opinion on the CryEngine will be invalidated.

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KortalMombat
KortalMombat

Dont feed him steve, he trolls every mod and every news that he wants, be the bigger man.

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saivert
saivert

A game engine doesn't make the games for you. All game development requires hard work no matter what engine you use. I really don't know what you mean with unflexible. Name this wonder engine that makes life so simple please.

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MyDopefish
MyDopefish

Will be looking forward to it :)

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SneakySoft
SneakySoft

I thought this was already official and planned for the end of the summer. I red that on another site a couple of months back. Nice to kow it's really official now :).

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Martynass
Martynass

Glad to hear this. I will be forward to try my modding skills with this baby.

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SIGILL
SIGILL

Yeah when I read this yesterday I was like yayayay! It's a shame they've kept silent for quite a while, which caused some unrest over at Crymod, but it's good to finally know that, and how, they are going to support both modding and 'indie' development.

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k21n
k21n

great news!! can't wait

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Aquatech
Aquatech

Wow! Awesome!
I hope we get a great SDK. :)

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Neurological
Neurological

"Cevat discussed how importing the modding community is to them", I think it should be important? Sorry not trying to be an ***, just pointing it out :).

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Duruk Author
Duruk

Thanks I fixed it

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Chinka
Chinka

CryEngine 3 games coming 2012 :D

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Potteh.
Potteh.

Let's hope there is at least some good documentation surrounding the engine, rather than just giving you it.

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Duruk Author
Duruk

Im sure they will. With the release of Sandbox2 editor for Crysis1 they also release an online manual: Doc.crymod.com . Lets hope they will do the same for Sandbox3

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dsi1
dsi1

They're also releasing this: Packtpub.com
Some people may recognize those mechs and names...

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Duruk Author
Duruk

@dis great thanks for the link

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ice_trey
ice_trey

(buried)

cavat and his 4 brothers are the most overrated of them all, slightly below gabe nubell and steam :)

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xalener
xalener

An overrated...person? We're rating people now? You sick bastard.

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Helmdubo
Helmdubo

The best game engine!

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thunderising
thunderising

Great... finally we can get games that dont look sucky(UDK meh)

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Tempest_Wales
Tempest_Wales

(buried)

All Hail Console Engine 3! :p

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SteveUK
SteveUK

I hope you know that the capabilities of the engine far exceed what was done with Crysis 2, the licenced engine does have a lot of next gen features like UE3 does including DX10/11 rendering which we are told is also being patched into Crysis 2.

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ImABot
ImABot

Yea PC gamers will get their DX11 just as soon as we get the original Crysis story back, face it they have left PC for a more profitable path.....

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SteveUK
SteveUK

I'd be with you if the story in Crysis 1 was actually better.

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xalener
xalener

Crysis's story was ******* terrible dude. Why do you want it back? QUAKE had better character development. Crysis's voice work made the acting in a Capcom game seem *decent*.
"My chute is gone... my..damn..chute is gone..."

"WEHN DA NORF KOWEEEINZ GET DEMSELVS A MUH FUKKIN FWEEZE WAY?"

**** that ****.

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Duruk Author
Duruk

@Xalener could you please watch your language a bit please.
Thanks in advance

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hogsy
hogsy

Welcome to the internet. Home of trash talk!

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xalener
xalener

If we could get rid of all taboos we'd be able to achieve world peace, for taboos are the source of all disagreements. The only way to eradicate them is to redefine them. I curse frequently to take the edge off of it to the point where it is no longer a taboo. I curse for world peace.

Don't hold back progress.

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Hell_Diguner
Hell_Diguner

Okay first, that was a mock quote of the game. What do you want him to do, censor his quote?

Second, I would argue that the use of foul language indicates a lack of eloquence in the language (whatever language is being spoken/written), and thus should not be used in common or educated speech, regardless of taboo.

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Duruk Author
Duruk

Since your posting on my members site. Im trying to keep things a bit civilized. So thank you for your cooperation.
He could have used a less "cursing" quote.

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ghost59
ghost59

yes we can develop on a good engine

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jjawinte
jjawinte

Well there she is...

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ratatuj93
ratatuj93

Amazing news. I was waiting for that so long... So basically now if you're indie developer you can sell freely your game, made with CryENGINE 3? I fully don't understand that license requirements...

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SIGILL
SIGILL

No you can't sell it 'freely' (if that means without paying for a license), there is no exact info on what the price will be or how it's going to work yet. If I understand correctly you can release free games for free though.

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ratatuj93
ratatuj93

Thanks for information.

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Octimus
Octimus

"While they didn't explicitly state how indie teams license the engine, it looks like it will be similar to Epic's UDK model whereby a rev share % will be put in place to sell the game digitally. Traditional commercial developers will continue to license the engine on a per-seat basis via MyCryENGINE."

its on the page fella.

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