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CryTek For Free: CryEngine 3 SDK and Editor
Samfer writes with this excerpt from Operation Reality Gaming:
"[...] sometime this summer, likely around August, we will see the appearance online of both a Crysis 2 editor and a CryEngine 3 SDK (software development kit). This not only means that people will be able to make full blown new levels for Crysis 2 but that the CryEngine 3 will also be made publicly available for the development of non-commercial projects to the community at large. To quote, '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.'"
Giving the engine for free is a massive swing to what I believe is the future of gaming. Gamers are too far gone now to be "enchanted" by games and want to know how it all works, and how they can change it to suit them better. Fallout 3 is the first game I came across that was fully supported by the community with mods, skins, and improved game play with patches to fix bugs. Having 12 people working on a game and patches is weak compared to having hundreds of intelligent and willing contributors all working for a common goal. Let the players have the keys to the car, you will be amazed at the way we can drive.
When I'm promised goatse, I demand to see goatse.
Half the fun of clicking blindly on Slashdot links is knowing that goatse could pop up at any time. When all I get is a broken image, it's like the sacred oath between troll and victim has been broken.
I've seen this described as Crytek taking on the likes of the UT3-engine, though I find there's one very important difference:
The UT3 engine can currently also be used to sell commercial games: Up to the first 50k of sales, it's completely free for developers. After that, Epic will take 25% of the earnings.
The cool things is that this 50k only works for the share that people get -after- the app stores get their cut. Have a look at their site to see their licensing agreement.
Not related to Epic in any way; Just a happy 'customer', and hopefully a published indie developer in the near future.
When you shoot a mime, do you use a silencer?
So not GPL nor APL nor BSD. Not interested.
The gaming world at large is devastated by this news.
Spelling mistakes, grammatical errors, and stupid comments are intentional.
You need very good artists (3D modelling, animation) to get anything out of CryEngine, except stomach ulcer for the programmers due to the complete undocumentedness of the code.
Regular characters in Crysis2 have 20+ animations running at the same time (breathing, walking, look IK, foot IK, etc), all blended with each other. That's not going to fly for an amateur project where the artist is happy to get a half-assed walk cycle going. For those, Ogre3D is much better with its full source available and very nice documentation, and much easier access due to not having every trick in the book and then some implemented.