Cryengine now has C# & more!

I guess we should all log off unity general forums and start making a triple A game... Oh wait, we're still here debating game engines

 

"Over time, Crytek will switch all 3D content and 3D animations to the Collada file format as the intermediate asset file format."
http://docs.cryengine.com/display/SDKDOC2/Art+Pipeline

This gives me hope

I believe CryEngine doesn't support mobile Platforms right now. Lumberyard recently added support for those, so it is possible CryEngine might, too. But I think the whole engine might be geared more towards higher end platforms.

 

i also think so and that's what makes unity so appealing too

 

I don't agree CryEngine 5 outdoor GameSDK demo runs very fast on my old laptop, while a Unity outdoor scene as complex will run slower, CryEngine 5 is really lot faster on old PC.

 

@antislash @zenGarden
Yep, I agree. There is no engine that can beat Unity when it comes to cross platform support and mobile development.

 

I spent a day testing it, I can't even import any asset, can't override navigation controls, can't find where to write C# scripts, can't spit out a build, and as soon as I add a terrain I get 10 FPS.
In that same amount of time, August 31th 2010, I was blasting it with Unity at the end of the day.

 

Oh yeah, I was waiting for this topic to popup; wait a sec, gonna prepare myself some popcorn!

 

Or the services provided with the engine. Unity has a very nice selection that the competition currently lacks.

Technology may not be in the way, but documentation might be a different story.

 

I just downloaded the GameSDK example and opened it and if there was asset compiling, it only took a few seconds.

 

Last night I've build a small UI demo in CE, entirely written on CE# using canvas. You can project the canvas anywhere, on 3d objects = boom 3D UI, no projection = picks up default rendering window. It was a breeze, great move on adding C#. Their C# implementation is pure. They've exposed the entire CryEngine API to C#.
Besides being forced to write gameplay code in C++ on CE in the past versions what I always hated about CE was their asset pipeline workflow. Kinda tired of setting up import texts files for animations, they need something more streamlined (as Unity or Unreal). I would however not recommend them to removed the assets import method through text files as It's actually good for very huge games to batch tons of files with lot of characters and animations.
Their new renderer is a lot faster, it handles large amount of drawcalls. I'm putting out a testing scene, will probably show some pics here (once finished importing files).

 

Thing is, we talk about engines without any real context. For e.g. I do offline FPS RPG's, so Unity services are useless to me. I just need an engine to be the best it can at PC / Console and whatever eases the burden as much as possible.

That's where engines like CE and Unreal come in, so it's completely dependant on your project.

It's just nice to know, whatever project you choose you won't be left out in the cold..!

 

Have you seen their new Collaborate service?

http://unity3d.com/services/collaborate

 

Seems cool, but I'm happy with Perforce and Jabber for now.. Wrongly or rightly, I've become so utterly dependant on Unreals workflow tools I could never switch to another engine. You see all the major stuff at a glance, but it's all the little sub-components (too many to list) that are making a substantial difference.

Which it's not Unity's (or any other engines) place to cater for really. Again, depends on your game.!

 

I agree, because making a high end PC game is not everyone ability, and because if you are making a smaller game sometimes it doesn't make sense to pick up a big engine like UE4 or CryEngine as you'll work faster in Unity.
I seen some UE4 games that was small games going on Steam, outside of some visual effects from UE4 i didn't understood why the guys pick up UE4 really when the game rendering was not high end and more stylish graphics.

Do you mean UE4 workflow is the best for you and your game ?

 

Man I went to RedLobster to eat and this thread blew up hahaah.

 

That's only because the individual who usually closes them doesn't seem to be on here during weekends.

 

Well I'm pretty sure there's many others making FPS / RPG's and variants of etc. that will find it beneficial.. But yeah it's working for me so far..

I'm like a moth to a flame with CryEngines water though ..

 

Haha

@ShadowK - The water seems different than it used too.
it seems more blue than it did before. Before I could have sworn it was like a very dark blue with a high Normal map on it.
Now it seems kinda smooth lol.

 

I like my water shaken, not stirred..

 

ima try out this bad boy tomorrow...

http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/the-community-ocean-shader-open-source-unity-5.370818/

@tatoforever sorry to bother you but did you get my pm

 

Wow that's wicked dude!

@ShadowK - bahahhah

 

I didn't know such community plugin existed, thanks for pointing it out.

Is there some sticky in Unity forums about great community plugins and tools ? You are not aware they exist until you find someone talking about them in a random thread.

 

Still trying to figure out how to get the blender water shader ported to unity but scratching my head, shader coding isn't easy.

 

There's lots of hidden gems you just have to wander away from the noise of the general forums once in a while

 

Why not a sticky ? More people aware of existing gems, means better people projects.

 

Very nice. First thing I thought of upon seeing that is @BoredMormon's game in 3D.

 

No idea could be an asset store conspiracy theory, otherwise who would buy the ocean, water shaders upon discovering stuff like this. (I joke of course)

 

There is sticky on UE4 forums about tutorials and plugins, why not on Unity forums ?

 

I think I need go back and read this thread to grab some context. How did scripting in CryEngine turn into which shader to use for Pond Wars 3D?

 

hahahahahaha

 

Oh but I am. Although I can't see this in any way damaging to Unity. Because you're all choosing to discuss it on these forums and not those forums. It's very telling.

Probably heading to locksville because it's become random.

 

I meant @Aurore. You generally let them survive long enough to acquire the rope to hang themselves. She doesn't.

Unreal has lousy forum software and CryTek has a lousy community.

 

@hippocoder - bu bu buttt nooooo, I'll call a locksmith to unlock it! lol jk... It's fine if you go ahead and lock it, I just figured it was nice for everyone to know about it lol.

 

At least a good number of us discovered a very nice shader. Now if only we had a guide listing resources like this.

 

hahaha yup that is true.

 

Well it is, last time I properly checked out CryEngine (besides Lumberyard) is before EAAS. Last time I checked out Unity (properly) was less than three months ago. I still spend money on assets from time to time, I was a pro user and I have at least tried to contribute.

It'll still be a consideration for sub-projects or even a follow up depending on where it is in a couple of years. The new features sound cool in CE, not been tempted yet to give it a go though.. Maybe when they sort out a generic pipeline for imports I'll be more inclined?

 

It certainly doesn't help that Crytek is having a lot of trouble with their web services (forums, answers, marketplace, etc.)

 

I have been using a Cryblend fork to import, but there is a new Mesh Importer that works with fbx, dae, dxf, obj and 3ds for static objects. Tested it as a import as FBX from Blender and Maya LT, worked perfectly.

Some of their devs and their Technical Marketing guy have been on the unofficial slack channel dropping info about the importing and other aspects. They appear to be listening to the community and want to move away from the current plugins setup, they are just starting with static because it's easier obviously.

Also, it turns out the C# integration was added by one of their coders pretty much on their own. They wanted it and just went ahead and added it, amazing if you ask me. Github is coming, though it appears to be apart of their insider program which is a support program of sorts.

It's still buggy, and they are having some serious Website issues, but the reps in the slack channel have said they will be sorted in the coming days as a big chunk of their team was at GDC in the US.

Unity has such a simple importing process though and a very broad ranged support for file formats. Even then Godot has a excellent setup from Blender to itself, can even place lights, and physics proxies... if only all engines could be the same (Maya LT to Stingray is another excellent example).

 

I was kind of excited about this whole thing and paid $100 to download the new cryengine. Spent about 2 hours just to import a cube and add a texture to it. Tried to figure out how to get it to spin around with their visual scripting but wasn't having much luck. Maybe it's a decent engine once you know how it works, but I don't have the time to struggle with obvious things for hours. Back to Unity it is.

 

Cant even install the engine, cause the launcher gives me the known error...
First all the log in and register issues in their website for 3 days after the announcement, now this. I really like how unity handles situations like these, you get an announcement, you log in in unity and you can download the 5.4 beta, and find 3-4 blog articles that show the new features. The whole cryengine announcement seems a bit rushed to me, so i will probably wait a couple of months for them to sort it out (especially the documentation and tutorials) before i play around with it.

 

I digged their small SideWinder in C#, it is not as easy as Unity.
For example if you look at collision management, all game collision are managed in one C# Class instead of having the player,missile and ennemies dealing with collision on their own.

Also it seems CryEngine 5 doesn't supports prefabs (mesh,particles,sound and material in one object), the Class must load all components and place them by hand, what a shame.
You must use SubscribeToEntityCollision while you only declare collision functions in Unity, this is a really different way of coding gameplay and not streight forward as Unity.

Code (CSharp):

1. public Enemy(int type, Vec3 position)
2.         {
3.             Entity = EntitySystem.Entity.Instantiate (position, Quat.CreateIdentity (), 0.5f, _enemyTypes [type].Geometry);
4.  
5.             if (_enemyTypes[type].Material != null)
6.             {
7.                 IMaterial mat = Global.gEnv.p3DEngine.GetMaterialManager().LoadMaterial(_enemyTypes[type].Material);
8.                 Entity.BaseEntity.SetMaterial(mat);
9.             }
10.  
11.             // Rotate Z-Axis in degrees to have enemy facing forward.
12.             Entity.Rotation = Quat.CreateRotationZ(Utils.Deg2Rad(90f));
13.  
14.             IParticleEffect particleEffect = Global.gEnv.pParticleManager.FindEffect("spaceship.Trails.blue_fire_trail");
15.             var sp = new SpawnParams()
16.             {
17.                 fSizeScale = 0.5f,
18.             };
19.             Entity.BaseEntity.LoadParticleEmitter(1, particleEffect, sp);
20.      
21.             // Get position of jet on enemy (Note: Non-Existing position means x, y and z are all 0).
22.             Vec3 jetPosition = Entity.BaseEntity.GetStatObj(0).GetHelperPos("particle_01");
23.  
24.             // NOTE ON MATRIX34
25.             // ----------------
26.             // First Vec3 parameter indicates scale
27.             // Second Quat parameter indicate rotation
28.             // Third Vec3 parameter indicates position
29.  
30.             // Scale, Rotate and Position particle effect to ensure it's shown at the back of the ship.
31.             Entity.BaseEntity.SetSlotLocalTM(1, Matrix34.Create(new Vec3(1f), Quat.CreateRotationX(Utils.Deg2Rad(270f)), jetPosition));
32.  
33.             // Attach to entity collision event
34.             EntityCollisionCheck.SubscribeToEntityCollision(Entity.BaseEntity);
35.  
36.             // Put into game loop.
37.             GamePool.AddObjectToPool(this);
38.         }

 

The interface is really requiring getting used to it. That's one of the downsides.

 

So, how it is in terms of workflow? Do you have to, for example, still buy Flash to do GUI? Also is it still picky about models?

 

I do have grim taste in humour. That little jig a thread does before it ends.

 

when you jump to another software, you always have to get used to the interface...
first time i used unity i thought myself "oh crah wtf" but when you jump in and get used to it you love it, same thing with cryengine.

 

That's stupid, even if you're having lots of disposable income to burn (e.g. if you're a trustfund kid). You should "buy" it for $0 since it's now apparently an option, evaluate it and then actually pay if you like it.

 

@darkhog - I just did it for 0 dollars first to try it out, I don't see any sense in paying E.G. 100 dollars for something I'm unsure about.

Which my conclusion. I know it's a good engine, but until there's more docs on how to even use it, I probably won't ever touch it again until then.

I don't think any engine on this planet will ever been as simple as Unity.
I can't stand it when things make things more complicated than they need to be, and Unity proves it is definitely possible to be simple and still bad a** at the same time.

Yeah Unity may not come built in with all the fancy features, but at least they can still be made /. acquired through the asset store. I always try to give other engines the benefit of the doubt and at least give them a try, but I don't think anything will ever replace my baby Unity haha.

 

CryteK should just sell their rendering technology and pack it up.

 

Until you would work in a team making a high end PC game with a large scale and complexity, in this case the perspective is not the same and Unity is not the best option.

They already sold it to Amazon.

 

I was under the impression it was a license rather than an outright purchase. He's talking about a company buying them up.