Sitting all pretty-like at the top of Steam's software roster is the new addition of the CryEngine toolkit and source code. For a $10/£6 monthly subscription, developers can license one of the beefiest and feature-rich graphics generators out there for technical boosts such as "perspective-correct volumetric soft shadows" or "procedural object deformation" or "ooh, shiny."
There was a time when we were overwhelmed with World War II first-person shooters. Now it feels like we’re overwhelmed with modern military shooters, and I’m about ready to head back to WWII’s familiar battlefields with new graphics and new ideas. Namco Bandai’s and CI Games’ Enemy Front seems like will offer just that kind of ride.
It's WAR! Not real war, with bombs and screaming, but tech war, with payment models and indie schmoozing. Last night, Epic unveiled their subscription plan for Unreal Engine 4, offering the binary development tools and engine source for $19 per month. Now, Crytek have announced their own "CryEngine-as-a-service" subscription model. It has a couple of advantages over Epic's plan: it's cheaper, at $9.90 per month, and it's royalty free.
We’ve seen Microsoft teasing the GDC announcement of the latest installment in their popular DirectX series — subtitled "A Storm of Low-Level Hardware Interaction" — and now it seems the open source brigade are countering this new Microsoft offensive. Valve have freely released a software layer, ToGL, which will translate Direct3D calls to OpenGL.
Can it run Crysis? If you’re using Linux, the answer will eventually be “yes.” The German developer behind the first Far Cry and the Crysis games announced that it will show off its impressive CryEngine running natively on Linux for the first time during GDC.
No matter what upcoming plans Dishonored developer Arkane Studios has hidden in a velvet-lined box somewhere, it looks like CryEngine will be a part of it. A recent hiring push by the Austin-based Arkane and Battlecry Studios for artists and programmers to work with the Crytek game engine has surfaced, pointing to a project separate from the Unreal Engine 3-based Dishonored.
Crytek's CryEngine already had most of the graphics sown up with its third iteration, and now its (unnumbered) fourth has returned for the stragglers, adding impressive-sounding things like "realistic deep facial skinning", "physically based shading" and "complex simulations" to its bulging bag of tricks. Thankfully, they also released a video demonstration to explain that those things mean 'better lighting, weather and physics effects", including puddles that will actually evaporate in the sun. To see this in action, either go outside or join me after the break.
In this week's debate, Evan argues that Crysis 3 is the best-looking game in gaming, while Tyler isn't wooed by its tessellated vegetation and volumetric fog shadows. It's undeniably impressive tech, but does Crytek still wear the graphics crown?
Warface closed beta sign ups are now live! If you're interested a chance to check out Crytek's upcoming, CryEngine powered, free-to-play shooter with the silly name then you can head over to Warface.com now and enter your details into the empty fields on the right. You'll also be able to sign up for a "Gface" username, but you'll have to be quick if you want to take "W4rF4ceIsAS1llyN4m3" before anyone else does. In fact, I'm on my way in to do just that. Let's race.
The 2.5 update for Aion - Empyrean Calling - is now available. The game was already easily one of the most graphically impressive MMOs on the market, being built on the CryEngine that powered the original Far Cry. There's also an expanded character customisation tool and several other touches and alternations to further improve the game. You can see them all in motion in the video above.
Players can access the new content on the games test server now.
[via Rock, Paper, Shotgun]
