FUD about what? I have no dog in this race. In my preliminary testing I did not find what I needed or wanted out of the documentation and
left it at that. The documentation at this point is not on par with what you get out of other engines and if you think it is I think you’ve been drinking the koolaid and are not probably very objective about the issue. Which is fine. You like CryEngine.
Documentation is extremely important for a mostly artists driven team of developers. We have no time or resources to deal with documentation that is outdated badly written or not organized properly. If this is a hobby and time is not an issue then sure, I’m sure we could read through it and make out what we need.
I’m sure they will fix it at some point, it’s in better shape now than it’s ever been for sure and I think they are making an effort. I’ll revisit the docs in a year to see what it looks like.
At this point there are a lot of other factors why we can’t consider CryEngine (cross-platform support is one) but the engine looks great visually, that’s just not always the most important thing we need out of an engine.
First its visual Scripting system is getting an overhaul from the ground up
Build gameplay systems giving designers the power to create new and reusable functionality from a set of building blocks provided by programmers. Whereas Flowgraphs are great for level scripting, Schematyc is designed to provide more finite control of objects within those levels. All logic is driven by state and context in order to simplify the information that is presented to designers, and greatly reduced latency should make it possible to take new gameplay systems beyond the prototyping stage without the need to re-write them in C++.
I will put it like this -
Flowgraph = Unreal Kismet in terms of power.
Schematyc = Blueprint in terms of Power and flexibility. At least that is what I understand.
MacOSX support has been committed to the CryEngine as a Pull request. Rendering does not work YET in the view port according to the Pull request. But it does work on MacOSX so linux support should be coming soon.
No I do not work for Crytek. I am just really excited for what Is coming.
Essentially, you may use the engine for free (as long you make games), but if you want anything more than the most basic of support, then be prepared to spend at least 600 USD a year for it (or even 1800 USD a year for the premium package).
The interesting part in all of this is that it’s only through a membership that you will get instant access to new releases (suggesting that those who aren’t paying will have to wait for a time). It also suggests that there’s nothing preventing them from restricting access to the source or even the engine itself sometime in the future (and largely reversing their decision to make it free).
you can still get it. amazon bought the rights to cryengine a while back so if you get amazons game engine you get cryengine. amazon is hooking twitch support into it since they bought twitch too. and amazon saved crytech from bankruptcy when they couldn’t even meet payroll so paychecks were bouncing. they paid 500 mill for the rights…so you can expect them to have some conditions on crytech. could be worse…it could have sold out to facebook…and you can see how well and open that is going with the rift.
Amazon also has no obligation to keep their engine free to download and use in its entirety (they can change what you get for free at any point, for instance if they’re making poor revenue on their current monetization model).
It’s the same thing with any other engine that is not under an open source license (because in those cases the users cannot just fork from the last open source revision). In Lumberyard’s case the code is actually closed-source (last I remember anyway).
true, but without their investment there wouldn’t even be an open cryengine version, so you already have more with them than without them. its like when people complain about blender not having everything autodesk does including fbx, how do you complain about free? its not like you have lost anything. i can see veing upset when things happen like that renderer that was developed with alot of help on the promise it would be free and open but when the guy realized he could get money started charging even the people that helped him make it…but this is proprietary going free not vice versa.
even free & beta testing takes skill, time, effort, will…
IMO it is like a sticky trap in a garden: gardener enjoys the fruits while others are considered either customers or pests & insects… Free sugar anyone?
If this recent article has any credibility, then the Cryengine is in danger of becoming the first casualty of the engine wars.
Now if anything, reports like this will only hurt their chances of getting to solid financial footing due to scaring away potential and current users (depending on how they have the account thing set up, if Cryengine’s servers get turned off due to bankruptcy then your project goes up in smoke).
One final thing, it has been noted that Psy-Fi (formerly a popular Blender developer) works for them at the moment, I wonder what will happen to him?
