CRYENGINE gives users access to the same award-winning toolset that was used to create Crytek's Ryse: Son of Rome, and equips them to develop outstanding games across all of today's leading platforms.
As a first tier of its new program, Crytek has revealed that from May this year, indie developers will be able to use all of CRYENGINE's cutting-edge features for a monthly subscription fee of 9,90 USD/EUR per user - royalty free. Those features include the recently announced addition of CRYENGINE features such as Physically Based Shading, Geometry Cache and Image Based Lighting - an upgrade already shown in action by Crytek at this year's GDC conference in San Francisco.
More details about the game-changing opportunities on offer to developers as part of the program will be announced in the near future. The CRYENGINE free SDK will continue to be available under its current terms but developers wanting to take advantage of the new features of CRYENGINE will need to subscribe to the new EaaS-Program.
Crytek's Director of Business Development , Carl Jones, said: "When we announced the new CRYENGINE this was our first step towards creating an engine as a service. We are happy to announce now that the latest update of CRYENGINE will soon be available to all developers on a subscription basis. We are really excited to make CRYENGINE available to hundreds of thousands of developers working with Crytek to make awesome games.”
The launch of the CRYENGINE as-a-service program expands Crytek's online service portfolio, continuing on from their step into self-publishing with free-to-play online FPS, Warface.
As well as being optimized for next-generation consoles, the new CRYENGINE now includes Linux support for the first time. The full native port of CRYENGINE to Linux means developers will be able to use the engine's award-winning toolset for the creation of software on Linux Ubuntu 12.04 and newer versions of the operating system, adding to existing support for PC, Xbox One, PS4, Wii U, X360, PS3, iOS and Android.
Crytek's Director of Business Development for CRYENGINE, Areil Cai, said: "CRYENGINE's power and adaptability has been proven on Xbox One, and with licensees already working on games for PlayStation®4, we've delivered on our promise to make sure the engine was ready for next-gen consoles right from the start. We believe the addition of Linux support and features included in this latest update will give CRYENGINE users unparalleled possibilities as they develop stand-out new games – regardless of the target platform."
Among the highlights of today's CRYENGINE update are:
- Physically Based Shading – In contrast to traditional observational based shading seen in most real-time game engines, CRYENGINE's brand new Physically Based Shading model simulates the interaction between light and materials using real world physics.
- Geometry Cache – Leveraging the power of today’s new hardware, CRYENGINE computes efficient, cache-based animations to realize the most complex simulations (cloth, explosions, fluid dynamics) normally only possible in offline rendering.
- Character Technology –TheCRYENGINE update unites the most scalable, technically-advanced animation and rendering systems to deliver astonishingly realistic characters for games in real-time. Lifelike iris parallax mapping allows for a truly realistic eye representation, while new unified shaders for character shadows and hair add to the possibilities.
- Image Based Lighting – Image Based Lighting brings lighting and render consistency to all materials. CRYENGINE’s shading model uses advanced BRDF values and normalization of specular highlights to render even the most complex lighting situations.
CRYENGINE licensees will have access to all of the latest features brought about by the update later this month.