At a private media briefing during the 2016 Game Developers Conference, Crytek unveiled the next iteration of CRYENGINE, simply dubbed CRYENGINE V. The new engine will be entirely Pay-What-You-Want, meaning you can pay anything from nothing to thousands of dollars to use the engine, putting the impetus on the community to show their support and commitment in as many ways as possible. The announcement also included news that over $1 million in funding and support for projects would come from Crytek directly.
The engine is being specifically developed with VR optimization in mind. Some upcoming games like The Climb are powered by CRYENGINE, which is a VR-exclusive rock climbing simulator with some of the most beautiful and high-fidelity visuals of any game on any platform. CRYENGINE offers considerable power and is able to render two high-resolution 3D feeds of a game, both at 90FPS, to provide the smooth visuals needed for immersive VR.
With this latest iteration of the engine, Crytek is focusing on expanding support and encouraging new adopters to learn how to use what they’ve dubbed as the “most powerful game engine in the world”. New initiatives like additional tutorials and ease-of-use features, as well a community hub and marketplace for accessing additional assets, show their shift in focus. The marketplace will feature assets from the likes of Boom Library, Epidemic Sound, Game Textures, and Turbo Squid.
Here’s a quick rundown of some of the key new additions coming to CRYENGINE V:
- Specific optimization for virtual reality,
- DX12 Support,
- Low-Overhead Renderer,
- Full Range of HMD Support Including the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, PlayStation VR, and OSVR’,
- Volumetric Cloud Rendering System for VR,
- FMOD Studio extends audio middleware support,
- New Particle System, handled almost completely by the GPU,
- C# Enabled
In addition to the previously established VR First program, which is partnered with over 7 different universities around the world, the updates underscore Crytek’s continued commitment to VR as not only a piece of technology, but the platform of the future.
In addition to the expanded features and support for CRYENGINE V, Crytek also discussed their VR Score benchmarking program, which includes a tech demo by the name of Codename: Sky Harbor.
