CryEngine 3 Ready for Massively Multiplayer

By Kevin Parrish
published

Crytek's Carl Jones said that the future of gaming will harbor massively multiplayer communities.

Crytek's Carl Jones, director of global business development, recently predicted that most game genres will eventually harbor massively multiplayer communities. Of course, Jones also threw in a bit of advertisement on behalf of his employer, saying that CryEngine 3 is definitely ready for the upcoming task. That's not at all surprising considering the original CryEngine technology--released years ago--still serves as a high-end benchmark for today's hardware.

"Online gaming is without doubt the future of gaming," he told Develop magazine. "Where you draw the line at ‘massively’ multiplayer is a matter of opinion, but we can see most--if not all--games involving communities of players in the future. Products such as NCsoft’s Aion prove the power of CryEngine technology for these types of games."

He offers examples on how the engine is ideal for MMOs, providing environment sizes that are limited only to developer budgets. The engine also provides intelligent streaming technology that leeches everything it can from the host platform, taking advantage of multiple CPUs, data clustering and compression. Ultimately he said that the latest CryEngine incarnation is more "well rounded" than the first two installments, and will do quite well in the middleware market.

Currently Crytek has quite a few companies taking advantage of the CryEngine technology, spanning the just-launched Aion from NC Soft, the upcoming virtual world Blue Mars from Avatar Reality, and even an unannounced MMORPG from XMLGames.

Kevin Parrish
Topics
Software
28 Comments Comment from the forums
  • michaelahess
    "Online gaming is without doubt the future of gaming,"

    This guy is obviously an idiot. This is obviously not true of all gamers desires. I know many, many people that don't play online, they want a solid story and great experience. It's like reading a book. MMORPG's are just a time waster for all the lazy ass, unemployed, pieces of shit that call themselves Americans these days. WOW my ass, means "Why? On Welfare!" not World of Warcraft anymore.
    Reply
  • doomtomb
    michaelahessThis guy is obviously an idiot. This is obviously not true of all gamers desires. I know many, many people that don't play online, they want a solid story and great experience. It's like reading a book. MMORPG's are just a time waster for all the lazy ass, unemployed, pieces of shit that call themselves Americans these days. WOW my ass, means "Why? On Welfare!" not World of Warcraft anymore.Find somewhere else to vent your frustration. You're probably an ex-WoW player.
    Reply
  • michaelahess
    No, just sick of all the hours people waste on these stupid games. Productivity per individual in America is going down the tubes, and a large part of that is people avoiding life in these games. It's a worse addition than crack.
    Reply
  • Dekasav
    michaelahessNo, just sick of all the hours people waste on these stupid games. Productivity per individual in America is going down the tubes, and a large part of that is people avoiding life in these games. It's a worse addition than crack.
    You've very obviously never met/known/seen someone on crack. Trust me, crack is worse than WoW in every definition. And I hate Wow.
    Reply
  • kingssman
    I want to make a point that dollar for dollar basis, that being addicted to games is cheaper than buying crack or spending nights at bars or drinking. Also gaming doesn't have long term effects on your organs like crack, booze, and drugs. I don't believe you can "overdose" on a video game, or game yourself to death, even though i'm quite sure you can if you really really really tried. I find video games to be safer as a "stress reducer" than compared to other habits that people use to do before video games to relieve stress. (like drugs)
    Reply
  • 7amood
    Am not into online gaming... did it once for 2 months and then realized that am wasting my life in a repetitive loop.

    However, don't get me wrong please... I am not against online gaming. It's just like saying am not into music games such as Guitar Hero and stuff.
    Reply
  • matt87_50
    Heaven forbid that good game play was the future of gaming!
    I like multi player, I love l4d and CS, and TF2, but its NOT the be all and end all! not every game needs to be multi player!! Portal was a fantastic game, and look! no multi player! who would of thought that good story and game play could lead to an awesome game, even without the shining light that multi player apparently brings to every singly F*ing genre!!!

    It's just the latest buzz word! riding off of the 'success' of twitter and facebook, and all those other web2.0 technologies that just feed off of our need to make our opinions heard (irony/hypocrisy understood).

    And in the same way those sites 'work' they don't need to bother coming up with story or gameplay or AI, or any content really, just throw a whole bunch of people in a virtual room together and they will make their own fun. and you can pay us for the privilege.

    I like multi player. I probably like single player more. I wish they would stop tacking it on to every single game as a random selling point!

    I guess my real problem is "oh, now Multiplayer is awesome?? all of a sudden? we in the PC world have been doing it for over a decade with no one kicking up a fuss, but now the n00b consoles have finally caught up, oh yes, NOW its THE SH*T!!", everyone just ignores PC gaming and yet it's where all the tech comes from. so its like there is this 10 year lag between stuff being invented, and that stuff actually being adopted properly because their are too many people who can't figure out how to install a game on a PC! too many people who buy a PC off the shelf from HP then wonder why it can't run games! so they all flock to the consoles and live in the stone age!
    Reply
  • guythepro
    michaelahessNo, just sick of all the hours people waste on these stupid games. Productivity per individual in America is going down the tubes, and a large part of that is people avoiding life in these games. It's a worse addition than crack.
    First of all, why do you care what people do with their time? How is it any of your business? The welfare argument might fly if a good portion, or even a majority of people playing games like WoW are on the government dole, but I seriously doubt that's the case. As a productive, tax-paying citizen who plays WoW, I know many, many people like myself who are anything but unproductive. It's purely anecdotal, but then, so is your argument.

    Secondly, the shortage of "productivity per individual" is due to the ever-growing welfare state, not video games.
    Reply
  • spentshells
    well who cares about WOW
    those people shouldnt leave the house anyway......joking of course
    Reply
  • lunaticstriker
    Have to say playing an MMO really isn't as bad as everyone makes it out to be if you are an individual who is like OMG I got sucked in and wasted a ton of time on it you are merely someone who can't just stop to do something more important.

    Personally I love MMO's but only for the fact that I can round up my friends on a single game and play with hundreds of others without the need for session seeking or limited interaction; something about seeing a ton of others playing at the same location and time. I just wish a company would get a good shooter MMO out.

    Also before anyone is like zomg you are or were a WoW player I will state that I was and that it was a fine game until all my buddies switched over to another game regardless it just comes down to the social end for me be it Counter-strike Source, Halo 2, WoW, Halo 3, COD4, Eve Online, Aion, and then whatever other multi-player/MMO game comes out.

    Single-player games are amazing too but multi-players generally have a longer life which is another positive.
    Reply