At GDC, Crytek announced the release of the next generation of its famous Cryengine graphics engine. Cryengine V is available as of today, and Crytek is launching it with a completely new business model.
A new “Pay What You Want” pricing model will let developers around the world gain access to the full engine source code and entire feature set for whatever they can or want to pay. Crytek said that developers that take part will also have the option of contributing up to 70 percent of their fee to Crytek’s Indie Development Fund, which will in turn support indie developer projects around the world.
Crytek is also introducing the Cryengine Marketplace, which will give developers access to Crytek’s own asset library, as well as community contributed materials, sounds, and 3D objects that can be used to build their games.
“Community is at the heart of our Pay What You Want Model, which we hope will foster closer collaboration between us and developers as well as developers amongst themselves,” said Cevat Yerli, Crytek’s Founder, CEO & President.
Cryengine V includes support for the C# scripting language, which makes it easy for developers familiar with the language to start working in Cryengine. Integrated DirectX 12 should offer more control over the hardware, as well as improved performance of its Low Overhead Renderer in graphically intensive applications.
Cryengine V also introduced the Advanced Volumetric Cloud System, which “give clouds full 3D spatial rendering” with minimal performance impact, a new particle system that helps create real-time fluid effects, and more options for audio middleware with the addition of FMOD studio support. It also got a new user interface that Crytek said is more intuitive and streamlined.
Cryengine V is available today at the Cryengine website.
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