wow, didn't see this one coming. hope it doesn't mean freesdk's death though
after this and the ue4 announcement, today is definitely a day to remember for the indie community and maybe the whole game industry
So a whole AAA project could be done for just $9.99/seat?
I think the keyword was indie developers will have access to the $9.99 price. How they define indie is anyone's guess.
"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."
Though I'm wondering if there isn't some hidden clause somewhere that if you game sells well you end up having to kick back some money.
wow, didn't see this one coming. hope it doesn't mean freesdk's death though
after this and the ue4 announcement, today is definitely a day to remember for the indie community and maybe the whole game industry
According to the release the free SDK will still be available, but won't receive the newer features.
All this subscription stuff is gonna kill modding.
CryEngine has a Maya exporter which works very well in my experience. You can also export a fbx and convert it to the right format i think. I'm pretty excited for the new CryEngine, I really want to play around with their PBR system and the IBL.
I think a subscription will benefit serious developers for sure, but the only thing I hate is the fact that somebody who isn't serious about using CryEngine (like myself) will get turned off at the idea of not getting any updates. I don't plan to develop a project with CE despite the fact that it's an incredible engine, but I like to play with it every now and then.
Still, I think this is a good move considering the fact that game engines no doubt cost millions of dollars to make, along with taking many years to make. I'm still putting my money on UE4 though haha.
The Ryse team had support. Try using Maya with the current FreeSDK and get back to me. I'm still trying to get it to export simple animation. Getting character animation into the engine with anything but Max seems like this arcane exercise. The first 2 releases in the 3.5 series had a completely broken Maya exporter.
Also, Maya is also a $4k license. I'm not sure what CryTek is really trying to do with their 'indie' engine. The poor Blender guys have gone back to using 3.4.5 because there is no documentation and no help from anyone at CryTek over basic stuff like 'what should we call materials?' I think that CryTek has 'indie' licenses just to tell their shareholders they're competing with UDK/UE4. They don't offer much in the way of docs or support. CryEngine really hasn't been a viable 'indie' engine.
They don't offer much in the way of docs or support.
This is the biggest problem that CryTek has right now. The documentation in it's current state is fragmented and barely scratches the surface. They leave a lot to be desired in the form of support. As far as the Maya exporter, it doesn't even work with simple animations most times, let alone character animations.
Which really sucks because it's a great engine to work with, especially in the past where you were stuck baking lightmaps in Unity and UDK.
Also CryEngine supports Linux now, man wish their import pipeline would not suck so much, now that i seriously want to dive into Blender, but cool about the new licensing model should get a lot more indies into this engine.
But is this the legit Engine, without the SDK limitations? Or are you paying for the "waterdown" stuff they gave away for free before.
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.
Yeah, that was my impression. I'm not sure the $9 model without royalty is very sustainable, but they have left a lot of details blank, so I'm guessing it may have some real implications.
From that quote, I would not say so. It implies it's a tool based binary release, exactly the same as before.
Hmm they said the same tool set as the creators of Ryse im pretty sure a studio doing such a game needs the FULL engine and not a half assed Binary SDK, but of course it could be still the case.
If you guys think Crytek hobbled this together as a knee-jerk reaction to Epic's announcement of UE4, you're kidding yourselves and coming off as rather naive. The zeitgeist of our entire industry - not just us as developers, but the games themselves - are moving in this direction. Games and our tools as a service. It's been happening for a couple of years now and it only makes sense that both companies had announcements of their new models this year, and that Unity would be launching product news as well.
MOST of the tech world works as a 'tech as a service' business model. It's only taken our industry that many years to finally catch up to the norm. So while that part is embarrassing in on to itself, to think it was some quick reaction is, to be frank, laughable.
But!
I'm not just here to be teh cranky old developer wondering what is wrong with you kids these days! :P
I also wanted to post some information I've also shared in the other threads:
I just wanted to share the links to our various forums for Unreal, CryEngine, and Unity. Some people may be more interested in them now as the new engines and tools get release.
If you guys think Crytek hobbled this together as a knee-jerk reaction to Epic's announcement of UE4, you're kidding yourselves and coming off as rather naive.
I agree, there is no way in hell this wasn't preplanned, you don't just convert one of your company's major assets into a new business model without thinking about it long and hard first.
Ofcourse this was flying around Crytek offices over in Frankfurt for atleast a year or two one should guess. But the sudden announcement might have been to counter the Epic one. Because if you read the Facebook it says towards all questions regarding details "when it's done...may or something" so why announce it that day at all if you can't say anything? It just feels curiously like a rushed job to show that they got an ace up their sleeve to counter Epic and they are even cheaper.
Yeah, it's really really strange that everyone is making these big announcements all week. You'd think there was some sort of major game industry convention going on.
Lacking the flexibility to create custom materials, and let alone something like UE4 Blueprints. Seems a bit of a drawback. Sure, CE is pretty and never tends to fall short of. But lack of custom user experience just seems to have made CE appear to have been poisoning itself. IMO
3. Better and easier import/export - (models and textures)
Ergh this makes me not want to use the engine.. I love using it and you get such sexy results but the export process for textures especially kills me :shifty:
Yeah, it's really really strange that everyone is making these big announcements all week. You'd think there was some sort of major game industry convention going on.
Just wanted to say that but this engine looks really awesome, can't wait to see some results from it or even get a position working with it, with someone.-G1 JM
Replies
I still want UE4 but I don't want to feel like I'm left out.
(again)
Royalty free? That can't be right...
So a whole AAA project could be done for just $9.99/seat?
after this and the ue4 announcement, today is definitely a day to remember for the indie community and maybe the whole game industry
I think the keyword was indie developers will have access to the $9.99 price. How they define indie is anyone's guess.
"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."
Though I'm wondering if there isn't some hidden clause somewhere that if you game sells well you end up having to kick back some money.
According to the release the free SDK will still be available, but won't receive the newer features.
All this subscription stuff is gonna kill modding.
It does. Ryse team used Maya...
Still, I think this is a good move considering the fact that game engines no doubt cost millions of dollars to make, along with taking many years to make. I'm still putting my money on UE4 though haha.
The Ryse team had support. Try using Maya with the current FreeSDK and get back to me. I'm still trying to get it to export simple animation. Getting character animation into the engine with anything but Max seems like this arcane exercise. The first 2 releases in the 3.5 series had a completely broken Maya exporter.
Also, Maya is also a $4k license. I'm not sure what CryTek is really trying to do with their 'indie' engine. The poor Blender guys have gone back to using 3.4.5 because there is no documentation and no help from anyone at CryTek over basic stuff like 'what should we call materials?' I think that CryTek has 'indie' licenses just to tell their shareholders they're competing with UDK/UE4. They don't offer much in the way of docs or support. CryEngine really hasn't been a viable 'indie' engine.
This is the biggest problem that CryTek has right now. The documentation in it's current state is fragmented and barely scratches the surface. They leave a lot to be desired in the form of support. As far as the Maya exporter, it doesn't even work with simple animations most times, let alone character animations.
Which really sucks because it's a great engine to work with, especially in the past where you were stuck baking lightmaps in Unity and UDK.
Trust me with Max it's an arcane exercise as well.
I would say yes.
From that quote, I would not say so. It implies it's a tool based binary release, exactly the same as before.
Hmm they said the same tool set as the creators of Ryse im pretty sure a studio doing such a game needs the FULL engine and not a half assed Binary SDK, but of course it could be still the case.
So maybe the royalty free is based on lowest tier, with bigger/more revenue studios paying a different royalty.
MOST of the tech world works as a 'tech as a service' business model. It's only taken our industry that many years to finally catch up to the norm. So while that part is embarrassing in on to itself, to think it was some quick reaction is, to be frank, laughable.
But!
I'm not just here to be teh cranky old developer wondering what is wrong with you kids these days! :P
I also wanted to post some information I've also shared in the other threads:
I just wanted to share the links to our various forums for Unreal, CryEngine, and Unity. Some people may be more interested in them now as the new engines and tools get release.
Unreal Tech Talk: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=63
CryEngine Tech Talk: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=64
Unity Tech Talk: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=69
And our brand new Unity Store forum: http://www.polycount.com/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=79
Thanks for posting those links Adam.
I've never used Unity; what exactly is the Unity Store? Do you sell models, textures etc; something similar to Turbo Squid?
Also, I think I remember seeing that Unreal had a store now? With UDK4, is that legit?
(Sorry, don't mean to de-rail the thread, just curious about those stores)
I agree, there is no way in hell this wasn't preplanned, you don't just convert one of your company's major assets into a new business model without thinking about it long and hard first.
You sell artwork, scripts, audio, UI, FX, scripts, and so on to Unity developers.
BTW i read a lot about how there are a lot of problems with the CE 3.5, what exactly would need change to make it more Indie and developer friendly?
1. much better documentation
2. Better vertex paint system - like udk
3. Better and easier import/export - (models and textures)
Ergh this makes me not want to use the engine.. I love using it and you get such sexy results but the export process for textures especially kills me :shifty:
hahaha