As a technology, Virtual Reality is gradually influencing the shape of the world. The evolution of education and removal of borders between physical and virtual environments represents a unique opportunity for education and industries alike. If that’s how it is, the next logical step is an industry initiative to channel that energy, providing a starting point in sense of equipment/tools and to some extend standardize and educate foundation for virtual reality development. During the VRLA expo in Los Angeles, VR First released the results of their survey which showed that for the academic year 2016/17, over 15,000 students applied for VR programs, but they were faced with the demoralizing
After an update on CryEngine roadmap we are revealing some interesting tidbits about their plans for the future of the CryEngine or, more importantly now in 5.3 patch which is scheduled to become available in mid-November. Biggest features coming to this particular iteration of the engine is definitely support for Vulkan graphics and rendering as well as physics, and support for Deprecate Lua and LLVM generated code helpers (C++ reflection). Also nice thing that caught our eyes is support for mobile GPUs via Vulkan. However their roadmap of course doesn’t stop there, it also looks ahead to tweaks in CryEngine 5.4 which is planned in
Best VR Experience? Crytek’s The Climb will Give You Vertigo
During the E3 2015 show, we managed to play a beta version of Crytek’s “The Cliff”, a Virtual Reality experience that will play tricks with your senses. This ‘game’ can serve either as a cure of fear of heights, or make you scared of heights to the point where you will no longer look down. 10 months later, Crytek released the final version of the game. The Climb places you in a role of an extreme free solo rock climber, taking on some of most difficult climbs you can imagine. All the in-game locations are inspired by the real world, and they will make you feel like when Tom Cruise climbed the Dead
Crytek to Launch Photorealistic Film Engine on April 28th
Several years ago, CryTek launched Cinebox, also know as their ‘Film Engine’, an animated movie creator targeting game developers that utilize the CRYENGINE as well as TV and movie producers that need a visualization engine for their products. One such example was “Path of Vengeance”, a trailer for an Xbox One game Ryse: Son of Rome. The limitations of such tool were well known, and there was a reason why CryTek did not advertise the product – it was a proof of concept. If you were a game developer that used CryEngine, you were all set – but if you didn’t, this beta tool could
CryTek’s VR First Initiative Forms a Partnership with IEEE
Crytek’s VR First initiative officially launched during the 2016 Game Developers Conference, and this non-profit academic movement is starting to gather steam. After forming the partnerships with initial companies, VR First initiative is expanding with industrial associations such as the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). “Providing laboratories at Universities and Colleges where students can learn and create using state-of-the-art VR tools will be important to prepare the next generation of innovators who will make these technologies a part of our daily lives.” said Tom Coughlin, Director of the IEEE Region 6 and Chair of the IEEE Consumer Electronics Society Future Directions Committee. Earlier this year, Frankfurt
Basemark Launches New VR Benchmark VRScore
At the CryTek event today at GDC 2016, Basemark unveiled VRScore, a VR benchmark. This is a first ultra-demanding, high-resolution, high-texture benchmark coming from the team that worked together on numerous iterations of Futuremark’s 3DMark. They spun of from Futuremark, developing ‘Basemark’ benchmark for mobile devices, and now are entering the dynamic VR scene. “From the first moment sitting down with the Crytek team through the development of VRScore, we’ve been thoroughly impressed with their talent and hard working,” said Tero Sarkkinen, founder of Basemark, “Today, we together put the fruits of this collaboration for the first time for the general public to see and I am
AMD, Crytek Team Up for VR Dev Labs
AMD announced on Monday that it has teamed up with game developer studio Crytek to provide colleges and universities with hardware and software for dedicated virtual reality (VR) labs. AMD said it will fork over new Radeon Pro Duo graphics cards to these labs as well as the LiquidVR SDK, which will be provided for free thanks to the GPUOpen initiative. AMD’s hardware and software offering is part of Crytek’s “VR First” initiative, which was established to provide educational institutions a “ready-made” VR solution for researchers, developers, and students. The studio, famous for its CRYENGINE solution and games such as Crysis 3 and Far Cry,
Amazon Enters Game Engine Industry with a Bang
In a move that might push gaming industry to new boundaries, Amazon just launched free game engine. A game engine that will enable game developers to create a AAA gaming experience through a Internet browser such as Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox etc. The story of Lumberyard started when Gunfire Games showcased their skill to a number of Amazon executives. They used CryTek’s game engine to create a workable prototype of a multiplayer shooter in mere three months, using limited resources. This got Amazon interested and the company created Lumberyard business division (to work alongside Amazon Games), teaming up with CryTek on creating a game engine which would integrate all the services that Amazon
GDC Reveals The Memory of Eldurim Demo
Game Developers Conference 2015 was the opportunity for Liminal Games to showcase their new open world RPG The Memory of Eldurim to fans and the press.
Ryse and Fall: How Crytek Went From AAA Games Developer to Self-Publisher
Over the past year, Crytek has undergone many radical changes. Looking at the company now it’d be hard to recognize the developer of one of the most powerful graphics engines in the industry, or the creators of multiple big-name franchises like Far Cry and Crysis. Fractured by financial woes, Crytek was forced to adapt to a brand new business model or risk going kaput. In a few short months they went from renown games developer to in-house self-publisher, crafting smaller-scale free-to-play projects like Warface to stay afloat. But how did it come to this? In many ways Crytek’s story is a telling tale of the industry as a
