I worked with cryengine for nearly a year before giving up and moving on to UE4 where I already had source code access without being admitted to an incubator. Hopefully something good comes out of this initiative but I'm not holding my breath. When you start learning an engine or any framework the ecosystem and community are instrumental in making your life easier and getting some sort of camaraderie.
I've been working with UE4 for 2 years now and its been the 2 most exciting years of my life. The tools are great but the community is even greater. I've never felt more empowered to create.
UE4 has won this generation of game engines in my eye, I think crytek should take a step back and re-evaluate everything. Maybe they learn from UE4 and compete with UE5 in a few more years or maybe they boldly fork UE4 and add their value as a 3rd party fork/plugin.
I think the sunk costs are too large but I'd love to see Valve fork UE4 and put their engineering might next to Epic's. Would love to hear why this thought of mine is naive/misguided.
Same here. Epic's support for the community of devs who use Unreal is excellent, and they have made sweeping changes to their business model to align it with the needs of their user base which has really helped as well.
Great idea! It'll really be good for universities to start developing the infrastructure for VR courses, which I would imagine could easily be prohibitively expensive without something like this. Interesting angle by Cryengine as well, it seems like the benefit for them is getting more new game devs to use their platform. I wonder what the story is behind using Bahçeşehir as their flagship school -- Turkey I can see, since there's a big push for technological literacy there right now, but I would think a school like Boğaziçi or Galatasaray would be higher up on the list.
Current employee here. We are def in business, we had some money issues like others mentioned more than a year ago but things are looking much better now. We have a few projects announced, signed and in full development and the engine is getting a lot of love as well with some key new hires.
I think this is a fair question to ask. There were so many rumors about them going under and it's a known fact that they couldn't pay wages last year for some months, losing some talent. After a secret investment though, they seem to be back on track. I wish they return back to their glorious days. My worry would be them not being able to recover with the additional funds and such great technology being orphaned. Cryengine is still as good as it gets from the beauty and realism perspective, IMHO.
They had some money issues with free-to-play/gface failure, in addition Microsoft tried to rape them once they sensed they were weak (Rise franchise rights) but in the end they had some mysterious investment that kept them alive. Would be pity to lose them in any case.
Is there anyone else here, who has used VR in the form of an HMD, that thinks this is all just a passing fad that will fail miserably? Can I note for a moment that this technology has been hyped since 2012 and we're only seeing the first consumer-facing products now? One of which is nothing other than Google Cardboard (GearVR) and one which is $600? The only real attempt at targeting consumers is coming from Sony, and it costs nearly as much as the console itself does. This is still decidedly a hobbyist market, and it doesn't look like that will change for another year at least.
But let's put the price of adoption aside for a moment and assume that at some point it will come down in price. Even then I can't imagine that the average household will be buying this.
For one, you wouldn't want to use an HMD in any context other than sitting alone in a room, and that's something that the nerdy hobbyist market doesn't mind, but to the average person it makes it nothing other than a novel toy. I keep hearing people on CNBC talk about how this year the Superbowl will be able to be watched via an HMD, and how this is the future of media.
Are they serious? Have they ever heard of a Superbowl party? I watch football around friends, and we enjoy good food and beers. It's a social event first, and a content event second. How does an HMD fit into that? It doesn't. And I think most media we have today (save for video games) are social events. I watched the Breaking Bad finale with friends. I watch scary movies with friends. And that's not to say that I don't sometimes watch things alone, but when content creators have to worry about accommodating both of these experiences, it's difficult to make the VR experience comparatively worthwhile. VR content is going to face the same fate as 3D movies do today.
It might be the evolution of video games. But that's a far cry from the hype that it gets.
I think that the evolution of Google Glass is what will really take off.
No I don't think it's a passing fad or will fail miserably - but I do know you're not alone.
Yeah - VR is expensive right now. Maybe the price will drop a little - but this is one of the reasons why it will be niche for quite some time.
I totally agree with you that I don't think many people will watch the superbowl in VR...but!
What I predict (take with pinch of salt) is that as the Oculus and Vive are delivered there will be the common realization of some of the limitations and problems with VR (motion sickness, people who wear glasses etc) and the popularity will go down a little - but long term this type of thing just has so much potential I can only imagine it growing in the long term.
Something I notice in your comment is that you seem to be assuming that you can't have social experiences in VR, I see social in VR as one of its greatest strengths. You could see your buddies in VR as legendary warriors fighting demons. Or maybe some of your buddies are the demons. There's a huge market for that type of thing (or there will be).
AR like Google Glass (HoloLens, Magic Leap...) is also going to take off. Eventually AR and VR may converge. Want presence and to be fully immersed? Switch to VR mode.
> Can I note for a moment that this technology has been hyped since 2012 and we're only seeing the first consumer-facing products now?
Sure, but I'd like to know what the significance of that is? In 2012 it was only an idea, it was 2013 when it became a physical thing at all that people could work with. Then people had to figure out how to fix the problems that were apparent once it was a physical thing you could actually use. Then you have to get people on board to create compelling content for an unproven peripheral. All the while working on the underlying driver and SDK, which includes all the problems and slowdowns that come from immature volatile software being a moving target.
For a new physical product, in a new consumer media niche, using new technology, using new software, needing a launch lineup of software developed by third parties, all originally started by community effort to take 4 years to go from idea to shipping consumer product is damn impressive, regardless of whether or not all this effort will ultimately succeed.
I think the major problem of VR is that it makes a lot of people feel dizzy due to using pinhole camera perspective. If you think about it, we somehow learned to live with current approach to compute perspective transform based on similar triangles, but that's not how a healthy eye perceives the world. In fact, the retina and brain do a plenty of computations to make our perception smooth. Neurosurgeons would tell you they see these kinds of perspective after eye surgeries when brain is not 100% in sync with eyes.
One example is when you take a camera next to a tall chimney and make a sweep shot from bottom to the top - you can see that chimney's dimensions "dance", they just get pretty distorted in every frame by a different ratio. Your eyes don't do that. You perceive the chimney as straight regardless of which angle you look.
VR that close to eyes must compensate for it. However, even the latest Oculus VR makes people feel dizzy... I don't see a future for this gen of VR unless they fix this substantial problem.
I was doubtfull about VR until I get a gearVR some weeks ago. I now spend ~1 hour a day using it to watch netflix. Some game (drift, lands end) were interesting to play but content is lacking. Bigger TV screen for cheap that follow where you look seems like to be the killer VR feature. I can see it get a wide adoption.
I don't see VR becoming popular in terms of gaming with current control schemes. Only games where the character actually sits in a chair (so basically only simulators) are somewhat viable, but I'd still prefer to see my hands and the wheel/HOTAS/whatever.
The VR labs sound great, but maybe not enough to offer a material advantage.
The next stage of the game engine wars will be fought and won over how the developers extend the designer app with VR UI, enabling creating VR (or traditional) games/experiences from within VR.
I'm sure they're all already plotting this on the roadmap, even if they're not vocal about the specifics yet.
[+] [-] ogreveins|10 years ago|reply
Just my 2c.
[+] [-] mentos|10 years ago|reply
UE4 has won this generation of game engines in my eye, I think crytek should take a step back and re-evaluate everything. Maybe they learn from UE4 and compete with UE5 in a few more years or maybe they boldly fork UE4 and add their value as a 3rd party fork/plugin.
I think the sunk costs are too large but I'd love to see Valve fork UE4 and put their engineering might next to Epic's. Would love to hear why this thought of mine is naive/misguided.
[+] [-] TrevorJ|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] meeper16|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] magicmu|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|10 years ago|reply
Aren't they of Turkish origin?
[+] [-] k__|10 years ago|reply
Serious question.
I heard they went down, after the criticism about how they treat their employees.
Just wanted to know if it's still the old company or someone bought the name and tech and does his own thing now...
[+] [-] throwthrow987|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pjmlp|10 years ago|reply
So no, they didn't went down for following what everyone else does.
They just had some sales problems and did fire some people, just like many studios do.
This might be a pivot idea, given thant Unreal and Unity3D are also doing it.
[+] [-] patates|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] louhike|10 years ago|reply
[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crytek#Restructuring
[+] [-] bitL|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] chronial|10 years ago|reply
I don't mean the text/content – just the general vibe of the clip.
[+] [-] Simp|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] pointernil|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] nickysielicki|10 years ago|reply
But let's put the price of adoption aside for a moment and assume that at some point it will come down in price. Even then I can't imagine that the average household will be buying this.
For one, you wouldn't want to use an HMD in any context other than sitting alone in a room, and that's something that the nerdy hobbyist market doesn't mind, but to the average person it makes it nothing other than a novel toy. I keep hearing people on CNBC talk about how this year the Superbowl will be able to be watched via an HMD, and how this is the future of media.
Are they serious? Have they ever heard of a Superbowl party? I watch football around friends, and we enjoy good food and beers. It's a social event first, and a content event second. How does an HMD fit into that? It doesn't. And I think most media we have today (save for video games) are social events. I watched the Breaking Bad finale with friends. I watch scary movies with friends. And that's not to say that I don't sometimes watch things alone, but when content creators have to worry about accommodating both of these experiences, it's difficult to make the VR experience comparatively worthwhile. VR content is going to face the same fate as 3D movies do today.
It might be the evolution of video games. But that's a far cry from the hype that it gets.
I think that the evolution of Google Glass is what will really take off.
[+] [-] Suttonian|10 years ago|reply
Yeah - VR is expensive right now. Maybe the price will drop a little - but this is one of the reasons why it will be niche for quite some time.
I totally agree with you that I don't think many people will watch the superbowl in VR...but!
What I predict (take with pinch of salt) is that as the Oculus and Vive are delivered there will be the common realization of some of the limitations and problems with VR (motion sickness, people who wear glasses etc) and the popularity will go down a little - but long term this type of thing just has so much potential I can only imagine it growing in the long term.
Something I notice in your comment is that you seem to be assuming that you can't have social experiences in VR, I see social in VR as one of its greatest strengths. You could see your buddies in VR as legendary warriors fighting demons. Or maybe some of your buddies are the demons. There's a huge market for that type of thing (or there will be).
AR like Google Glass (HoloLens, Magic Leap...) is also going to take off. Eventually AR and VR may converge. Want presence and to be fully immersed? Switch to VR mode.
[+] [-] Bjartr|10 years ago|reply
Sure, but I'd like to know what the significance of that is? In 2012 it was only an idea, it was 2013 when it became a physical thing at all that people could work with. Then people had to figure out how to fix the problems that were apparent once it was a physical thing you could actually use. Then you have to get people on board to create compelling content for an unproven peripheral. All the while working on the underlying driver and SDK, which includes all the problems and slowdowns that come from immature volatile software being a moving target.
For a new physical product, in a new consumer media niche, using new technology, using new software, needing a launch lineup of software developed by third parties, all originally started by community effort to take 4 years to go from idea to shipping consumer product is damn impressive, regardless of whether or not all this effort will ultimately succeed.
[+] [-] bitL|10 years ago|reply
One example is when you take a camera next to a tall chimney and make a sweep shot from bottom to the top - you can see that chimney's dimensions "dance", they just get pretty distorted in every frame by a different ratio. Your eyes don't do that. You perceive the chimney as straight regardless of which angle you look.
VR that close to eyes must compensate for it. However, even the latest Oculus VR makes people feel dizzy... I don't see a future for this gen of VR unless they fix this substantial problem.
[+] [-] outworlder|10 years ago|reply
That sentence makes me want to say "get off my lawn". VR technology (including HMD) has been hyped (and tried, in many forms) for decades now.
I personally believe we now have the tech to actually deliver something useful this time. We shall see.
Watching Super Bowl with friends is not yet feasible. But there are other use cases that are better suited. And don't underestimate games.
[+] [-] prawn|10 years ago|reply
We're trying to fool senses that have had millions of years to evolve.
[+] [-] pierre|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] Aoyagi|10 years ago|reply
[+] [-] VikingCoder|10 years ago|reply
http://www.twitch.tv/colinnorthway/v/34121601
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] rboyd|10 years ago|reply
The next stage of the game engine wars will be fought and won over how the developers extend the designer app with VR UI, enabling creating VR (or traditional) games/experiences from within VR.
I'm sure they're all already plotting this on the roadmap, even if they're not vocal about the specifics yet.
[+] [-] unknown|10 years ago|reply
[deleted]
[+] [-] jpeg_hero|10 years ago|reply
http://youtu.be/01hbkh4hXEk
[+] [-] JustSomeNobody|10 years ago|reply
Lot of assumptions given:
"Ground floor"