Crytek launches CryEngine 5.5; adds ‘absolute beginner’ tutorial

Crytek has confirmed the release of CryEngine 5.5 after it spent six months in the preview stage, with the full version bringing over a thousand updates, tweaks, and changes.

The new version brings in features being used in the development of Crytek’s Hunt: Showdown, meaning users of the engine are pretty much on a par with the creators of the engine itself when it comes to what can be done.

Listing all 1,158 changes wouldn’t be the best thing to read, but you can find an in-depth list over on Crytek’s site. A selection of some of the release highlights is as follows:

• SVOGI Improvements: SVOGI, the feature which allows developers to create scenes with realistic ambient tonality, now includes a major advancement with SVO Ray-traced Shadows offering an alternative to using cached shadow maps in scenes.

• Documentation Overhaul: As requested by the community, redesigned and updated documentation arrives for designers, artists, programmers, and anyone who uses the Sandbox Editor. Veterans and newcomers alike will be able to quickly find what they need.

• Flappy Boid: Flappy Boid is a fun, accessible, and now comprehensive onboarding course enabling users to learn core game development concepts while building a finished game.

• Sandbox UI/UX Changes: The Sandbox Editor improves workflow, performance, and optimization, making the development process quicker and easier.

• Terrain Object Blending: Users can mark Entities with a Mesh Component to become a part of the terrain mesh, empowering more realism, especially with snow and sand scenes.

The Flappy Boid update, specifically, is a step-by-step course to making a full game using the engine, aimed at people of any skill level – even those who’ve never even touched a game engine before. Of all the marquee updates, that’s definitely one of the most interesting.

Crytek has been through the wars these past few years, with redundancies at its head office, co-founder and CEO Cevat Yerli stepping down earlier this year, and a change to the licensing agreement that comes alongside CryEngine – moving from pay what you want, to a five per cent revenue system.

The company has also been involved in legal action with Cloud Imperium Games over the use of its engine.