Stunning CryEngine 3 tools revealed at GDC Europe

By Richard Leadbetter Published 18 August, 2009

Crytek has showcased its new CryEngine 3 cross-platform development tools at GDC Europe with a superb demonstration showing how content makers can sculpt gameplay and levels in a single creative environment, while the changes play out in real-time across all three major HD platforms.

You can check out high definition videos of the content creation system in play over at Voodoo Extreme, and for those intrigued by the development tools being used for the forthcoming Crysis 2, it's essential viewing. However, don't expect to see any hints on the form or performance of the new sequel: from what we can see, the entire presentation is based around a tweaked version of an original Crysis level, and there is little actual gameplay within the videos.

However, what you do get to see is the power and flexibility of Crytek's deferred lighting solution, and the ease with which levels and artwork are created and tweaked, with almost instant "what you see is what you get" previewing on both Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3. New terrain and features are created with minimum fuss and even texture tweaks made in Photoshop are quickly transitioned over to the target platforms.

The ability for content creators to work in this manner has obvious positive implications for cross-platform development, with CryEngine users able to "balance" their levels to work equally well on both systems – something we feel will be of crucial importance for the upcoming Crysis 2.

In terms of the engine's performance on console, the original GDC 2009 trailer posed many questions about whether the PS3 and Xbox 360 are capable of coping with Crysis-level visual sophistication, and the results shown were inconclusive. Despite still looking very impressive, effects were clearly pared back compared to the PC version, mip-map cascades were far more obvious, shadows had lower refresh rates, and the overall frame rate itself was variable on both consoles, operating at anything between 15FPS to 30FPS depending on what was being displayed on-screen.

However, a demo of CryEngine 3 locked into gameplay mode was evident at the new event, running the same Crysis assets as the initial GDC reveal, and it was clear that many changes had been made, and performance certainly appeared smoother. Fingers crossed we can get a closer look at the tech at gamescom to confirm the good news.

Picture of Richard.

About Richard Leadbetter

Rich has been a games journalist since the days of 16-bit and specialises in technical analysis. Commonly known around Eurogamer as the Blacksmith of the Future.

Read more articles from Richard by visiting the Richard Leadbetter archive page.

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Comments (6) Latest comment 3 years ago

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  • Darren #1 3 years ago

    I don't think anyone is expecting either the Xbox 360 or PS3 to be able to run Crysis at anything like the detail level or smoothness of a high-end PC but so long as the new engine can approximate a decent looking equivalent with all the basics in place then I'm sure the console crowd will be delighted.

  • Alkeno #2 3 years ago

    Darren +1, that's exactly what most people should expect: A great looking version of Crysis in consoles. Of course it won't be as good looking as PC, it just can't be.

    I saw the videos on IGN yesterday, hugely impressive. I've never seen anything such as that, the guy just launched Photoshop, changed the texture, saved it and it was instantly upgraded on the realtime gameplay on both PS3 and 360. It did seem to need some proper refinement as the framerate looked quite poor, but as a showcase it was impressive. Also the PS3 version seemed more polished to me.

  • mashk #3 3 years ago

    Looks fantastic. Hopefully, the game will match the engine.

  • #4 3 years ago

    Looks great and I do wish ppl would stop comparing consoles to Pcs. Its just silly.

  • mkreku #5 3 years ago

    I watched the second video on IGN. Did the Xbox 360 crash during the presentation? :p It was restarting while the camera was focusing on the PS3 version..

  • fknetwork #6 3 years ago

    @ mkreku
    No, they was booting the 360 into another version to show other parts of the game, they did say that :p