Game Engine Showdown!

Engine developer: Crytek
Summary: Up and coming
First game: Crysis
Release date: November 2007
Platform: PC/Xbox 360

According to Leonardo da Vinci, it is through the eye that we enjoy the beauty of the world. Taken as fact, it would go some way in explaining why, despite the hard work of Valve and Epic, it is Crytek’s CryENGINE2 that continues to impress on levels far and above those of its competitors.

Put simply, the damn thing looks super fine, every time.

CryENGINE2 is the sequel tech to Crytek’s CryENGINE. CryENGINE started out as a glorified demo for NVIDIA’s GeForce3, to present the power of programmable pixel and vertex shader units. Although not commissioned by Microsoft, CryENGINE2 will, in a similar way, promote the power of Direct3D 10.

It is this fact that has propelled CryENGINE2 into the spotlight time and again, along with Crytek’s second game -- Crysis -- which is based on this voluptuous technology.

What’s not to like? Along with the now-industry standard support for normal maps and dynamic lighting, CryENGINE2 boasts realistic ocean rendering, sub-surface scattering, advanced physics to accommodate bending rope and vegetation, fully destructible environments and view distances of up to 16km. Crysis will finally put an end to the debate that first-person shooters must spend most of their time inside, a debate that Crytek’s first game, Far Cry, provided the opening arguments for.

However, even packing this killer set of features, CryENGINE2 has yet to be widely licensed. It’s been picked up by Korean developer XLGames for its upcoming nameless MMO and, somewhat more notably, by MindArk to upgrade the look of its MMO Entropia Universe, but otherwise the demand for Crytek’s engine is reserved.

Perhaps with the release of Crysis, we will see a flood of developers scrambling for the technology, but for now, the dependability and support provided by Valve and Epic continues to see CryENGINE2 fight for attention.


Strengths: Eye candy. Lots of scrumptious, sugary chunks of eye candy, designed to not simply impress, but to blow minds. The first engine to truly harness the benefits of Direct3D 10, any game designed with CryENGINE2 as its foundation will look utterly stunning, no matter the environment. Crytek has shown the engine to be capable of rendering large, realistic-looking outdoor areas as well as corridors so tight they put Doom 3 to shame.

Weaknesses: CryENGINE2’s biggest weakness is that it is an untested technology in an industry with at least two engines that have meet the demands of several licensees. With no track record to show to prospective clients, Crytek will have to rely on the visual strengths of its technology, and the success of Crysis when it is released.

It is also unclear as to how much of the engine’s graphical prowess is dependent on Direct3D 10, and whether it has sufficient backwards compatibility to look half as decent on older versions of Microsoft’s 3D API.

Finally, judging by Crytek’s current attempts to hire a PS3 programmer with experience in cross-platform development, whose responsibilities will include ‘development of a next-generation game framework based on CryENGINE2’, there’s proof enough that the engine, for the time being, is PC/Xbox 360 only.