CryEngine 3 Adds New Features With Version 3.1

Crytek's CryEngine 3 gets its version 3.1 today, adding new features it says are aimed to improve performance along with upgrades to animation tools. In addition to the Shader Editor the company first showcased last month at GDC, CryEngine 3 will add procedural deformation, irradiance volumes and physics drive animation features that can be created in the engine's realtime pipeline. Crytek says CryEngine's new Blend Shader is designed to reduce the need for large texture sets or tiling of identical materials throughout a project, while a new "Visual Budget" feature is designed to assist with performance, stability and resource management. The engine's Asset Browser has also been upgraded, and Crytek says it will now offer more efficiency and control to designers and artists. Specifically, Crytek points out a "major overhaul" to TrackView, the engine's cutscene and cinematic tool. With newly-added AnimGraph 1.5, the company says artists will be able to more easily access parameters and blending values, as well as new tools for integrating animations with audio, particles, effects and events. Crytek has also aimed to enhance the engine's graphical capabilities with features like Light Propagation Volumes, which it says enable interior, exterior and cinematic lighing effects in realtime. A new physics system adds support for secondary damage effects from prodcedural destruction, such as realtime materials deformation and physics-driven hit reactions for animated characters. "The latest version of CryEngine 3 includes some of the excellent work our tools team have produced since October, to make the creation of AAA games easier, more efficient and more enjoyable," says Crytek business development director Carl Jones.