CryEngine 3 Cookbook - Recipes Book From Developers

Great news for anyone interested in using CryEngne 3 technology for game development and mod making — Packt published world-first book for Crytek's most advanced and recent game engine — CryEngine 3 Cookbook.

This book was written by Crytek employees Sean Tracy ( Senior Field Application Engineer in Crytek ) and Dan Tracy ( Technical Level Designer in Crytek ), so it's invaluable source for ready-to-use solutions from engine's developers themselves. CryEngine 3 Cookbook loaded with over a hundred recipes and can be effectively used for creation of own highly customized content for use within CryEngine 3. If you have any intentions to give a try for this engine — I definitely recommend you to check out CryEngine 3 Cookbook — it has all chances to become desktop book among CryEngine 3 users.

CryEngine 3 Cookbook describes usage of CryEngine 3 SDK, which will be available in August, 2011 ( update: CryEngine 3 SDK available for download ). Also it can be used in some extent for recently released Crysis 2 ModSDK, which allows to create user modifications ( mods ) to the latest Crytek game title.

In overall this book is a good starting point for CryEngine 3 learning, and I'm pretty sure that more learning resources will come later on, including books and video tutorials — as it was with Epic's Unreal Development Kit and Unity 3d game engines. Looking at CryEngine 3 technology and capabilities, now I personally have strong intention to at least give it a try — especially when it will be provided for free instead of hundred thousands $ for it, as it was before the "indie big bada-bum" just few years ago for such technology.

Notes from publisher

With every successive console generation, the cost, time, and complexity of developing games has grown. Meet CryENGINE3, a middleware engine that is the perfect fit for most developers allowing users to exceed current generation quality standards while using less people and time than ever thought possible.

The CryENGINE3 CookBook is packed full of recipes for junior and senior developers alike. It covers everything from creating photo realistic architectural visualizations to implementing advanced physics such as ragdoll and tornado effects. Topics covered include the sandbox, level layout, environment creation, AI, character creation, creating vehicles, and game logic. Every recipe is designed to add AAA quality to your games.

The CryENGINE3 SDK has many tools immediately available to developers of all disciplines. For designers the book has recipes for building up your own levels and populating your levels with intelligent AI and photo realistic assets. For artists we have recipes for practical workflow tools and techniques used when working with the advanced CryENGINE shaders and materials. For animators we have recipes that will bring your creations to life using skinned characters and advanced animation systems like locomotion groups. Finally for programmers we have recipes that show how to employ the core mechanics behind entities such as vehicles and weapons while also utilizing the strengths of the physics engine to create a unique and exciting game.

Get to grips with CryENGINE 3 and use the CryENGINE Sandbox editor a production-proven real-time game compositing tool suite designed and built by AAA developers.

What you will learn from CryEngine 3 Cookbook

• Navigate and interface within the CryENGINE Sandbox, the tool used to create AAA games like Crysis 2.
• Create your own levels and even entire worlds using recipes for sculpting and molding terrain.
• Model with the integrated tools available to designers and artists in the CryENGINE3 Sandbox.
• Use the cutting edge real time lighting technology of the CryENGINE to bring light to your worlds and explore the use of atmospherics and effects used for today’s newest games.
• Create and animate AAA characters and other objects for use with the CryENGINE Sandbox.
• Manipulate the advanced AI available to game designers in the CryENGINE3.
• Create your own cut scenes and videos using the power of the CryENGINE3 engine to maximize the output.
• Optimize your creations for optimal performance with maximum visual impact.
• Have fun following interesting game changing physical simulation recipes that can add unique game play opportunities to your levels.
• Use visual scripting to create amazingly complex events as seen in Crysis2.

Approach

Written in a cookbook style, this book offers solutions using a recipe based approach. Each recipe contains step-by-step instructions followed by an analysis of what was done in each task and other useful information. The cookbook approach means you can dive into whatever recipes you want in no particular order. The CryENGINE3 Cookbook is written to be accessible to all developers currently using the CryENGINE3. It also explores the depth and power of the CryENGINE3 and is a useful guide to follow when becoming familiar with this award winning middle-ware game engine.

Who this book is written for

This book is written with the casual and professional developer in mind. Fundamental knowledge of some Digital Content Creation Tools, like Photoshop and 3d Studio Max is required. The Software Development Kit version of the CryENGINE is used for all examples, so the reader should have a version of the development kit to follow the recipes contained in this book.

You can get some info about CryEngine Cookbook content from Table of Contents:

• Chapter 1: CryENGINE 3: Getting Started
• Chapter 2: Sandbox Basics
• Chapter 3: Basic Level Layout
• Chapter 4: Environment Creation
• Chapter 5: Basic Artificial Intelligence
• Chapter 6: Asset Creation
• Chapter 7: Characters and Animation
• Chapter 8: Creating Vehicles
• Chapter 9: Game Logic
• Chapter 10: Track View and Cut-Scenes
• Chapter 11: Fun Physics
• Chapter 12: Profiling and Improving Performance

 

Related links:

CryEngine 3 Cookbook at Packt Publishing
CryEngine 3 Cookbook at Amazon