You have probably heard this before: "Gameplay is more important than graphics". This rather old saying is still true today when it comes to game production. However, this does not mean that good visuals are not important. Good rendering quality and high visual fidelity go a long way when you are trying to get the player immersed in your game. CryENGINE excels when it comes to rendering beautiful and realistic environments. As a developer, CryENGINE offers you a vast array of shaders, effects, and tools, which all help you create stunningly beautiful environments for your game. This is where CryENGINE really stands out from the crowd of real-time 3D engines.

Most of CryENGINE's rendering and postprocessing effects can be controlled and set up from Sandbox. In this chapter, we will take a look at what types of effects CryENGINE has to offer and how best to use them in a project. We will look at the different ways to use and set up this...