Book Image

CryENGINE 3 Game Development: Beginner's Guide

Book Image

CryENGINE 3 Game Development: Beginner's Guide

Overview of this book

CryENGINE is a complete game development environment used by AAA game development studio Crytek to produce blockbuster games such as Crysis 1, 2 and 3. This complete Beginner's Guide takes the would be game developer through the steps required to create a game world complete with event scripting, user interface and 3D environment in the free CryENGINE SDK. Learn to create game worlds with the CryENGINE 3 Sandbox, the tool used to create AAA games like the soon to be released Crysis 3. Follow straightforward examples to sculpt the terrain, place vegetation, set up lighting, create game sounds, script with Lua and code with C++. Learn to navigate the interface within the CryENGINE 3 Sandbox, the tool used to create AAA games like Crysis 1 and 2, as well as the soon to be released Crysis 3. Learn to create your own worlds by following straight forward examples to sculpt the terrain, place vegetation, set up lighting, create game sounds, and script with the Lua language. The book covers all beginner aspects of game development including an introduction to C++ for non- coders.

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CryENGINE 3 Game Development: Beginner's Guide
Sep, 2012 | 354 pages
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Table of Contents (18 chapters)
CryENGINE 3 Game Development Beginner's Guide
CryENGINE 3 Game Development Beginner's Guide
Credits
Credits
About the Authors
About the Authors
About the Reviewers
About the Reviewers
www.PacktPub.com
www.PacktPub.com
Preface
Preface
Free Chapter
1
Introducing the CryENGINE 3 Free SDK
Introducing the CryENGINE 3 Free SDK
What is the CryENGINE?
Applying your vision
CryENGINE 3 Free SDK
Learning by example
Time for action – installing the CryENGINE 3 Free SDK
Time for action – load the sample map in the launcher
Visual Studio Express and C++ game code
Acquiring the sample source assets
Time for action – installation of the 3ds Max exporter Plugin
Time for action – downloading and opening the sample assets
Time for action – installing the Adobe Photoshop plugin-CryTif
CryENGINE 3 Sandbox
Time for action – starting Sandbox and WYSIWYP
Getting around in the Sandbox Editor
Time for action – manipulating the perspective camera
Handling level objects
Time for action – selecting and browsing objects
Time for action – saving our work
Summary
2
Breaking Ground with Sandbox
Breaking Ground with Sandbox
What makes a game?
Developing out of the box
Time for action - creating a new level
Time for action - creating your own heightmap
Using alternative ways for creating terrain
Time for action - creating some basic terrain texture layers
Time for action - creating some flora for your level
Time for action - setting up time of day and its basic parameters
Summary
3
Playable Levels in No Time
Playable Levels in No Time
Building levels with entities and objects
Starting a level
Time for action - creating a spawn point
Landmarks to guide the player
Time for action - creating a road object
Time for action - creating and managing layers
Time for action - adding brushes to the level
White boxing
Time for action - creating constructive solid geometry
Time for action - place a basic AI entity
Time for action - creating your own archetype
Time for action - exporting your level to engine
Summary
4
I'm a Scripter, Not a Coder
I'm a Scripter, Not a Coder
Scripting and the CryENGINE 3
Lua usage in the CryENGINE 3
Visual scripting with Flow Graph
Scripted events
Time for action - making a Flow Graph to spawn the player at a specific location
Using trigger entities with Flow Graph
Time for action - adding a trigger to Flow Graph and outputting its status
AI scripting with Flow Graph
Time for action - creating a patrolling AI
Debugging Flow Graphs using the visual debugger
Time for action - debugging the patrol Flow Graph
Time for action - adding and removing breakpoints
Summary
5
C++ and Compiling Your Own Game Code
C++ and Compiling Your Own Game Code
Installing Visual C++ 2010 Express Edition
Time for action - downloading and installing Visual C++ 2010 Express
Starting CryENGINE 3 with Visual Studio
Time for action - starting CryENGINE with the debugger attached
Breakpoints, watches, and code
Time for action - setting up your first breakpoint
Create a new Lua entity and call C++ code to interact with it
Time for action - creating a new entity
Time for action - placing your entity into your level
Time for action - making the teleporter usable
Time for action - writing a new scriptbind function in C++
Time for action - changing the teleporter entity to execute the C++ code
CryENGINE specific data types
Summary
6
User Interface and HUD Creation with Flash
User Interface and HUD Creation with Flash
Adobe Flash as a very powerful UI design tool
Time for action – creating a new Flash asset with Adobe Flash
Bringing your Flash asset into CryENGINE 3
Time for action – bringing your Flash asset into CryENGINE 3
Time for action – making functions, variables, and movieclips accessible in CryENGINE 3
Different alignment modes for UI elements
Using the UI Emulator to display and test your asset
Time for action – starting Sandbox and testing your UIElement
Creating a new UI Action for the new HUD
Time for action – making the HUD work
Basic event handling from Flash to CryENGINE 3
Time for action – creating a simple interactive menu
UI Emulator, UI Actions, and FreeSDK example menus
Time for action – using the UI Emulator to test the FreeSDK demo menus
Summary
7
Creating Assets for the CryENGINE 3
Creating Assets for the CryENGINE 3
What are assets?
Understanding the CryENGINE 3 asset pipeline
Exploring the CryENGINE 3 asset file types
Following a workflow for artists
Time for action - setting up 3ds Max units to match CryENGINE scale
Time for action - creating your own texture
Time for action - creating and exporting your first model
Time for action - making your object destructible
Using character assets
Time for action - creating your own skinned character
Time for action - creating animation for a skinned character
Creating animation for rigid body assets
Time for action - creating animation using rigid body data
Summary
8
Creating Real-time Cutscenes and Cinematic Events
Creating Real-time Cutscenes and Cinematic Events
Discovering the Track View editor
Time for action – creating a new sequence
Animating a camera in Track View
Time for action – animating a camera
Triggering a sequence using Flow Graph
Time for action – triggering a sequence
Animating entities in Track View
Time for action – animating an entity in Track View
Playing animations on entities in Track View
Time for action – playing an animation on an entity in Track View
Using Console Variables in Track View
Time for action – adding a Console Variable to a sequence
Using Track Events
Time for action – creating some Track Events for a sequence
Capturing video from CryENGINE 3
Time for action – capturing frames from CryENGINE
Summary
9
Immersion through Audio Design
Immersion through Audio Design
Introducing sound design
Understanding the CryENGINE sound event system
Setting up a project structure
Reviewing sound event system file formats
Getting your first sound into the CryENGINE
Time for action - creating an ambient sound event
Leveraging advanced parameters of ambient sounds
Time for action - nesting ambient sounds and using other parameters for sound events
Randomizing sounds
Time for action - creating random sounds
Reverb volumes
Time for action - create your own reverb preset
Adding sounds to particle effects
Time for action - add a sound to a particle effect
Sound events and weapons
Time for action - add sound to a weapon
Summary
10
Preparing to Share Your Content
Preparing to Share Your Content
Profiling performance in Sandbox
Time for action – enabling and reading display info
Saving a level's statistics
Time for action – Save Level Statistics
Enabling Debug Draw modes
Time for action – enabling Debug Draw modes
Profiles
Time for action – using profiles to break down frame-time performance
Optimizing levels with VisAreas and Portals
Time for action – set up a VisArea
Light clipping boxes and areas
Time for action – create a light clipping box
Activating and deactivating layers
Time for action – use layer switching logic
Packaging your content to share
Time for action – create a team, project, and share an upload
Summary
Pop Quiz Answers
Pop Quiz Answers
Chapter 2, Breaking Ground with Sandbox
Chapter 3, Playable Levels in No Time
Chapter 4, I’m a Scripter Not a Coder
Chapter 5, C++ and Compiling Your Own Game Code
Chapter 6, User Interface and HUD Creation with Flash
Chapter 7, Creating Assets for the CryENGINE 3
Chapter 8, Creating Real-time Cutscenes and Cinematic Events
Chapter 9, Immersion through Audio Design
Chapter 10, Preparing to Share Your Content
Index
Index

Time for action – installing the CryENGINE 3 Free SDK

Before we dive in, we must ensure that our computer system meets the requirements for development with the CryENGINE 3 SDK. As opposed to some reports, it does not take a super computer to run the CryENGINE 3 SDK. It should be noted that the system requirements for a developer do differ from that of a player, otherwise known as the end user.

Note

The CryENGINE 3 SDK is designed to scale reliably on a variety of systems with varying amounts of video and computational processing power.

The system requirements for a developer are as follows:

  • Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1, Windows 7.

  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2 GHz, or better.

  • Memory: 2 to 4 GigaBytes of RAM.

  • Video card: NVIDIA 8800GT 512 MB RAM, AMD 3850HD 512 MB RAM, or better. Shader Model 3 is the minimum.

Note

A multi-core processor is strongly recommended for development, as subsystems in CryENGINE 3 SDK can make use of multiple cores.

The system requirements for end users are as follows:

  • Supported Operating Systems: Windows XP SP2, Windows Vista SP1, or Windows 7.

  • Processor: Intel Core 2 Duo 2 GHz, AMD Athlon 64 X2 2GHz, or better.

  • Memory: 1 GigaByte of RAM is the minimum, however, 2 GigaBytes is strongly recommended.

  • Video card: NVIDIA 8800GT 512 MB RAM, AMD 3850HD 512 MB RAM, or better.

To get our hands dirty, we are going to need to download and install CryENGINE 3 SDK. This will allow us to create and run new games and the included sample content. Following are the steps to download and install CryENGINE 3 SDK:

  1. Go to http://www.crydev.net.

  2. Register yourself to create a unique login, which we will soon use to run CryENGINE 3 SDK.

  3. Once registered, download the CryENGINE 3 Free SDK package.

  4. Extract the content of the downloaded package to your desired directory. For this book, create a new directory on your C:, and name it Crytek. Then, create a new folder in the Crytek folder, and name it cryengine3_sdk. You should end up with all files from the archive in the directory C:/Crytek/cryengine3_sdk.

What just happened?

In the previous section, we took our first and very important step on our way to becoming a CryENGINE developer.

Now that you've installed the CryENGINE 3 Free SDK, you can run and view the sample content. Now, you can also interact with the rest of the CryENGINE 3 developers, post screenshots, ask advice, or even download other developer's creations on http://www.crydev.net.

Come in...stay awhile

Now, we can go to explore the sample level. This sample map should give you a good idea of the fidelity of rendering and interaction that can be achieved with the currently available generation of the technology.

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