Friday, August 30th, 2019 Posted by Jim Thacker

Crytek releases CryEngine 5.6


Crytek’s tech trailer for CryEngine 5.6. The features new in the release – including support for area lights and a full-body ragdoll IK system – are shown in the section of the video from 01:10 to 02:10.


Crytek has released CryEngine 5.6, the latest version of its game engine and development environment, adding support for area lights, a new ragdoll IK system and updates to cloth simulation.

The new features were developed during work on Crytek’s own survival horror title Hunt: Showdown.

New materials, lighting, animation and physics features
New art features in CryEngine 5.6 include multi-layered microfacet materials, making it possible to recreate a wider range of real-world phenomena: suggested use cases include wet surfaces in environments.

The update also introduces support for area lights. The implementation makes area lights part of CryEngine’s Point Light Component, and uses baked textures.

Animation changes include the new Inter-Entity Constraint Points Storage system, designed for setting up complex mechanical assemblies like gears.

New physics features include a new full-body ragdoll IK system, support for pressurised buoyant cloth – that is, inflatable objects – and the option to create ‘ropes’ out of chains of mesh objects.

There is also a new Tesselated setting for CryEngine’s Render Ribbons feature, which smooths out joints in ribbons created with the engine’s particle system.

Updates to audio editing and AI authoring
Other changes include support for CRI Middleware’s ADX2 audio middleware and instant playback when editing audio; and a new GUI for authoring NPC AI behaviours.

CryEngine’s Sandbox editor also now controls project management, making it quicker to set up new projects.

Availability and system requirements
CryEngine 5.6 is available for Windows 7+. Use of the editor is free, but Crytek charges 5% of the revenue from any commercial project using the engine after the first $5,000/year.


Read a full list of new features in CryEngine 5.6 in Crytek’s online changelog