Some developers don't just sell games, they also sell the underlying engine, which powers everything from the physics and graphics to the AI. Last year, Epic Games' Gears of War was the perfect ad for the company's Unreal Engine 3. Now, German gamemaker Crytek hopes its new PC title Crysis will persuade other developers to license its CryEngine 2. Here's a peek under the hood.
(a) Lighting
Sci-fi shooter Crysis is set on a sunny 12-square-mile tropical island. Cevat Yerli, CEO of Crytek, uses jargon like "subsurface scattering," and "real-time indirect lighting" to describe the illumination. Translation: The sun streams through palm fronds and glances off faraway waves.
(b) Surfaces
Evil aliens are trying to convert this balmy paradise into a wintry tundra. As players approach the enemy's lair, the ground underfoot turns from mud to slush to ice, an effect Crytek accomplished by developing a script that layers multiple textures on game surfaces.
(c) Destruction
In most games, stuff that should blow apart doesn't — the 3-D models don't simulate the right physical properties. But when Crysis players blast away, trees splinter, vehicles fragment, and buildings collapse. "If it looks like it should break," Yerli says, "then in most cases it will."
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