Althas is Upgrading Engines!
Greetings Althas fans. We have some big news to announce (if the title isn’t obvious enough), we have just switched game engines: from CryEngine to Unreal Engine 4.
Now some of you may be asking: “Why the switch? Aren’t you losing a lot of progress?” To answer the first question: we were initially using the CRYENGINE 3 “Free SDK” and were eager to get hold of the much-touted Engine-as-a-Service (EaaS) once it was released. However, at the end of May, when EaaS was released on Steam, we were quite disappointed to find that it fell far short of our expectations. Suffice to say, we needed to find a new engine, as the Free SDK is no longer being supported (nor was it ever adequate on it’s own for developing Althas). We’ve always had it at the back of our minds, but after some thorough research, Unreal Engine 4 (UE4) turned out to be the engine of our dreams (the sheer number of advantages would take too long to list here).
To answer the second question: Yes, we are losing progress, but... In all honesty, the losses from moving from CryEngine to UE4 (mainly level design) are insignificant compared to the progress we have already made in the new engine. In just two weeks of using UE4, we have made considerable progress to gameplay systems; so much so, I dare say we’re further along in game development than we’ve ever been before due to the sheer openness of Epic Game’s engine.
In order to inaugurate this announcement, we would like to show you some of our developments since we've switched:
-Holnas Claymore accompanied with a Clan Wulfas Helm
-Thenodrim Shortsword beautifully rendered in-engine
As a Team we know that we're in good hands with UE4 and we hope to bring you some amazing stuff over the course of development.
That's it for this week. Just remember to keep your eye's peeled on us because we've got great things to show soon. Stay tuned!
Hope everyone had/is having a wonderful Father's day. If not, we got you covered! ;)
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.
This comment is currently awaiting admin approval, join now to view.
Yeah I get to feel special for knowing about this a while before it happened :D (Although MEB sort of threw me off track with his response about Crytek releasing CE's source code)
UE4 does look fantastic in pretty much all the tech demos it is shown in (hadn't quite seen actual gameplay of it but that could be because I wasn't looking hard enough) so I'm excited to see how LoA will end up looking. Also the more I look into game design in general the more I realize that lighting either makes or breaks a game. (Good examples include vanilla Skyrim vs Skyrim with ENBs and vanilla Watch_Dogs vs Watch_Dogs with SweetFX)
Would be nice to get a proper comparison image which would compare the two engines. Something like this scene Media.moddb.com in UE4.
My experience with CryEngine is better than with UDK (pretty sure that's the same thing as UE4 but at 2am I barely even know my name) so if I was to ever manage to get the time to work on Althas I would be stuck with only being a modeler/texturer as I would have close to no clue as to how to use UE4.
However I likely won't be having any time in the near future as I have my work cut out for me this summer which sort of saddens me since I would love to work on 3 awesome projects as well as finish all the games in my ever increasing list of games to play. I guess I could just create assets for one of those projects and then share it with the other which could work due to their settings being medieval.
UE4 is MUCH MORE than UDK. It's much better in every way.
"UDK (pretty sure that's the same thing as UE4 "
Not at all! ;D
UDK is the Free Unreal Engine 3 SDK, while UE4 is the Unreal Engine 4. UE4 has made a BIG jump from UE3/UDK, in almost every way. It's pretty mindblowing how accessible everything is, and it also looks great due to PBR. :D
Okay so how do I get my hands on it? Could be fun to mess with it for a bit. (Hope its free to download)
20 bucks a month for subscription.
:( Since I'd probably only use it for a 5-20ish min trail it doesn't seem worth that much to me. Maybe I can get it from kat or tpb just to test it and if I really like it I might end up paying 20 bucks a month just to have access to something like UE4. (Epic should let people try their engine more easily)
You don't have to pay more than once. If you want, you can subscribe for one month ($20) and then cancel your subscription. You won't get access to the engine updates, but you will still be allowed to use the engine version you got for anything you want. Basically, for $20 you get the entire current version to use for any project you wish. That includes source code and all documentation as well as all the assets Epic puts on their marketplace. Yes, even the free ones can be used in your projects. So it's basically the whole of Unreal Engine 4 for $20. That's a steal if you ask me.
I get what you are saying but since I won't use a game engines for every single school related project I work on and I likely won't become a game dev in the near future it doesn't make much sense to me at the moment.
Right now I'd literally turn it on for 5-20 mins and see what is possible with it. Otherwise I wouldn't touch it at all for days on end. That could of course change in a few months when I free up my time a bit or run into the need to use UE4.
what are the advantages of EU 4 compared with the CryEngine?
Unreal Engine 4 has several advantages over CryEngine. These include:
1: UE4 is newer.
2: UE4 is newer.
3: CryEngine suffers from a chronic lack of community.
4: UE4 has no known natural enemies.
5: Scientific evidence has led many to believe that UE4 is healthier than CryEngine, as long as it is kept in a secure environment and is not fed more than twice daily.
However, none of the above advantages are the reason why we switched. :)
cryengine 4 $10
Yes, those enthusiastic chaps over at CryTek seem to enjoy making their products look cheap...
CryEngine costs 10$/month. When the subscription plan expires, access to the engine is suspended. Its present, unfortunate position beneath the wheels of a Steam engine also helps to make the offer less attractive.
Unreal Engine 4 costs 19$/month. The subscription can be cancelled at any time, and continued use of the engine currently installed is permitted, though further updates would require re-subscription.