rvaldes63

In my last post I indicated I would be reviewing some of the current documentation for the CryEngine, specifically: Tracy and Reindell's CryEngine3 Game Development: A Beginner's Guide. But before I go headlong into that book, I want to take a few steps back and take in the broader picture of documentation for CryENGINE. I naturally started with the CryTek official documentation and soon ran into a couple of pet peeves of mine:

1. No PDF version that I can get on hard copy. I'm old school that way. I'm a firm believer that trees need to die in order for me to read something of significant length. Particularly when the subject is densely technical. I need to highlight, draw pictures and add snooty little comments in the margins in order for me to truly "GROK" the essence of the subject matter. To be sure there is a plethora of video tutorials to enhance the learning experience (and I watch these as well), but I need my paper to make it real. That said, I can see the appeal of being 100% online. It makes updating the documentation that much easier. More on that topic a little later.

2. For completeness, it necessarily is a set of references generated by a team of developers and writers. While this is necessary, it is not ideal for the individual like me learning a game engine from the ground up. I do know of some engineers who can take reference tomes like these and after a week or 2, have a pretty solid grasp of how the thing is supposed to work. I envy people like that, because I, unfortunately am not one of these people. I need a guide, a hand holder, someone who can give me the personal perspective that I can emulate and latch onto.

Pet peeves aside, CryTek has fielded an impressive amount of documentation and, from what I've seen so far, it IS in English believe it or not. As an American I am always humbled by companies based in non-English speaking countries, like Germany in this case, who can field impressive amounts of documentation in a foreign language. American companies, for the most part, are insanely spoiled that way. All our documentation is in English and we rarely bother with translation.... but I digress.

At this point you can tell I'm not someone who will be winning any Nobel prizes in physics any time soon. And some may wonder (as I often do myself) 'with such limited brain capacity, why do you even bother?' Good question! I believe that, historically speaking, something very important is going on here. The development and evolution of game engines mark a turning point in human civilization that will touch everything that we do from how we tell stories, teach one another to learn and, of course, the all mighty engines of commerce. Something this important deserves all of our attention.. well at least it gets my attention.

My final point: I fully intend to refer back to the official documentation from time to time as I need to get a better handle on specific aspects of the engine, but for now, a Beginner's Guide will be my guide into the technical subject until such time as someone writes the 'CryENGINE for Dummies.'