Over 260 enhancements and fixes come to the latest build, putting more power than ever before in the hands of CryENGINEERS around the world. CRYENGINE 5.5 has been developed in parallel with Hunt: Showdown, our monster hunter available in Early Access on Steam now, and the release features many of the improvements in the branch that the game development team at Frankfurt has been using to achieve their vision.
Crytek has announced a new 5% royalty-based model for CRYENGINE, alongside a range of improvements, enhancements, new learning offerings, and full access to the editor source code. Developers around the world now have complete, uninhibited, and easy access to the power of CRYENGINE, and the opportunity to have their expertise with the engine recognized.

Creators who release games using CRYENGINE V will find development faster and easier than ever before and incur costs only after $5,000 is raised in revenue. An enterprise tier will also be introduced for custom support packages and royalty buyouts. Developers currently developing on CRYENGINE 5.0-5.4 can apply for a royalty exemption if they wish to stay on the current version and not take advantage of access to the editor source code. For more information, consult the CRYENGINE FAQ pages.

CRYENGINE 5.5 is available directly from the launcher and makes CRYENGINE quicker, more powerful, and easier to use, and includes a new beginner’s course where newcomers are taken through every step to quickly create a full game in CRYENGINE. CRYENGINE 5.5 has been developed with feedback from both the Hunt: Showdown Team in Frankfurt and feedback and suggestions from the CRYENGINE community around the world. Your feedback is always heard, and we couldn’t have made this release without everyone’s valuable input. Keep it coming. You can read the full CRYENGINE 5.5 release notes here and check out just some of the new features below.

CRYENGINE 5.5 Release Highlights New Getting Started Course: Our new beginner’s course shows users with no experience of game development how to create a full game in CRYENGINE in just 10 chapters. This is a common request, and we’re delighted to finally release the new documentation which we think will really help those with no experience get making their own projects quickly.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ SVOGI Improvements: SVOGI can now run on consoles and we have enabled developers to cache SVOGI on the disk and calculate GI completely offline. This means you can make the most realistic scenes yet.
Terrain System Improvements: New features and enhancements vastly improve the terrain system, including the ability to weight and blend multiple materials, more detailed heightmaps, and more. New Sandbox Level File Format: A new level file format future-proofs collaborative editing and usage of version control systems, and allows users to place level files anywhere in the project directory.
Sandbox UI/UX Improvements: The Sandbox will now provide users new upgrades and tweaks to improve workflows and make development faster and easier. Improvements include a new dropdown within your tab so you can see all windows open within that dock, allowing you to nest everything inside that side pane and keeping you free to dev completely in the viewport. You can also control the distance of your helpers within the viewport, and CTRL click the visibility icon to hide all (solo mode). This will help you get to your item quickly and then jump back into the full scene if it is a complex collection of entities. Updated Entity Components: New and legacy components are integrated in the new entity system, including rain and water ripple entities. A new VR Camera and interaction component makes getting up and running with VR even easier.
C# Upgrades: We have expanded how users can create C# assets directly inside the Asset Browser, with Visual Studio instances, debugging through the IDE, and more.
Character Proxy Creation: The FBX animation import feature now allows for physics proxy creation in the Character Tool viewport, and is interchangeable with the production environment for seamless editing and versioning.
Game Platform Plugins: A brand new Game Platform plugin allows for easy access to common distribution platforms and data transfer protocols. This includes Steamworks and PSN API functions like matchmaking, leaderboards, and achievements.
Unity Migration Guide: A new migration guide helps Unity users transfer their skills or content over to CRYENGINE faster than ever.

The latest update packs many features and fixes which we are sure will make the difference for users at all levels, from newbies starting out to battle-hardened veterans. Your feedback is invaluable to us, and work has already begun on the next update, so we’d love to hear your thoughts via the forums, Discord, Facebook, and Twitter.

- Your CRYENGINE Team

Good job guys! So many important updates and fixes.

Can't wait to check out the new docs.

Great job. Can't wait to test it tonight.

Thanks Crytek.

Testing. Looking great so far! Also loving the easyness using the preview!

I tested a little c # project in the visual studio and debug one in the editor. Everything works perfectly.
Also, adding a field to the class or creating a component is immediately reflected in the editor. Now you do not need to reload the editor a hundred times.
This is an uber-feature. Thanks Crytek.

Now explain how it works SVOGI Offline Voxelization, Weighted Blending?

Do we need something special to open solution in visual studio ? because it's not working for me

1# Looks to me like anti-aliasing is broken in the current built.
2# Also automerged vegetation isn't casting any shadows.
3# Self shadowing for POM doesn't work together with the terrain layer shader.
4# The new material editor is pretty much useless as you can't brows for materials anymore. It also doesn't update properly. There is no get from "Get Item from Selected Object" or "Assign Item to Selected Objects" and the material picker is now hidden in the file menu. It looks and behaves worse than the old one except you can now customize the windows i guess. I would honestly consider to role back to the old material editor as there doesn't seems to be any benefits with the new one.

More bugs which hopefully can be fixed as soon as possible:

-None of the AA modes are working nor sharpening filter
-Probes are broken when generated, causing flickering and lighting is dissappearing
-Enabling gi mode 1 causing engine crash
-Material Editor doesn't really update the textures when applied like before
-Opening some windows are quite slow and sometimes icons are disappearing
-New material editor is not really useful in it's current state

I understand the nessesarity of royalties for the use of a third party game engine.
But one thing I always critisized is the "the first x.000 $/€ are royalty free" model.
without royalty I would calculate my revenue like this:

Gameprice x sold titles x 0,7 = myRevenue
(0,7 based of the platform I'm selling the game, steam, etc.)
pretty simple, right?


With royalties but without "first x.000 $/€ royalty free" I would calculate like this:

Gameprice x sold titles x 0,65 = myRevenue
(0,7 - 0,05 based of the platform I'm selling the game, steam, etc. plus 0,05 based of the royalty system of the engine, Cryengine, etc.)
also pretty simple I would think.


having to do a more complicated calculation because I have to substract x.000 $/€ per project per year does not really make me smile ,
5000$/€ per project per year is nice, but not really substantial, helpful or nessessary for the success of a project.
In my eyes it just makes things more complicated, and I don't want to spend extra time doing this calculations for every project or even every year again.

Crytek, can't you just make things the most simple way possible?

For example:
If 10.000 $/€ revenue on the retailer/publisher per project are reached, I would have to pay 5% royalties to Crytek for ALL the revenue and below that I do not have to pay any royalties?

I know that sounds weird to ask, but I just would like it more simple so I can focus on working on my project, I don't want to deal with this!