14 DAY TRIAL // Crytek has finally confirmed that it is working on Linux support for the famous CRYENGINE, which will open the way for more games for the open source platform.
There aren't too many high-profile game engines on the Linux platform, and there are very few titles that actually look amazing and stand out from the rest. One of the reasons is the lack of Linux support for the major game engines out there, like Unreal 3 for example.
Things are slowly changing and more and more developers are considering Linux as a viable option for gaming. This was to be expected after the release of Steam for Linux, and the community has been hoping for a snowball effect that would pull even more developers into the fray.
The Game Developers Conference is about to start in San Francisco, and Crytek has announced its participation, explaining that it will be present there to show some new games and full, native Linux support.
“During presentations and hands-on demos at Crytek's GDC booth, attendees can see for the first time ever full native Linux support in the new CRYENGINE. The CRYENGINE all-in-one game engine is also updated with the innovative features used to recreate the stunning Roman Empire seen in Ryse – including the brand new Physically Based Shading render pipeline, which uses real-world physics simulation to create amazingly realistic lighting and materials in CRYENGINE games,” reads the announcement from Crytek.
Unfortunately, the developers didn’t say if they were also planning to port any of the existing games on the Linux platform, of if they were just providing the necessary tools that can be exploited by others when making games for Linux.
Crytek is best known for its Crysis series of games that usually push the existing limit video cards when they hit the market. The developers also managed to produce a very successful engine that has been adopted in a lot of games, especially in Asia, but also in some western-developed titles.
One of the games that would clearly benefit from the updates and the Linux support for the engine is Star Citizen, the space trading and combat simulator developed by Chris Roberts and his team. He said that a Linux version was being taken into account, but only if Crytek considered adding Linux support for its CRYENGINE, which is used in Star Citizen.
We'll have more information about the Linux support for CRYENGINE after the GDC ends, on March 21.