Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up

A post to the RSI Community Forums by Chris Roberts further discusses the just announced switch for Star Citizen from Crytek's CryENGINE to Amazon's Lumberyard engine (thanks DSOGaming). As noted, the new engine is an offshoot of the old one, and Chris explains that this made for an easy transition:
Lumberyard and StarEngine are both forks from exactly the SAME build of CryEngine.

We stopped taking new builds from Crytek towards the end of 2015. So did Amazon. Because of this the core of the engine that we use is the same one that Amazon use and the switch was painless (I think it took us a day or so of two engineers on the engine team). What runs Star Citizen and Squadron 42 is our heavily modified version of the engine which we have dubbed StarEngine, just now our foundation is Lumberyard not CryEngine. None of our work was thrown away or modified. We switched the like for like parts of the engine from CryEngine to Lumberyard. All of our bespoke work from 64 bit precision, new rendering and planet tech, Item / Entity 2.0, Local Physics Grids, Zone System, Object Containers and so on were unaffected and remain unique to Star Citizen.

Going forward we will utilize the features of Lumberyard that make sense for Star Citizen. We made this choice as Amazon's and our focus is aligned in building massively online games that utilize the power of cloud computing to deliver a richer online experience than would be possible with an old fashioned single server architecture (which is what CryNetwork is).

Looking at Crytek's roadmap and Amazon's we determined that Amazon was investing in the areas we were most interested in. They are a massive company that is making serious investments into Lumberyard and AWS to support next generation online gaming. Crytek doesn't have the resources to compete with this level of investment and have never been focused on the network or online aspects of the engine in the way we or Amazon are. Because of this combined with the fact we weren't taking new builds of CryEngine we decided that Amazon would be the best partner going forward for the future of Star Citizen.

Finally there was no ulterior motive in the timing of the announcement. The deal wasn't fully finalized until after the release of 2.5 and we agreed with Amazon to announce the switch and partnership upon the release of 2.6, which would be the first release on Lumberyard and AWS. If you have been checking out our schedule updates you would know that we originally had hoped to release 2.6 at the beginning of December, not Friday the 23rd!

I hope this clears up some of the speculation I have seen. We are very excited to be partnered with Amazon and feel this move is a big win for Star Citizen and by extension everyone that has backed the project.

p.s. I wont be replying to this as it is Christmas and I am meant to be enjoying a bit of time off with my family (and playing some games - you may see me pop into a Star Marine or AC match or two!)

p.p.s Happy Holidays All!
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24.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 20:48
Slick
 
24.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 20:48
Dec 25, 2016, 20:48
 Slick
 
Hump wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 20:47:
Ludomancer wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 20:37:
Isn't the "Engine-Switch" the death-knell for any game project?


Lumberyard is based off of CryEngine which what Roberts was using anyhow. I don't think its as drastic of a change as some sites are implying.

Then again, I have zero interest in Space games so WTF do I know....

honestly mate, if he can't be bothered to read the article that he's commenting on... you're just encouraging his lazyness.
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23.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 20:47
23.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 20:47
Dec 25, 2016, 20:47
 
Ludomancer wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 20:37:
Isn't the "Engine-Switch" the death-knell for any game project?


Lumberyard is based off of CryEngine which what Roberts was using anyhow. I don't think its as drastic of a change as some sites are implying.

Then again, I have zero interest in Space games so WTF do I know....
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"Both the “left” and the “right” pretend they have the answer, but they are mere flippers on the same thalidomide baby, and the truth is that neither side has a clue."

- Jim Goad
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22.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 20:46
Slick
 
22.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 20:46
Dec 25, 2016, 20:46
 Slick
 
Ludomancer wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 20:37:
Isn't the "Engine-Switch" the death-knell for any game project?


sigh... it would possibly be, except for reasons, logic, and reading.
Avatar 57545
21.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 20:45
21.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 20:45
Dec 25, 2016, 20:45
 
[VG]Reagle wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 20:09:
Worship I TIRED TO WARN YOU BUT YOU WOULDNT LISTNE AHAHAHAHA OWNWNNNWNWNWNWNEEDDDD. Chris has taken your money AND used you over. I HOPE you ALL have leaned an improtant lesson. SO SPEUCIAL.

I don't understand how you get from A to B here. [Story about minor detail and two-day investment of developer time] = "I TIRED TO WARN YOU BUT YOU WOULDNT LISTNE" I mean... did you read the content in question? Did you understand it? Granted, your post history suggests I may be holding you to impossible standards, but you could at least try to be topical.

At any rate, this is kind of a win-win, no brainer development. The news that it took such minimal effort to implement makes it even more so. Still, for all the progress that's been made thus far (and it is substantial), I really hope we start seeing some major content drops and polishing of game systems.

Ludomancer wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 20:37:
Isn't the "Engine-Switch" the death-knell for any game project?

Depends on the project, but as noted in the text this isn't really an engine switch.
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20.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 20:37
20.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 20:37
Dec 25, 2016, 20:37
 
Isn't the "Engine-Switch" the death-knell for any game project?

19.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 20:20
19.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 20:20
Dec 25, 2016, 20:20
 
Honestly, I would agree with you, but I feel that the more devout are the anti-followers. Full disclosure, I own a basic package, and I'm just sitting here waiting. I invested, now I wait to see if it was a good investment or not. I haven't even updated since the very first demonstration of the hanger module.

Some people, though, seem to have heavily invested themselves, emotionally, in being right about the game failing, or Chris Roberts failing. You could nearly believe Chris Roberts murdered their parents, with how dedicated they are, and how unwilling to see even the possibility that some development might represent progress towards a full release. It seems very odd to me that they might take such glee towards the idea of something failing, rather than investing in hope towards progress.
18.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 20:09
18.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 20:09
Dec 25, 2016, 20:09
 
Worship I TIRED TO WARN YOU BUT YOU WOULDNT LISTNE AHAHAHAHA OWNWNNNWNWNWNWNEEDDDD. Chris has taken your money AND used you over. I HOPE you ALL have leaned an improtant lesson. SO SPEUCIAL. BUT THEN FRIENDS we all know what this REALLY ABOUYT DONT WE????????? Smitten I TOLD YOUSO!!!! owned Furious2

This comment was edited on Dec 25, 2016, 20:16.
DON'T LIKE MY COMMENTS?!? THEN STOP RELEASING GARBAGE.
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17.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 19:46
Slick
 
17.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 19:46
Dec 25, 2016, 19:46
 Slick
 
RedEye9 wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 19:19:
The game could be accused of having a cult-like following . Some have even gone so far as to spend hundreds of dollars.

Well, at least there's a good chance that at the end of the journey, you'll get some actual sci-fi to play around with, and not teleporting to the planet xenu or whatever. #REALSCIFI
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16.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 19:19
16.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 19:19
Dec 25, 2016, 19:19
 
The game could be accused of having a cult-like following . Some have even gone so far as to spend hundreds of dollars.
"I expect death to be nothingness and by removing from me all possible fears of death, I am thankful to atheism." Isaac Asimov
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15.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 19:11
15.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 19:11
Dec 25, 2016, 19:11
 
Breaking News

Chris Roberts Lies!

We now return to your regular programming.
14.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 19:05
Kxmode
 
14.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 19:05
Dec 25, 2016, 19:05
 Kxmode
 
Oh my god, I actually rolled on the floor laughing. ROFL!!! Rotfl
"...and in stonks, Fizzy Squeezy Stocklebocks leaped over Droopy Whoopy Bondfluffs, hitting 300-gigglebits to their 150-snorebucks. Meanwhile, in Whimsyland's market, the pancakes reached parity with pogo sticks."
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13.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 18:57
13.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 18:57
Dec 25, 2016, 18:57
 
MacLeod wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 14:05:
BadIronTree wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 13:30:
Everything for that extra ad revenue ... This is how facts died
R.I.P. ???-2016

WTF are you rambling about? They had an article on this yesterday. This morning, CR makes a post on the SC forums to clarify transition and Blue linked that with literally the text from the article. How the fuck does that equate to "facts dying"??

This is something I see constantly from SC supporters everytime there's SC news that gets reported on... it becomes "You're only reporting this for the ad revenue"... but if they didn't mention this, you'd be bitching in another thread about not covering the full fucking story.

This is how facts died fanboy
12.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 18:10
12.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 18:10
Dec 25, 2016, 18:10
 
I was glad CR posted this. I didn't think this was a big deal yesterday, and now it's clear that it's a miniscule deal.
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Slava Ukraini!
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11.
 
Re: eat it too
Dec 25, 2016, 18:08
11.
Re: eat it too Dec 25, 2016, 18:08
Dec 25, 2016, 18:08
 
Agent-Zero wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 17:21:

it is successful.. its unbelievable how successful it is

have some cake coke

Fixed.
If Russia stops fighting, the war ends. If Ukraine stops fighting, Ukraine ends. Slava Ukraini!
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10.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 17:43
10.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 17:43
Dec 25, 2016, 17:43
 
SlimRam wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 17:20:
KilrathiAce wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 17:14:
Hopefully i am still alive when its released. Also, while they are at it how about buy wing commander rights already.
I've always wondered, who owns the rights to the Wing Commander franchise now?

Dude? Electronic Farts, of course. The games are still being sold. Check GOG. The publisher for all WC games is EA/Origin.
9.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 17:35
9.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 17:35
Dec 25, 2016, 17:35
 
RedEye9 wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 15:59:
favorite comment from phobos512
Here's the thing. Back in the day we'd have heard about this game as a sentence in a magazine article/interview ("working on something really neat," etc.). There would've been rumors for months to years and eventually a full page ad buy and then an article. And then it would've come out. Instead we follow the entire process every step of the way and we are enabled to know and criticize everything. It's a complete paradigm shift and it's hard because people are so damned impatient.

Back in the day, say the 90's, this would be correct. The problem is, this isn't pre-internet/early internet times. All games go through intense scrutiny now.

People are starting to get worried because this is not the first time this has happened to a game that CR was fully in charge of. Not just the making, but utterly in charge of. He has a long history of feature creep, made worse by the very nature of the method they used to fund this game. Add a feature, get more money, ad nauseum. This plays right into CR's greatest strength and his greatest weakness.

Right now, Star Citizen is looking like the development phase of Freelancer. Many might think that is a good thing, since Freelancer was a decent game, but it isn't. Freelancer, if you take a moment to look at what was promised by CR during it's development, was far closer to what Star Citizen is supposed to end up being. When he finally ran low on time and funds, selling the project completely to Microsoft, it was not really close to what had been mentioned/promised.

That is what I see happening here, only this time it will be Amazon buying him out and releasing a shell of what was supposed to be the end all space MMO of all time. Which is what Freelancer was supposed to be. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freelancer_(video_game)#Development
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8.
 
Re: eat it too
Dec 25, 2016, 17:21
8.
Re: eat it too Dec 25, 2016, 17:21
Dec 25, 2016, 17:21
 
Amazon Games head of business Dan Winters added: "Star Citizen and Squadron 42 are incredibly ambitious projects which are only possible with great engine technology paired with the transformative power of the cloud."

Star Citizen was announced in October 2012. The crowdfunded project has since raised more than $139 million, making it the most successful crowdfunded project of any kind in history.

it is successful.. its unbelievable how successful it is

have some cake
7.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 17:20
7.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 17:20
Dec 25, 2016, 17:20
 
KilrathiAce wrote on Dec 25, 2016, 17:14:
Hopefully i am still alive when its released. Also, while they are at it how about buy wing commander rights already.
I've always wondered, who owns the rights to the Wing Commander franchise now?
With a damaged Panzer still hunting 'The Haunted Tank' and Gus out of ammo, Jeb knew there was only one option, "Slim, RAM!"
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6.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 17:14
6.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 17:14
Dec 25, 2016, 17:14
 
Hopefully i am still alive when its released. Also, while they are at it how about buy wing commander rights already.
"On 2646.215 I myself attacked & destroyed TCS Tiger's Claw in my Jalthi heavy fighter"
Bakhtosh Redclaw Nar Kiranka
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5.
 
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up
Dec 25, 2016, 16:15
5.
Re: Star Citizen Engine Switch Follow-up Dec 25, 2016, 16:15
Dec 25, 2016, 16:15
 
...I'm still looking forward to playing the single player game when it's finally released in 2022.

Total money spent on Star Citizen thus far: $0.
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