CRYENGINE 5.5 preview 3 goes live!

3 min read

After 400+ improvements, the latest CRYENGINE 5.5 preview 3 is live. Typically, CRYENGINE follows three preview cycles before the stable release. The latest, preview 3, is packed with code interface changes, improvements to animations and graphics, changes to the AI and core system along with other additional fixes.

The developer team at CRYENGINE has worked hard on the previews released earlier to ensure improved efficiency for the fellow game developers across the globe. The feedback provided by the CRYENGINE community played a pivotal role in this process. Here’s a quick rundown of all the new major features and updates in CRYENGINE 5.5 preview 3:

Code Interface changes

Following are the changes made to the code interface:

The new CryGamePlatform plugin (wrapping Steam and PSN APIs) replaces CryLobby.

The r_WindowType has replaced the r_Fullscreen and r_FullscreenWindow CVars. The Windows key has been enabled in the engine by default. You have to use g_disableWinKeys=1 to return to prior behavior.

The IID function is no longer needed by the Entity Components.

The ICryPlugin interface has been renamed to IEnginePlugin and moved to the Cry namespace. There is no need for the plugins to implement the GetName and GetCategory functions. This is because the default implementations have been added.
CryAction, which is a game framework is currently being removed. Its vital parts will move onto the other parts of the engine. Get the full information at the CRYENGINE code interface changes documentation.

Animation and Graphics improvements

Animation

Attachments such as a pistol, shotgun etc, were wrongly attached in cases where compute skinning is used. This is also resolved.
Race-condition crash in PoseAlignerChain when using ground alignment IK has been fixed.

Graphics

A new Profile section has been added which helps detect GetOrCreateInputLayout’s shader reflection request.
A new annotating HLSL shader is added in Vulkan that includes resource layout descriptors.
HLSLcc local shader compilation is another newly added feature in Vulkan.
Transformation/rotation issues for objects with sub-objects have been fixed.
New screen fill stats are added.
Now there are Enhanced grouping capabilities in new ActivateRandom feature. This supports all possibilities of old SecondGen features.

AI system and Core/System changes

AI system

Islands connectivity, a brand new feature added, takes navigation annotations into account.
Registering smart object as an off-mesh link that doesn’t work after creating a new level has also been fixed.

Core

New CryAPIExamples module is introduced to compile Doxygen snippets.
Simple IEntityAudioComponent examples have been added.
Plugin load from disk if shared libraries are unsupported has been disabled. This helps fix the PS4 startup issue.
Preview drawing is added to the Physic Constraint Components.

Apart from these changes and improvements, there have also been additional fixes. CVar is added to draw full extent of last cached shadow cascade, an unused ColorGrading technique is removed that was giving compiler errors, etc.

You can access the 5.5.0 Preview 3 Release through the CRYENGINE launcher and GitHub.

These are just a few selected updates to the CRYENGINE 5.5 preview 3. The full list of over 400+ changes, updates, and other known issues is available on the CRYENGINE release notes documentation.