Scripting and the CryENGINE 3

In game development, scripting languages are used primarily to reduce the iteration time of the compile, linking, and running of the executable. In CryENGINE 3, most scripts can be hot loaded during runtime. What this means, is that the property changes similarly to how the Health of an object can be changed without the need to relaunch the editor application.

A great advantage to scripting is that it allows developers from various disciplines such as design, animation, art to work on their particular piece of the game without having to rely on the C++ programmers to change small variables within a game's code. In previous chapters, you have actually already done basic scripting by changing some of the variables of the entities and objects you've placed into the world.

In the CryENGINE 3 SDK, there are principally two different methods of scripting. The first method uses the Lua script language, which will be explained in detail in the next chapter. The second...