The renderer details

The CryENGINE renderer is a modular system that allows the drawing of complex scenes, the handling of shaders, and more.

In order to facilitate different platform architectures, there exist multiple renderers for CryENGINE, all implementing the IRenderer interface. We have listed a selection as shown:

• DirectX: Used on Windows and Xbox
• PSGL: Used on PlayStation 3

There is also most likely an OpenGL renderer in development, for use on platforms such as Linux and Mac OS X.

Shaders

Shaders in CryENGINE are written using a specialized language based on HLSL, called CryFX. The system is very similar to HLSL, but is specialized for core engine functionality such as material and shader parameters, #include macros, and more.

Note

Note that shader authoring was not enabled in the Free SDK at the time this book was written; however, this might change in the future.

Shader permutations

Each time a material alters a shader generation parameter, a permutation of the base shader will be created...