CryENGINE 3 Cookbook: Over 90 recipes written by Crytek developers for creating third-generation real-time games

With the CryENGINE 3 Software Development Kit installed and ready for use, we can now get into the more exciting bits of utilizing the Sandbox basics.

This chapter will deal with the majority of the tools you will use on a regular basis as well as the essentials for creating new and exciting levels for your project. We will also look at the importance of utilizing the layer system for developers to work simultaneously on the same level. This chapter will also include the use of one of CryENGINE's greatest features of What you see is what you play by demonstrating how you may be able to play the level that you have created on demand.

Before we can do anything with the gameplay of the project that you are creating, we first need a foundation of a new level for the player to stand on. This recipe will cover how to create a new level from scratch.

This recipe deals with the procedural generation of a terrain. Although never good enough for a final product because you will want to fine tune the heightmap to your specifications, these generated terrains are a great starting point for anyone new to creating levels or for anyone who needs to set up a test level with the Sandbox. Different heightmap seeds and a couple of tweaks to the height of the level and you can generate basic mountain ranges or islands quickly that are instantly ready to use.

In this section, we will cover the basics of painting your heightmap by hand. This recipe will teach you how to flatten, raise, lower, and smoothen the heightmap by hand, painting in both the Terrain Editor window as well as Perspective View.

Using the Terrain Brush from the Terrain Editor is good for a general high level pass over your level; it is only decent when starting on a fresh level. For more detailed work, many designers use the Terrain Brush from within the Perspective Viewport to see their results instantly. We will be covering both methods.

In this recipe, we will teach you how to set up a new grass-like terrain texture for you to paint on the terrain.

Placing objects is a simple task; however, basic terrain snapping is not explained to most new developers. It is common to ask why, when dragging and dropping an object into the world, they cannot see the object. This section will teach you the easiest ways to place an object into your map by using the Follow Terrain method.

After placing the objects in the world with just the Follow Terrain or Snapping to Objects, you might find that you will need to adjust the position, rotation, or scale of the object. In this recipe, we will show you the basics of how you might be able to do so along with a few hotkey shortcuts to make this process a little faster. This works with any object that is placed in your level, from Entities to Solids.

A common question that is usually asked about the CryENGINE is how does one developer work on the same level as another at the same time. The answer is—Layers. In this recipe, we will show you how you may be able to utilize the layer system for not only your own organization, but to set up external layers for other developers to work on in parallel.

CryENGINE prides itself on the saying What you see is what you play, and the switching to game mode is a testament to this.

It goes without saying that testing your work often is the key to a successful project, and the quick easy use of switching to Game Mode within the Editor allows you to test at will without the need to close Sandbox.

Even though the Editor is built with this feature to allow Developers to check their work, this is still only an emulation. This means that there are several special editor rules and debug options available in this mode, which isn't fully representative of what the Player might see in the Pure Game. Even though it is an excellent idea to test often by switching to Game Mode, it is also important to do any final testing in the Launcher on your target platform to have a proper Pure Game experience.

In this recipe, we will cover the simple, but highly important use of switching to game mode. This function allows you to jump into your level...

On the surface, saving your level seems like a simple process; however, there are a few important functionalities that you should be aware of when saving your level. This recipe will show you how to do a basic saving, copying/moving your level (do not use Save As), and auto backups.

Even though saving your level will create a .cry file for you, it is extremely important to note that a .cry alone will not work in the Launcher. For that you will need to perform this recipe, which will create the required files to run in Pure Gamemode.

Even though we covered how to export your level to be used in Pure Gamemode, you may find that when you launch your level, you are not in the correct location in the map. This quick recipe will show you how to create a Spawn point for Pure Gamemode and also remind you the importance of having a physical surface to spawn on.

The final recipe in this chapter will cover how you may access the Pure Gamemode version of My_Level from the Launcher.