Time for action – load the sample map in the launcher

Let's rev it up! Let's see what the example level would look like from the end user or what we can call the player's perspective.

1. Navigate to the Bin32 or Bin64 folders in your installation of the SDK. For this book, the root directory is C:/Crytek/cryengine3_sdk The Bin32 folder is where the 32-bit binaries are stored and the Bin64 folder stores the 64-bit versions.

2. Run the launcher.exe application in either 32 bit or 64 bit.

3. When prompted, enter your CryDev login information created in the previous Time for action – installing the CryENGINE 3 Free SDK.

4. Once the launcher has opened, you will be presented with a start screen and menu.

5. Select Single player from the menu, and then select Forest. This will load the forest sample map for you to explore.

6. Move your player character through the level using the W, A, S, and D keys; you can also press the Space bar to jump.

7. A nice path has been kindly laid by the developers, thus making this level easy to explore. Follow the river all the way down to the coastal village.

8. Experiment interacting with different objects by firing your weapon at them, or by pressing the F key to initiate actions like opening doors. Go ahead and explore the sample interactions that are available in the level.

9. Once you are done exploring and interacting with the level, you can close the launcher.

10. To close the launcher, you can simply close the window if in windowed mode, or press the Esc key, and select Exit game.

    

What just happened?

Having loaded and explored the sample content, you should now have a pretty good idea of the overall quality you can achieve with the engine and how a first-person shooter might look like when built on it. Up to this point, you have experienced CryENGINE as a user or player would. Let's now get into some of the different tools we can use to edit this experience so that we can call ourselves developers.