Microsoft was pretty revolutionary when they launched XNA, which enabled indie developers to create games for both Xbox consoles and PCs using a C# based game library.  Then in a somewhat tragic move, Microsoft later killed it off.  XNA lived on in the form of MonoGame which is a cross platform open source implementation of XNA 4.  If you are interested in learning more about MonoGame I have already done a pretty in-depth tutorial series.

Well, that’s it for the history lesson.  Today things have gone somewhat full circle...  in Microsoft’s GDC note about ID@Xbox for GDC 2016, they announced MonoGame is coming to Xbox One.

MonoGame Support
Microsoft’s XNA programming framework isn’t supported natively on Xbox One, but there’s an open source solution for developers called MonoGame. This news is a little overdue, but we’re stoked that MonoGame support will be coming to Xbox One soon, thanks to Tom Spilman and our friends at Sickhead Games.

And we’re really excited to be able to welcome MonoGame with a bang, thanks to a partnership with another developer named Tom – Tom Happ. I met Tom at an indie dev event shortly after we confirmed that XNA was not natively supported on Xbox One, and I remember being super bummed that his game was not going to be able to come to Xbox One straight away. Well, today I’m stoked to be able to say that Tom’s game, Axiom Verge, is going to be one of the first games shipping on Xbox One using MonoGame. And hopefully that’s just the first of many!

In addition to the MonoGame announcement, they also announced that ID@Xbox is coming to Windows 10 as well as developer support for crossplay between Xbox One and Windows 10 PCs.  I assume more details will come this week as GDC continues.

jMonkeyEngine just released 3.1 Alpha 3.  Just recently they released Alpha 2 that decoupled jMonkeyEngine from Netbeans IDE.  This release takes this one step further and adds a few new features. 

About the release:

Without too much fanfare, the JME 3.1 alpha 3 release has been uploaded to the various places, including jcenter. If you reference version="[3.1,)" in your gradle or maven projects then you should get an update automatically when they recheck.

Highlights:

• SDK was moved to its own project
• Some cloning cleanup in prep for replacing spatial and control cloning in alpha 4
• added a cloning util package
• J3MExporter
• various other bug fixes

Alpha 4 is scheduled for two weeks and may have some breaking changes. After that if necessary there will be an alpha 5 two weeks after that to resolve any alpha 4 bugs... then we hope for beta.

So if you aren't already, please start using and testing these releases as it's the only way the bugs will get fixed before they break your games.

More details are available here.  Nice to see the faster release schedule, let’s hope it keeps up.

Project Tango is an interesting computer vision project from Google attempting to figure out the world around it, emulating the way we see the world.  Google surprisingly managed to sum up Project Tango succinctly on it’s project page:

Project Tango combines 3D motion tracking with depth sensing to give your mobile device the ability to know where it is and how it moves through space.

As the title above suggests, a plugin adding support for Project Tango to UE4 is now available.  Developed by Opaque Media, the plugin is completely free.

From the project page:

The Project Tango plugin (currently in Beta) allows all Unreal Engine 4 developers to harness the advanced spatial awareness capabilities of Google's Project Tango, through the use of both Blueprint and C++.

Developers can access the range of Motion Tracking, Depth Sensing and Area Learning the Project Tango platform provides, allowing for the creation of a range of spatially aware, motion-enabled and augmented reality applications.

The plugin is free and open source (Apache 2.0). Developers can now access the public beta of our plugin through our website, or see our GitHub repository for the Plugin or Example Content.

For more information the documentation is available here while the source is available on Github.

Nearing the end of last year, SideFX software released Houdini Engine, which brings procedurally based modeling to Unreal and Unity.  Previously the Indie version had a $99 price tag.  Now however, that price tag has been removed.

From the announcement:

SideFX is pleased to announce that Houdini Engine Indie is now available for free (previously $99). Independent game devs and CG artists can now freely load Houdini Digital Assets built using Houdini’s procedural node-based workflow into apps such as Unity, UE4, Maya and Cinema4D.

"This is exciting news for indie developers who want to enhance the procedural features in Unreal Engine 4," said Epic Games CTO Kim Libreri. "Houdini Engine Indie brings amazing power to the table which makes it possible for smaller teams to more easily achieve AAA-quality results."

Houdini Engine Indie works with all of the Houdini Engine plug-ins including Unity, UE4, Autodesk Maya, Cinema 4D and Autodesk 3DS Max. These plug-ins let game devs load Houdini Digital Assets which can be created in Houdini Indie or downloaded from the Unity Asset Store and the Orbolt 3D Smart Asset store.

There is one major limitation on the indie edition of Houdini Engine, namely you must make less than $100K USD a year and is limited to 3 licenses per organization.  You can see Houdini Engine in action in Unreal Engine in the video below:

Houdini Engine for UE4 from Go Procedural on Vimeo.

VR is hot right now but also insanely expensive.  Right now we can choose between the Oculus Rift, GearVR, HTC Vive, Google Cardboard and PlayStation VR is coming soon.  Except the GearVR every single one of those headsets have the same problems... they are expensive and have to be tethered to a device to work.  The AMD Sulon Q looks to change that by including all of the processing power in the unit.  We need to wait and see what happens with the price tag.

More details from wired.co.uk:

Sulon Q looks to be a powerful bit of kit, too. The device is based around an AMD FX-8800P processor, a system-on-chip boasting quad-core CPU and octo-core GPU abilities. The 12 total cores share memory to boost performce, AMDclaims. It supports "the latest graphics APIs including DirectX 12 and Vulkan", and promises console-quality visuals on a 2560x1440 OLED display.

When it comes to AR, it offers a 110° field-of-view, and operates similarly to Hololens. You'll be able to 'hang' application windows in your real-world environment, control opacity, and control them with gestures. The Sulon Q will also come with a wireless keyboard and mouse for more conventional office input.

In many ways, the Sulon Q is shaping up like a powerful laptop for your face. It will ship with Windows 10 pre-installed, have built-in WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0, two USB 3.0 Type A ports, and a Micro HDMI out port. Although it has to combat the years of build-up and excitement surrounding Oculus Rift and even Sony's PlayStation VR, it potentially has advantages in portability and power, while removing the question mark over whether your PC is powerful enough to actually run VR content.

Right now I still hold that the first one that comes to market at a good price point wins, like VHS vs Beta all over again.   That said building a powerful computer into the device could also be a winning combination.  Name sucks though.

At GDC 2016, Autodesk have announced updates to the Stingray Game engine and MayaLT, a game engine and 3D application aimed at indie game developers.

Unveiled this week at Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2016, Stingray v1.2 adds support for new VR platforms and improvements that speed up common tasks within the engine. Maya LT Extension 3, coupled with Stingray v1.2, integrates several modeling, UV creation, rigging and animation improvements, and includes an updated exporter to simplify the creation of visually compelling characters.

 
Stingray v1.2 Highlights:
-- Expanded VR Support: Compatibility with the HTC Vive VR Platform and Oculus Rift SDK v0.8.
-- Multi-core Compilation: Faster project and asset import with multi-CPU compiling.
-- Workflow Improvements: Entity support in story enables the shading environment to be animated with global illumination, fog, depth of field and more; a unit component editing tool moves, rotates or scales and animates sub-components of units; improved UI flexibility helps snap, move, or maximize/minimize Stingray tools independently of each other and use multiple monitors in development; and rendered outline highlights make it easier to find lost objects within large scenes.

Maya LT 2016 Extension 3 Highlights:
-- Rigging Advances: New quick rig tool allows for the automated creation and placement of bipedal character rigs, while HumanIK support for up to five roll bones per limbs distributes model deformations during an animation.
-- Improved Modeling and UV Toolsets: New shape authoring toolset and shape editor as well as blendshape deformer and sculpting enhancements; a robust mesh mirroring command and expanded tool symmetry; a new brush-based Symmetrize UV Tool, multi-object support for Unfold and improved layout and auto-seam features; and poly modeling enhancements.
-- Updated Game Exporter: Users can now select objects in the viewport, create a named set with a single click and view it in the game exporter as an object to be exported; click-drag workflow facilitates scrolling through key frames in animations to choose the clip’s start and end times.

Stingray 1.2 is available for download today, while Maya LT extensions 3 will be available on April 18th, 2016.

Any interest in more Stringray coverage here on GameFromScratch?

Nevigo have updated and changed the pricing for articy:draft, including a new subscription pricing option.  articy:draft can be thought of as a project management and design solution specifically for game development, a sort of mashup between MS Project and Viseo, but geared towards game development.

Details on the new subscription model called FLEX pricing:

Finally the time has come: We roll out the FLEX license subscription model for all versions of articy:draft. This new license eliminates the initial costs of using articy:draft and gives you maximum flexibility to scale your team up and down. It is an additional licensing option, the purchase option is still available as well.

• Use articy:draft for a low monthly rate
• Subscriptions may be cancelled monthly
• Purchased and rented licenses can be mixed
• All updates and upgrades included

Additionally they have made changes to the existing licensing model:

We did some spring cleaning to our pricing model to make it easier and more transparent. The different server tiers and upgrade costs are gone, and the core products all come at the same price. Effectively, this leads to a price drop in many cases, especially when scaling up your previously “indie”-sized studio.

• One price for articy:draft, the API and articy:access
• Floating licenses available
• Unified shop experience for single and multi user
• Simplified costs when adding more licenses

They also added some hosting services and training options.  Full details are available here.

Unity have just released Unity Beta 5.4 today, available for download immediately.  Of course, this is a beta, so all usual warnings apply, there be dragons!

So what’s in this release?  Well...

Enhanced visuals, better performance, tighter Unity IAP integration and a major VR rendering upgrade

There are significant visual quality and in-editor artist workflow improvements in the Unity 5.4 beta. We’ve also worked to further optimize our VR rendering pipeline, making it far easier for you to deploy your build across the major VR platforms.

Our cross-platform in-app purchasing service, which you can use to integrate support for multiple stores through one API, is now more tightly integrated with the Unity Editor to make assessing and boosting the revenue performance of your game a smoother experience.

This latest release also comes with faster WebGL development build times, support for Retina displays, and much, much more…

One of the coolest new features is compatibility with popular PBR based texturing tools such as Substance Painter or DDo.  Now you should be able to drag and drop them in and have them appear exactly as you have designed them.  There are also particle system improvements, better VR support, VR performance improvements, enhanced IAP and performance improvements. 

There have also been some cuts, specifically in platforms supported.  Unity 5.4 loses support for iOS 6, web player and PS3 deployment.  The web player loss is unfortunate, but not unexpected, as basically every single web browser has removed traditional plugin support at this point.  Thus why WebGL became such an important target for Unity.  One of the major focuses of Unity as of late has been improvements in graphical rendering prowess, and they have put together a video illustrating the changes between Unity 5 and 5.4.

In addition to the 5.4 beta, they also released the stable version of Unity 5.3.  This can be downloaded using the standard download process.  Another GDC announcement from Unity was the private beta launch of Unity Collaborate, a cloud hosted service for remote teams to collaborate on development, locally or remotely. 

No doubt going along with GDC 2016, the folks over at Humble Bundle are running a CryEngine themed humble bundle.  Basically it’s the typical Humble approach.. pay what you like, with some proceeds going to charity.  If you pay over a certain threshold, you can additional items.  This bundle includes numerous assets ready to be used in CryEngine (and I assume Lumberyard).  Assets include a mocap package, prototyping props, trees, plants and shrubs.  The first tier for those that pay $8.64 or more includes a city and vehicle pack, RYSE nature pack, audio kit and a racing starter project from Crytek, while the top package for $13 or more includes more vehicles, more assets from Ryse and more.

EDIT – I purchased the bundle.  For more details of what’s included in the package check here.

Charity proceeds of the bundle go in support of extra life and Child’s Play charities.  The assets themselves cost over $22 million to make according to CryTek and can be used royalty free in free and commercial projects.  I can’t see if you are stuck using CryEngine with the assets.  I may purchase this pack to get an idea of what you get.

Full description of the bundle:

The Humble CRYENGINE Bundle

With big news comes big bundles. Crytek just announced that they're making their acclaimed CRYENGINE free to use, and we want to start you off right. Included in this bundle are over 20,000 files that took three years and cost millions of dollars to make, and now they can be all yours. Want to sell your game? All assets included are yours to use as many times as you'd like in any commercial project and are completely royalty free!
Pay what you want for Plants & Shrubs, Trees, Environment Props, Prototyping Kit, Textures, Decals & Visual Effects, MoCap Animation Pack - Basic Military Rifle and FPS 'Paintball' Project.
Pay more than the average price to also receive an Audio Kit, Ryse Nature & Animal Pack, Vehicles Standard Edition, City Pack Standard Edition,Weapons Pack, Crytek Formula Racing - Starter Project, and Nexuiz.
Pay $13 or more for all of that plus Illfonic Survival - Starter Project, Ryse World Building Pack, Ryse Roman Pack, Vehicles High Quality, City Pack High Quality, and Characters & Animals.
Want to get a taste of what this bundle has to offer before buying it? You can get the Campfire Asset Pack for free!
Pay what you want. Collectively, these assets literally cost over $22 million dollars to make -- really, we're not kidding (even though for the sake of the original developers' pockets, we wish we were). But here at Humble Bundle, you choose the price!
Use on CRYENGINE. With a combination of engine-ready Crytek assets as well as a large collection of source assets, you'll be empowered to create, modify, build, and complement any game project that can be achieved with CRYENGINE. Download DRM-free asset packs along with the official CRYENGINE game development tools and get started immediately. Nexiuz is available on Steam. Please check out the full system requirements here prior to purchasing.
Support charity. Choose where the money goes -- between the developers, two charities (Child's Play and Extra Life), and, if you'd like, a third charity of your choice via the PayPal Giving Fund. For details on how this works, click here. If you like this bundle or like what we do, you can leave us a Humble Tip too.

Very cool move Crytek. 

I’m sure many of you are wondering what exactly is inside the CryEngine Humble Bundle announced today, so I went ahead and purchased it.  As I dive in I will update this post with the contents. 

First off, we can start with the downloadable files as part of this bundle, and they are HUGE:

There are more than 50GB worth of downloads here!  I obviously haven’t got them all downloaded yet, but I’ve got a few, so I can show you an example.

This is the contents of the Environmental Props download:

In case you are wondering exactly what formats we are dealing with here, it’s random, but you will be happy to know it’s not all in a native to CryEngine format.  For example here is the Outpost entry from above:

So you get Maya project files, fbx files, obj files, various textures AND CryEngine read versions.  This means these assets can easily be used in just about any engine assuming the license doesn’t prevent this.  As of yet, I have found no such limitation.

EDIT – As I have downloaded more, I have come across some license files and included them below.

People have been asking about licensing and for good reason!  Many of the content packs come with no licenses, but a few have been discovered.  The following is the license from the Mocap package and covers the Paintball Project and Animation Pack:

When you lawfully acquire our Assets (in this case the FPS Paintball Project and our Basic Military Rifle - MoCap Animation Pack) as part of this Humble Bundle you are granted a non­exclusive, non-­transferable, non-sublicensable, worldwide and perpetual limited license to use the acquired Assets for your projects developed on the CryEngine and to use, license and exploit such projects developed on the CryEngine with  the embedded Assets in any way and in all media.

These projects shall be defined as without limitation a User’s movie or video or game or app or product that uses Assets or character model(s) that you have incorporated into your project in a way that the Assets and/or character model(s) cannot be extracted to allow further distribution, reproduction, modification or use of the Assets outside of your projects. You shall not use the Assets in any other way than indicated above, including without limitation: 

⁃ offer the Assets for sale  or license  or  any other  use  except  as  embedded in your projects; 

⁃ offer the Assets in any other way in which the Assets can be extracted and implement in other projects.

This license seems to indicate that CryEngine is required for their use.

The Illfonic tutorial (which is pretty much tied to CryEngine anyways), includes the following license:

ILLFONIC LLC. PC and Online Software License Agreement
 
1.    READ THE FOLLOWING TERMS AND CONDITIONS CAREFULLY BEFORE INSTALLING AND USING THIS SOFTWARE ON YOUR PERSONAL COMPUTER. THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT (“AGREEMENT”) IS A LEGAL AGREEMENT BETWEEN YOU (AN INDIVIDUAL OR A SINGLE ENTITY, "YOU") ON THE ONE HAND, AND ILLFONIC LLC. AND ITS SUBSIDIARIES AND AFFILIATES (COLLECTIVELY REFERRED TO AS "ILLFONIC") ON THE OTHER HAND, FOR THE SOFTWARE PRODUCT ACCOMPANIED BY THIS AGREEMENT, WHICH INCLUDES COMPUTER SOFTWARE, WHICH MAY INCLUDE USER GENERATED CONTENT CREATION TOOLS, AND ANY ASSOCIATED MEDIA, PRINTED MATERIALS, AND/OR "ONLINE" OR ELECTRONIC DOCUMENTATION (TOGETHER CALLED THE "SOFTWARE"). BY INSTALLING, COPYING, OR OTHERWISE USING THE SOFTWARE (OR, IN THE EVENT YOU HAVE PURCHASED THE SOFTWARE AS CONTAINED ON A PHYSICAL MEDIA, BY OPENING THE PACKAGING MATERIALS THEREOF), YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT YOU HAVE READ THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT AND AGREE TO BE BOUND BY ITS TERMS. THE SOFTWARE IS LICENSED, NOT SOLD, TO YOU FOR USE ONLY UNDER THE TERMS OF THIS AGREEMENT. IF YOU DO NOT AGREE TO THE TERMS OF THIS SOFTWARE LICENSE AGREEMENT, DO NOT INSTALL OR USE THE SOFTWARE AND DESTROY AND/OR DELETE ALL COPIES IN YOUR POSSESSION.
 
2.    Subject to the terms of this Agreement, ILLFONIC grants You a non-exclusive, non-transferable license to use one copy of the Software and/or, if applicable, to use the Software for play online through an authorized online service in the country in which You acquired the Software for Your own personal, non-commercial use, but ILLFONIC retains all property rights in the Software and all copies thereof. All other rights are expressly reserved by ILLFONIC or its licensors. There is no license to download game content other than what is necessary to facilitate game play and create and share User Generated Content (as defined below). You may use the Software on any (i) supported computer configuration, provided the Software is used on only one (1) such computer; and (ii) permanently transfer the Software on any supported computer configuration only and its documentation to another user provided You retain no copies and the recipient agrees to the terms of this Agreement. You may not transfer, distribute, rent, sub-license, or lease the Software or documentation, except as provided herein; or alter, modify, or adapt the Software or documentation, or any portions thereof.
 
3.    You acknowledge that the Software in source code form remains a confidential trade secret of ILLFONIC. You agree not to modify or attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation. You further acknowledge that the Software may contain functions for collecting and tracking information related to Your use of the Software. ILLFONIC reserves the right to compile, save and use such information within the scope of ILLFONIC’s business activities, and analyze any and all of Your data (online registration data, stats, etc.). All information collected by ILLFONIC is intended to be anonymous and to not include any identifying or personal information. However, if You include personal information (such as Your real name) in data collected by ILLFONIC (such as Your user ID), You hereby acknowledge that said personal information will be, and expressly permit such personal information to be, used as described herein. The data collected by ILLFONIC may be posted on websites accessible to the public; shared with console manufacturers, Software developers, and/or marketing partners; or used by ILLFONIC for any other lawful purpose. By using this Software You consent to ILLFONIC’s use of the data ILLFONIC collects, including the public display of information such as Your user ID, Your user created content or any other gameplay data. Do not use the Software if You do not want ILLFONIC to use Your user data in this manner.
 
4.    OWNERSHIP: All right, title, interest and intellectual property rights in and to the Software (including but not limited to any titles, computer code, themes, objects, characters, character names, stories, dialogue, catch phrases, locations, concepts, artwork, images, photographs, animations, video, sounds, audio-visual effects, music, musical compositions, text and "applets" incorporated into the Software), the accompanying printed materials, and any copies of the Software, are owned by ILLFONIC or its licensors. This Agreement grants You no rights to use such content other than as part of the Software. All rights not expressly granted under this Agreement are reserved by ILLFONIC.
 
5.    This Agreement is effective upon Your installation of the Software (or, in the case of a copy contained on a physical media, upon opening the packaging materials thereof) and shall continue until revoked by ILLFONIC or until You breach any term hereof. Upon revocation, breach, or termination You agree to destroy and/or delete all copies of the Software in Your possession. 
 
6.    You agree that You shall not:
(a)    Modify, copy, reproduce or distribute, in whole or in part, by any means, the Software; 
(b)    Merge the Software into another program (except to the extent the Software is made to operate within a computer operating system and in connection with other computer program) or create; 
(c)    Create derivative works based upon the Software; 
(d)    Attempt to circumvent any technical protection measures used in connection with the Software;
(e)    Make a copy of this Software or any part thereof, except as expressed in this Agreement;
(f)    Make this Software available on any network for use or download by others;
(g)    Display or use this Software in a public performance;
(h)    Use or copy the Software on or to a console at a commercial location;
(i)    Use the Software for a commercial purpose, except as expressly licensed in writing by ILLFONIC;
(j)    Distribute, lease, license, sell, rent or otherwise transfer or assign this Software without the express prior written consent of ILLFONIC, or as expressed in this Agreement;
(k)    Remove or modify any proprietary notices, marks or labels contained on or within the Software or on any packaging thereof; or
(l)    Modify or attempt to reverse engineer, decompile, or disassemble the Software, except and only to the extent that such activity is expressly permitted by applicable law notwithstanding this limitation. 
 
7.    The Software may not be downloaded or otherwise exported or re-exported into (or to a national or resident of) any country to which the U.S. has embargoed goods or to anyone on the U.S. Treasury Department list of Specially Designated Nationals or the U.S. Commerce Department's Table of Deny Orders. If You do not meet these criteria or are not sure, do not install the Software and destroy any copies in Your possession. If You live in such a country, no license is granted hereunder.
 
8.    You are responsible for assessing Your own computer and the results to be obtained therefrom. EXCEPT AS SET FORTH IN ANY EXPRESS WARRANTY BY ILLFONIC, YOU EXPRESSLY AGREE THAT USE OF THE SOFTWARE IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK. THE SOFTWARE IS PROVIDED ON AN "AS IS," "AS AVAILABLE" BASIS, UNLESS SUCH WARRANTIES ARE LEGALLY INCAPABLE OF EXCLUSION. ILLFONIC AND ITS LICENSORS DISCLAIM ALL WARRANTIES AND CONDITIONS, WHETHER ORAL OR WRITTEN, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING WITHOUT LIMITATION ANY IMPLIED WARRANTIES OR CONDITIONS OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE, NON-INFRINGEMENT OF THIRD PARTY RIGHTS, AND THOSE ARISING FROM A COURSE OF DEALING OR USAGE OF TRADE, REGARDING THE SOFTWARE. ILLFONIC AND ITS LICENSORS ASSUME NO RESPONSIBILITY FOR ANY DAMAGES SUFFERED BY YOU, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, LOSS OF DATA, ITEMS OR OTHER MATERIALS FROM ERRORS OR OTHER MALFUNCTIONS CAUSED BY ILLFONIC, ITS LICENSORS, LICENSEE AND/OR SUBCONTRACTORS, OR BY YOUR OR ANY OTHER PARTICIPANT'S OWN ERRORS AND/OR OMISSIONS. ILLFONIC and its licensors make no warranty with respect to any related software or hardware used or provided by ILLFONIC in connection with the Software except as may be expressly set forth above.
 
9.    LIMITATION OF LIABILITY. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE AND AGREE THAT ILLFONIC AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT ASSUME OR HAVE ANY LIABILITY FOR ANY ACTION BY ILLFONIC OR ITS CONTENT PROVIDERS, OTHER PARTICIPANTS OR OTHER LICENSORS WITH RESPECT TO CONDUCT, COMMUNICATION OR CONTENT OF THE SOFTWARE. ILLFONIC AND ITS LICENSORS SHALL NOT BE LIABLE FOR ANY INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL, PUNITIVE, EXEMPLARY, OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES RESULTING FROM POSSESSION, USE, OR MALFUNCTION OF THE SOFTWARE, INCLUDING DAMAGES TO PROPERTY, LOSS OF GOODWILL, COMPUTER FAILURE OR MALFUNCTION AND, TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW, DAMAGES FOR PERSONAL INJURIES, EVEN IF ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. EXCEPT AS EXPRESSLY PROVIDED HEREIN, ILLFONIC'S AND ITS LICENSORS’ ENTIRE LIABILITY TO YOU AND YOUR EXCLUSIVE REMEDY FOR ANY BREACH OF THIS AGREEMENT IS LIMITED SOLELY TO THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY YOU FOR THE SOFTWARE, IF ANY. BECAUSE SOME STATES DO NOT ALLOW THE EXCLUSION OR LIMITATION OF LIABILITY FOR CERTAIN DAMAGES, IN SUCH STATES ILLFONIC'S AND ITS LICENSORS’ LIABILITY IS LIMITED TO THE EXTENT PERMITTED BY LAW. 
 
10. USER GENERATED CONTENT. This Software may include tools that give you the ability to communicate with other players and may allow you to create, post, and distribute various forms of content for and in connection with the Software, including but not limited to pictures, game-related materials and other information (individually and collectively, “User Generated Content”). You acknowledge that ILLFONIC and the other creators of User Generated Content have rights in their respective content under copyright and other applicable laws, and that except as expressly described in this Agreement, such rights are not licensed or otherwise transferred to you. You accept full responsibility and liability for your use of any User Generated Content in violation of any such rights. 
 
(a)    You agree that you will not create, transfer, share, send, submit or upload any User Generated Content that:
 
(i) is protected by copyright, patent, trademark, or trade secret or otherwise subject to third-party proprietary rights, including but not limited to rights of privacy and publicity (unless you are or have permission from the rightful owner);
(ii) contains fraudulent statements or misrepresentations that could damage ILLFONIC or any third party;
(iii) contains any statements or materials that disparage, ridicule or scorn ILLFONIC or any third party;
(iv) is obscene, defamatory, threatening, harassing, predatory, pornographic, hateful, racially or ethnically offensive, or encourages conduct that would violate any law or is otherwise inappropriate;
(v) is an advertisement or solicitation of business;
(vi) is an impersonation of another person; or
(vii) violates the “Online” section or any other terms of this Agreement, or any other terms related to this game.
 
(b)    You agree that ILLFONIC and its Licensors are not responsible or liable for User Generated Content submitted or posted by you or by others. ILLFONIC and its Licensors do not claim ownership of any User Generated Content that you submit or make available as part of the game, and ILLFONIC and its Licensors expressly disclaim any and all liability in connection with any User Generated Content. ILLFONIC has no duty to pre-screen User Generated Content.
 
(b)    ILLFONIC has the right to edit, remove, block or refuse to post any submitted User Generated Content from any network or Internet site for any reason without prior notice, but assumes no obligation to do so and is not responsible for any failure or delay in doing so. You hereby appoint ILLFONIC as your attorney-in-fact to request from third parties removal under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act or other applicable law or basis, in ILLFONIC's discretion, of any of your User Generated Content posted on a third party network or Internet site. You agree to not contest ILLFONIC's request for removal of your User Generated content from such network or Internet site. You also agree to execute all documents, as requested by ILLFONIC, to effect such removal.
 
(c)    The game and/or its associated website and/or web pages may permit you to share your User Generated Content with or through third party websites. ILLFONIC has not evaluated any third party websites through which you can share User Generated Content or their terms and conditions. Any third party websites through which you can share your User Generated Content are not owned by or affiliated with ILLFONIC and we have no control over and assume no responsibility for the content, safety, privacy policies or practices of these websites. You expressly release ILLFONIC of any and all liability arising from your use of any third party websites used to share your User Generated Content.
 
11. ILLFONIC'S LICENSE OF USER GENERATED CONTENT
 
(a) By posting, transferring, sharing or sending User Generated Content in any manner, you hereby grant ILLFONIC, its affiliates, licensors and distributors and other users of the game a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferrable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual license to modify, adapt, translate, create derivative works from, and perform and display your User Generated Content;
 
(b) By submitting or uploading User Generated Content in any manner to ILLFONIC, you hereby grant ILLFONIC, its affiliates, licensors and distributors a non-exclusive, worldwide, fully paid-up, transferable, irrevocable, royalty-free and perpetual license to publish and distribute your User Generated Content (for free or for profit) and to use your User Generated Content for marketing and promotional purposes in conjunction with the game or any other aspect of ILLFONIC's business; and
 
(c) You hereby: (i) Acknowledge that you have received good and valuable consideration from ILLFONIC for the license of the rights in your User Generated Content under this Agreement; (ii) Agree that your creation or distribution of User Generated Content is not in any way based upon any expectation of compensation from ILLFONIC, its affiliates, licensors or distributors; (iii) Agree that ILLFONIC, its affiliates, licensors and distributors may, but are not required to, use your name, username, or applicable trademarks in connection with the distribution of your User Generated Content; and (iv) Warrant and represent that: (A) you created your User Generated Content; (B) you have all necessary rights to your User Generated Content to fulfill your obligations under this Agreement; and (C) your User Generated Content does not infringe on the intellectual property or other rights of any third party and is not obscene, defamatory, offensive or an advertisement or solicitation of business.
 
12.    INJUNCTION. Because ILLFONIC would be irreparably damaged if the terms of this License Agreement were not specifically enforced, You agree that ILLFONIC shall be entitled, without bond, other security or proof of damages, to appropriate equitable remedies with respect to breaches of this Agreement, in addition to such other remedies as ILLFONIC may otherwise have under applicable laws.
 
13.    INDEMNITY. At ILLFONIC's request, You agree to defend, indemnify and hold harmless ILLFONIC, its subsidiaries, affiliates, contractors, officers, directors, employees, agents, licensors, licensees, distributors, developers, content providers, and other users of the Software or User Generated Content, from all damages, losses, liabilities, claims and expenses, including attorneys' fees, arising directly or indirectly from Your acts and omissions to act in using the Software pursuant to the terms of this License Agreement or any breach of this License Agreement by You. ILLFONIC reserves the right, at its own expense, to assume the exclusive defense and control of any matter otherwise subject to indemnification by You hereunder, and in such event, You shall have no further obligation to provide indemnification for such matter. 
 
14.    U.S. GOVERNMENT RESTRICTED RIGHTS. The Software and documentation have been developed entirely at private expense and are provided as "Commercial Computer Software" or "restricted computer software." Use, duplication or disclosure by the U.S. Government or a U.S. Government subcontractor is subject to the restrictions set forth in subparagraph (c)(1)(ii) of the Rights in Technical Data and Computer Software clauses in DFARS 252.227-7013 or as set forth in subparagraph (c)(1) and (2) of the Commercial Computer Software Restricted Rights clauses at FAR 52.227-19, as applicable. The Contractor / Manufacturer is ILLFONIC LLC, 29903 Agoura Road, Agoura Hills, CA 91301.
 
15.    TERMINATION. Without prejudice to any other rights of ILLFONIC, this License Agreement and Your right to use the Software may automatically terminate without notice from ILLFONIC if You fail to comply with any provision of this Agreement or any terms and conditions associated with the Software. In such event, You must destroy all copies of this Software and all of its component parts.
 
16.    ONLINE. ILLFONIC makes no guarantees regarding the availability of online play, and may modify or discontinue online service in its discretion without notice, including, for example, ceasing online service for economic reasons due to a limited number of players continuing to make use of the service over time. ILLFONIC may deny You access, at ILLFONIC’s discretion, to online services, updates, or patches to the Software, should You violate of any of the terms or provisions of this Agreement. You may not interfere with or attempt to disable or circumvent any online access control measures, security features, or technical protection measures put in place by ILLFONIC. Should You use the online version of this game we will not ask You for any personally identifying information. You should avoid saying anything personally identifying in chat. You agree that ILLFONIC has no liability for any violation of this Agreement by You or by any other player. 
 
(a)    When You play, You agree to be respectful of Your fellow players and never to engage in any behavior that would be abusive or offensive to other players, disruptive of the game experience, fraudulent or otherwise illegal. This includes but is not limited to:
 
(i)    Harassing or intimidating other players while chatting or playing this game online or using information obtained while chatting or playing this game to harass or intimidate fellow players outside of the game;
(ii)    Using language, selecting names or creating any other content that is racially, ethnically or religiously offensive, sexually abusive, obscene or defamatory, and any content that is commercial in nature such as advertisements, solicitations and promotions for goods or services;
(iii)    Using a player name that is the real name of any other person;
(iv)    Violating any local, state or national law including but not limited to laws related to copyright, trademark, defamation, invasion of privacy and identity theft. 
 
(b)    ILLFONIC may retrieve information about Your hardware and software for authentication, copy protection, account blocking, system monitoring/diagnostics rule enforcement, game management and other purposes. 
 
(c)    You acknowledge that you have no expectation of privacy or confidentiality in any personal or other information you may intentionally or unintentionally disclose as part of the interactions associated with the Software. You should avoid sharing any personally identifiable information when playing the Software or interacting online.
 
17.    GENERAL PROVISIONS. You may not use, copy, modify, sublicense, rent, sell, assign or transfer the rights or obligations granted to You in this Agreement, except as expressly provided in this Agreement. Any assignment in violation of this Agreement is void. Any violation of any of the provisions or terms of this Agreement by You may subject You to civil and criminal penalties in the United States and/or Your local country, at the discretion of ILLFONIC, and per relevant local laws. If any provision of this Agreement is held to be unenforceable for any reason, such provision shall be reformed only to the extent necessary to make it enforceable, and such decision shall not affect the enforceability of: (i) such provision under other circumstances, or (ii) the remaining provisions hereof under all circumstances. ILLFONIC's failure to enforce at any time any of the provisions of this Agreement shall in no way be construed to be a present or future waiver of such provisions, nor in any way affect the right of any party to enforce each and every such provision thereafter. The express waiver by ILLFONIC of any provision, condition or requirement of this Agreement shall not constitute a waiver of any future obligation to comply with such provision, condition or requirement. Notwithstanding anything else in this Agreement, no default, delay or failure to perform on the part of ILLFONIC shall be considered a breach of this Agreement if such default, delay or failure to perform is shown to be due to causes beyond the reasonable control of ILLFONIC. This Agreement shall be governed by the laws of the State of California and the United States without regard to its conflicts of laws rules and You consent to the exclusive jurisdiction of the state and federal courts in Los Angeles County, California. The United Nations Convention on Contracts for the International Sale of Goods shall not apply to this Agreement. This Agreement represents the complete agreement concerning this Software between You and ILLFONIC. 
 
18.    DOWNLOADABLE SOFTWARE ADDITIONAL LICENSE TERMS. If the Software or any related content is provided to You through a digital download or online store then those additional terms and conditions apply. This Agreement is solely between You and ILLFONIC, and not with any third party distributor. You must comply with the terms of use of any such third party program.

So far all of the Madison Pike content has no license attached. 

Meanwhile the Ryse content has the following license:

LIMITED LICENSE AGREEMENT FOR THE USE OF THE CRYENGINE

This limited license agreement (this "Agreement") for the use of the CryEngine is entered into between Crytek GmbH, Frankfurt/Main, Germany ("Crytek") and you, the user (the "Licensee" or "You").

The Agreement is made effective beginning on the date on which you, the Licensee, first accept this agreement or download, install, load or otherwise use the CryEngine as defined below (whichever occurs first).

By doing so, you, the Licensee, agree to all terms and conditions of this Agreement or in the accompanying documentation. You should read this Agreement carefully before the Start Date. If you do not agree with the terms and conditions set forth in this Agreement you are not authorized to use the CryEngine.

You agree to check www.cryengine.com periodically for new information and terms that govern your use of CryEngine. Crytek may modify this Agreement at any time. Crytek will inform you about revisionsto this Agreement by email and/or by a notice on our home page and/or during log in. Revisions to terms affecting existing CryEngine shall be effective thirty (30) days after posting at www.cryengine.com. If you do not agree with the new terms your only remedy is to stop using CryEngine.

Other policies which apply with respect to the CryEngine include without limitation:

- Crytek’s general Terms of Service;

- Crytek’s Privacy Policy.

1.Definition

1.1. “CryEngine”: the software called “CryEngine” as offered by Crytek for certain Platforms in object code or source code, including the CryEngine Assets, the CryEngine Documentation, theCryEngine Tools, the CryEngine Redistributables and any updates thereto as made available by Crytek at its sole discretion.

1.2. “CryEngine Assets”: the audiovisual files included in the CryEngine as distributed by Crytek in its sole discretion.

1.3. “CryEngine Documentation”: the documentation setting forth the functionality of the CryEngine as published form time to time by Crytek.

1.4. “CryEngine Tools”: the editors and other tools included in the CryEngine that may be used to develop products based on the CryEngine.

1.5. “CryEngine Redistributables”: the redistributable parts of the CryEngine in object code as indicated in the CryEngine Documentation.

1.6. “Game(s)”: an interactive product for a certain Platform (which might have CryEngine Assets embedded) in object code form including the CryEngine Redistributables for the sole purpose of entertainment, developed and compiled by using the CryEngine pursuant to its documentation. Under this Agreement the following will not be considered Games:

§ military projects;

§ gambling;

§ simulation (technical, scientific, other);

§ science;

§ architecture;

§ pornography;

§ Serious Games.

1.7.  “License”: defined in Sec. 2.

1.8.  “Platform(s)”: all platforms as announced and offered by Crytek in its sole discretion (currently Microsoft Windows, Linux, Sony Playstation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One).

1.9. “Seat”: shall mean one (1) stand-alone computing unit on which Licensee uses the CryEngine.

1.10. “Serious Games”, i.e. ‘games’ which are not developed for the sole purpose of entertainment but for purposes training, simulation, science, architecture etc.

1.11. ”Support”: the support against payment of the Support Fee as announced and offered by Crytek in its sole discretion. The different support services may be defined in different tiers. For certain support services additional payments besides the Support Fee may apply in each tier.

1.12. “Support Fee”: the fee per Seat for certain Support for a Support Period as announced by Crytek. Crytek may change the Support Fee for future Support Periods at its sole discretion.

1.13. “Support Period”: the period the Licensee has paid the Support Fee for a certain Seat.

1.14. “Team”: a number of Seats set up through one account. All Seats of a Team must have the same entitlements, level of Support etc.

2.Grant of License

2.1. Grant: Subject to strict and continuous compliance with the restrictions of this Agreement Crytek grants to Licensee a non-exclusive, non-transferable, non-assignable, non-sublicensable, limited license (the “License”) only:

2.1.1. to install and run the CryEngine pursuant to the CryEngine Documentation;

2.1.2. to develop, maintain, extend and/or enhance CryEngine pursuant to the CryEngine Documentation;

2.1.3. to develop Games using CryEngine and to render such Games in object code  form (including the CryEngine Assets and the CryEngine Redistributables) pursuant to the CryEngine documentation;

2.1.4. publish, distribute, sell, sublicense or exploit in any other way Games developed and rendered during the Subscription Period in object code form only and only under terms consistent with and no less protective of Crytek’s rights than those contained in this Agreement in perpetuity.

2.2. If you are a student or a member of an academic institution you are in addition entitled to develop Serious Games using CryEngine and to render such Serious Games in object code form (including the CryEngine Assets and the CryEngine Redistributables) pursuant to the CryEngine documentation. However, you are in no case entitled to commercially exploit such Serious Games withoutCrytek’s explicit prior written approval.

2.3. Licensee may or may not make payments as consideration for the License (“Pay as much as you want”).

2.4. Restrictions on Use: Crytek reserves all rights not expressively granted in this Agreement. Without limitation, Licensee shall not:

· distribute, sublicense or exploit in any other form:

§ the CryEngine (except for the Redistributables), e.g. as a stand-alone development engine;

§ the CryEngine Documentation;

§ the CryEngine Tools;

· use the CryEngine for the development of any product other than Games, including without limitation:

§ military projects

§ gambling;

§ simulation (technical, scientific, other);

§ science;

§ architecture;

§ pornography;

§ Serious Games.

· use the CryEngine for the development of any Games which are harmful, abusive, racially or ethnically offensive, vulgar, sexually explicit, defamatory, infringing, invasive of personal privacy or publicity rights, or in a reasonable person's view, objectionable;

· remove any technical safeguards from the CryEngine (if any);

· copy, replicate or mimic Crytek’s games;

· remove, modify or substitute any trademark, copyright or proprietary notices from the CryEngine,

· infringe or violate any intellectual property or proprietary, personal, moral or other rights or the privacy of Crytek or any third party;

· use CryEngine for applications that are unlawful or offensive under applicable laws;

· use the CryEngine to develop cheats, hacks or similar applications;

· transfer or assign the License or this Agreement.

2.5. Intellectual Property Rights: CryEngine and all copyrights, trademarks, and all other conceivable intellectual property rights related thereto are owned by Crytek or its affiliates and are protected by German, US and other national and international law. Licensee shall have no ownership or intellectual property rights in or to CryEngine, including, without limitation, all copyrights related thereto.

3.Copyright Notice and Trademarks

3.1. The splash screen, credits screen, documentation and packaging (if any) as well as the marketing material (print, online etc.) of the Game shall include the following wording: “Portions of this software are included under license © 2004-201_ Crytek GmbH. All rights reserved.” Crytek's copyright notices shall be no less prominently displayed than Licensee’s own copyright notices.

3.2. Crytek grants Licensee the right to use the trademarks "Crytek" and "CryEngine" only to promote the Game. The splash screen, credits screen, documentation and packaging (if any) as well as the marketing material (print, online etc.) of the Game shall include the trademarks "Crytek" and "CryEngine". Licensee shall use the trademarks as made available online by Crytek within eight (8) weeks before the final design of the respective material. Crytek's trademarks shall be no less prominently displayed than Licensee’s own trademarks.

3.3. The design of the splash screen, the credits screen, the documentation, the packaging and the marketing material is subject to Crytek's prior written approval regarding Crytek's copyright notice and trademarks. The approval shall be deemed given if Crytek does not give any notice within ten (10) days from receipt of a sample.

4.Support

4.1. For Licensees who have not purchased Support Crytek may or may not render support at its sole discretion.

4.2. Licensees may decide to purchase Support for a certain Support Period against payment of a Support Fee. The exact scope of Support shall be defined and offered by Crytek on its website or otherwise. The following basic rules apply:

· All Support services are subject to payment of the Support Fee for the Seat requesting the Support. No Support shall be rendered for a Seat after the Support Period expired or for a Seat, which has not purchased support.

· Support is available in the English language only (both for requests for Support and Support services).

· Crytek may offer certain additional support services (e.g. packages of certain amounts of hours of support services) during the Support Period, which may be subject to the payment of fees in addition to the Support Fees as set forth on Crytek’s website. If Licensee has purchased packages of hours of support services then the rendering of such support services are subject to a valid subscription of Support. Crytek shall not be obligated to render support services under such packages after the Support Period has expired.

· In no case does Crytek warrant any results or success of Support, only the rendering of Support services.

· Crytek reserves the right to accept or reject Support requests for development services, new features, porting and the like at its sole discretion. The acceptance of Support requests may be subject to further condition as determined by Crytek in its sole discretion, e.g. time and cost forecasts, providing details of hardware configuration, software configuration (including driver versions), error logs, screens shots and detailed reproduction steps. Crytek may also require access to the source code of the Game.

· The Parties agree that the primary means of communication shall be by electronic mail or submission of Support requests to an online software tool established for this purpose by Crytek.

· In case of training the details of the training (especially the dates) are subject to further consultation between the parties. In case of onsite training Licensee shall bear all costs (if any) for traveling, as well as 4-stars accommodation and meals of Crytek's staff involved.

5.Warranty, Indemnification

5.1. CRYTEK WARRANTY DISCLAIMER. CRYTEK GIVES NO WARRANTY. SOFTWARE IS DELIVERED "AS IS". CRYTEK DOES NOT MAKE AND HEREBY DISCLAIMS ANY AND ALL EXPRESS OR IMPLIED WARRANTIES, INCLUDING, BUT NOT LIMITED TO, WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTABILITY, FITNESS FOR A PARTICULAR PURPOSE AND ANY WARRANTIES ARISING FROM COURSE OF DEALING, USAGE OR TRADE PRATICE.

5.2. CRYTEK INDEMNIFICATION DISCLAIMER.

A. In case that German law applies:

5.2.1. Crytek is liable for damages, regardless on which legal basis (be it contract, tort or otherwise) only if (a) such damages are cause by violation of essential obligations of this Agreement (Kardinalpflichten) for Crytek's negligence or intent (Verschulden) which endangers the purpose of the Agreement; or (b) such damages are caused by Crytek’s gross negligence or intent.

5.2.2. In case that Crytek is liable for the violation of an essential obligation of this Agreement (Kardinalpflicht) without acting with gross negligence or intent then the liability is limited to amount of payments received from the respective Licensee.

5.2.3. If Crytek is liable for damages pursuant to Section (a) above for gross negligence or intent of Crytek staff other than the managing directors then the liability is also limited to the amount set forth in Section (b).

5.2.4. Crytek is not liable for indirect or consequential damages (Mangelfolgeschäden), loss of profits or frustrated costs if such damages are not a result of gross negligence or intent of Crytek's managing directors.

5.2.5. The exclusion or limitation of liability pursuant to this Sec. 5 also applies with respect to claims against Crytek’s staff or contractors.

5.2.6. The liability of Crytek with respect to death, bodily injury or health, a guarantee by Crytek (if any) or pursuant to the Product Liability Act (Produkthaftungsgesetz) shall remain unaffected.

5.2.7. If the Licensee is also liable for certain damages then Crytek shall bear an amount of such damages in accordance to its contributory negligence (Mitverschulden). With respect to the User’s responsibility for reduction of damages (Schadensminderungsobligenheit) the Licensee is responsible for regular back-ups of its data and in case of an assumed bug shall take all further reasonable measures. In case of loss of data Crytek is thus liable only to the extent that such loss of data would have occurred in case of a due data back-up as well.

B. In case that German law does NOT apply:

INDEMNIFICATION DISCLAIMER. EXCEPT FOR INTENTIONAL ACTS OR OMISSIONS OF CRYTEK, IN NO EVENT SHALL CRYTEK BE LIABLE FOR ANY DAMAGES, INCLUDING INDIRECT, INCIDENTAL, SPECIAL OR CONSEQUENTIAL DAMAGES, OR DAMAGES FOR LOSS OF PROFITS, REVENUE, DATA OR USE, INCURRED BY LICENSEE OR ANY THIRD PARTY, WHETHER IN AN ACTION IN CONTRACT OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE, EVEN IF CRYTEK HAS BEEN ADVISED OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH DAMAGES. CRYTEK’S MAXIMUM AGGREGATE LIABILITY TO LICENSEE IN CONNECTION WITH OR IN ANY MANNER RELATED TO THIS AGREEMENT (WHETHER IN AN ACTION IN CONTRACT OR TORT (INCLUDING NEGLIGENCE) OR OTHERWISE) WILL BE LIMITED TO THE TOTAL AMOUNT PAID BY OR ON BEHALF OF LICENSEE TO CRYTEK UNDER THIS AGREEMENT. THE FOREGOING ALLOCATION OF RISK IS REFLECTED IN THE AMOUNT OF THE COMPENSATION CONTEMPLATED UNDER THIS AGREEMENT.

5.3. Licensee Indemnification: Licensee shall indemnify and hold harmless Crytek against all costs and expenses (including reasonable attorney’s fees and expenses) and all other liability related to any claim on Licensee’s use of the CryEngine.

6.Feedback

You are not obliged to report to Crytek any feedback, bug fixes and optimizations made to the CryEngine (including the CryEngine Tools) (collectively the “Feedback”). However, if you report Feedback to Crytek you hereby grant Crytek a worldwide, non-exclusive, royalty-free, transferrable, sub-licensable and perpetual license to such Feedback for the purposes of (1) using the Feedback internally at Crytek, (2) incorporating the Feedback in future releases of the CryEngine and (3) distributing the CryEngine with the embedded Feedback to third parties without restriction in any way and without payment of any additional fees or royalties to Licensee. Crytek acknowledges that it does not obtain any rights in any Game itself.

7.Term and Termination

7.1. The Term of this Agreement and the license granted herein begin on the Start Date and remain in full force and effect unless terminated as set forth in this Agreement.

7.2. Crytek shall be entitled to terminate this Agreement with three (3) months’ notice. However, if Licensee has subscribed for Support for a longer period such longer period shall prevail.

7.3. Crytek shall be entitled to terminate this Agreement for Licensee’s breach of this Agreement of any kind with or without cure notice.

7.4. Upon the termination or expiration of this Agreement, any and all rights of Licensee hereunder shall terminate without prejudice to any rights or claims Crytek may have, Licensee shall have no right to use the CryEngine in any manner. All rights granted hereunder shall revert, without notice, to and be vested in Crytek. Upon termination or expiration Licensee shall immediately destroy all copies of the CryEngine in its possession, custody or control. However, the right to distribute Games developed and compiled until the effectiveness of a regular termination or termination for breach by Crytek as set forth in Sec. 2.1.4. shall survive a regular termination or termination for breach by Crytek.

7.5. Termination of this Agreement shall not create any liability against Crytek and shall not relieve Licensee from any liability which arises prior to termination or expiration. The provisions of thisAgreement which by their terms or sense are intended to survive shall survive cancellation, expiration or termination of this Agreement.

8.General Provisions

8.1. Oral agreements have not been made. This Agreement supersedes all prior agreements made between the Parties regarding CryEngine. This Agreement and any other general term published byCrytek reflect the entire agreement and understanding of the Parties with respect to its subject matter. For avoidance of doubt: this Agreement cannot be combined with agreements regardingCryEngine entered into in the past.

8.2. This Agreement does not constitute and shall not be construed as constituting a partnership or joint venture between Crytek and Licensee. Neither party hereto shall have any right to obligate or bind the other party in any manner whatsoever, and nothing herein contained shall give, or is intended to give, any rights of any kind to any third persons.

8.3. If any provision of this Agreement shall be found to be invalid or unenforceable for legal or factual reasons the invalidity or unenforceability of such provisions shall not affect the other provisions of this Agreement and all provisions of this Agreement not affected by such invalidity or unenforceability shall remain in full force and effect. The parties hereby agree to attempt to substitute for any invalid or unenforceable provision a valid or enforceable provision which achieves to the greatest extent possible the economic and legal objective of the Agreement. This applies as well in case of an omission or invalidity of the whole Agreement.

8.4. This Agreement shall be governed and construed by the laws of Germany. Place of performance of this Agreement is Frankfurt a.M. (Germany). If the Licensee is defendant, Crytek might, if admissible, determine as court of jurisdiction the court where the Licensee is resident or the court competent for the corporate domicile of Crytek which currently is in Frankfurt a.M. (Germany). IfCrytek is the defendant the parties expressively agree on the exclusive jurisdiction of the courts of Frankfurt a.M. This Agreement on jurisdiction applies to all claims, be they based on contract, on tort or on any other legal basis, arising under or in connection with this agreement.

8.5. CryEngine contains third party code listed at the end of this Agreement, in a READ ME file and in any other way. Such code is distributed under its own license terms as indicated. These third party licenses are incorporated by reference. In case of a conflict between the third party license and this Agreement the third party license shall prevail.

8.6. For Licensees subject to the law of the EU the following shall apply:

Right of Revocation

You have the right to withdraw from this contract within 14 days without giving any reason.

The withdrawal period will expire after 14 days from the day of the conclusion of the contract .

To exercise the right of withdrawal, you must inform us, Crytek GmbH, Grüneburgweg 16-18, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, fax +49 69 219 77 66 99, mail: revocation@cryengine.com, of your decision to withdraw from this contract by an unequivocal statement (e.g. a letter sent by post, fax or e-mail). You may use the attached model withdrawal form, but it is not obligatory.

To meet the withdrawal deadline, it is sufficient for you to send your communication concerning your exercise of the right of withdrawal before the withdrawal period has expired.

Effects of withdrawal

If you withdraw from this contract, we shall reimburse to you all payments received from you, including the costs of delivery (with the exception of the supplementary costs resulting from your choice of a type of delivery other than the least expensive type of standard delivery offered by us), without undue delay and in any event not later than 14 days from the day on which we are informed about your decision to withdraw from this contract. We will carry out such reimbursement using the same means of payment as you used for the initial transaction, unless you have expressly agreed otherwise; in any event, you will not incur any fees as a result of such reimbursement.

Model withdrawal form

(complete and return this form only if you wish to withdraw from the contract)

—  To Crytek GmbH, Grüneburgweg 16-18, 60322 Frankfurt am Main, fax +49 69 219 77 66 99, mail: revocation@cryengine.com:

—  I/We (*) hereby give notice that I/We (*) withdraw from my/our (*) contract of sale of the following goods (*)/for the provision of the following service (*),

—  Ordered on (*)/received on (*),

—  Name of consumer(s),

—  Address of consumer(s),

—  Signature of consumer(s) (only if this form is notified on paper),

—  Date

YOUR RIGHT OF REVOCATION WILL PREMATURELY EXPIRE IF BOTH PARTIES HAVE COMMENCED PERFORMANCE AND FULFILLED OBLIGATIONS UNDER THESE TERMS AND CONDITIONS PRIOR TO EXECUTING YOUR REVOCATION RIGHT.

BY ACCEPTING BELOW, YOU AGREE TO BE BOUND BY THE TERMS AND CONDITIONS OF THIS AGREEMENT.

We’ve been waiting to hear what each VR solution is going to cost.  The first announcement was Oculus Rift at $599 and the world gulped, as the price was about twice as much as initially expect.  Then the HTC Vive price was announced, a whopping $799!  There were rumours that PlayStation VR was going to be even more expensive!  Today at GDC 2016 however, we finally learned the price and launch date of the PlayStation VR.  I suppose the title ruined the surprise a bit... $399 and October respectively.  Suddenly I am a whole lot more excited for the PlayStation VR’s prospects!

From the PlayStation Blog:

With the annual Game Developers Conference in full swing, I’m pleased to give you an exciting update on PlayStation VR. Today, we are announcing that the PlayStation VR headset will launch in October of this year for a suggested retail price of USD $399 / CAD $549.

That is a bit later than the timeframe we previously stated, and I want to thank everyone for their patience and continued support. PlayStation VR represents a transformative experience in gaming, and we wanted to take the time needed to launch with a broad variety of content and a sufficient supply of hardware. We are beyond excited to deliver to consumers the amazing experience that PS VR offers.

I’m also pleased to reveal the final consumer version of PS VR, including all of the contents that will come in the package.

Today more than 230 developers are building content for PlayStation VR, from smaller independent teams to larger studios at the industry’s top publishers. We expect to have more than 50 games available from launch in October 2016 until the end of the year. Of course, the full promise of PlayStation VR will continue to grow over time as talented developers create new experiences and new genres that wouldn’t be possible outside of VR. The future looks bright indeed.

Big news out of the GDC today.  Crytek have shipped CryEngine V, it’s released under a pay what you can license that gives you full access including source code.  CryEngine.com is currently unavailable, so the source for this news is gematsu.com.  I am still waiting to hear the official announcement from Crytek.

From the article:

Launched with a “Pay What You Want” business model, developers will have full access to the engine’s feature-set and source code for a fee of their choosing and have no obligation to pay royalties or additional service charges to Crytek. Users who decide to do so can allocate 70 percent of the sum to Crytek’s new Indie Development Fund, which will see Crytek directly supporting promising independent projects around the world.

Crytek V comes with access to the CryEngine Marketplace, which will enable developers to access individual assets from Crytek’s own library, as well as thousands of materials, sounds, and 3D objects created by the CryEngine community and other vendors.

Read more at http://gematsu.com/2016/03/cryengine-v-announced-available-now#vSUQGrBUsAOJLZq7.99

CryEngine V features the following:

C# Enabled: A new API that allows developers who know C# to start scripting in CryEngine V right away.

Reworked Low Overhead Renderer: Significantly increases the performance of today’s hardware in graphically intensive applications.

DirectX 12 support: Utilize the latest branch of DirectX to take greater control of hardware resources.

Advanced Volumetric Cloud System: Optimized for VR to give clouds full 3D spatial rendering for higher quality with minimal performance hit.

New particle system: Create stunning real-time fluid effects, handled almost entirely on the GPU.

A new launcher and UI: Navigate CryEngine more intuitively thanks to a streamlined UI which includes realigned features and new icon groupings.

FMOD Studio support: Allowing greater flexibility in audio middleware selection.

CryEngine Answers: A dedicated channel where the CryEngine community can share questions and answers.

CryEngine is also supposed to focus on better documentation and improved usability, both major flaws with earlier releases.

While CryEngine.com is unavailable, their updated documentation site is online, including this in-depth documentation on the new features of CryEngine V.

Xenko Engine, previously known as Paradox, just released beta 1.6.  If you are unfamiliar with Xenko, I have done an in-depth tutorial series here.  This release brings quite a few updates, so let’s jump right in.

Updates to Xenko 1.6 include:

• addition of prefabs enabling reusable content easily
• archetypes, essentially create new objects using the traits of another object
• particles can now be created directly in Xenko editor
• curve editor inside Xenko studio (currently particle only)
• new graphics engine.
• experimental Direct3D 12 support
• improved OpenGL support
• scripts are now components
• event system for communications between scripts
• game settings improvements

Plus several smaller changes, fixes, etc:

Enhancements

Assets

Engine

• The KeyedSortedList now implements ICollection<T> instead of IList<T> and is more consistent with CollectionDescriptor.

Game Studio

• Support for prefabs, add a prefab editor
• Create derived assets and support property inheritance
• Added a curve editor to edit animation curve
• Layout is saved on a solution basis. When reloading a project, Game Studio will try to present the same layout and reopen all assets that were edited (this include scenes, prefabs and sprite sheets).
• Add a confirmation dialog to enable saving newly created script automatically.
• Add a confirmation dialog to enable reloading modified assemblies automatically. This is necessary for the script to appear in the list of components that can be added to an entity.
• Physics gizmos are shown by default.
• Preview of an asset can be displayed even if this asset is being edited.
• Project folder can be opened in Windows explorer from the launcher with right-clicking.
• Properties of derived asset are displayed in gray, unless they are overridden. In this case they are displayed in bold.
• Rework scene initialization in the scene editor: the scene will be available almost immediately, and content (model, etc.) will be streamed in as soon as they are (asynchronously) loaded.
• The entity fixup wizard has been removed. Now when an entity is deleted, all references to it or to one of its component is reset to null.
• The gizmo and camera menus are now displayed in the top-right corner.
• Entity hierarchy is synchronized (automatically expanded) with the selected entity in the scene.

Graphics

• New D3D12 renderer (experimental)
• New Windows OpenGL and OpenGL ES renderers (experimental)
• Rewrote most of the low- and high-level graphics code to have better performance and better take advantage of new graphics APIs
• Properly separated rendering in 4 phases: Collect (collect & cull), Extract (copy data from scene to renderers), Prepare (prepare cbuffer data & heavy computations), Draw (emit draw calls)
• Introduced concepts of RenderFeature (entry point for extending rendering), RenderStage (effect selection), RenderView and RenderObject
• Render sorting logic can now be customized (culling will be soon too)
• Low-level API has been rewritten to match better new API: CommandList, DescriptorSet, DescriptorHeap, PipelineState, etc.
• Introduced concept of RendererProcessor which are responsible for pushing component data to rendering
• Many other changes, that will soon be covered in documentation

Input

• Improved GamePad event management to resemble the keyboard API.

Issues fixed

Game Studio

• Fix Scripts thumbnail generation during project launch.
• Fix Settings window sharing columns layout with property grid ([#341](https://github.com/SiliconStudio/xenko/issues/341 (new window))).
• Fix default IDE settings incorrectly reset to null.
• Fix a crash occurring when duplicating an object quickly after selecting it.
• Fix an issue with the message box incorrectly resizing.
• Tooltips are always visible even if the control (menu, button…) is disabled.
• Fix several issues with undo/redo.
• Fix drag and drop of components into properties
• Sometimes the Game Studio was not asking to save when closed with some changes in a project.
• Fix some issues related to folders in scene editor.
• Redo does not re-open asset picker anymore.

Graphics

• Tangents generation was invalid and might have resulted in various swaps

Physics

• Improved collision detection reliability
• Fixed collision filter groups
• Fixed enable/disable component behavior

Breaking changes

Graphics

• Extending rendering is quite different from before. Please check SpaceEscape and other samples to have a better idea while we prepare documentation.
• Many methods of GraphicsDevice have been split off into a second class: CommandList
• Added objects such as PipelineState, DescriptorSet and DescriptorHeap to better match new graphics API
• Game now contains a GraphicsContext which gives access to the current CommandList
• GraphicsDevice.BackBuffer and GraphicsDevice.DepthStencilBuffer are gone. Use GraphicsDevice.Presenter.BackBuffer to access the actual backbuffer.
• In addition to RenderContext, there is now a RenderDrawContext. Some methods have been changed to expect the latter.
• ParameterCollection has been rewritten to be much more memory and performance efficient (data is now stored directly in buffers).
• Transferring values from application to shaders and computation of effect permutations used to be done through various inefficient ParameterCollection overrides. This should now be done using RenderFeatures.

Physics

• PhysicsComponents are now split into 3 different types (Rigidbody, Character, StaticCollider) which can be added multiple times to an entity.
• PhysicsElements are now removed, including the Collider, Rigidbody and Character classes. They now are merged into the new components.

Known Issues

• iOS on ARM64 iPhones encounter crashes after a few second. We are currently investigating this.
• Sometimes duplicate contacts are detected by the physics engine

Full details of this release are available here.

Launched just last month, today at GDC Amazon announced the first (beta) update, Lumberyard 1.1.  This update has a fairly impressive number of features including:

• a new component/entity system
• Substance PBR integration
• FBX importer
• mobile support (just ARM8 + iOS devices and the NVidia Shield for now)
• new Twitch/Chatplay features

For smaller developers the FBX importer is probably the biggest deal, as Lumberyard currently requires you to use Maya or 3D Studio Max plugins to export in a compatible format.  The addition of a stand alone FBX importer opens Lumberyard up to a number of other DCC solutions such as Blender, Cinema4D, etc.

Obviously mobile support is a big deal as well, but it’s extremely limited at this point.  A bit more on that topic:

Lumberyard Beta 1.1 introduces mobile support. In this release, we include support for iOS devices with an A8 or better processor and the Android-based Nvidia Shield. Lumberyard Beta 1.1 uses Apple’s Metal API and leverages their GMEM fast memory to enable you to create high-fidelity iOS visuals. By using Metal and GMEM, Lumberyard enables your game to directly access and push more data to the Apple GPU hardware, so your game can use the latest rendering techniques (e.g. post effects such as depth of field, glow, flares, and color grading). Supporting mobile developers building 3D and connected games is a priority for us and we will continue to expand device support in coming releases.

Obviously in time that will become more mature.  Finally a bit more on the component/entity system:

One of the areas we are focused on with Lumberyard is making the engine extensible by developers without changing engine code. Our new Component Entity system is built to enable easy engine extension with new components. Content creators can drag-and-drop and combine those components into new game objects. They can then make reusable assemblies of Component Entities, which we call “Slices.” Slices can be composed of other nested Slices. Slices can contain scene elements and game logic written in Flow Graph, Lua, or C++. Individual properties of Slices can be overridden, or shared among all copies of a Slice. This approach allows you to lay out generic copies of a Slice in a scene, and then quickly make changes to specific copies.  For example, if you have a Slice that includes a row of street lamps, you could also include broken light bulbs on a select set of those street lamps. Furthermore, changes to the base model can quickly be shared with all copies. The Lumberyard Editor includes rapid drag-and-drop workflows for creating Components and Slices.

 

Pretty solid progress in a short period of time.  For more details read the complete release here.

MonoGame, the popular open source implementation of the XNA game framework, just release version 3.5.  If you are interested in learning more, we have a pretty solid introductory tutorial available here.

Details from this release:

• Content Pipeline Integration for Xamarin Studio and MonoDevleop on Mac and Linux.
• Automatic inclusion of XNBs into your final project on Mac and Linux.
• Improved Mac and Linux installers.
• Assemblies are now installed locally on Mac and Linux just like they are on Windows.
• New cross-platform “Desktop” project where same binary and content will work on Windows, Linux and Mac desktops.
• Better Support for Xamarin.Mac and Xam.Mac.
• Apple TV support (requires to be built from source at the moment).
• Various sound system fixes.
• New GraphicsMetrics API.
• Optimizations to SpriteBatch performance and garbage generation.
• Many improvements to the Pipeline tool: added toolbar, new filtered output view, new templates, drag and drop, and more.
• New GamePad support for UWP.
• Mac and Linux now support Vorbis compressed music.
• Major refactor of texture support in content pipeline.
• Added 151 new unit tests.
• Big improvements to FBX and model content processing.
• Various fixes to XML serialization.
• MediaLibrary implementation for Windows platforms.
• Removed PlayStation Mobile platform.
• Added content pipeline extension template project.
• Support for binding multiple vertex buffers in a draw call.
• Fixed deadzone issues in GamePad support.
• OcclusionQuery support for DX platforms.
• Fixed incorrect z depth in SpriteBatch.
• Lots of OpenTK backend fixes.
• Much improved font processing.
• Added new VertexPosition vertex format.
• Better VS project template installation under Windows.

Atomic Game Engine, a game engine I recently took a closer look at, was just released under the MIT license.  Atomic is a cross platform 2D/3D game engine with  acomplete game editor. From the announcement:

Why MIT the Atomic Game Engine?

We wanted to simplify Atomic’s licensing and reduce barriers as we work with our partners on the technology. There was thought put to “dual licensing” the code under separate commercial and GPL licenses. However, we believe the permissive MIT license brings the most value to Atomic technology end users, including us, THUNDERBEAST GAMES LLC

We also view the MIT as a modern software license being used to develop amazing technology across industries, in games alone we’re in great company with cocos2d-x, Godot, and of course Urho3D from which Atomic was initially forked in the fall of 2014!

In addition to the license change, Atomic Game Engine also recently integrated Chromium support, enabling you to embed an HTML5 client within your game code.  From the same announcement:

We have integrated Chromium providing a powerful 2D and 3D web technology feature. This can be used for social logins, eCommerce, video streaming, WebRTC, in-app WebCam support, etc.

The Atomic Editor uses the Chromium WebView technology to provide an integrated JavaScript and TypeScript editor with autocomplete, syntax highlighting, code folding, and more!

I’m not sure exactly what this change means for existing and future customers of Atomic Game Engine.

Substance Painter, the PBR (Physically Based Rendering) texture painting tool, just released version 2.0.  If you want more information on Substance I featured it in this video.  It’s an excellent texture creation tool that is growing in popularity every day ( just yesterday Unity announce Substance support for example ).  This release includes several new features, including:

- Iray Path Tracer integration for advanced rendering and screenshot capability
- New Smart Masks for creating and using your own mesh-adaptive mask presets
- New Clone tool, non destructive, for copying and pasting parts of texture
- New Smudge tool, non destructive, for blending and spreading colors
- Ability to chain and composite substances
- New content in the shelf: alphas, tools, materials, smart materials, and more
- New interface with reworked colors, icons, and parameter organization
- New Orthographic view mode and Perspective Field of View control
- New Fullscreen mode with interface toggling
- Full support for the Specular/Glossiness PBR workflow
- Scripting I/O
- Non-PBR shader and template
- Full support of height & normal workflow

There is also a release trailer for Substance Painter 2

For more details, click here.

The Power VR SDK, a set of tools, frameworks and examples, for supporting PowerVR GPUs, just released a new version with full Vulkan support.  The framework is now open source under the MIT license.

From the new release announcement:

The PowerVR Framework, a cross-platform and cross-API framework that acts as a scaffold around which developers can build their own rendering or game engine, now features a fully functioning Vulkan backend. This lightweight abstraction layer provides utility functions that enable explicit control of Vulkan while reducing the amount of code required to render a scene. It features functions for common tasks such as object creation and asset uploading, simplified object lifetime management, and cross-platform setup. It also includes Imagination’s Gnome Horde demo, included as an example to show multi-threaded command buffer management for Vulkan.

The entire PowerVR Graphics SDK is now distributed freely under an MIT license. The SDK for Vulkan offers cross-platform support for multiple GPU architectures (PowerVR and desktop GPUs) as well as multiple operating systems (Android, Windows and Linux).

Together with the PowerVR Graphics SDK, Imagination offers a complete set of advanced tools for graphics developers. The latest release includes several new features and enhancements. PVRShaderEditor now supports the ability to choose different compilers per shader, and PVRGeoPOD supports 3DSMax 2016 SP2. PVRTrace now includes a full ‘Call Hierarchy’ which will show all a call’s dependencies at a point in time, and also now enables viewing of buffer object data. Finally, PVRTune now includes new counters for ‘ISP pixel load’ and ‘Overdraw.’

You can download the PowerVR SDK installer here.  The source code is available on Github.

Goo Create, an HTML5 WebGL game engine with a full editor, just released a new version.

New in this release:

• New particle system component
• Visual behavior editor
• Synchronous behavior state transitions
• Improved action dialog with search
• Collapsible panels
• 65K vertex meshes no longer split

Plus several other fixes and improvements:

Improvements

• The current selection is added to the URL and restored if the page is refreshed.
• Shadows now work on mobile devices.
• New entities are now added as children of the currently selected entity. If no entity is selected, new entities become children of the scene.
• Added a checkbox to the Sound Component panel to specify whether sounds should automatically be played when the scene is played.
• Added a checkbox to the Sound Component panel to make sounds 2D (not using 3D spatial effects).
• Added a “Mute” button to the default publishing templates. Clicking it will mute all the sounds in the scene.
• Added an option for focusing the canvas element in published scenes. When embedding a scene into another website you usually don’t want the canvas to be focused automatically.
• Added the possibility of specifying alpha values in the color picker control/component. To make use of this new control for script parameters just make a parameter of type “vec4”, and control “color.”
• Added the possibility of loading Ads immediately after it is loaded or after the whole page is loaded. This option is available in the “Serve Ad” app.
• Better-looking HTML component default content.
• The scene title is displayed as the page title and, consequently, shows up in the browser tab.
• Mesh back-faces now render with correct normals.

Bug fixes

• Fixed the Tween Opacity actions, QuadComponent and gizmos so that they use TransparencyBlending instead of CustomBlending.
• Fixed texture repeating so that it works with NPOT textures.
• Fixed the OrbitCam panning so that it works on touch devices.
• Removed the restriction of the light shadow casting size and range being integers.
• Fixed the ButtonScript and PickAndExit action so that they use the “touchend” event to open links, in order to support iOS9.
• Fix a bug that caused tooltips to say visible after starting to drag a sortable item (e.g. scripts or behavior actions).
• Made sure the “allowfullscreen” attribute is added to the “Embed code” for published scenes.
• Added missing ctx.playTime to the autocompletion in the script editor.
• Fixed a bug that caused the names displayed in the scene Hierarchy would to not overflow properly in Firefox.
• Made the the text editor search box larger because text would sometimes get clipped in Firefox.
• Fix a bug in the publishing template that prevented the bottom bar from being hidden unless the “Maximize Button” option was enabled.
• Fixed a bug which caused the timeline keyframe easing function to not be saved sometimes.

You can read more about the new release here.

Blender 2.77 is finally out, you can download it here.  Taking a bit longer than previous releases, this version brings a number of new features, including:

• Cycles rendering improvements including GPU support for Smoke/Fire, Subsurface Scattering and more
• Massive Grease Pencil improvements (including 2D animation)
• OpenVDB caching for large simulation datasets
• UI improvements
• Improved painting and sculpting tools
• Edit mode booleans
• UVMap on creation of primitives
• And much much more

When Blender 2.77RC2 was released, I put together a video highlighting major new features of this release.  You can view it here or embedded below.