Crytek free for universities

[mirlix]

Seems to be a trend rigth now.
CryEngine3 is now free for universities. One have just to apply at this homepage http://mycryengine.com/.
If only open source engines would be that nice and finally anounce that they are free to use^^

[xavier]

If only open source engines would be that nice and finally anounce that they are free to use^^

You mean....never mind....

[jacmoe]

[Kojack]

Hmm, couldn't see anything on the web site about limitations (except for the free for educational non commercial use bit). Does CryEngine use a scripting language like Unreal does? Or would we actually have c++ control of the engine? (I've never done cryengine modding).
I've signed my college up anyway, might as well take a look at what they offer.

So... anybody want to place bets on who goes free next? Valve's Source? Monolith's Lithtech?

[jacmoe]

I don't really see any relation to what Unity and Unreal did.
Crytek does not license to individuals, indies and for non-commercial purposes.
They do offer a free license to educators, which is good. (I guess).

All the rest of us must use the CryEngine Mod SDK.

[Kojack]

It's fun being an educator.
I just got a bunch of Autodesk free licenses the other day because I signed up to Autodesk with my work email. I'm now teaching myself Inventor 2010 just for the hell of it.

[jacmoe]

Aw, shut up !

[mkultra333]

Doesn't do much for me, there's a sense they aren't really giving something away at all, since its sole purpose is to make sure there are Crytek programmers out there and so make their engine more commercially attractive to large developers. Programmers who want to be independent, or programmers who'd gladly work for a large developer but can't afford college, get nothing. What Epic did with Unreal3 is much cooler, since it's usable by anyone.

[xavier]

So... anybody want to place bets on who goes free next? Valve's Source? Monolith's Lithtech?

It's actually been called Jupiter for some time now, and is maintained and licensed by a corporation separate from Monolith:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lithtech

I doubt Valve has much interest in giving away Source -- they have plenty of marketshare just with Steam.

[Kojack]

Ok, got the contract from Crytek. It says they provide:

CryENGINE 3 object code (with all modules other than those provided by third
parties to Crytek under separate license)
Sandbox Editor in object code format (with all modules other than those provided by
third parties to Crytek under separate license)
Example MOD DLL Source Code demonstrating usage of most major CryENGINE 3
features
Sample art assets for most major classes of objects (i.e. characters, faces, vegetation,
buildings, terrain features, and vehicles) sufficient to allow any experienced game
development team to create their own assets which are compatible with the
CryENGINE 3
CryENGINE 3, Example Code, Sandbox Editor, Exporters, & Plug-In User
Documentation and Training Videos

I have to sign various parts of a 16 page legal doc and fax it to them before I can get my hands on it (should probably get my boss's approval before I start putting signatures on stuff).

The main downside is that it seems students won't be able to continue working with their game projects once they graduate, which is a bit crap. Also if they decide to go commercial, there's no cheap version of cryengine that I know of, and porting assets to another engine would be annoying.

Hmm, Lithtech reminds me that I should get back to reverse engineering Fear 2, already got some of it's models importing into Ogre, but Alma is being a pain (as usual).

[xavier]

So basically it's a headers-and-libs SDK then -- didn't really expect a source license did you?

[Kojack]

didn't really expect a source license did you

Of course not. I was just worried it might be some scripted crap like the unreal udk.

[xavier]

Nice thing about headers and libs is you can create stuff at pretty low levels. But then the "you can't take it with you" aspect kinda bites...

[mirlix]

Perfect would be the license from UDK and the libs/header policy from cryengine.
But all in all I like the recent development of opening commercial engine to reach a more developers. At least we can take a look an try to learn how to make better tools for ourselves

[Stefan Lundmark]

Seems to be a trend rigth now.
CryEngine3 is now free for universities. One have just to apply at this homepage http://mycryengine.com/.
If only open source engines would be that nice and finally anounce that they are free to use^^

Except you don't get the source to CryEngine3, at all...
Apples and oranges.

[Kojack]

I gave the legal doc to the academic director of my college, and he found a fun bit which has made us both back away quickly.
This is part of the agreement:

Licensee shall not engage in the business of selling or licensing any competing game
engine or middleware to third parties for the Term of the Agreement and five (5) years
thereafter.

Yeah right. Technically we kind of license a game engine to students, and our students could get jobs working on game engines or tools. A 5 year block on that completely sucks.
So crytek can go to hell, this license is completely unacceptable.

[xavier]

I don't read it as that -- are you in the business of licensing either first-party or pass-through technology to external interests? Maybe the laws in Australia are different but I think you and your legal guy read this wrong.

Besides, no contract is a take-it-or-leave-it situation -- you have every right to have parts explained, make addendums, cross stuff out...it's called "negotiation" and "due diligence"

[mirlix]

I think they mean that our university as licensee isnt allowed to produce an own game engine and then sell it to other game companys. But Im not a laywer so cant say for sure. Best thing is to ask them directly.

[Kojack]

Students must also sign a contract to be sent to Crytek which says they agree with the license as well, and it explicitly states that the student will be referred to as "Licensee" for the license. Which means students are blocked from getting a job on game middleware for 8 years (3 year term plus 5 years after the term expires).
Still seems like a rather iffy license (especially since we don't actually need CryEngine, it just seemed interesting).

There are other things in the license I don't like too, like that you can only develop on "non mobile" computers (what exactly is a non mobile computer? A laptop?) and projects must be offline only. Not being allowed to make network games is a pretty big restriction.

[mirlix]

Oh, if students are also licensee then its an absolute no go. Dont know why making something free and unusable, its strange.

[xadhoom]

And no network applications is a total killer, too...

BTW: Thanks for investigating the license.

xad

[mkultra333]

Gah! What a horrendous license!

Whatever that clause means, it reeks. Some kind of limit that last the term of the license plus five years? Run, don't walk, far far away.

Was this clause buried deeply amongst all the other boilerplate? What a scam. I wonder how many careers that'd destroy. They don't just want to make sure there are Crytek programmers, they want to make sure there aren't any other kind, by hobbling them all for five years. Thoroughly despicable.

[xavier]

Students must also sign a contract to be sent to Crytek which says they agree with the license as well, and it explicitly states that the student will be referred to as "Licensee" for the license. Which means students are blocked from getting a job on game middleware for 8 years (3 year term plus 5 years after the term expires).
Still seems like a rather iffy license (especially since we don't actually need CryEngine, it just seemed interesting).

There are other things in the license I don't like too, like that you can only develop on "non mobile" computers (what exactly is a non mobile computer? A laptop?) and projects must be offline only. Not being allowed to make network games is a pretty big restriction.

Yeah at that point I'd jump off too...

[Kojack]

Yeah, just seemed a bit too much questionable stuff to be bothered following up on it.

Other fun bits:
- All projects must be sent to Crytek on completion.
- Crytek have the right of first option to acquire all rights to your project.
I guess that's not bad, students making a game and having it bought by Crytek could be cool, but it's still another limit on your options.

[jacmoe]

Just wondering what sort of university would want to enslave their students like that..
Imagine being offered a job at Unity or Unreal, and then being forced to turn it down because you've signed a contract with Crytek.
5 years is a long, long time - when you're a graduate.