Star Citizen

Any chance of a public release of 3.0 before the end of the year?
 
https://www.polygon.com/2017/12/13/16774244/crytek-star-citizen-cryengine-lawsuit

Crytek sues Star Citizen studios over use of CryEngine (update)

As we explained in October, the Star Citizen project is actually an effort to create two unique AAA-quality games: an online multiplayer game referred to as the Persistent Universe and a single-player game called Squadron 42. Crytek said in its lawsuit that in continuing to use the CryEngine 3 for both products, CIG and RSI are in breach of contract.

In December 2016, CIG and RSI said they were moving off of CryEngine 3 in favor of Amazon’s Lumberyard product. But the complaint filed by Crytek says that’s not the case. Looking carefully at CIG and RSI’s own marketing materials, show lines of code on the screen that seem to indicate the games are running, at least partially, on CryEngine 3.

Making matters even more complicated is the fact that Amazon’s Lumberyard is, in fact, a fork of the CryEngine itself purchased by Amazon.

The lawsuit goes on to say that CIG and RSI improperly removed the CryEngine logo when the game boots up, and that the teams failed to properly disclose modifications to CryEngine 3 as part of their licensing agreement.

But the lawsuit doesn’t stop there. As we reported in 2016, CIG and RSI began selling two distinct games — Squadron 42 and the Star Citizen Persistent Universe. Crytek says that since both use the same code, that constitutes using the engine twice and represents a further breach of contract.
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R4ziel said:
I read this this morning and it looks mostly like a quick cashgrab from Crytek than anything else. Erin Roberts confirmed on the forums they bought the engine (3.7), not just rights to use it, so that they can change things and implement different features. When Amazon bought the engine (3.8) from Crytek, Crytek lost prtty much all rights to argue anything around star citizen.
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HavocXphere said:
Not good. RSI is going to loose that fight
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I think Crytek are having solvency issues which is why they are looking for a payday. Lawsuit seems pretty dodgy since they have moved to Amazon, however the main problem If foresee is Star Citizen pledged to not change engines and also topromote their use of CryEngine. Crytek claimed they invested significant resources of their own in assisting Star Citizen and them dropping the engine means that there will be no payback in terms of exposure for CryEngine.
 
R4ziel said:
I read this this morning and it looks mostly like a quick cashgrab from Crytek than anything else. Erin Roberts confirmed on the forums they bought the engine (3.7), not just rights to use it, so that they can change things and implement different features. When Amazon bought the engine (3.8) from Crytek, Crytek lost prtty much all rights to argue anything around star citizen.
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Not that easy - when RSI switched to CryEngine initially they signed some pretty intense contracts, including clauses preventing them from using a different engine (like Amazon's). Seems like that's just one of many contractual breaches - see 4 highlights below. They're going to get the sht kicked out of them in court if even half of the allegations are true.

>38. On December 23, 2016, Defendants announced that they were using the Amazon Lumberyard video game engine for Star Citizen. The GLA did not permit Defendants to use any other video game engine in Star Citizen except for CryEngine.

>50. On May 6, 2015, Defendants began posting a series of videos online titled "Bugsmashers." The videos contain excerpts of information from CryEngine that were confidential, in breach of the GLA, and should not have been shown to the public. The series continues today.

>22. On December 16, 2015, Defendants announced that "Squadron 42," a single-player video game involving space combat, would be sold separately from Star Citizen.
>25. On February 14, 2016, Defendants moved forward with their plan for Squadron 42 notwithstanding their failure to obtain a license and began offering the video game for separate purchase. As a result, Defendants are intentionally and willfully using CryEngine without a license and in violation of copyright laws.

> 51 On August 26, 2017, news reports announced a partnership between Defendants and a third party developer, Faceware Technologies. Upon information and belief, as a result of the partnership, Faceware received access to the underlying technology for CryEngine (including computer source code). Defendants did not disclose this third party developer's involvement to Crytek, let alone obtain Crytek's prior written approval. This was entirely in breach of the GLA.
 
Cray said:
I think Crytek are having solvency issues which is why they are looking for a payday. Lawsuit seems pretty dodgy since they have moved to Amazon, however the main problem If foresee is Star Citizen pledged to not change engines and also topromote their use of CryEngine. Crytek claimed they invested significant resources of their own in assisting Star Citizen and them dropping the engine means that there will be no payback in terms of exposure for CryEngine.
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Yeah it would be interesting to see how they go about getting around the using another engine thing, but Crytek is severly hurting and struggle to pay employees, so I think they are just trying to cash into a payday.

I might be off the mark here, but I don't think Chris and Erin Roberts would be dumb enough to make an agreement like this and move to another engine (technically) without covering their bases, time will tell i suppose
 
Cray said:
I think Crytek are having solvency issues which is why they are looking for a payday. Lawsuit seems pretty dodgy since they have moved to Amazon, however the main problem If foresee is Star Citizen pledged to not change engines and also topromote their use of CryEngine. Crytek claimed they invested significant resources of their own in assisting Star Citizen and them dropping the engine means that there will be no payback in terms of exposure for CryEngine.
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It may be the case that Crytek are having solvency issues, but this is what was stated by Erin Roberts,

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/2895381/#Comment_2895381

Erin Roberts
Addis
Posted: June 2014

S1GN3T | S1GN3T said:

Hi guys,

my question is about CryEngine 3 and the whole StarCitizen project. This week our German geming magazine 'Gamestar' reported that CryTek, developer of CryEngine 3, has been close to insolvency in April (due to bad sales of the last AAA games). Some ominous investor, probably Wargaming.net, will provide financial support. Just in case CryTek goes bankrupt and the support of the CryEngine ends, what would you do? Did you already evaluate this kind of risk? Would you support the engine by yourself, since a new netcode was written for the DFM?
I am concerned that this could have a bad effect on the project, if this case happens in a few years.

Regards,

Pascal
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Hi S1GN3T,

We did an outright buyout of the engine last year and have the source code, so while we hope all the noise about Crytek blows over, as they are great partners and friends to the project, if the worse happened we would be ok, as we’ve already branched the engine and have a large team that is adding features and supporting it every day here at CIG. So even in the worst case scenario we should be fine, but obviously we hope it does not come to that.

Cheers,

Erin
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Kotaku,

https://kotaku.com/crytek-sues-star-citizen-makers-for-breaching-contract-1821269577

When asked to comment by Kotaku, CIG sent over a statement: “We are aware of the Crytek complaint having been filed in the US District Court. CIG hasn’t used the CryEngine for quite some time since we switched to Amazon’s Lumberyard. This is a meritless lawsuit that we will defend vigorously against, including recovering from Crytek any costs incurred in this matter.”

CIG declined to answer follow-up questions about specific complaints in the suit.

Lawsuit in link
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More on CIG's Star Engine,

https://starcitizen.tools/Star_Engine

Features

Although CIG is very open about their development process, not all details on internal processes and work on the engine are released to the public. The following list contains features that are described in interviews, Monthly Reports or dev comments. The names can differ from the actual name internally used and the feature funtionality should always be considered as not fully accurate. Additionally, some are already integrated CryEngine 3.8 and/or Lumberyard features
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On a side note, Crytek is licensed to Amazon, and according to Kotaku,

https://kotaku.com/amazon-releases-its-own-game-engine-for-free-1757995787

Amazon’s releasing their very own game engine. Lumberyard, as they call it, is based on Crytek’s famous CryEngine, and can be used to develop games for both PC and consoles. It’s also free to download, and comes with “no seat fees, subscription fees, or requirements to share revenue.”

Fees come in only, as Lumberyard’s official page notes, if the game takes advantage of the engine’s integration with Amazon Web Services for multiplayer.

While the engine is based on Crytek’s CryEngine, which Amazon licensed last year, Lumberyard will, as general manager Eric Schenk put it (via Gamasutra), “go in [its] own direction.” He added that at launch, the engine already has components that are not based on CryEngine, including low-latency networking code and “an entirely new asset pipeline and processor.”
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Generally, though Crytek may seek a payday, it seems to be due to negligence on CIG's part.

Bought and licensed, not quite the same thing when it comes to use. I think Erin Roberts, like the previous debacle, talked too much when she said they did an 'outright buyout'.
 
Given Crytek's past woes, I wonder if CIG thought that they could get away with the engine switch because Crytek would be too caught up in it's own survival to press the issue....
 
Fulcrum29 said:
It may be the case that Crytek are having solvency issues, but this is what was stated by Erin Roberts,

https://forums.robertsspaceindustries.com/discussion/comment/2895381/#Comment_2895381



Kotaku,

https://kotaku.com/crytek-sues-star-citizen-makers-for-breaching-contract-1821269577



More on CIG's Star Engine,

https://starcitizen.tools/Star_Engine



On a side note, Crytek is licensed to Amazon, and according to Kotaku,

https://kotaku.com/amazon-releases-its-own-game-engine-for-free-1757995787



Generally, though Crytek may seek a payday, it seems to be due to negligence on CIG's part.

Bought and licensed, not quite the same thing when it comes to use. I think Erin Roberts, like the previous debacle, talked too much when she said they did an 'outright buyout'.
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Interesting post thanks, puts things into perspective. I'm also starting to think Erin might have talked too much. But we will see when more info floats to the surface
 
R4ziel said:
Interesting post thanks, puts things into perspective. I'm also starting to think Erin might have talked too much. But we will see when more info floats to the surface
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As long as my money put into the game spews out a complete product, one day, I’m happy.
 
But, in other words, another reason that will contribute to a delay?

Edit: I would love to see this game as well. Just have my doubts.
 
Is anyone playing 3.1?

I tried it and it was a lot better than before but still lags every now and then, but I dont really have a beast of a machine at the moment. I think people with 16GB RAM or more will have a better time
 
MeNeZ said:
Is anyone playing 3.1?

I tried it and it was a lot better than before but still lags every now and then, but I dont really have a beast of a machine at the moment. I think people with 16GB RAM or more will have a better time
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I hop in every now and then still.

Having copious amount of memory only helps so much, I have 16GB and the game is mostly unplayable at the moment due to constant stutters every few seconds however some servers are better than others.

The new service beacon stuff is pretty great, I got stuck on Daymar the other day and called up somebody to come pick me up and it actually all worked pretty flawlessly.
 
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