Chris Roberts has commented on the excitement surrounding the engine switch for Star Citizen.
Shortly before Christmas, Star Citizen announced it would switch from CryEngine to Lumberyard. This caused some excitement: “Such an engine change sets the project back forever,” some speculated. Chris Roberts, the head of Star Citizen, wants to nip such rumors in the bud.
“A day of work or so”
Chris Roberts has now addressed the fans to contradict this: “A workday or so,” the switch has taken, says Roberts. Two technicians from the engine team were involved.
They have not used new “builds” of CryEngine since the end of 2015. Just like Amazon. Their engine Lumberyard is based on the exact same build as the version of CryEngine that CIG heavily modified and dubbed StarEngine.
Both engines are derived from the same build of CryEngine. That’s why the switch could be made so smoothly and all the work and progress that had been put into StarEngine could be adopted.
No work was wasted or otherwise changed, Roberts continued.
Amazon the better partner than CryTek
If Star Citizen is now being further developed, CIG can take advantage of Lumberyard’s engine to create a “Massively Online Game”.
The switch was also influenced by the fact that Amazon is willing to invest a lot of money in the engine. CryTek could not match that with its resources. Amazon focuses on aspects in online gaming and networking with Lumberyard that CryTek has not emphasized, but which they want to see highlighted in Star Citizen.
Therefore, and because no work was done, they switched. There was no malicious intent behind the “shortly before Christmas” date.
The deal only came after the release of 2.5. CIG and Amazon had agreed to announce the deal with the release of 2.6. And that was now on December 23. They originally wanted to release 2.6 three weeks earlier and announce the engine switch then, but that had been delayed.
Star Citizen switches engine – the new one comes from Amazon and brings benefits to Twitch
