When comparing Orx vs CryEngine, the Slant community recommends Orx for most people. In the question“What are the best game engines?” Orx is ranked 3rd while CryEngine is ranked 7th. The most important reason people chose Orx is:
Powerful config system that makes orx data-driven and provides an easy to use load/save system.
Specs
Ranked in these QuestionsQuestion Ranking
Pros
Pro Powerful config system
Powerful config system that makes orx data-driven and provides an easy to use load/save system.
Pro Friendly community
Good friendly development community ready to help each other with tips and advice for setting up and best practices.
Pro Automatic hot-loading of resources
Automatic hot-loading of resources upon modification on disk, shortens drastically iteration times.
Pro High performance
Written in C with high emphasis on memory and CPU efficiency.
Pro Supports desktop and mobile
Supports Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, iOS and Android.
Pro Data configuration
Orx is a Data Driven engine that greatly reduces required code. You can configure object definitions, bodies, cameras, sound, animation, event tracks, etc.
Pro Custom shader support
GLSL code can be added straight into data configuration files and can be applied to any texture: background or objects whivh allows for some amazing effects. All GLSL versions are supported, again by providing the shader language version in your configuration file.
Parameters are supported and values over time for shader animation.
Pro Flexible clock system
Clock system that provides time consistency and allows time stretching + high precision timers
Pro Flexible and simple FX
Color and translation FX are simple to configure and apply to objects.
Pro Good animation engine
Includes a chaining graph & custom animation events for synchronization.
Pro Free and open source
Uses the zlib license. Lets you use Orx for free for any kind of projects, even for commercial ones.
Pro Input controls and binding
All input devices are fully supported: Joysticks, Mouse, Gamepad, Keyboard and Touchscreen. Multiple physical devices and be mapped the same binding.
Pro Excellent results on performance benchmark
Rated the fastest engine in the OpenFL’s BunnyMark since October 2015.
Pro Great audio support
Samples for sound effects, or streams for music. All sounds can be groups via audio buses just like in a typical DAW (Digital Audio Workstation).
All sounds can be spatial relative to the camera.
Pro Viewport scheme allowing multiple views
Camera/viewport scheme allowing multiple views displayed with camera translation, zoom and rotation.
Pro Good render support
Fragment (pixel) shader support, render to texture, MRT, easy composition and custom rendering support.
Pro Easy post-processing/compositing for complex visual effects
Pro Integrated runtime profiler
Integrated runtime profiler (with graphical display) to easily spot which parts of your game need to be optimized.
Pro Collision handling and rigid body physics
Pro Screenshot capture tool
Supports .bmp, .png, .jpg, .tga and .dds
Pro Multi-Threading
Pro Great IDE Support
Out of the box Windows support for:
- Visual Studio
- Codelite
- CodeBlocks
- gmake
Out of the box Mac support for:
- XCode
- Codelite
- gmake
Out of the box Linux support for:
- Codelite
- CodeBlocks
- gmake
Pro Well-supported C++ wrapper
Orx provides a excellent c++ wrapper for object oriented design, called: orx/Scroll. You can, of course, roll your own.
Pro C# integration
CryEngine has some C#template and also C# based system to write your function/ideas in to your game.
Pro DX12, Vulkan support
CryEngine 5.4 now supports DX12 and Vulkan
Pro Features allowing for realistic weather effects
Cry Engine has volumetric fog rendering which allows for realistic cloud shadows that actually render shadows onto the fog itself. Combined with their time of day system, it's possible to create incredibly realistic weather effects. On top of this, color grading allows user to post process pallets allowing them to change the color tone for different type weather, such as using a deep dark blue for rain.
Pro There is already a built-in AI
It can shoot, walk on patrol points, can see the player and so on.
Pro VR support
Cryengine (starting on Cryengine V) has Virtual Reality support. Developers can create games with VR support for multiple platforms: PlayStation VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.
Pro Dynamic water rendering
Cry Engine has realistic water effects that even simulate ocean physics. Features such as waves that respond to global wind, and dynamic water volume tessellation allow for some of the most realistic water effects available to a game developer. The engine also takes into account LOD (level of detail) on water geometry to allow it to stay performant for water at a distance.
Pro Realistic rendering of vegetation and landscapes
Where Cry Engine really shines is with rendering scenes of nature. The Crysis games feature incredibly detailed vegetation and weather effects and it's the Cry Engine that enables that. The engine has many features to create a cohesive realistic looking world. Dynamic water effects allow users to have beautiful oceans, fog and cloud effects allow for realistic weather, and a plethora of lighting effects optimized for natural looking scenes make Cry Engine one of the best engines for creating vast beautiful landscapes.
By having all these features built together from the ground up, Cry Engine is capable of doing more complex effects more efficiently, than other engines that didn't have these effects planned from their inception.
Pro All platforms, including next-gen consoles, are supported
Supports miltiple platforms including: Xbox One, Xbox 360, PS3, PS4, Wii U, PC, iOS, and Android.
Pro Versatile flow diagram script model
Flow graphs resemble flowcharts where each box represents a function or value, with connections between them representing program flow. This provides a better at-a-glance indication of game logic than a simple list of events, and makes complex behaviors easier to accomplish.
Pro Dedicated channel for Q&A
Crytek has launched a dedicated Q&A forum for everything Cryengine related. It's called Cryengine Answers and it's a community dedicated to sharing and answering any question related to Cryengine.
Pro Online marketplace available
The Cryengine marketplace is an online marketplace which enables developers to access and use individual assets from thousands of materials, sounds and 3D objects created by the community. Even Crytek's own library assets are available there.
Pro Advanced volumetric cloud system
Cryengine has an optimized volumetric cloud system for Virtual Reality to give clouds full 3D spatial rendering. This ensures a high rendering quality with a minimal performance hit.
Pro Terrain tools are great
Pro Disallows bad practices in asset creation
Simply by looking at the RC log when exporting can greatly improve your work. Cryengine doesn't handhold you constantly and helps greatly with avoiding bad practices in asset creation.
Cons
Con Feature discovery and explanation could be better
Some features are not well explained / highlighted: for example, unless you use the interactive project initialization, you have to go over the tutorials and examples in the wiki to learn that there is an optional C++ layer, Scroll, developed on top of the C API. Similarly, some major information are missing from the website, wiki and Doxygen documention, and are left for the users to discover in source headers and INI template files, or by searching the forum (e.g. the 0,0 coordinate being the center of the screen and not top left, the list of all Orx scalar types and their use, etc).
Con No network support
Con Steep learning curve
Except for basic FPS games getting anything done will require solid knowledge of C++, Flash, ActionScript and Lua.
Con No GNU/Linux support
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Con Hard to develop games other than FPS
Cryengine is a great engine to be used for developing an FPS (and it's relatively easy to do so). But if you want to develop another type of game, it requires at least advanced knowledge of C++ and Visual Studio.
Con No Mac OS X support
Con Restrictive license
Cryengine is not restrictive anymore just more personalized. The model is Pay what you want and if you want more you get a membership with them. Or private support, help and lessons directly from the CryEngine team.