Chris Roberts Clarifies Switch to Amazon's Lumberyard - Star Citizen - MMORPG.com

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Chris Roberts Clarifies Switch to Amazon's Lumberyard - Star Citizen - MMORPG.com

Star Citizen News - Chris Robert took to the Star Citizen forums to add a bit of clarification to last week's announcement that the game had been switched over to Amazon's Lumberyard engine for the duration of its development. He begins with the simple statement that Lumberyard and the Star Citizen engine up to last week's announcedment are "both forks from exactly the SAME build of CryEngine".

Read the full story here

Seelinnikoi

As I have said before, either this will be the greatest space game ever made (if ever releases) or it will be the biggest scam and failure in the gaming industry!

Only time will tell and prove either side correct.

I stand with the side that it will never be released with everything promised and with the quality and fidelity advertised.

Popcorns are ready in case I am right, and if I am wrong. Well, my wallet is ready.

bcbully

BCBully was here!

stayontarget

Looks like they made a wise choice imo.

Arglebargle

No fan of Roberts, but i would have to agree that this probably a positive move.   Someone other than Him being in charge is always a good thing.   And no telling whether Roberts excuse is related to reality, or his usual bloviating.

RPGMASTERGAMER

switch the game engine so they can make better looking ship to buy ??

sound like a plan for more money !!

exile01

Switching over to a better solution makes sense. The Lumberyard engine was released march 2016. So Chris Robert used the best and cheapest solution in mind back then, wich was the Cryengine. Years have passed and a better solution is now aviable with more feature and accessibility, wich is fine. Questionable is only- if it is alright to ask now for more money that pushes the release of the game even further. Its just super risky and could end in the biggest scam in game history. I dont see the real benefits for the endusers here. 

stayontarget

exile01 said:

Switching over to a better solution makes sense. The Lumberyard engine was released march 2016. So Chris Robert used the best and cheapest solution in mind back then, wich was the Cryengine. Years have passed and a better solution is now aviable with more feature and accessibility, wich is fine. Questionable is only- if it is alright to ask now for more money that pushes the release of the game even further. Its just super risky and could end in the biggest scam in game history. I dont see the real benefits for the endusers here. 

Lumberyard is already integrated into the game so I don't know how it could delay anything.

toolak

It just looks bad that a company that has gotten almost as much money by selling pixels as most AAA mmo games have as a budget is looking for the CHEAPEST solution. The funding situation has turned to a real catch 22, if you stop buying ships then the game will fall on its face since CR has certainly overreached and doesnt have the funding to finish. If you dont stop buying ships then its gonna push CR and his ego to keep adding stuff and changing stuff and the game will never get out of developement.

MaxBacon

stayontarget said:

Lumberyard is already integrated into the game so I don't know how it could delay anything.

Yup, all that mess about them dropping their custom engine and all what they worked for for a new engine, just a massive under-education of this both engines being actually the same engine, what turns into a copy/paste of their custom stuff now under Lumberyard's name.

The actual news is the amazon platform instead of Google; so it can be good news as amazon obviously cares more for the online component than Crytek ever did; so to see what they will work out.

rojoArcueid

is it a coincidence CIG moved to an engine backed by Amazon right when Crytek is shutting down 5 of their seven studios and haven't paid their employees for about 6 months so their CryEngine is in deep trouble?

MaxBacon

rojoArcueid said:

is it a coincidence CIG moved to an engine backed by Amazon right when Crytek is shutting down 5 of their seven studios and haven't paid their employees for about 6 months so their CryEngine is in deep trouble?

Yes, by no means the switch would have been done in a few days since those news broke out; including all negotiations and platform transfer to Amazon's.

MaxBacon

MisterZebub said:
There fixed. Alright, nothing to see here as per usual. Wake me up next earth shaking "disaster" please Mr. Bacon Man.

haha lol, that is also the case, some don't know and still talk, others know and still make that whole campaign just to intentionally mislead people. But indeed, the usual.

FlyByKnight

Seems like a great move for them actually.

ConstantineMerus

I can believe that, but we wanted to upgrade one of my site's core from Drupal 7 to 8 and it took several engineers to work for 450 hours.
I know it's apple and oranges, but it took a day for two engineers kinda sounds like a Trump statement.

MaxBacon

ConstantineMerus said:

I can believe that, but we wanted to upgrade one of my site's core from Drupal 7 to 8 and it took several engineers to work for 450 hours.
I know it's apple and oranges, but it took a day for two engineers kinda sounds like a Trump statement.

I think I can help there, see it as:  You have version 7 of Drupal and you fork off it, and develop your own custom modifications and stuff. At a later date, you have one heavily modified version of Drupal 7, and you decide to move your site's core to another company's version of Drupal 7.

As your version and their version branched off of the same version of Drupal, and their version is not heavily customized, but instead it expanded with integrations with their platform services... What you would mostly do is copy/paste your custom Drupal 7 into theirs, being yours the heavily modified one; meaning at least by most of it, will be free of any complex solutions as having to merge your code with theirs.

ConstantineMerus

MaxBacon said:

ConstantineMerus said:

I can believe that, but we wanted to upgrade one of my site's core from Drupal 7 to 8 and it took several engineers to work for 450 hours.
I know it's apple and oranges, but it took a day for two engineers kinda sounds like a Trump statement.

I think I can help there, see it as:  You have version 7 of Drupal and you fork off it, and develop your own custom modifications and stuff. At a later date, you have one heavily modified version of Drupal 7, and you decide to move your site's core to another company's version of Drupal 7.

As your version and their version branched off of the same version of Drupal, and their version is not heavily customized, but instead it expanded with integrations with their platform services... What you would mostly do is copy/paste your custom Drupal 7 into theirs, being yours the heavily modified one; meaning at least by most of it, will be free of any complex solutions as having to merge your code with theirs.

Well said. And as I said, I can believe the whole thing. But even that is not what you do in a day with couple of engineers. That just sounds silly, you still need to check endless number of stuff after copy/paste procedure, even if that's the case. It's that statement I feel is simply not true. Not that it would change anything for me in the grand scheme of things, I just didn't like it!

mazut

Yeah, all the drama in the previous "news" was for nothing... Thats why posting news is not just copy/paste...

bartoni33

ConstantineMerus said:

(snip) kinda sounds like a Trump statement.

Ahh yes the good ol' what I call Bartoni's Law.

Definition: As an Internet discussion grows longer and more volitile, the probability of a comparison involving Donald Trump approaches 1.

It's copyrighted but you can use it!

gervaise1

exile01 said:

Switching over to a better solution makes sense. The Lumberyard engine was released march 2016. So Chris Robert used the best and cheapest solution in mind back then, wich was the Cryengine. Years have passed and a better solution is now aviable with more feature and accessibility, wich is fine. Questionable is only- if it is alright to ask now for more money that pushes the release of the game even further. Its just super risky and could end in the biggest scam in game history. I dont see the real benefits for the endusers here. 

Gives the wrong impression. As CR said "We switched the like for like parts of the engine from CryEngine to Lumberyard." Its the same as the CryEngine build they were using except for some fixes and enhancements. And Twitch etc.

And going forward there is the prospect of further Amazon development which they might have been planning to do themselves.

He also says that the bespoke bits remain unique to CiG as well - which clears that unknown up.

gervaise1

ConstantineMerus said:

MaxBacon said:

ConstantineMerus said:

I can believe that, but we wanted to upgrade one of my site's core from Drupal 7 to 8 and it took several engineers to work for 450 hours.

I know it's apple and oranges, but it took a day for two engineers kinda sounds like a Trump statement.

I think I can help there, see it as:  You have version 7 of Drupal and you fork off it, and develop your own custom modifications and stuff. At a later date, you have one heavily modified version of Drupal 7, and you decide to move your site's core to another company's version of Drupal 7.

As your version and their version branched off of the same version of Drupal, and their version is not heavily customized, but instead it expanded with integrations with their platform services... What you would mostly do is copy/paste your custom Drupal 7 into theirs, being yours the heavily modified one; meaning at least by most of it, will be free of any complex solutions as having to merge your code with theirs.

Well said. And as I said, I can believe the whole thing. But even that is not what you do in a day with couple of engineers. That just sounds silly, you still need to check endless number of stuff after copy/paste procedure, even if that's the case. It's that statement I feel is simply not true. Not that it would change anything for me in the grand scheme of things, I just didn't like it!

I could suggest that if they were using decent version and configuration control software then maybe it could be this quick.

The key to how it could be this quick however would be planning.
- They started talking "a year ago" - possibly about platforms since Lumberyard wasn't announced until March / April of this year.
- The discussion expanded - they found out that Amazon were planning to release an engine, based on Cry, that would have all the online elements they will need built in. And it was the same version as there core software.
- Decision to move in principle made subject to signing an arrangement.

And once you got to that point you could then plan and make (keep) the transition simple.

giffy689

MisterZebub said:

MaxBacon said:

stayontarget said:

Lumberyard is already integrated into the game so I don't know how it could delay anything.

Yup, all that mess about them dropping their custom engine and all what they worked for for a new engine, just a massive under-education bold faced intentional panic mongering lie, of this both engines being actually the same engine, what turns into a copy/paste of their custom stuff now under Lumberyard's name.

The actual news is the amazon platform instead of Google; so it can be good news as amazon obviously cares more for the online component than Crytek ever did; so to see what they will work out.

There fixed. Alright, nothing to see here as per usual. Wake me up next earth shaking "disaster" please Mr. Bacon Man.

RIP George Michael

barasawa

Seelinnikoi said:

As I have said before, either this will be the greatest space game ever made (if ever releases) or it will be the biggest scam and failure in the gaming industry!

Failure isn't a scam. I really don't think this is a scam in the slightest. A scam wouldn't have done anywhere near this much work, or released as much as they have. remember, a scammer wants all the money and rather grudgingly gives up that needed to make the scam fly.

I could point to some other 'projects' that have been out there that give all the signs as having been a scam, and not just a failure, but I'll refrain from tempting the thread to offtopic like that.

I do hope Star Citizen is truly awesome! Then I'll eventually get it. I've been a bit leary and haven't invested due to limited funds and the past history of Roberts. He loves space games, and he's an avid programmer, it's just that his business decisions and project timeline & scope control aren't the best. Hopefully he's got the right people there to keep him and the rest of the team moving in the right direction.

Adjuvant1

It's his missive because he must. We're told to not pay attention to all the times he said "definitely" and "absolutely" to whether (x) or (x) will be in Star Citizen because he's a dreamer, but all of a sudden his explanation of something very strange is gospel.

K.

Adjuvant1

Torval said:

Adjuvant1 said:

It's his missive because he must. We're told to not pay attention to all the times he said "definitely" and "absolutely" to whether (x) or (x) will be in Star Citizen because he's a dreamer, but all of a sudden his explanation of something very strange is gospel.

K.

I'm sure you had a point in there somewhere. If you read the article and have a rudimentary understanding of software engines it shouldn't confuse you.

Yes, yes. "You just don't understand game development!!11one1!1"

I've heard it. I do, a little. I just don't understand Star Citizen development. Nobody does, not even the developers.

Albatroes

I wish I didn't have a conscience. Seems to be the easiest way to make a living by scamming people like this. Reminds me of when those refinance people call older people and try to get the looped up into some kind of contract which makes them lose everything.