Comparison: Cryengine 3 Vs Frosbite 3

With the dawn of next gen consoles, the gaming companies are releasing new gaming engines to display heart-wrenchingly detailed graphics without sacrificing gameplay. Until few years back such graphics and details were considered to be impossible to be achieved on consumer PC and consoles but some how developers came out with
some solutions that led to provide such graphics even on current gen consoles with completely outdated hardware.

On March 26th DICE revealed the latest iteration of their Battlefield series. DICE released Frosbite 2 based Battlefield 3 in 2011 and it was a huge success in all aspects. It made other games of that time look like a work of early 2000's. A few days back when DICE revealed Battlefield 4, they also released their best graphics engine to date, Frosbite 3.

Frosbite 3 is the enhanced and much refined version of Frosbite 2. Frosbite 3 features:

• More Destructible Environment.
• Improved Artificial Intelligence.
• Enhanced Lightning effects.
• Enhanced Water effects.

Note: Some screenshots are taken from Battlefield 3 which is frosbite 2 based game. As Frosbite 3 is the enhance version of Frosbite 2 in terms of lighning, Destruction and water effects, you can consider it will look better then frosbite 2.


Battlefield 4 Gameplay and Frosbite 3 Released !!

Comparison:

On Feb 19th crytek revealed a refined version of their Cryengine 3. Crysis 3 was based on this engine. The visuals of the game looked stunning. Every thing in the game looked very detailed and realistic, but the game lacked one thing the gamers want "Optimization". This is because Cryengine 3 is poorly optimized compared to Frosbite engine. May be that is the reason developers prefer Frosbite or other engines over Cryengine.

Lets compare the features of both engines.

Multiplayer:

Due to the poor optimization of Cryengine 3, it is very difficult to make a 64 player multiplayer game, where as DICE stated that Battlefield 4 will feature a 64 player multiplayer.  

Games Developed With Cryengine:

Alot of games(in development) that have been revealed on GDC 2013 by Crytek didn't have graphics as Crysis 3 have, which can be because of 2 reasons,

1. Those game developers aren't fully utilizing the power of Cryengine 3.
2. Making a game with visuals like crysis 3 is very difficult because of less established UI of Cryengine compared to other engines out there.

    Cryengine 3

Frobite 2

Water Effects:

Water in Frosbite 2/3 isn't good looking as it is in Cryengine 3. Water in Frosbite is static and doesn't responds to interaction with other objects as it does in Cryengine 3.

Frosibite 2/3

Cryengine 3

Artificial Intelligence:

Artificial Intelligence of Frosbite 2 (can't say anything about Frosbite 3 yet) is very weak compared to Cryengine 3. This sometimes makes the gameplay lame, when you are standing beside the enemy and he can't sense you. Although this doesn't happen always but this glitch is there in Frosbite 2.

Sound effects of Frosbite 2/3 are superior to what Cryengine 3 offers. The voice quality, iteraction of gun sound with envoirment in Frosbite 2/3 is much more realistic then Cryengine 3's.

 Frosibite 3

Crysis 3

Weather System:

Weather effects in Cryengine 3 look better then Frosbite 2. This is a possibility that they have been improved in Frosbite 3.

Hardware Compatibility:

Frosbite based games are less stressful on hardware compared to Cryengine 3 games, due to better optimization. Games developed on Frosbite are not directly ported to PC from console rather their underlying hardware architecture coding is changed for PC version. That's why alot of low end PCs can also play Frosbite games (low settings), however Cryengine games can't be played on such PCs.

Destruction:

Cryengine 3 offers very less destructiable envoirment compared to Frosbite 3 in which almost everything is destructible according to DICE.

Crysis 3

Frosbite 2/3

Conclusion:

Games of any genere can be developed on Frosbite as the engine can be modded to develop any kind of envoirnment (jungle, alien, underwater etc), however, Cryengine 3 lacks this crucial feature which make any game engine successful. That's why alot of titles developed on Frosbite engine have been released compared to far less titles of Cryengine.

Every engine has its own bells and whistles, its own charms but the best engine is the one which can be used to develop any kind or genere of environment or game.  For me both engines are good and an amazing example of what can be expected in the coming future.

Which engine is the winner for you. Lets us know in the comments below.

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