Environment Entities

Overview

Environment entities can be used to give more immersion and realism to levels. Things such as Rain, Lightning, Tornadoes, Ripple Generators and others can be used.

Door Panel / Supply

There are currently now 2 optimizations in place for the flash materials used by DoorPanel entity class.

Using with layer switching

All door panels / supply containers MUST be placed inside their own layers and will automatically free memory when layer is deactivated.

Material sharing (memory cost becomes 1/2 for 2 door panels placed on both sides of a door)

This is mainly used for the case where there are 2 door panels on both sides of a door which perform the same function. You can place the 2 door panels, and then add an Entity Link to the door panel which will share the first panels' screen.

Only thing else that needs to be done is to notify hack complete on the both door panels from the other panel.

Parameters

Parameter	Description
Destroyable
DestroyedExplosionType
DoorPanelState
Model
ModelDestroyed
ScanFailureTimeDelay
ScanSuccessTimeDelay
Usable
UsableOnlyOnce
UseMessage
VisibleFlashDistance
LookupName
Scannable

Setup

Here's directions step by step:

Select Entity Links area on Entity:
Select Pick Target and click on Door Panel you want to share the screen to:
Rename link to ShareScreen:
Connect Hack Success:

Congratulations, you've just saved half the memory!

LightningArc

See Lightning Arc for more information.

MineField

Parameter	Description
Usable
UseMessage
LookupName
Scannable

Rain

There are two main methods of achieving rain within CRYENGINE. The Rain Entity was introduced in version 3.3 and has been updated with several new features in 3.5. This entity has the advantage of handling object occlusion and applying a wet effect to all affected areas of the world.

Alternatively, if you want more control over the visual look of the rain in the world then it is still possible to add rain to the world using a particle effect with the correct configuration.

Rain Entity

The Rain entity is found under the Environment folder in the Entity Rollup Bar.

Property	Description
UmbrellaRadius	DEPRECATED - Can be used to create an umbrella around the player/camera shielding them from the rain.
RainDropsSpeed	Set the speed at which the rain drops travel.
RainDropsLighting	Set the brightness or backlighting of the rain drops.
RainDropsAmount	Set the amount of rain drops that can be seen in the air.
Radius	Set the radius, or coverage area, of the rain effect.
PuddlesRippleAmount	Set the strength and frequency of the puddles generated by the rain (offset PuddlesAmount).
PuddlesMaskAmount	Set the strength of the puddle mask to balance different puddle results.
PuddlesAmount	Set the strength (depth and brightness) of puddles generated by the rain.
MistHeight	DEPRECATED - Set the maximum height at which mist can appear on distant surfaces.
MistAmount	DEPRECATED - Set the amount of mist that appears on surfaces (distant, subtle effect).
IgnoreVisareas	Continue to render rain when player is inside a visarea.
FakeReflectionsAmount	DEPRECATED - Set the amount of reflection that is applied to the surfaces in the world.
FakeGlossiness	DEPRECATED - Set the amount of glossiness/wetness that is applied to the surfaces in the world.
Enabled	Set this to true/false to turn the rain effect on/off.
DisableOcclusion	Don't check if object should be occluded from rain (is under cover).
Color	DEPRECATED - This sets the color of the rain effect.
Amount	Set the overall amount of the rain entity's various effects.

Examples

PuddlesMaskAmount = 0	PuddlesMaskAmount = 1

PuddlesRippleAmount = 2	PuddlesRippleAmount = 100

DisableOcclusion = False	DisableOcclusion = True

SplashesAmount = 1.3	SplashesAmount = 1000

MistAmount = 3	MistAmount = 1000 (background rocks)

Rain Particle Effects

Drag and drop the ParticleEffect entity into your level from the Particle tab of the DataBase View: weather.Rain.space_loop

It is not advised to drag a particle entity from the RollupBar as Particle emitters need the Y axis to face up. Dragging and dropping directly from the Particle Editor has Y up as default.

The settings for how the particle functions can be adjusted via its property settings on the Particle tab of the DataBase View.

Adjust the Count, Emitter Life Time, Spawn Delay and other properties to adjust the size and speed of the rain particles.

If you wish to limit rain to certain areas of your level, simply trigger the Particle Effect via Flow Graph and an area trigger so that when the player enters/leaves an area, it enables/disables the particle.

Shake

Earthquakes or screen shakes are activated using the Shake entity. Drag and drop the shake entity into your level (the entity itself is visible only in editing mode).

The Shake entity is enabled or disabled via Flow Graph. Simple add the entity to a graph then trigger enable/disable.

Parameter	Description
Shake	Specifies the amount of shaking.
Radius	Specifies the radius around the entity in which the shake effect should happen.

SmartMine

Parameter	Description
Damage
DetonationRadius
ExplosionType
Faction	See AI Entities for more information.
MaterialArmed
MaterialDisarmed
Model
TriggerToDetonateDelay
SmartMineType
Diffuse
DiffuseMultiplier
HDRDynamic
SpecularMultiplier
JumpImpulse
Static
vTriggerBox XYZ

Tornado

You can add Tornadoes into your level via the Tornado entity. Simple drag the Tornado entity into the level.

In the Tornado properties panel, you can change the wander speed to make it move faster around.

Property	Description
AttractionImpulse	Specifies the attraction impulse.
CloudHeight	Specifies the height of the cloud above the tornado.
FunnelEffect	Here a particle effect can be specified.
Radius	The influence radius of the tornado.
SpinImpulse	Specifies the spin speed that effects objects that are close to the tornado
UpImpulse	Specifies the pushing up speed that effects objects that are close to the tornado.
WanderSpeed	The tornadoes moving speed can be specified here.

It is also possible to setup a Flow Graph where you can control the path of the tornado using tag points and the MoveEntityTo node.

VicinityDependentObjectMover

This entity allows simple control over moving an object depending on how close the player is to it.

This was used in the Crysis 3 Tutorial level to control the hexagon objects raising/lowering, depending on the players location.

Close - All Objects Raised	Mid - Some Objects Remain Raised	Far - All Objects Lowered

Parameter	Description
AreaTriggerRange	Maximum range around the entity which will detect the player entering.
BackAreaTriggerRange	Maximum range around the entity which will detect the player leaving.
DisableAreaTriggerOnMoveComplete	Disables the area trigger function once the moving of the object is complete. Basically a "use once" option.
ForceMoveCompleteDistance	Closest distance the player can be from the entity before it will override the move sequence and force it to quickly finish. This prevents players from "beating" the object with speed.
Model	Sets the model for the entity.
MoveBackSpeed	Speed at which the object will be moved when player leaves the area trigger.
MoveToDistance	Total distance of which to move the object. A value of 10 will move the object 10m up on the Z axis.
MoveToSpeed	Speed at which the object will be moved when player enters the area trigger.
UseAreaTrigger	Use the built-in area trigger. Alternatively, this can be controlled by Flow Graph.

WaterRipplesGenerator

Allows to spawn ripples on water surfaces. It is especially useful for cutscenes when non-physicalized entities are moving through a body of water.

The WaterRipplesGenerator entity can be found in Create Object → Legacy Entities → Environment.

The WaterRipplesGenerator only works with WaterVolumes, it doesn't work with the ocean surface.
All WaterVolumes below and above the WaterRipplesGenerator will be affected.

WaterRipplesGenerator Properties

Property	Description
Enabled	Turns the entity on/off.
Scale	Size of the ripple effect.
Strength	Strength of the ripple effect. Also affects size. The most noticeable changes happen in the range from 0 to 1.
RandomFreq	Randomly changes the frequency of the ripple effect. The value specified is the maximum frequency that will occurr.
RandomOffsetX	Randomly spawns ripples at an offset position relative to the entity. This value sets the maximum offset on the X axis (local coordinate system). Only works if AutoSpawn is enabled.
RandomOffsetY	Same as RandomOffsetX, but for the Y axis (local coordinate system). Only works if AutoSpawn is enabled.
RandomScale	Randomly sets the scale of the ripple effect. The value specified is the maximum scale that can be set.
RandomStrength	Same as RandomScale, but for the Strength value.
AutoSpawn	If enabled, water ripples will be spawned regularly even if the entity doesn't move. The spawn interval is determined by the Frequency and RandomFreq properties.
Frequency	Sets the interval for AutoSpawn in seconds.
SpawnOnMovement	If enabled, ripples will be spawned when the entity moves.