Crytek wants to use open street map data for video game environments

Crytek, the development group responsible for one of the most beautiful game engines to date, Cryengine, and subsequent games Crysis and the original Farcry, have challenged software makers to create a programme that could use open source street maps to render open world environments, in turn saving on development time.

Imagine walking around a game based on your city and walking past your house.

For now this is just a concept but it has been made a part of the IC tomorrow's digital innovation games contest. The contest offers up to £25,000 to five businesses to create an innovative application that meets certain objectives, provided by companies including Google, Crytek, Sony and Intel.

Crytek’s technical director of R&D, Jake Turner, at the challenge launch said “Why do we have to use people to make a city when there’s consistent open source street data out there which is very detailed, it’s got buildings, lights, it’s got streets – material data. Why can’t we just press a button and instantly see that?

KitGuru Says: This is a pretty ambitious concept. It will be very exciting if it comes to life, open world games are becoming so much bigger than what they used to be. Maybe one day we will see a game that incorporates an entire country in to it's world map, with detailed landmarks and areas to explore. 

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