I could answer a lot of questions about Cryengine as I was working on physics programming a lot on my last job. However I am now working on UE and Unity on my own. I tried doing some small projects on Cryengine on my own, but their ridiculous licensing fees took it off the list for me.
Ye I've worked with unity and shiva3d, 3ds max for years. Should probably watch a few tutorials. materials, lighting, particles, shouldnt be a problem.
You'd have to speak with CIG about this but I suspect they would be ok if there was zero financial gain involved. However when I last used Cryengine professionaly a couple of years back, you were not allowed to create any project with the included assets (they were there as showcase material) as they were property of Crytek. You would have to create EVERYTHING from scratch even thou they were provided as an FPS minigame etc. You'd better read up on the EULA that comes with it and see if things have changed.
Ouch! That would DEFINATELY cause issues. Star Citizen is the pride and joy of Cryengine in a time everyone saying it was dying (because honestly it is an overpriced piece of shit compared to the other engines out there). Grabbing CIG assets and making a game in anything other than Cryengine would definately attract grief...
Well you could use Cryengine but not Crytek assets, such as trees, guns, textures (any kind including ground), materials, various 3d models provided with the engine (unless they changed things after it was released on Steam. You have to look into it). If you used Unity (or any other engine) I'm afraid CIG would disagree since they probably have some non-circumvention agreement with Crytek on related products. You'd have to inquire with them about using their assets and this as well. Doesn't hurt to ask thou... If you get the green light to go ahead with another engine I suggest Unreal Engine.
