CryENGINE 3

[Scali]

All the contents were the same on either version, I think Fran mentioned before that whatever difference you have noticed would due to technical glitches. So theoretically they should output roughly the same visuals in the end and maybe one version runs a certain part faster and vise versa?

Well, that does sound plausible.
I mean, in essence both PS3 and XBox360 are powered by a DX9-ish class GPU.
It's not like with PS2 vs XBox, where they used very different GPUs with very different characteristics.
So the differences may well be technical glitches. One thing I noticed was that the HDR/bloom effects seemed to be brighter on the PS3.... But I don't see why it necessarily would appear that way, because both GPUs are well-matched when it comes to HDR processing. Could just be that the shaders/engine parameters aren't tweaked yet to look exactly the same on both platforms.

I guess in the end, the main difference would be with the CPUs... Cell vs the tricore PowerPC. I can imagine PS3 running faster in some scenario's, XBox360 in others. I also wouldn't be surprised if PS3 is slightly faster overall, as mentioned.

 

[Neb]

You know, I know CryTek is one of your favourite devs but, it wouldn't be the first time Cevat... hmm... uses hyperbole.

That is true. :smile:

 

[Acert93]

As discussed earlier, based on Crytek's own trailer, there are a range of differences, most of them pretty blatant.

Yeah, my guess is there is some salesmanship going on there. From the time Epic promoted crossplatform performance and "one upped" by id, it seems it is vital to pitch the platform as being equal across each and in particular that it runs great on the PS3. Which makes sense because it is the PS3 that the intended audiance has had the most issues.

 

[PhilB]

http://www.crytek.com/technology/presentations/


Triangle Game Conference 2009

Mittring, M.: A bit more deferred - CryEngine3

- Slides -Download PPT [12.0 MB]

In CryEngine 3 the renderer is now even more powerful because we added deferred lighting as new engine features. We deliberately decided not to go for a classic deferred shading approach. This has implications on content generation, performance characteristics and implementation. In this presentation we are sharing our experience



Real-time Dynamic Global Illumination

* Details will be presented at upcoming Siggraph 2009 by Anton Kaplanyan who developed that at Crytek
* Implemented and fast on XBox360, PS3 and PC
* No precomputation
* Fully dynamic (geometry, materials and lights)
* Unified for static and dynamic objects

Global Illumination

http://www6.incrysis.com/screenshots/cryengine3_global_illumination.png -on


Global Illumination ON/OFF

http://www6.incrysis.com/screenshots/cryengine3_global_illumination_on_off.png - on/off


Improved SSAO with normals

http://www6.incrysis.com/screenshots/cryengine3_improved_ssao_with_normals.png

GI looks amazing - improved SSAO isn't so bad either Can't wait to see/hear more!

Thanks to incrysis for the heads-up.

EDIT: Mittring, M.: Advanced Virtual Texture Topics (14.1MB, PPT)

 

[AlNom]

Nice find. Light Pre-pass it is then.

 

[pjbliverpool]

Does this mean the new engine won't support MSAA?

 

[MJP]

Does this mean the new engine won't support MSAA?

You can do MSAA with a light-prepass renderer, even in DX9.

 

[legendCNCD]

Ok now thats looking mighty impressive, especially the GI.

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

Deferred rendering ftw

That GI does look quite nice... I'm looking forward to hearing more details on how that works. It could be something instant-radiosity-like, but there don't appear to be many banding artifacts so either it's blurred to hell, or they're doing something fancier. Looks nice in any case.

 

[AlNom]

What's with slide 10: 6 channel vs 4 channel.

Don't they have 8 channels for FP16 and RGBA8 Or is that just a multiplatform platform consideration due to FP10.

 

[Andrew Lauritzen]

Don't they have 8 channels for FP16 and RGBA8 Or is that just a multiplatform platform consideration due to FP10.

I think they're just saying they technically need 6 channels (RGB for each of diffuse and specular) but can get away with 4 if necessary... am I missing something?

 

[AlNom]

Ah, gotcha.

 

[Richard]

I think they're just saying they technically need 6 channels (RGB for each of diffuse and specular) but can get away with 4 if necessary... am I missing something?

I think so but why do they need a specular map(channel) with the same rez as the diffuse?

 

[assurdum]

Deferred rendering ftw

Deferred lighting

 

[AlNom]

Deferred lighting

"Deferred rendering" is a general term.

I think so but why do they need a specular map(channel) with the same rez as the diffuse?

hm... so in the spec lighting equation, there are two terms for specular: specular power (P) and specular color (Ls). In the slide, they mention deriving specular from diffuse*strength, which I would deduce as being spec color.

So with 3 channels for diffuse, they'd need two more channels for the two spec properties. So with the 4chan version, they store the spec strength in the alpha chan, then calculate the spec colour shameless plug *wink*
I'm not sure if there are any RTs with just two channels and 16 bits... Perhaps they can just use 8-bit for each of those, and use the remaining bits for other things (velocity map?)

 

[Rangers]

Deferred lightining

Deferred lightning is way better than the usual, cloud to ground kind..

 

[liolio]

Did I understand the slide properly? Crytech is to used rgb8 for the sake of compatibility as it's not support by every platform?

 

[AlNom]

Did I understand the slide properly? Crytech is to used rgb8 for the sake of compatibility as it's not support by every platform?

I am sure they will select the render target format most appropriate to the platform (and at least have options on PC for lower end hardware). I am guessing you are referring to slide 12?

 

[Arnold Beckenbauer]

So their G-Buffer is some kind of lightweight G-Buffer?

Does this mean the new engine won't support MSAA?

They did some magic to get MSAA working in Crysis, so I'm pretty sure there will be MSAA with CryEngine 3. But the real question is: Will CE3's AA be as bad as in Crysis or better?

 

[AlNom]

So their G-Buffer is some kind of lightweight G-Buffer?

Short answer: yes

http://diaryofagraphicsprogrammer.blogspot.com/2008/03/light-pre-pass-renderer.html
http://diaryofagraphicsprogrammer.blogspot.com/2008/07/light-pre-pass-first-blood.html
http://diaryofagraphicsprogrammer.blogspot.com/2008/09/light-pre-pass-more-blood.html

There's more in ShaderX7 with other techniques used in conjunction with it.