CryENGINE 3

[sunscar]

I'm not impressed. I don't see much more realism than in Crysis at highest settings.

In console shots, you likely won't be. Initially, in PCs, you likely won't be, either. Crytech already stated that for the next two or three years going forward, that even they don't expect a world of difference in visuals, but they do expect a massive shift in what is possible a few years down the road.
Cryengine3, for the most part is still a current-generation software platform, something of an intermediate step on the way from Cryengine 2 to Cryengine4. By Cryengine4 we should be looking at the current toolset/featureset, and significantly more. A whole new world of possibilities is getting ready to open up to programmers, so it's little wonder. Hell, four years from now, we could be looking at fully destructable environments, large-scale SPH simulation of everything from clouds to fire and water, micropoly-rendering engines, we simply can't predict 100% accurately where things will go just yet, and building an engine that does is similarly impossible.

 

[Neb]

I'm not impressed. I don't see much more realism than in Crysis at highest settings.

They have new animation system, new graphic tech etc. The thing is we haven't seen it all in action as in "Crysis 2" on a high-end system. Some bits have been shown on consoles but just as techdemo material and ofcourse that will not impress anyone coming from CE2 however it is utterly nice for console hardware. Despite being techdemos.

But sure the 'next-gen' panning of the mountains at beginning looks much like Crysis sporting ultra high config (real not very high assimilation) and custom TOD(s). But then it already looks so utterly ridicolously good and realistic in CE2 the improvements will be more subtle. The final steps for photorealism with realtime rendering and highgrade tech is always smaller than 'mediocre graphics' to good. CE2 games already set the bar so ridicolously high improvements will not be so obvious yet still make things look better and more realstic.

I mean they will top this and that alone is a feat.. and the hardware is there to do it. It was there years ago. Considering DX11 and ATIs and Nvidias new graphic cards and how I with my 'old timer' 4890 can render below in realtime gameplay 1440x900 coupled with extreme settings and 4xAA smooth and solid (yeah that is what we call 30-60fps with ocasional 25fps dip right?) despite CE2 being far less optimised than CE3.

I'll add this was recorded in realtime with FRAPs encoding the video on the fly in HD + me playing the game at the same time. That is over 50% perfomance loss.

The lighting has received state of the art realtime global illumination effect beyond what is present in Warhead/Crysis to acompany the already CGI rivaling lighting and precision CE2 has. I'll would recommend to judge it fully when "Crysis 2" is out... and perhaps tweaked!



On another note Crytek please more alien environments!

 

[Ether_Snake]

Isn't the global-illumination feature also for consoles? I remember them saying so. Someone has to lead us to better lighting solutions. I think CryTek will.

 

[Neb]

Why not?

They could have it enabled for special sections and disabled for larger sections. I am sure it would be possible to have it in sometype of indoor parts.

 

[Nesh]

That looks like "F*CKING GODLY"

WOW

This is not the Crysis I remember a couple of years ago

 

[Neb]

The wonders of artistic TODs tweaking and tweaking, "Release the beast"!

Although that alien zero gravity part is mostly stock. Only change would be the TOD for bluish color and HDR intensity value. Everything could have been there at release or modded in at release back in 2007. Would still run good on high-end systems and TOD tweaks would be perfomance free as it is only artistic material sliders.

 

[Richard]

On another note Crytek please more alien environments!

Meh, they're crazy good looking but I feel it isn't their forté. They should do a Trespasser game, or maybe Predator (1) reimagining.

 

[Mintmaster]

In Fable 2 we stayed linear with fp10 on 360, but adjusted the output range dynamically to make full use of the 10bits depending on a quick histogram analysis of the scene. It basically avoided banding in any situation, but still using an HDR format.

That's what I've been preaching on these forums for years. FP16 really isn't needed, and the dual buffer crazyness in Halo 3 was overkill, too.

You don't need 100,000:1 dynamic range for photorealism when many DSLRs only have 8 stops of DR. FP10 gives you 13 stops and a couple bits of alpha to special case super bright sources if you want. That's plenty of room for blending.

EDIT: Oops, didn't notice the age of your post. <shrug>

 

[Acert93]

Well, until devs counter you are wrong or get the hint I say you keep preaching

 

[Mastperf]

Considering how great the lighting looks in Fable 2 I couldn't agree more. Surise in Oakfield is the most beautiful thing I've seen this generation.

 

[Neb]

Meh, they're crazy good looking but I feel it isn't their forté. They should do a Trespasser game, or maybe Predator (1) reimagining.

They had a Trespasser esque game going on in the beginning. Think it was named "X-Isle" or something similar. Well atleast less jungle (no problems with pine forests or such) and more urban/facility areas. :smile:

 

[ultragpu]

I wonder if CE3 is built with DX11 in mind, say tessellation support and other features. I've been trying to find a decent excuse to upgrade to Windows 7 and a DX11 card and Crytek's decision would be a big deciding factor for me.

 

[Neb]

They said they will have or soon add DX11 support. Knowing how they like to push the envelope one can expect all features to be put to use.

 

[Neb]

That's what I've been preaching on these forums for years. FP16 really isn't needed, and the dual buffer crazyness in Halo 3 was overkill, too.

You don't need 100,000:1 dynamic range for photorealism when many DSLRs only have 8 stops of DR. FP10 gives you 13 stops and a couple bits of alpha to special case super bright sources if you want. That's plenty of room for blending.

EDIT: Oops, didn't notice the age of your post. <shrug>

How is it with precision for color reproduction/emissive lighting etc?

For example Far Cry 2 going from lower FP to FP16 or FP32. How the whites under intense lighting are pronounced etc without "bleeding" or looking wrong. As for me my impression with games that use FP16 or FP32 has been crisper lighting and better color intensity/contrast/emissive lighting management/display.

 

[FirewalkR]

I crave a Crysis 2 trailer. In fact, I crave a Crysis 2 PC trailer just to feast on the visuals. I hope they either make different trailers for PC and consoles, or at least state the platforms in the different scenes. It's not as if we won't immediately know if we're watching PC graphics, but at least it won't mislead console owners.

 

[Neb]

I think it right now is just to sell the engine and create hype.

 

[ultragpu]

They said they will have or soon add DX11 support. Knowing how they like to push the envelope one can expect all features to be put to use.

I would expect so too, can't wait to see a DX11 version of it.

 

[Svensk Viking]

You're in the wrong location.

How so? This is about console technology, and both ID 5 and CE3 have incredibly high expectations on them, seeing as they come from two corporations that always have been known for pushing technology forward...Isn't it just fair to ask about the judgement of the technical merits of the engines? Doesn't that go hand in hand with discussion about console technology?

 

[AlNom]

Even though joker454's latest reply was sensible, let's stop the versus and other engine talk right now before derailling the thread any further.

There are already threads on id Tech 5, so if anyone want to continue discussing the architectural choices and shortcomings of the latest id engine, just bump one of these threads.

Because it needs reminding...

 

[L. Scofield]

I've noticed that so far all examples of the real-time GI only apply to the skylight, not regular point lights. If that's the case...