Crysis 2 PC edition OT

[Grall]

Finally after 10-15yrs we're going to get an upgrade in desktop image clarity!!!

Hurm, you can add another 5 years to your count before any mere mortal will be able to afford these 4k rez monsters... Not to mention we'll have to wait at least this long for video cards to be able to comfortably drive these resolutions in the kind of games we'll be playing by then.

 

[SlmDnk]

OMFG the tesselation at least in the very first level I'm running through right now is drool inducingly gorgeous. I sat and stared in awe in the first area where APC tracks were dug deep into the ground and dirt was raise up representing the grooves in the tires of vehicle.

Watching the light and shadow play over tesselated geometry just gave me goosebumps. This is the future of graphics.

Actually, the past, since those track grooves were made with Parallax Occlusion Mapping, not tesselation. Crysis had the same thing and it was out over 4 years ago.

http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/crysis-2-directx-11-ultra-upgrade

 

[Sigfried1977]

Just imagine what the game will look like with Panasonics new 20" 4K monitor

http://www.engadget.com/2012/01/09/panasonic-outs-worlds-smallest-and-thinnest-4k-x-2k-ips-lcd-m/

My guess would be it'll look just about exactly the same, especially on a tiny 20 inch screen. The game is barely ever truly sharp as it is with all the motion blur, bloom and depth of field effects. It'll probably run twice as bad, though. Amazing prospect really.

 

[RenegadeRocks]

Yeah POM was possible in Crysis 1 too. Maybe you just got overexcited about the tessellation thingie !

 

[Florin]

Had you seen Crysis or Warhead before?

I'm hardly a console hater - heck, I have all 3 - but I felt that all things considered, Crysis 2 is actually a step back. For a true WOW experience I recommend Warhead on a modern PC..

 

[Jedi2016]

Well, tessellation can do that effect if they want it to. POM is a perfectly good alternative for most systems, since the difference really only comes through on close inspection.

 

[Man from Atlantis]

tessellation should be cheaper and without shader aliasing..

 

[Grall]

Also, won't look completely fake when close-up/at oblique angles...

Btw, anyone have a feel for what tesselation factor one should set in AMD CCC for Crysis 2 to get optimum effect? (Performance/image quality-wise, I mean.)

 

[Man from Atlantis]

Also, won't look completely fake when close-up/at oblique angles...

Btw, anyone have a feel for what tesselation factor one should set in AMD CCC for Crysis 2 to get optimum effect? (Performance/image quality-wise, I mean.)

assuming you dont have a 7970 AFAIR from Hardware.fr crysis 2 review, factor 16 was optimal.. but it is not double checked :smile:

edit:

beyond factor 8 performance rapidly degrades.. unfortunately there is no picture comparison in review but i guess there should be more quality difference 16>8 than 32>16

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Actually, the past, since those track grooves were made with Parallax Occlusion Mapping, not tesselation. Crysis had the same thing and it was out over 4 years ago.

http://www.geforce.com/News/articles/crysis-2-directx-11-ultra-upgrade

I know what POM is. Fire up the game. Go to the first level. The tracks and the raised mounds of dirt created by the gap in the treads of the APV's tires are actual geometry and look absolutely nothing like what's in the shot you posted. I'd suggest playing the game in Dx11 Ultra + high res texture pack before commenting.

I haven't gotten to that part of the game again yet where that screen was taken so can't comment on that. But it's obvious that the ground other than the track features POM while the track is a combination of POM + geometry. Well, not in that shot. But I'm going to assume that when I get there it'll be a combination of geometry + POM as are many of the other less tesselated tracks. The ones caused by the APV's large tires in areas that are trying to simulate dried mud are much more heavily tesselated as they dig much larger grooves into the ground.

POM becomes a really noticeable depth trick when you get close to it. That doesn't happen with tesselation.

Had you seen Crysis or Warhead before?

I'm hardly a console hater - heck, I have all 3 - but I felt that all things considered, Crysis 2 is actually a step back. For a true WOW experience I recommend Warhead on a modern PC..

I have it. I've played it. It isn't nearly as impressive as the tesselation and other features in Crysis 2 with Dx11 Ultra + high res texture pack. So far, most of the disappoitingly low res textures that bugged me on my first playthrough are gone. I do still run across a few in out of the way spots, but overall it's so much better than Crysis Warhead now.

Regards,
SB

 

[swaaye]

FEAR used parallax mapping for some things too. I am still fascinated by those 2D wall holes that look so very 3D.

Crysis 2 does look excellent. It's just unfortunate that the tessellation was used so poorly.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Well I think overall the tesselation is Crysis 2 was good, but it boggles the mind that like the Unigine demo, they heavily overtesselate surfaces that don't need tesselation (doors with flat panels for instance). I hesistate to think that they collaberated with Nvidia to do that in order to deliberately handicap AMD GPUs for absolutely no reason, but it's hard to keep that thought from popping up.

It's a shame that Crytek didn't wait until the Dx11 path was ready before releasing it. Because that combined with the high res texture pack makes for a radically different looking game than vanilla Crysis 2.

Regards,
SB

 

[I.S.T.]

http://techreport.com/articles.x/21404

Ah, Tech Report. How I love thee let me count the ways...

 

[Grall]

assuming you dont have a 7970 AFAIR from Hardware.fr crysis 2 review, factor 16 was optimal.. but it is not double checked :smile:

Double checked isn't neccessary as long as it's double confirmed!

Thanks man, gonna try 8x tesselation next time I fire up C2, then maybe move up to 16 if warranted.

 

[SlmDnk]

I'd suggest playing the game in Dx11 Ultra + high res texture pack before commenting.

I have played through the game with DX11 Ultra + hires pack. I'm just telling you what Crytek is telling me (read the linked article), plus, the tracks look very much like the POM tracks in Crysis and Warhead.

 

[Davros]

You swines, I never bothered upgrading, now with all this talk I'm going to have to get the dx11 patch and the hi-res texture pack and play through it again...

 

[Grall]

You will play it through and like it! You hear me?!

After all, neither the hires texture pack or the DX11 pack are available for consoles.

 

[Davros]

So the Gaming Gods speak to you as well - thats exactly what they said to me
and of course being a devout follower of their teachings I shall obey...

 

[Sigfried1977]

Had you seen Crysis or Warhead before?

I'm hardly a console hater - heck, I have all 3 - but I felt that all things considered, Crysis 2 is actually a step back. For a true WOW experience I recommend Warhead on a modern PC..

Meh, I think the substantially better lighting alone makes C2 a much better looking package.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Tessellation can cause good old fashioned geometry aliasing, that's not much better than shader aliasing...