GRAW 2: Photo realism thanks to Ambient Occlusion and High Dynamic Range Lighting

[Brimstone]

The GRAW engine continues to improve along with gameplay elements.

It looks like Xbox World 360 (UK) got the exclusives to the first published GRAW 2 info, in issue 47.

In addition to the screenshots that appeared on the web over the past two days, they have a couple that haven't been seen online yet, and a lot of text in their 7 page preview. Most of the text is waffle though - so here's a run down on the juicy bits...

Cross Com v2.0 - Full Screen recon and control of drones
Dynamic Shadows i.e contrast varies depending on factors such as sun position and buildings
Dynamic day and night cycles
Dynamic Weather, i.e can change mid mission, and combined with the dynamic day/night cycles leads to many different environmental possibilities
Object Translucency. You know how Splinter Cell had those cool drapes blowing in the breeze? Now with GRAW2 apparently the translucency of the object will determine if you can see through it at all, or just a little, or maybe enough to see a shadow beyond...
Plot has Mexican Rebels fighting Loyalists - and the Ghost fight along side the Loyalists - even ordering them about via the Cross Com.
Diverse Settings - urban and rural
MULE - Unmanned Ground Drone(Google it) at your disposal
New Class - Medic
Photo realism thanks to Ambient Occlusion and High Dynamic Range Lighting

http://www.ghostrecon.net/forums/index.php?showtopic=40850&hl=

 

[Skrying]

Amazing the screenshots so far look just like the first GRAW.

 

[London Geezer]

It would be nice to have shorter titles... you know, we have abbreviations for a reason...

Anyway, looking awesome, no surprises there!

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Ambient occlusion is, I assume, precalculated... though there's some nice research on simple fake effects which work suprisingly well...

 

[Graham]

It would be nice to have shorter titles... you know, we have abbreviations for a reason...

Do you mean 'Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2' is too long? (or is there more?).

At least it's not as bad as The Lord of the Rings: The Battle for Middle Earth II: The Rise of the Witch King Expansion. Or, as I like to call it, tLotRtBfME2tRotWKE.

 

[Brimstone]

Amazing the screenshots so far look just like the first GRAW.

They look like an improvement to me. A more gritty realism to the textures and lighting.

http://www.xboxfront.de/show_picture_galerie.php?id=1213&nid=2969&nr=28772&name=Tom

http://www.xboxfront.de/show_picture_galerie.php?id=1213&nid=2969&nr=28773&name=Tom

 

[iamfalan]

Do you mean 'Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter 2' is too long? (or is there more?).

ืNot, unless you add "Tom Clancy's " to it.

Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon: Advanced Warfighter 2

 

[Rainbow Man]

Hum, what kind of mexican rebels are we supposed to shoot and kill?

Some of the beefs of actual mexican rebels do have some legitimacy to them, I'd feel rather dirty myself if I was gunning down native indians in support of a central government..

Computer games going the realistic route always creep me out because there's no way to affect the plot. No way to change what the designers and programmers decided to be black or white regardless that many real-world conflicts are very much so.
You cant decide maybe the side you're on doesnt deserve the support you're giving it anymore. You must destroy your enemy or else quit playing thw game..

Am I overreacting?

 

[rounin]

Computer games going the realistic route always creep me out because there's no way to affect the plot. No way to change what the designers and programmers decided to be black or white regardless that many real-world conflicts are very much so.
You cant decide maybe the side you're on doesnt deserve the support you're giving it anymore. You must destroy your enemy or else quit playing thw game..

Am I overreacting?

Offtopic : you may want to take a look at MGS4 because it allows you to play both sides I believe.

 

[joebloggs]

All that technical mumbo-jumbo and it looks exactly like GRAW. :|

 

[baten]

Hum, what kind of mexican rebels are we supposed to shoot and kill?

Some of the beefs of actual mexican rebels do have some legitimacy to them, I'd feel rather dirty myself if I was gunning down native indians in support of a central government..

Computer games going the realistic route always creep me out because there's no way to affect the plot. No way to change what the designers and programmers decided to be black or white regardless that many real-world conflicts are very much so.
You cant decide maybe the side you're on doesnt deserve the support you're giving it anymore. You must destroy your enemy or else quit playing thw game..

Am I overreacting?

That's why we'll see more WWII games in the future also - I assume sideing with the nazis is out of the question...

 

[Rangers]

All that technical mumbo-jumbo and it looks exactly like GRAW. :|

No, the screens do look a good deal better from the looks of it. Well, maybe not at a glance but in the details.

That said, some have mentioned these may have 16XAA etc applied, so we'll see how the final looks.
________
VanitBeauty

 

[joebloggs]

No, the screens do look a good deal better from the looks of it. Well, maybe not at a glance but in the details.

They're both "a good deal better" and not noticeable at a glance? If you have to scrutinize the screens to see these details then that's pretty much the definition of being slightly better at best.

If someone mixed in the gameplay screens of GRAW2 with GRAW screens I'd be hard pressed to tell the difference.

Screens, however don't tell the whole story. Perhaps many of these effects and technologies will be more noticeable in motion.

 

[turkish a. punkass]

^ i agree. it sounds like a lot of the improvements being made won't be noticeable until you start moving around in the game and spending some time with it. that being said, even just a slight improvement of GRAW should be an excellent looking game.

You cant decide maybe the side you're on doesnt deserve the support you're giving it anymore. You must destroy your enemy or else quit playing thw game..

welcome to the wonderful world of video games.

 

[pc999]

This can all be true but as long they use the same kinf of art or even reuse it (I think I saw somehere they are rusing most of it) they will look almost the same, meybe in game the environmental changes and other dinamics parts of the scenarios will make a good diference.

 

[infinity4]

can ps3 do hdr and aa at same time without loss of graphical quality compared to XB360??? i heard because rsx architecture is G70 based hdr and aa is difficult

 

[Cheezdoodles]

It can be done, with NAO32

 

[infinity4]

cheers

 

[crosseye]

I should add I don't think either console does what would be considered "real" HDR at the moment. We've all heard about the difficulties with PS3 doing both HDR and AA (which may/may not be overcome). However, the 360 is still using FP10 which in itself is technically not HDR iirc. So, the PS3 using NAO32 and 360 using FP10 is no different really.

 

[Laa-Yosh]

FP10 is HDR, although it has a low level of precision. But it does offer a greater range then 24-bit integer RGB color space, which means it supports light intensity values far higher then 1.0, and it's quality is still better then 24-bit.

Also, I think technically NAO32 is HDR too, although I'm not sure how its precision relates to FP10.