North American version of Lair has completed its development and is now in manufacturing! That means that we are on track for our August 14 release date. It goes without saying that we’re eager to get this out to those of you that have been waiting so patiently (or not!) for it to arrive. Considering the new PS3 price and now Lair, hopefully there’s even more of a reason to scoop up a PS3 if you haven’t already!
Kameo was a long time ago and I never saw more than the most common screenshots at the time, so missed the impact of the better parallax - credit where credit's due, Kameo had some stellar parallax mapping too!Chef simply replied to Shifty's claim of the best mapping ever. I actually thought the exact same thing when I read the post, i.e. "I saw stuff that good in Kameo", but didn't bother to post it.
It looks like they don't flatten the parallax at sharp angles to rid of the swimming artifacts like most implementations do. You get a better feeling of depth, but there will be areas where it looks weird, especially in motion. Grooves that run horizontal wrt the camera are not well defined, and I think I see the characteristic "doubling".Credit where credit's due, pic three there has the best parallax mapping ever (assuming it is, and isn't just modelled for the cut-scene. Any way of knowing?). The ground looks superb. It'll probably look very awkward when people are walking on it as though it's flat, but it looks excellent.
Kameo was a long time ago and I never saw more than the most common screenshots at the time, so missed the impact of the better parallax - credit where credit's due, Kameo had some stellar parallax mapping too!
However, regards cobbled walkways, Lair has something looking pretty much perfect in that screenshot, which is a first for me. Invariably stones are way too large in games. Not only have they nailed the displacement technology down pat, but the artistry is top-rate too.
It’s hard to keep focus on Lair’s gameplay, just like Ratchet and Clank: TOD, because Lair is simply breathtaking in visuals. The draw distance is stupendous, and the enormous maps are rendered down to the last detail thanks to texture streaming. The dynamic texture meshing, aside from linear texture meshing, is a feat only possible on the PlayStation 3 console and no other. Thanks to the sheer power of the SPU’s, L.A.I.R. is the first game to use dynamic texture streaming. On a more perfect note, Lair pulled it all off without a single hiccup in frame rate, making for plenty of smooth flight. And as you can imagine for a game featuring so much fire, the effects of everything from particle to fire, were some of the best we’ve seen from any game before, and any game soon to come aside from KillZone 2. PSU will have a full review of LAIR this coming August.
Do they mention what framerate isn't getting hiccups? The Lair vids I've seen have tended to be low framerate, especially with lots going on. Maybe they locked it down to a consistent 15fps with no hiccups?
Incredible 1080p Graphics: With amazing 30-frames-per-second high-definition visuals, Lair is one of the first 1080p native resolution games, offering jaw-dropping, lifelike graphics.
True 7.1 Surround Sound: Uncompressed 7.1 surround sound immerses users into the game as they experience the cries of battle, the roar of dragons, the crackle of fire and flame, and the intensity of all-out war.
Immersive Orchestral Score: Acclaimed feature-film composer John Debney (Sin City, The Passion of the Christ) drives the storyline and gameplay with a sweeping, emotive score.
Well they arent on the money there. Lair looks to be a title that may have come off a little raw. The cinematic presentation was great but when moving into gameplay it became somewhat dull and repetitive. Outside of the scope of the title nothing comes off as impressive. Large empty environments with repetitive enemy engagements only to move to a city-esque landscape with very poor draw distance (the bridge sequence was very poor with poor AI and extremely similar character builds). Framerate issues did pop up throughout the gameplay. The fire effects whiel impressive are not the industries best. Reasonably impressive builds throughout the title are hampered by what looked to be poor shader and texture work. The media (screenshots, trailers) of this title is definitely not a good reference to gameplay that was on the floor.
Do they mention what framerate isn't getting hiccups? The Lair vids I've seen have tended to be low framerate, especially with lots going on. Maybe they locked it down to a consistent 15fps with no hiccups?
I posted a preview from Gamespot saying the same thing a few pages back, but it was debunked by woundingchaney :
I posted a preview from Gamespot saying the same thing a few pages back, but it was debunked by woundingchaney
It looks about on par with Kameo's Parallax mapping IMO.
:|
I posted a preview from Gamespot saying the same thing a few pages back, but it was debunked by woundingchaney :
There are probably two or more Lair demos being shown/hands-on and most likely each from different builds.
Hmm, well. Dunno what all the frame-drops are about in the vids I've seen then. Consistent 30fps they ain't...30fps as you may already know.