[PC] Crysis 2 - Information Thread

I seriously can't get enough of this lighting, it's absolutely fantastic. I think this may be the first time ever that I don't mind the shadows, and thus I'm not going batsnot insane about them as I did with Metro 2033.

The AA generally works well, but is sometimes inconsistent. At certain angles the AA appears to just fall apart.

Some things just aren't well done. Cockroaches, for example, just appear and disappear out of thin air. It might be minor but it's immediately noticeable and annoying.

Texture quality is hugely inconsistent, but overall pretty good. Like right now I'm standing next to a wall with good looking brickwork but all the wood around me looks incredibly low res. Once you get about 2-4 meters away however the wood textures don't look so bad.

The lighting though, OMG, I could go on and on about the lighting. It is absolutely gorgeous, and absolutely fantastic when you see objects moving around with the light haze/dust in the atmosphere.

For example, flying birds + hazy/dusty air + lighting = OMG gorgeous. Due to the haze/dust in the air you can actually see the flying birds occluding the light from the sun. It just blows me away. Absolutely mesmerizing.

Right now I can easily and safely say this absolutely surpasses Crysis 1 in jaw dropping, OMG I can't believe they pulled this off.

Regards,
SB

 

LOL, what you see with the birds has nothing to do with the lighting and is probably just a 2D image processing effect, like radial blurring a simple circular shape using the birds as a mask.
And bouncing sparks, seriously, you guys are so easy to win over These are minor things, thrown in with probably less than a week of programing time, almost literally just smoke and mirrors.

 

Destruction doesn't seem procedural at all from what I saw. Concrete walls and convers that are breakable (not many..) always break the same way and at the same place (unless it's something made of wood like benches). The "breaking effect/animation" is just triggered by the bullet's impact (and there's even a tiny delay between the impact and the the time the concrete breaks).

 

What I don't understand is why? Have they actually come out with a reason for completely removing the advanced settings?

 

I've seen one bug where the melee key just doesn't do anything or a while, with either weapon.

It's kind of amusing how the HUD labels a vent STEALTH and a guard tower GRENADE and a bunch of enemies AVOID. I think I could have worked out the options myself, suit...

 

You know there is nothing wrong with High, Very High, Extreme and Custom

 

Don't take it as an offence, but 99% of the customers wouldn't have a clue about most of the settings.
I mean just look at the stuff Neb posts, and then try to give me an explanation for like 1/10th of the options that those config files mess around with...

 

So can anyone tell me if this game is now just a hallway shooter with fake outdoor corridors ala Metro 2033, an excess of Michael Bay cutscenes and ultra pretty lighting?

 

That's what I've been saying, most people don't care and the ones who do care are knowledgeable enough to mess around with the CVars or console. I mean honestly, who here even used the ingame settings in Crysis and Warhead anymore?

 

It isn't as open as Crysis 1, and it doesn't have the kind of destructibility it featured either..

So far (about 3 or 4 hours into the campaign) it doesn't have the same sense of scale either.

But it does look far better in my opinion, and the plot is enjoyable. I wish your character wasn't another damn mute though.

 

Yea, one would've thought they'd consider the positive fan reaction towards Psycho in Warhead and build the story of Crysis 2 around him.
Mute protagonist for FPS aren't cool at all these days, infact even Nomad used to speak once in a while in Crysis.

I also hate how little they tried so little to explain stuff.
Its like Crysis 2 just starts off right in the middle of somewhere, almost entirely ignoring the gap between it and the previous games.

 

No, I don't mean a shadow on the ground. It's like a reverse godray. A shadow-ray. It looks absolutely fantastic in motion with those birds or choppers or whatever combined with haze or dust in the air. Perhaps it is a cheap trick, but if so, it's not one I've ever seen in a game before.

Regards,
SB

 

You get to see some of that through flashbacks (dogtags) and e-mails you discover along the way. Well assuming you take the time to find them.

I'm fine with a mute protagonist. Easier to immerse myself in the role. I do wish there was an option for a female suit voice though.

Regards,
SB

 

Proper reflections would be nice, cube maps are so DX7. Parallax mapping and Ambient occlusion would be good too. Granted, none of that really needs DX11, or even DX10 for that matter, but as it stands the game looks a bit lacking without them.

I contend they should have named the presets Mega High, Super Duper High, and OMGWTFBBQ.

 

I could write about 3d presets, but won't .

 

Is it just me or is Nebula MIA?? He needs to come up for air eventually, no?!

 

The game has AO...no?

 

That's not what I've meant either.

Again: it is a simple radial blur of a 2D circle representing the Sun, masked out by the 2D shapes of the birds. A 20-year old trick used in digital compositing. There's no haze or dust or atmosphere or even 3D information involved

[/QUOTE]Perhaps it is a cheap trick, but if so, it's not one I've ever seen in a game before.
[/QUOTE]

It's technically the same as any godray trick, just used a bit differently.

 

What do you mean "proper"? Even DX11 can't offer ray traced reflections and only that's what I would consider proper.

Parallax shader effects, well, they might cause problems with the lighting in C2... not sure. I don't really miss them though, it always looks silly because nothing can interact with the illusionary bumps and dents.

 

Is there an option for MSAA instead of the blur? Or has anyone tried forcing it if it doesn't?