[PC] Max Payne 3

[PowerK]

Good interview on Max Payne 3

http://www.pcworld.com/article/256186/max_payne_3_pc_developer_interview.html#tk.hp_new

You’ll find that screen resolution is scalable, there’s triple and even sextuple monitor support which helps to run higher screen resolutions, there’s various anti-aliasing options, scalable water quality, scalable shadow quality, increased detail for characters and vehicles and a scalable texture filter that further increases visual quality. We’re also supporting DX11 with Max Payne 3, with features including Hull/Tessellation/Domain Shaders (which adds curvature to the character/vehicle models), Gather4 (for optimized shadow sampling / FXAA), Geometry shader / Stream Output and DX11 texture samplers to name a few.

35GB is a pretty hefty install size, even for a PC title. Why the large size? Are we seeing HD textures or better rendered cutscenes?
Both, and more. As we said earlier, one of the goals with Max Payne 3 on PC was to have a game that runs beautifully out of the box on day one across a wide range of machines. The PC is the only platform where you can really max out the high end if you want to, and we wanted Max Payne 3 on PC to have the potential to look beautiful on the highest possible resolutions on the biggest monitors available - so while we can still scale performance down to suit even reasonably low-end rigs, every asset is available at the highest resolution possible, from audio to video to textures.

The installed size of Max Payne 3 is due to the no-compromise quality of its assets, which already push console disc space to the limits. A good portion of the extra space requirements on PC can be attributed to the increased size of the textures, which are four times the size of those on consoles. In addition, the audio quality is significantly higher than the consoles due to lower compression rates, which improves audio fidelity. Again, this comes back to the range of possibilities that the PC platform opens up for us. That, combined with higher video settings when running the game, results in substantially better visual quality.

 

[AlNom]

How about they just show us the difference in screenshots. *ahem*

 

[PowerK]

Initial activation requires internet connection and a valid Rockstar Social Club account (13+ to register); Online play requires log-in to Rockstar Social Club (13+); software installation required including GameShield® IronWrap®; DirectX and Microsoft Visual C++ 2008 SP1 Redistributable Package (x86).

Hmm... as for DRM they're using GameShield (rather than SteamDRM) even for the Steam version. I have no idea how intrusive this DRM is.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Here's some PC screenshots. Rockstar tend to release legit console shots, so maybe these are legit PC shots.

http://www.rockstargames.com/newswi...ns-and-details-plus-exclusive-interview-.html

 

[homerdog]

Probably are legit. It doesn't look like anything too fancy is going on there. It does look pretty damn good imo.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Probably are legit. It doesn't look like anything too fancy is going on there. It does look pretty damn good imo.

I'm looking forward to seeing some lossless videos of the PC version. There are some great looking chapters on the console version, and I'd love to see how they look on the PC.

 

[PowerK]

_____________________

8) Max Payne 3 on PC
_____________________

PC enhancements to Visual quality

• Screen resolution is scalable, limited only by the player's machine.
• Triple and six head monitor support also helps to run higher screen resolutions.
• Various anti-aliasing options: MSAA 2,4,8X and FXAA or MLAA on CPU for integrated chips, Alpha Transparent Coverage Masks show better with higher MSAA levels.
• Scalable reflections with MSAA support
• Scalable water quality
• Scalable shadow quality, taking advantage of DX11/DX10 shadow filters.
• Improved screen space ambient occlusion with HDAO.
• Increased detail on both characters and vehicles, with DX11 Tessellation generally contributes to the overall higher visual quality.
• Scalable texture filter quality to further increase visual quality: anisotropic filtering up to 16 tap filter.

DirectX 11 supported features:

- Compute Shaders – HDAO/Blur
- Hull/Tessellation/Domain Shaders – Adding curvature to the character/vehicle models
- DX11 asynchronous resource creation
- DX11 self-managed resources. Provides system memory savings.
- Alpha Transparency Coverage Masks – When MSAA is enabled it helps the look of semi-transparent objects.
- Gather4 – Optimized Shadow Sampling / FXAA
- Geometry shader / Stream Output – Bokeh depth of field effect
- MSAA color/depth sub pixel sampling
- DX11 texture samplers

_____________________________

9) COMMAND LINE PARAMETERS
_____________________________

commandline parameters can be added to the "commandline.txt" file in the root of the game folder.

-adapter Force specific DirectX adapter starting from 0.
-cpucount Force cpu count if query is not successful.
-d3dmt Force multi-threaded DirectX runtime.
-dx10 Force DirectX 10 if available.
-dx10_1 Force DirectX 10.1 if available.
-dx11 Force DirectX 11 if available.
-dx9 Force DirectX 9.
-frameLimit Force VSYNC [0, 1, 2]; (0 equals Vsync Off)
-fullscreen Force fullscreen mode.
-fxaa Force FXAA quality [0..3].
-gpucount Force gpu count if query is not successful.
-height Force vertical resolution.
-language english Force English language.
-language french Force French language.
-language italian Force Italian language.
-language german Force German language.
-language spanish Force Spanish language.
-language russian Force Russian language.
-language portuguese Force Portugese language.
-language polish Force Polish language.
-MSAA Force MSAA [0..5].
-MSAAQuality Force MSAA quality level.
-outputMonitor Force specific monitor starting from 0.
-reflectionquality Force reflection quality [0..3].
-refreshrate Force refresh rate.
-safemode Force game to load with safest settings.
-shadowquality Force shadow quality [0..3].
-ssao Force SSAO [0..1].
-stereo Force 3D stereo support [0..1] (1 is on)
-tessellation Force tessellation quality [0..3].
-texturefilterquality Force the Anisotropic texture filter quality [0..4].
-texturequality Force the texture quality [0..2].
-useHighQualityShaders Force usage of high quality shaders [0..1].
-waterquality Force water quality [0..2].
-width Force horizontal resolution
-windowed Force windowed mode.

 

[fellix]

HDAO -- that one is nice, if it'll provide more accurate shading for detailed geometry.
Gather4 for shadow map filtering -- I wonder if this also means jittered sampling, where Nvidia's DX11 hardware can leap in performance?

 

[Man from Atlantis]

wow it supports Dx10 and Dx10.1!!

 

[pjbliverpool]

Sweet, just ordered a DX11 GPU so I'll be giving it a workout with this soon enough.

 

[Bludd]

I'm preloading.

 

[PowerK]

Official PC launch trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q6a8t3zL70A&feature=player_embedded

 

[Billy Idol]

Bought the game on steam (don't mind the German censorship this time). Took less than an hour with my nice 100MBit connection...easy
So far, I like the game...nice atmosphere and rather stylish (sometimes remindes me of Kane and Lynch 2 a bit, but just a bit).


I am playing on medium and must admit that I surprisingly die a lot?! I think I need to get used to the gameplay and see what is effective...so far I have my most trouble in close quarter fights, the distance where I would use melee e.g. in uncharted 3.

On my rig I have all max, except AA is only on 4x (and FXAA is off: is FXAA even needed when I choose 1080p + 4xMSAA?? or does it just lower texture sharpness in this case?) and tesselation is on high and not very high. Runs good imo with my GTX480 and looks good to (only thing I would rant about: the skin of Max sometimes looks so shiny and thus like plastic...but this is only a minor rant)

I really like Max's voice and again surprisingly I think that some of the jokes and quotes are actually funny ("...this is my second favourite drinking arm...")

I am just 2-3hours in...I wonder how diverse the settings are in this game...looking forward to some more action!

 

[Svensk Viking]

Less than an hour!? You lucky...

I always like to see performance differences between the different DX versions, I hope for some benchmarks to look at that

 

[I.S.T.]

Performance and screenshots too. I have a DX10 card, and I'd like to see how it performs and looks on DX10 cards.

 

[Billy Idol]

Played some more: game is getting better imo! I really like that you can shoot through some of the cover stuff. Destruction is really good and a super plus point for this action game - cool!

Had a nasty problem with CTD in chapter 7. I lowered my graphics settings to free up some VRAM (bevore this I had 1430 MB/1500MB used), which helped to avoid the crash during the (extremely long) loading sequence of chapt 7.

Overall, graphics are a mixed bag: shadows are often bad and flickery. Although I am using 1080p and 4xMSAA there are some crawling jagged edges sometimes.

While the faces of manly humans are well made, women faces are awful.

Some areas in the background suffer from super low detail.

I wonder the following: if this is the level of graphics we can expect from next gen consoles...I can't really see the quantum leap!

 

[Kaotik]

Okay, the game could be good, if it wasn't 90% cutscene and 10% gameplay, but it's not Max Payne, not by a long shot.

Also, I just had to improve the old classic image a bit

 

[Silanda]

^To be fair, the original Max Payne wasn't hugely free roaming either. The maps were generally approached in a fairly linear fashion, as opposed to older games like Doom and Quake. But yeah, i agree that there are too many cut scenes, and it is a drag that they are largely unskippable.

 

[Kaotik]

True, I just added to the classic pic though, didn't claim MP1/2 fit the "1993 design"

 

[Billy Idol]

Okay, the game could be good, if it wasn't 90% cutscene and 10% gameplay, but it's not Max Payne, not by a long shot.

Also, I just had to improve the old classic image a bit

I so so so do not agree with you!
Your know what is lame: not knowing how to attach a flashlight on the gun ;-)