*spin-off* Dynamic GI on Consoles

Seriously? After they made such a bug deal about it, and how quick it was on consoles? Not that I ever thought the results looked that great anyway...

 

I think e_gi is maybe ssgi - unless by faking you mean the LPV method they use with it. Whatever they're doing I can't tell the difference between this and the demostration screens that were always showed in the various tech papers.

Anyway however it's done it's used outdoors as well:

- light most reflected where it hits the grate.





- it's also glitchy at spots like at this section of wall at the end.

 

There's a Battery Park level?? That brings back memories of a certain game...

Spoiler

 

Not sure what's going on there. Must be a bug with that one specific texture as if you look at the surrounding textures (centerline in road, while lines by the gutter) they are equal on all three platforms. It appears that for the crosswalk zebra lines it's loading a completely different texture/mip level on PC/X360 while it's loading the correct one for all the surrounding textures.

I'd imagine even if you forced 16xAF on PC, that the crosswalk would still look the same due to it loading the incorrect texture. So not a difference due to AF, IMO.

Regards,
SB

 

Strange as the DF comparision shots clearly shows GI is off in several sets. It's also evident in PC lowest setting (no GI) video but MP has forced GI for all PC graphic modes. You could always test to see if it really is realtime GI by panning around fast in a circle. Then you will see like a slight delayed "pop-in" of GI as it is cached over several frames.

 

I thought it was strange too, but its been said in this board that that is an effect of AF so......I really don't know.

 

Yeah it's probably SSGI that's not used on consoles (I can't find the paper but the lighting conditions look similar to the shots they showed with just their LPV method and ssgi off). I don't know if I've seen any pop in but like in the last screen I posted it appears glitchy at spots (that part of the wall will sometimes flash bright then dark). I saw other spots where that happened as well but I didn't have e_GI off then.

EDIT: GI is definitely still on with e_gi off (which is most likely the ssgi).

- no light being reflected here

- when really close though the whole wall lights up (it's glitched, if you turn a bit for instance the wall will go back and forth).

So yeah their LPV method looks like it's being used at least.

 

Sorry for my sheer beginner-ness but...what do you mean by SSGI? I would be very surprised if GI wasn't activated on consoles, pretty much all the comparisons I've seen between the consoles rendition of the game and the PC version look pretty similar, nearly identical, save some extra detail in god rays, better AA and resolution, etc.., of course, on the PC.

Also the game has some kind of special lighting, I can't describe with words what it is, compared to 99% of the games out there, and it doesn't seem an artistic decision but a rendering technique to me.

 

Interesting to notice the pc seem to have the same lack of the shadows details of the ps3...

 

I see more dark areas in the 360 shot, probably down to the lack of GI. I'm not seeing any less shadow detail though.

 

The screen space global illumination used to sort of assist the LPV method. There's comparision shots you can find around with it on and off in crytek's various tech papers.

 

Look the second screen carefully, the guard rails...

 

I really can't believe what you guys are saying ! Are you saying that all the places where I see sunlight coming thru a window and bouncing towards the cieling are just cases of manually placed extra lights?!??!?!?! That is NOT realtime GI ?!?!?!?

And they are using baked GI in textures too?

Then whats the whole advantage of realtime GI BS we have been hearing about uptill now? I still can't believe that the consoles don't have RT GI ! So, its just HDR + nicely done bloom which is providing that wowsome look to the sunlight? Frankly speaking I couldn't see any colour bouncing off from the red continers/barrels to the ground anywhere myself, but the multiple places where I could see ounced sunlight made me believe that the RT GI is present, just subtler in terme of colour bleeding. But you guys are saying no RT GI on the consoles !

This is a shocker to me if true !!!!

EDIT: BTW, what I do like a lot on the ps3 version is the "Soft Shadows" ! I have not seen other games implement soft shadows on my ps3 before. THey look so good after having sen jagged shadows in every game out there. Though, the shadow LODs are also very very aggressive on the PS3(Must be on the 360 too).

 

I think the talk is about SSGI on consoles actually being hand placed point while the outdoors do get real time GI from the sunlight.

You don't forget about Uncharted when you mention shadows.

 

Uncharted didn't have Soft shadows either, they were sharp, not jagged, but not soft. it is the first time I am seeing soft shadows on the PS3 !

I am also talking about SSGI. Thats the whole deal, otherwise we can fake GI in every engine ! From what I see above in the thread, its completel;y missing from the consoles. Placing extra lights to fake GI, or baking GI into lightmaps is no big deal, I have games that do it so much better. The whole deal with Crysis 2 was realtime GI, so that it would affect all objects,moving or otherwise. I have been constantly trying to see "Bounced" light even on the leaked beta by moving the red objects around or carrying a wooden crate to a wall under a bright light o see some kindof realtime light bounce, but frankly speaking, I haven't been able to see it even on the PC ! I tried to block sunlight to see if the light bounced off to the roof gets darkened, but no luck at all. Even on PC.

 

PC has it, beta or final both got it and it is very obvious. By upping GI color intensity multiplier one can easily spot the affected areas but they are already easy to spot by default. If you couldn't see any GI it is becouse you played in lowest setting which has no GI enabled in SP (PC MP forces GI for all graphic modes) but higher settings does. Theres no other way around it.

 

It's worth keeping in mind (as I mentioned on the last page) that artists have the ability to disable GI-receivers for particular objects.

 

Huh...
Tiago Sousa-Principal R&D Graphics Programmer at Crytek
"Cooking some great DX11 tech bits for C2 fans, be patient guys. All I can say, is that we have 16 ms or more to have fun with pc hardware..."
http://twitter.com/CRYTEK_TIAGO/status/52034965503873024

 

Extra 16ms is a helluva lot of rendering time. They could implement some great stuff.