Quote by IGNCrysis and CryEngine 2
Get out the eye drops, Crytek's new engine is hot! Direct-feed HD trailer and
new purty screens.
by Dan Adams
March 27, 2006 - Crytek blasted onto the PC shooter scene with their brilliantly
fun shooter Far Cry and impressed the hell out of us and much of the gaming
scene with the amazing engine powering the game. With the success of the first
title, it was only a matter of waiting to see what these guys would do next.
This year's GDC afforded us the opportunity to see the product of their hard
work. While we have yet to see their next game Crysis up and running, what we
saw of the engine is plain sick. If this thing ends up looking this good with
good AI, physics, and gameplay and actually manages to run with a decent
framerate, we're in for a hell of a treat. Today we've got the exclusive
direct-feed footage of the GDC demo for you along with some screens as well as
some basic details about the game for those that don't know anything yet. Those
of you with beefy machines at home will want to check out the HD version of the
video.
Crysis is the second game coming out of Crytek Studios but is not a sequel to
2004's Far Cry. Both are similar in that they take place on an island chain
(we're assuming that this kind of setting really shows off the power of the
engine) but each is set in a different part of the world with different types of
conflicts.
Crysis takes place in 2019 directly following the landfall of a "colossal
asteroid" onto an island chain. North Korea (the sneaky bastards) seals off
the island chain to all outside sources in order to garner any potentially
beneficial research to themselves. Now, if you've been paying attention lately,
North Korea and the US don't play well together. Therefore the US (the sneaky
bastards) sends off a Delta Force squad to find out what's going on in the area
and report back to the motherland.
While the two countries throw insults back at one another, the asteroid pops
open. Turns out there was an alien ship hiding inside just itching to be born
into the world. As you can imagine, the ship's got some crazy weapons. The
world's weather system goes wacky, part of the island chain completely freezes,
and humans (as they usually seem to do in the face of alien invasions and
rampaging Germans) combine forces to take on the new and more threatening enemy.
Over the course of the game, players will have to fight through jungle, over
mountain, through towns, and into the heart of the alien spaceship to take down
the threat to humanity.
We're guessing it'll be pretty the entire way through.
As expected, players will be thrust into the important shoes of a super soldier
out to save the world. Weapons are important to a shooter and Crytek is hoping
their customizable armor and weapons will add to the fun and dynamic aspects of
the experience by making players adapt to their environment and enemies. Of
course, as you would expect following Far Cry, players will want to be adaptable
to deal with some AI that's pretty competetive in the market and will
undoubtedly be much improved this time around. Not only will human AI be
interesting and use military tactics in real-time, but the aliens will use their
own tactics and highly tuned senses to make life difficult for any would be
heroes.
Even more interesting is the promise of natural disasters to confuse the issue
even more. Earthquakes, ice-breaks, landslides, and tornadoes will rock the
landscapes of the game making the world a death trap as far as we can tell.
These particular features could be pretty interesting so we'll have to see how
Crytek has chosen to implement them.
Should the weapons that can be carried prove too small, a variety of vehicles
will also be available to control including tanks and helicopters. We're hoping
that all of these vehicles will be included with the 32-player multiplayer modes
that ship with the game. We're also hoping that the multiplayer is really
functional and fun out of the box this time.
But most importantly for the video today is the Cry Engine 2. It's really better
to just let you watch for yourselves, but for those that want a tad bit more
info to go along with your watering eyeballs, we've got some brief explanations
of the various features demonstrated in the video courtesy of EA and
Crytek.
Volumetric Clouds
Through an advanced Imposter Rendering Technique Crytek delivers volumetric
cloud formations that are illuminated in real-time and allow soft fly-throughs.
This allows for frantic action when you are fighting aliens in the sky. The
clouds also cast realistic shadows on anything lying beneath them.
Real-time Ambient Maps
A first in lighting technology is a real-time implementation of indirect
lighting that approximates ambient light intensity. This technology provides
realistic ambient lighting. Using this technology Crysis will feature the most
realistic lighting without compromising the real-time performance.
Depth of Field
A leak and bleeding free implementation of Depth of Field is shown to support
focus changes. Crysis will feature this technology as part of their cinematic
gameplay experience. Unfortunately we can not share any further information at
the moment….stay tuned.
Motion Blur
The camera, as well as any object on screen, if moved too quickly features
directional high quality motion blur. This feature provides a cinematic visual
quality supporting what Crytek calls "Video Realism".
Soft Shadows
All objects cast shadows that are pixel accurate and soft according to the
sunlight diffusion; allowing for an unparalleled shadow rendering
technology.
Sneak Peak Crysis
A sample combat implementation of a Next Gen Jungle Combat is shown, whilst this
is only a part of Crysis, it showcases the leap forward in that area from that
experienced in Far Cry. At the end of this video a massive enemy is shown that
is definitely not of human nature, it is surrounded in fire, smoke and
destruction. You can expect to see more about this enemy at E3.
Hints of What to Watch For
You can see destructible vegetation, soft vegetation bending, high-dynamic range
rendering, sub surface scattering and many more complementary technologies. This
is a small part of the technology Crytek is introducing into Crysis. These
features will truly make a next-gen experience for the PC gaming
community!
Definitely keep your eyes open on the pages of IGNPC for more info on Crysis and
its stunning Cry Engine 2 soon!
see for yourself, need an upgrade quickly?
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/698/698600/crysis-20060327065422577-000.jpg
http://pcmedia.ign.com/pc/image/article/698/698600/crysis-20060327065419452-000.jpg
http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/crysis_new_screenshots/crysis15.jpg
http://www.bit-tech.net/content_images/crysis_new_screenshots/crysis12.jpg
link for the full explanation:
http://pc.ign.com/articles/698/698600p1.html
http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2006/04/20/crysis_new_screenshots/1.html
Seen the demo before, the shadowing are simply amazing.
Here is a HD trailer
Pay close attention to the shadows when it's demonstrating "Realtime ambient maps" and "softshadows".
HD Trailer
or you can view it on YouTube.
CryEngine2 Demo