DirectX 10 in the news...

Post by **Gambit37** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 12:25 am

here's the news:
http://www.fragland.net/news.php?id=12688

and a link to a high-res trailer:
http://www.fragland.net/downloads.php?id=15131

p.s. Don't miss the volumetric clouds rendering! I dread to think what spec machine is required.... my 4 year old tin won't handle it, that's for sure....

mikko · Post by **mikko** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 5:24 pm

".. DirectX10, which will of course garantuee some graphic effects we've never seen before. Among these effects, for example, volumetric clouding and dynamical light/day cycle"

And what is so special about dynamical light/day cycle?

Surely one can adjust the lighting accordingly without _any_ DirectX.. It might be something that we haven't seen before (at least on a larger scale), but very doable..

I think volumetric clouds would be quite useless unless they are at a low altitude so that you could get inside them. If you just see the clouds far above you in the sky, it shouldn't make any difference..

Post by **Gambit37** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 7:20 pm

Did you look at the demo? It shows the day/night cycle very clearly (albeit speeded up). Pretty cool in my opinion.

mikko · Post by **mikko** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 8:35 pm

Yes I did and it really is cool, but nothing that couldn't already be done. You can move the sun in the sky, adjust lighting accordingly, recalculate the environment maps, etc. It wouldn't even take up much resources, because the sun moves so slowly across the sky that you can distribute all the work over numerous frames.

But don't get me wrong..

I mean.. I really liked the demo and having played Far Cry quite a bit, I think that the CryEngine 2 will be quite amazing piece of work. It's just that DirectX10 thing and the day/night.. As if it couldn't be done without it. It's just going to look better with it.

Post by **cowsmanaut** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:18 pm

I did a day, evening, night blend using simple gradients and the opacity levels in photoshop and saved out an animation.. that could be put on a light dome.. essentially the same thing.. no special shaders and most certainly real time as it was simple fading from one image to the next and it was very convincing.. and I did this for a game engine I was working with Alandale on back just after DMJ was released..

the volumetric clounds are also not a big deal.. particle clouds do the same thing and can be walked through.. in fact from the resampling I saw in the video that's probably what they are.. this is a trick I used in my demo reel in 2000.. not new technology. I'm inclined to agree they have only found ways to reinvent the wheel.. or simply that they are doing the same thing that was always possible but no one else was arsed to put it into a game.

I'm very inclined to think it's not simply DX10 that is responsible for these abilities.. more likley they are just using these examples to push the product..

What I'm more impressed with is the cry engine on whole.. they have added a lot of things that, while already possible, needed to be in a game engine.

it's just like with ID soft.. Normal mapping was around for a long time before they started using it.. just a matter of someone looking at a potential application.. these clouds and time of day are becoming important only because the player is looking for that next immersive element to the world. something more to take away the suspension of dissbeleif.

moo

Post by **linflas** » Mon Jan 30, 2006 9:19 pm

oh my...

look at the clouds !!!!!

so so beautiful !!

*runs buying a new graphics card*

*and another motherboard because of those pci express things i don't have !*

Tom Hatfield · Post by **Tom Hatfield** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:08 am

You're missing a greater point: DirectX is nothing without hardware support. Everyone get ready to buy new video cards. :P

Post by **Gambit37** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:32 am

To whom are you refrerring?

I need a whole new machine, let alone a video card!

Post by **Paul Stevens** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:32 am

Everyone get ready to buy new video cards

Well, perhaps not everyone. Clouds ain't everything.
I remember playing an old DOS game with almost
no clouds whatsoever (the whole thing was underground).
The only exception was when a monster died a little grey
cloud appeared (from database segment 15, as I recall).
I had a LOT of fun with that game and never ever
complained even once about the ugly clouds.

Post by **Gambit37** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 1:36 am

Ah, keeping it real. Thanks for the nostalgia check, Mr.S.

I do like pretty clouds though....

mikko · Post by **mikko** » Wed Feb 01, 2006 10:25 am

I like interactive environments the most. Especially when you can blow up and destroy everything in sight..

sucinum · Post by **sucinum** » Fri Feb 03, 2006 8:16 am

I think, i can speak for all of us saying: We want DX 10 clouds in CSBWin!

Tom Hatfield · Post by **Tom Hatfield** » Tue Feb 21, 2006 7:57 pm

Since we're on the subject of old games now, one of my all-time favorites to this day is Outcast. I won't say it holds up to today's standards, but the game still amazes me: pure software engine, voxels, polygons, post-render effects. It was and remains a technological masterpiece . . . with zero hardware support. (Of course, that's one of the reasons it didn't sell too well, the second being it was a mixed genre.)

Having viewed the trailer now — and been thoroughly impressed by the new CryEngine — I can tell you that article was severely misleading. mikko and cows have it right: this engine does not demonstrate DX10. It demonstrates a group of people with an eye for technical beauty. If the engine uses DX10, it's only to take advantage of upcoming hardware acceleration, not because of any feature DX10 may flout (other than PS4 maybe).

I do love them destructible environments, though, and I like how you can push the leaves around now. I really missed that quality in Far Cry, and one of my friends even commented on it. Can't wait to play this.

Anyone seen the clouds in Flight Sim 2004? They put the CryEngine to shame.