Crysis 2 DirectX 11 patch detailed

PC News | Extra zazz.

Though reviews were highly favourable, including PALGN's very own, there's no doubt that a bit of controversy surrounded the release of Crysis 2. Justified or not (we'll let you decide), many PC gamers were disappointed that the sequel to the computer melting original failed to push modern hardware to the limits, regardless of how great it still looked. Notably, PC gamers anticipating the game were disappointed to see Crysis 2 limited to the DirextX 9 rendering API, unlike the original Crysis which also made use of DirectX 10.

If you're one of those PC gamers who found themselves sulking in the corner due to the lack of DirectX 11 support in Crysis 2, then do we have good news for you. Announced over on the official Crysis 2 forums, Crytek has spilled the beans on what graphical advancements can be found in the next Crysis 2 patch.

Players with the appropriate hardware will be able to enjoy;

DirectX 11 rendering API support, as well as a DirectX 11 benchmark.
Tessellation and displacement mapping.
Realistic contact shadows with variable penumbra.
High quality HDR motion blur.
Sprite based bokeh depth of field.
Parallax occlusion mapping.
Enhanced water rendering using tessellation and displacement mapping.
Real time local reflections.
Improved art assets on all fronts, including a high resolution texture package.
Additional bug fixes and balance tweaks for multiplayer and general optimisation.

Though the bug and balances tweaks will roll out in a standard Crysis 2 patch, both the DirectX 11 enabler as well as the high resolution texture package will act as seperate downloads. Understandably, the DirectX 11 package and effects will only be available to gamers running graphics cards with DirectX 11 capabilities, while the high resolution texture pack will require a 64bit operating system.

Crytek is aiming to get this patch out into wild sometime next week. In the meantime, you can check out comparison pictures of various DirectX 11 rendering tweaks below.

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34 Comments

mrcool37

1 year ago

So whats the earliest set of graphics cards that are dx11 capable? Was wondering if my 4870 is DX11 capable, because I probably won't bother playing this game now unless it is.

drinniol

1 year ago

Not fully. The 58xx series was the first. It'd be pretty cheap to upgrade now though. 5770 can be had for under $150.

renegadesx

1 year ago

My last PC had a 4870 and I can tell you its a DirectX 10.1 card. Im not sure about the 5000 series but the 6000 series do support DX11.

You can get pretty cheaply a HD6870 or GTX570 for reasonable prices these days.

That being said not many games utilise DirectX 11. Rage will be using OpenGL. Metro requires PhysX to get the most out of it and there is not alot of difference in the look of AvP, Bad Company 2 or Homefront.

I will be patching Crysis 2 because I have a GTX590 which I bought in anticipation for Rage (nVidia cards usually do OpenGL better)

Smurf80

1 year ago

Wow, I couldnt tell much difference from either on/off shots except maybe the last one. All this is quite clearly lost on me.

light487

1 year ago

Yes, the screenshots certainly need some explanation.. here's what I could tell:

In the first pair of Tessillation (brick wall):
If you look at the mortar between the bricks you can see that when it is "ON" there is more depth to the 3D-like appearance of the texture; when it is "OFF" the texture seems more "smeared".

In the second tessillation pair, I can't see anything different to be honest.

In the third tess. pair, the rubble in the foreground seems slightly more 3D-like in appearance.. but it's really hard to see the difference as well.

In the 4th pair, the SSR pair, check out the reflection on the square tile on the floor as well as the reflection on the square tile thing leaning against the fence (to the left of the picture).

In the POM pair, you need to have a look at the shadows since this is talking about "occlusion of the lightsource(s)". The two most noticeable differences are the shape of the shadow coming off the building to the right but what is most impressive is the shadow coming from the tyre tread marks in the foreground (and other ground deformations).

In the final pair, as you can probably tell, it's about the dynamic lighting. In the "OFF" picture there is a lot of glare and less definition; in the "ON" picture there is less glare and a lot more definition in the lighting of the objects.

Hope that helps.. but if someone could point out the differences for 2nd and 3rd pair, I would like to know..

Benza

1 year ago

The third pair seems to have more defenition in the rubble (If you look at specific shadows and creses you can see the difference) I've got no fucking idea what is going on in the second one though.

light487

1 year ago

Benza wrote

The third pair seems to have more defenition in the rubble (If you look at specific shadows and creses you can see the difference) I've got no **** idea what is going on in the second one though.

Yer.. that's what I thought too, the rubble.. and based on that and the 1st one.. I would assume that it would be something similar in the 3rd but it is barely noticeable (I can't see it).. they obviously took that particular screengrab for a reason.. but yer..

Frozencry

1 year ago

The tentacle has more depth and displacements, it's just not easy to see at the size of the images. Bottom left you can see the scratch is a bit thicker with tessellation on.

Also, AMD cards from 5xxx onwards support DX11. NVIDIA is 400 series onwards.

It's a nice addition but they are really damn late. This should've been in the PC version from the get-go or released very soon after the game was launched.

mrcool37

1 year ago

I don't think it's possible for still pictures to explain many of the graphical updates, you'd really need to see it in motion? Everything has a little more depth from the comparison pictures, but that's all I could tell.

Frozencry

1 year ago

They're just not great examples.

Here's a comparison from the Heaven Benchmark, where you can really see what Tesselation does.

It's essentially something called a displacement map which 'morphs' the geometry by multiplying the amount of polygons/triangles on the surface. I used to use displacement maps to create fake fur on some of my 3D models.

light487

1 year ago

Ok, so keeping the true poly count low and using the graphics hardware to create the illusion of more polys or particles etc fair enough.

The POM stuff is pretty nifty though, especially for a game where ground deformation would be possible such as Red Faction for example.

Benza

1 year ago

Quote

They're just not great examples.

Honestly I'm kind of amazed that the guys at crytek looked at some of those screen shots and was like "Yeah this accurately shows what we're doing" and released them.

Quote

Ok, so keeping the true poly count low and using the graphics hardware to create the illusion of more polys or particles etc fair enough.

Something like that, I'm not sure on the technical side (I'm pretty sure voodoo is involved) but basically a simple low poly model is created and saved, then added to and sculpted to become a full high detail model, that information is then saved as an image and applied as a texture to the low poly model that makes it look like the high poly model.

Frozencry

1 year ago

Benza wrote

Nope, that's normal mapping. That's placing a fake map to make the low poly appear to have higher polygonal counts. Normal maps can hold specular, diffuse and bump maps all in one and adds no extra polygonal detail. It's all based on UV mapping and such so it's difference.

Tesselation actually does multiply the poly count. It's triangulating the geometry and morphing it to a specific value in the XYZ planes. It's similar to subdivision which is multiplying poly counts on a model to smooth it, but it's different in the sense that you actually have a lot more control where the displacement or extra geometry is going. I'm not at home at the moment so I don't have my example shots, but yeah it's pretty much adding full on detail. Heavy levels can destroy performance very quickly.

Benza

1 year ago

ah ok, then what's the advantage of using tessellation over something like sculpting it in Z-brush or a similar program? Is it just a time saving thing to apply that kind of detail to a large area? Or is it applied as a modifier to the original model so it would end up a lot more flexible?

Frozencry

1 year ago

It's cheaper from what I know. Zbrush models generally fall into the tens of millions of polys nowadays which just isn't feasible to run, especially when you want to animate it under a full IK rig. With tessellation you're effectively adding a similar amount of detail for much less on an animated low poly model and can also apply normal mapping and such to the model for extra things.

There's also the whole control thing. Just plonking a high poly down without displacements and such gives nice detail but reduces control. Displacement adds another level of animation there based on splining if I remember correctly, so you can deform things in realtime, where with pure high poly you can't do that. A good example was that Alien demo from NVIDIA where they dynamically deformed the model and gave it armour as it moved.

There's a lot to love about tessellation.

light487

1 year ago

But I guess the main aim is to get the GPU to do the work instead of the CPU, which I guess is what DX11 (and previous versions obviously) is all about... taking more and more stuff away from the CPU..

Jarrod

1 year ago

Pretty much. Its real geometry, not a shader, but it doesnt require complex CPU calculations.

Tessellation is one of those things that will always look better in motion than in stills. Crytek picked some pretty shitty examples too. The tessellated water will probably look great, yet they didnt bother to show it off.

A13x

1 year ago

Now we need one with Every DX11 feature turned on, then turned off at once...

Also, what about advanced DoF?

Sin Ogaris

1 year ago

You know what's really frigging irritating about that first picture? The brick textures don't line up near the window.

The POM stuff is the best of those images, it reminds me of when I first got a GeForce 2 MX and played Giants with bump mapping, I was like OMG holes in the sand!

Benza

1 year ago

Does the Pom one look like the ground sinks about a foot to anyone else?

Sin Ogaris

1 year ago

Yeah, I wouldn't say a foot, but it definitely looks more recessed than it was, it makes the ground look a hell of a lot more uneven.

Frozencry

1 year ago

It's funny how they tout PoM (Parallax Occlusion Mapping) as a new feature for Crysis 2, yet ironically enough, it was a default feature in the original Crysis.

Jarrod

1 year ago

Denny wrote

It's funny how they tout PoM (Parallax Occlusion Mapping) as a new feature for Crysis 2, yet ironically enough, it was a default feature in the original Crysis.

This this and more of this. PoM was used heavily in default Crysis, and of all the bitching about Crysis 2 the lack of PoM was what pissed me off most of all. Both games feature practically identical tyer track textures, yet they look tons better in Crysis thanks to PoM.

Glad to see they're finally back.

GooberMan

1 year ago

Again, I should have jumped in this thread earlier.

Everyone that has said tessellation increases the poly count is correct. Whereas normal and parallax mapping are texture-space effects designed to suggest depth, tesselation can do the same thing but it operates in vertex space and actually pump out more vertices and thus give superior results.

Some of the earliest examples in terms of gaming hardware are bezier patches. One of Quake 3's big features was the use of nurbs to make the environment look all smooth. I haven't DX11'd much, but I'd assume that thanks to geometry shaders it's rather programmable these days.

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