Crysis 2 - " near photorealistic movie quality"

First details on Crysis 2 have found their way onto the internet in the wake of Crytek boss Cevat Yerli explaining the FPS has been designed as a trilogy.

According to a report on fansite inCrysis - via GameStar.de - Crytek lead animator Steven Bender has let slip that the developer will focus even greater attention on graphics for the sequel, a translation from German explaining, " Their ambitious aim is to push the game' s visuals to an advanced level, that could be considered near photorealistic movie quality."

A tiny plot detail is additionally given - that the sequel will concentrate on more than battles with aliens and Korean military. Which, you probably would have guessed at anyway.

And that' s your lot for now...

LINK

The first game has only just been released, it looks godly, and it' s almost impossible to play the game at high resolutions at max settings.... and they' re talking about pushing the graphics further already?

How far away from almost true photorealism? 10 years?

The original:

10 years?

i predict 6 to 7 years.. 5 years tile the next gen console shows up, one to two more years for the first next gen games... consider that crysis has outstanding graphics today that are getting closer in some aspects to reality, or high quality cg (heck even mass effect or call of duty 4 do) , that is happening today !! next gen consoles will leave the PC' s that will be released in 5 years to dust, there they can do much better than Crysis, and we all know what that means.

Listen to the wise

ORIGINAL: Abasoufiane

...and we all know what that means.

Virtual reality sex slaves?

exactly.

Listen to the wise

I am not sure i want photorealistic visuals in games .

photorealistic will always be a welcome, at the end it will depend on the artists and how they will make their games look. RPG for instance will mostly be a fantasy so i think it' ll have that CG touch ( mass effect) rather than photorealistic ( COD 4).

Listen to the wise

lawl way longer, u guys are nubs

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

ORIGINAL: locopuyo

lawl way longer, u guys are nubs

. 10 yrs down the line we are sure to have photorealistic graphics . I mean crysis is almost there .

ORIGINAL: locopuyo

lawl way longer, u guys are nubs

10 years ago...

That hand looks almost good.....

I think they' ll give up on true photorealism once they realise how much its going to cost vs how much they can sell, when they can make much more money making games like Brain Training. The cost of photorealism will shoot up exponentially.

There' ll always be companies like Crytek who will ask companies like EA for millions to try, but even high resolution textures and postprocessing wont account for poor animation.

I think animation and control/feedback mechanisms should be the next focus of next-gen. I want a whole body tactile feedback suit and VR please. Thanks.

Awooga!

Someone invent the holodeck already!!

Btw, anyone seen Beowulf yet?

And Majik, you get your new PC yet?

I don' t like the word photo-realistic. Every time a good looking game shows up, the term gets thrown around.

The best example I can think of is when a handful of PGA 06 screens hit the net. EA claimed that the game was so good looking that any sort of on screen menus or heads-up displays would not be necessary because the game was bordering photo-realistic.



And while the game has held up well, it' s certainly nowhere near photo-realistic (nor has it ever been). People look at all the elements in a game that look near photo-realistic (character models, the high-res textures), and avoid some of the more common things that prevent games from truly being " photo-realistic" .

I believe that we' re going to come to a point when the humans creating the games, and not the hardware itself is going to be the limitation. If the graphical quality of games increases at the rate it is now (or even slower), we' re going to reach a point when developers simply won' t have the time or resources to push the machine to it' s full potential.

Not to mention, I' m also a believer in the Uncanny Valley theory. At some point in the future, games are going to become so " photo-realistic" , that they actually start to look displeasing, or subconsciously " off" . (It' s complex, go read the Wiki link, I can' t do it justice).

Btw, anyone seen Beowulf yet?

Yeah! It wasn' t at all like the poem, but it was a solid enough action epic. The 3D gave me a bit of a headache part of the way through, so I ended up taking off the specs for part of the film towards the end. If you take off the glasses at a certain point near the end, where Richard Griffith' s character (Beyowulf' s dwarflike friend) is riding across a stone bridge it looks like a PSOne game. (which is odd, because the movie is quite good looking.) I don' t know if it' s just a combo of the flat terrain and the not-so-hot horse animations, but it looked awful (wouldn' t have thought anything of it until I got out of the theater and found that all my friends had seen the same thing).

Right now I can handle Crysis maxed out but if they increase the graphical level anymore I' m going to end up needed a second 8800GTX card so I can SLi my rig.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

eddie, remmember heavenly rain? that game looked amazing and the acting was the best i ever seen , by the way i wonder what happened to that game, though she was so real that the non human characteristics stood out, the way she looked, the lips movement, that' s an example of the uncanny valley. you don' t need full ressources to head the graphics toward photorealistic, japanese don' t do that, they always aim for anime style or high quality cg style, Advent children is an awesome exemple of how cg came far, if the game look fully like that , that would be amazing.

Listen to the wise

Right, but anime movies and games aren' t photo-realistic. They' re stylized.

I' m not saying games won' t get to Pixar levels of quality, just not photo-realism (At least not without some as-of-yet-undiscovered development in the way games are designed).

that' s what i wanted to say, advent children is CG , it can' t be compared to photo realism, except some enviroments or elements but as a whole it looks different, the colors, character look , there is a style but it looks almighty good, so if they reach that and they will at next gen , it' ll be awesome.

Listen to the wise

Gotcha.

No man, I totally agree. I' d be more than happy with Advent Chidren-esque graphics.

Games with pre-rendered backgrounds and highly detailed characters were photo-realistic-ish the past generation (Resident Evil 1 remake GCN).
They could probably take it to another level this generation.
But I seriously can' t see the payoff in creating perfect photo realistic videogames when you can be totally immersed on a game that only has a 1/10000 of detail compared to photo realism. It' s like shooting flies with a cannon if you get my point.
I' ve seen computer graphics still pictures that were photo realistic, at least to my eyes. And given some time they could make animation and we' d have some very impressive looking CG movies.
But again, what' s the point? Isn' t it more fun to choose a stylised way like aba said?
And I think more focus should be put on animation, AI, gameplay, and acting before we go photo realistic. Because seriously, it' s not often I play a game and stop to think " crap, this game doesn' t look like the real thing" . But very often I think " what the hell is that NPC doing?" " Who the h*** did the voice acting for this idiot?" " Why the f*** is this level created like some kind of weird puzzle?" .
I don' t think photo realism should be a priority. It just steals time and money away from more urgent issues.

ORIGINAL: ginjirou

Because seriously, it' s not often I play a game and stop to think " crap, this game doesn' t look like the real thing" .

While I can agree with pretty much everything you said I want to point out this quote. Sure, it' s rare you look at a game and say it doesn' t look real because for the most part we don' t expect games to. We haven' t become accustomed to games looking that realistic. However on the opposite side when you look at a game that does go that extra mile in terms of visuals most people would say " Wow, that looks almost real!" Crysis is a prime example. The game doesn' t nail photo real but just the fact that it attempts to and in fact comes pretty damn close gives people a sense of awe.

Both stylized games and graphical intensive games have their place. I do hope to see graphics keep getting more advanced (more towards a Advent Children look than photo) because at least for me, it can make the experience more entertaining.

In the end you may not always think " crap, this game doesn' t look like the real thing" but I' m sure you' ve thought " crap, these graphics suck" for one game or another..

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

dude if assassins creed graphics (minus the minor bugs and the clipping) is the standrd in the graphics this gen , i' ll be extremly happy.

Listen to the wise

ORIGINAL: Eddie_the_Hated

I' m not saying games won' t get to Pixar levels of quality, just not photo-realism (At least not without some as-of-yet-undiscovered development in the way games are designed).

It' s called ray tracing and it already exists. It' s just not possible at the moment.

I like how Epic does it. Realism can be stylized as seen in Gears of War.

As the hardware becomes more and more powerful more of the things that were done by artists in 3D modelling and animation programs will be done by programmers. Just like how rag dolls replaced death animations. There will always be more that can be done (rain with each raindrop having water water particles wich have realistic physics etc.). Until some sort of new system like linking with your brain or something is formed.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

ORIGINAL: choupolo

And Majik, you get your new PC yet?

No, it' s going to be at least another fortnight.

Component shortages and my messing about trying to figure out what i wanted have delayed it. Heh, but you guys will know just as soon as it arrives. Crysis will be the first game installed

Ray tracing is slow as hell. You can make some stuff in the 3D modelling program of your choice do the highest quality ray tracing then come back in 4 hours when it is finished and it will look better in UE3 in real time at 60 fps.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

Realtime off-the-GPU ray tracing is the future of videogame lighting, and lighting is key to getting closer to photorealism.

Virtual reality sex slaves?

Hell yeah

Component shortages and my messing about trying to figure out what i wanted have delayed it. Heh, but you guys will know just as soon as it arrives. Crysis will be the first game installed

It' s definitely a good time to be buying now. Everything is dirt cheap. This is actually my first post from my new system that I built yesterday. What parts did you decide on?

It' s definitely a good time to be buying now. Everything is dirt cheap. This is actually my first post from my new system that I built yesterday. What parts did you decide on?

Same question directed towards you.

"This is sad. There's no other word for it. The person who invents a way to punch someone in the face over the Internet will make millions from the demand generated by people like this." Youtube comments

ORIGINAL: Majik

Realtime off-the-GPU ray tracing is the future of videogame lighting, and lighting is key to getting closer to photorealism.

lighting is key, but ray tracing is not. Ray tracing is slow as hell and not really that realistic. There are better ways to do it that are thousands of times faster.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

It' s definitely a good time to be buying now. Everything is dirt cheap. This is actually my first post from my new system that I built yesterday. What parts did you decide on?

64 bit Vista
nForce 680i SLI Motherboard
Core 2 Extreme QX6850 @ 3.0GHz
4 GB DDR2 @ 1,066MHz (3.5GB effective using 64 bit Vista)
768MB 8800GTX ULTRA

Now here' s the thing. I was considering two 512MB 8800 GT' s in SLI, but i read that there are compatability issues and relatively poor performance (for SLI) in Crysis, so i figured an ULTRA would suffice. Is that the right choice?

Yeah, I' d recommend staying away from SLI/Crossfire unless you really have time and money to burn. I learned my expensive lesson the hard way. SLI only really works on games that support Nvidia' s " The Way It' s Meant To Be Played" initiative so that cuts down things. Nearly all new games that come out will have serious issues with SLI and you' ll end up having to run a single card anyway until Nvidia picks up the slack. It' s a constant battle with drivers.

My new PC specs are a bit more conservative than yours, due to being on a budget (Christmas is unforgiving).

Motherboard: Asus P5E X38
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
HDD: Seagate 250GB SATA (main bulk storage is on another PC)
RAM: Corsair 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
Graphics: Inno3D 512MB 8800GT
Optical: 18x SATA Pioneer 212D
Monitor: 22” Asus VW222U
Speakers: Logitech X530 5.1
CPU Heatsink: Zalman CNPS 9700
PSU: Thermaltake 750W
Case: Antec P182
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech Desktop LX710
OS: Vista Home Premium 64 bit

I ran into some power issues that I later isolated to a dodgy power point. Other than that, she seem to be running fine so far.

ORIGINAL = Majik

4 GB DDR2 @ 1,066MHz (3.5GB effective using 64 bit Vista)

Not sure what you mean by this. Vista 64 bit should be able to recognize all 4GB+, only a 32 bit OS would have problems with that.

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

Not sure what you mean by this. Vista 64 bit should be able to recognize all 4GB+, only a 32 bit OS would have problems with that.

I think i' ve confused myself. Nevermind

ORIGINAL: UnluckyOne

My new PC specs are a bit more conservative than yours, due to being on a budget (Christmas is unforgiving).

Motherboard: Asus P5E X38
CPU: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600
HDD: Seagate 250GB SATA (main bulk storage is on another PC)
RAM: Corsair 4GB DDR2 800Mhz
Graphics: Inno3D 512MB 8800GT
Optical: 18x SATA Pioneer 212D
Monitor: 22” Asus VW222U
Speakers: Logitech X530 5.1
CPU Heatsink: Zalman CNPS 9700
PSU: Thermaltake 750W
Case: Antec P182
Mouse & Keyboard: Logitech Desktop LX710
OS: Vista Home Premium 64 bit

Is there a noticable performance gain in the Quad Q6600 over a Core 2 Duo E6850???

How does Crysis look with the 8800 GT???

ORIGINAL: Majik


Is there a noticable performance gain in the Quad Q6600 over a Core 2 Duo E6850???

How does Crysis look with the 8800 GT???

E6850 is clocked at 3.0Ghz with 1333Mhz FSB
Q6600 is clocked at 2.4Ghz with 1066Mhz FSB

Out of the box and with applications that don' t utilize more than 2 cores, the E6850 is faster. But in applications that use more than 2, Q6600 should win out. I went quad core mainly for future proofing (more and more games are starting to support it) and with a bit of luck I should be able to overclock close to 3.0Ghz. I really think that if you put the two side by side and compared the same game running, there' d be little difference. Both kick a lot of ass.

As for Crysis, I don' t know. I have not bought the game yet.

Well, be sure to let us know how everything performs. You don' t post here often enough

Nice rigs guys. To clear a couple things up Majik, 64 bit will recognize all of your ram and utilize all of it if need be. About the processor, the Duo Core Extreme that you are getting is an amazing chip and will out perform the Quad that both UnluckyOne and I have with most current and pretty much all older games but just by a minuscule amount (no noticeable difference, just in the techy numbers) . The Quad core will outperform the Duo Extreme with Crysis (which was built around Quad Core processing) and future games that take advantage of the extra two cores. Programs like 3ds Max will also see a significant boost in performance when it comes to rendering times and such.

The Quad is obviously a bit more expensive (though the difference between the Due Extreme and the base Quad Core is only like $50) but like UnluckyOne said, it' s mainly for future proofing. The nice thing about the Quad Core is it' s supposed to be really easy to overclock and doesn' t produce very much heat when cranked up. I' ve read that you can safely overclock the Quad Core 2.4Ghz to 3.0 without having to add any extra cooling fans and the like.

What it boils down to is that the Due Extreme is for the most part the most cost effective processor out there. Anything you throw at it at this point (other than Crysis and 3d art programs) it will handle pretty much the best. Down the line is when the base Quad Core will start to eclipse it. I' m not factoring the Quad Core Extreme though. That owns them all... by a lot but it' s also vastly more expensive.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Rampage , Good to have you back ...

Thanks man

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

Quadro FX5500 1GB
KTHXBAI

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."

$3,000 video card... no thank you.

XBL Gamertag: Rampage99

" Basically, pollute the air all you want, your just speeding up the inevitable. Our future generations are f*cked as it is and there' s really nothing we can do about it. Have a nice day "

But it is SLI compatible, you could get over 500 fps in crysis.

"If you knew how good I am you would think I'm modest."