X-bit labs

FarCry 1.3: Crytek’s Last Play Brings HDR and 3Dc for the First Time

Category: Video

by Anton Shilov , Alexey Stepin, Yaroslav Lyssenko

[ 11/02/2004 | 09:45 AM ]

FarCry title and its engine proved to be the most technologically advanced released in 2004 so far. The game that has been in development since 2001 eventually acquired support for technologies that still have to make it into the mainstream market, the Shaders 2.0b/3.0, HDR and 3Dc. They say the patch 1.3 is the last patch for the FarCry, but it brings loads of important innovations and we decided that we should pay them a great deal of attention.

Table of contents:

• Introduction
  
• HDR: Each Good Thing Needs a Proper Implementation
  
• What is HDR?
  
• HDR and Hardware
  
• FarCry Gets HDR
  
• 3Dc: Get the Speed, Admire Under Microscope
  
• So, what is 3Dc and Normal Maps Compression?
  
• FarCry and Compression of Normals
  
• Testbeds and Methods
  
• Image Quality Comparison: But Does it Matter?
  
• Performance
  
• HDR: A Costly Thing, a Work for SLI
  
• Normal Map Compression: 3Dc at Work
  
• 3Dc Impact, Pure Speed
  
• 3Dc Impact, Eye Candy Mode
  
• FarCry version 1.3: Out-of-box performance
  
• Training Level, Pure Mode
  
• Training Level, Eye Candy Mode
  
• Research Level, Pure Mode
  
• Research Level, Eye Candy Mode
  
• Pier Level, Pure Mode
  
• Pier Level, Eye Candy Mode
  
• Regulator Level, Pure Mode
  
• Regulator Level, Eye Candy Mode
  
• Volcano Level, Pure Mode
  
• Volcano Level, Eye Candy Mode
  
• Conclusion
  
• Technologies
  
• Performance
  

Introduction

Weeks before the most-anticipated game of all times – the Half-Life 2 – hits the market Crytek, a second-tier game developer, has updated the most visually attractive game released so far – FarCry – with some new capabilities and finally officially enabled Shader Models 2.0b and 3.0 in the engine. The innovations that Crytek provides today are High Dynamic Range (lighting) rendering and 3Dc normal compression: both are likely to be used in future titles and the majority of such titles are expected to run on future hardware.

For Crytek there was a number of reasons to release he FarCry patch 1.3:

• Correct bugs;
• Improve performance of current high-end hardware;
• Improve image quality with conventional rendering;
• Implement innovative technologies that bring additional eye-candy and performance enhancements;
• Implement technologies that are likely to be used in future titles based on the FarCry engine.

Crytek has achieved all of its goals, today we are here to evaluate performance gains, image quality and also find out whether the astonishing High Dynamic Range lighting brings performance down and how much.

Currently neither HDR nor 3Dc are officially supported capabilities, Crytek notes that they are on the beta stage of testing and does not provide any warranties on those techs. Answering on the question whether FarCry has a future the company’s officials say that the company is already working on a new engine and a new game project. This means that the true and correct implementation of HDR, 3Dc and some other technologies will be available only in future titles from Crytek, which will be released by EA Games, not UbiSoft, or in upcoming games running FarCry Engine.