The first Crysis represented the benchmark of PC gaming when it released, but with Crysis 2 also on consoles, the game has been watered down – so much in fact, that its resolution is lower than that of the original Crysis.
They could have gone for 4k by 4k resolution textures all around you if they wanted,thats not CE3 fault.Problem is that you can't make textures for PC AND for consoles.It costs money and it costs time...
Actually, in both middleware packages I use, you can adjust the texture size by build target...
But that is besides the point, earlier today I was marveling at a steel door in C2 that had some sort of normal map on it, that lined up perfectly with the texture, and it was seamless... It looked almost just like you would expect a steel door to look, and I was never able to get close enough to see the texture filtering, on that particular texture.
In any case, I marvel at their craftsmanship on this game, although I have only played it on console.
Anyhow... There are some older video cards, and in particular video card drivers *cough* intel *cough* that are limited to 2k textures, and they probably wanted the game to work on the widest variety of computers. You know money grubbing and all that...
Finally, I am sorry... for all the elipeses... in my... post... Crysis 2 kept me up way past my bedtime last night...
Edit: In Unity and Unreal you can target your texture pipline to build target. So if you are targeting the iPhone say, you put puny little textures in, but if you are targeting say a console or PC, you can put giant textures in.
The problem with giant textures is the state changes. There are certain conditions on PC video cards that cause the whole texture to be resent to the video card, like say, changing the render state, and you start to have bandwidth issues over even the PCIX buss...
That is my non-computer-engineer understanding of the issue, I only ever work with middleware, so I don't know exactly what is happening under the hood.
still have not open mine yet... no DX11 no attention span...
it cost money, right... wtf happen to us PC gamers? Crysis1... we supported you Crytek! i hope DX11 save this game, cuz if not... gonna look in to recreating Crysis2 with Crysis1 sand box editor..
Crysis1 an Metro 2033.. still the benchmarks for PC..
core PC gaming is more or less becoming a cult gaming audience...and there really is nothing that can be done about it...
development costs for a game like Crysis 1 or 2...or killzone 2 or 3...or any other technological storm runner...are insanely high...and only getting worse...the more detail a game has, the more expensive it is to create...
so the only thing left to do is spread it out to as many possible users as possible...unless of course its being paid for by a hardware manufacture (in this case Sony with the killzone franchise, thats the only one like that)...but the problem with that is you have to scale the game to those particular platforms, not build 3 specific renderer's that take full advantage of all hardware architectures...do that and you are right back where you started...
case and point is crysis 2...there is no doubt its been 'dumbed' down to run on consoles...and was STILL a massive undertaking costing as much as any big AAA modern shooter (probably 50 million+)...its just now they have about 10x the audience than they do with PC gamers, at least PC gamers that have a rig capable of running it to a degree where its much better than consoles...
we can argue the price of a capable PC all day...how 'you can do it for under $1000' etc. etc. But it doesn't change the fact that consoles are simply easier, and more readily available...and still cheaper...You would be hard pressed to build a full gaming PC that can out run a 360 or PS3 for Crysis 2...for $300...
You can also argue that this is all console maker's fault...that PC gamers don't get games that blow everything away all the time because they have to fit them on consoles too...but that doesn't work either...because of there were enough PC gamer's to pay for a massive development budget, they wouldn't need to span it out across consoles also...
^^you mention that 'we supported crytek' for crysis 1...you...and like 10 others dude...seriously Crysis 1 would have sold 5x as many if it was on consoles also...Crysis 2 will sell on consoles at the very least 2x that of the PC...and that is a very very conservative estimate...
the simple fact is that you no longer HAVE to have a PC to play the best games anymore...since the consoles have been fully connected with online gaming networks...there is no must have feature that only a PC has...sure its more open, and therefor more powerful...but its always more expensive, always more difficult to keep up with, and overall less appealing to even hardcore gamers for the past 5-6 years...
wow...you pc elitists have to smarten up, the difference isnt THAT BIG, thats honestly just being extremely picky, like, the game still looks phenomenal on the PC, so be happy, jeez.
I know this is a little disappointing. I'm still playing on PC right now, and some of the textures are noticeably low res, but it's not that bad. Besides, isn't part of this due to their new method of texturing? Remember? Let's say there's a big brick wall. Instead of having one giant texture for the wall and then repeating areas, they layer two textures over each other to create more diversity and detail in the environment. It doesn't do much for texture resolution, but for the environment, it works really well, I think.
Yes, they could have used higher res textures for the PC version but chose not to. Metro 2033 for example uses quadruple texture res on PC (2Kx2K on PC, 1Kx1K on 360).
Its using direct x 9 for everyone right now. The diffrence in direct x9 and 10 crysis was huge. The fact that crysis 2 doesnt have direct x 10 or 11 is a total joke.Battlefield 3 isnt even supporting direct x 9 its a joke. Pc is stuck with direct x 9 because thats all consoles can do. Direct x 10 and 11 cards are far more advanced than that old crap thats why crysis 2 is a joke. Direct x9 is way back i dont even remember what graphics cards was running that.
This article falls squarely under the "I don't care" category. Interesting, yes. Relevent, no. It's still the best looking of ALL console games. Great job Crytek. Keep it up.
Twas obvious to me that the texture resolutions were lower after just a few minutes of playing the game. Walking up to billboards or looking at number plates, getting close to brick walls etc made that very clear.
The game is kind of like Crysis with all the settings maxed, improved lighting, but texture setting set to medium.
Course this is why the game runs better! There is no wide use of 2048 x 2048 textures like the first two games- most of them are probably 1024 x 1024 by the looks of it. If someone patched in the higher res textures the game deserves, it would likely impact performance and memory usage heavily- although most of the high end cards have bags of headroom going by my performance on the game.
Then, the game would look absolutely incredible....
This can't be blamed on consoles. That's just like blaming consoles for the lack of DX11. If Crytek wanted to do do it, they could have. Heck; they could have transferred C1's Character textures into C2... but they didn't.
Its obviously to be blamed on console... at least directly as a result of the transition. The textures have been created and sized to fit into console memory. This would simply not have happened if the game was developed as a PC centric title, instead its a console game with console assets thrown onto PC with minimal improvements.
Clearly we know PC can handle much better, but with the massive distractions involved in making the game run on a new engine for consoles then they simply neglected the PC version.
The clearest case of catering and developing for the lowest common denominator for some time.
If this isn't obvious to you, then you probably should stop reading N4G altogether, give up gaming and go find another hobby.
I have to agree. For me, it's the amazing jungles of Cry 1 that still makes it look like one of the best games around. Cry 1's graphics are still unmatched in many ways, and it's sad to see that Crysis 2 was "consolized"
I haven't seen Crysis 2 on PC, but surely more could have been done with it if not for it coming to consoles
Still, note you are comparing one picture. There is still a lot Crysis 2 probably does better in different areas, but I haven't really been following the game to notice. I was still more impressed with Crysis 1 shots.
Battlefield 3 is probably the one game I can think of that is doing the opposite, for once. At least we will get a proper PC sequel with DICE
BF3 will be the first game to kind of start the next generation...and from then on its pretty realistic to think that the PC will then be getting a version of a multiplatform game that can not be done on consoles...
i'm not talking about resolution...or AA...I mean a game on PC that is noticeably bigger in every way from its console counterpart...
ridiculous PC hardware is not cheap enough, and therefor in circulation enough for developers to start really leaving consoles behind...up until around now, PC hardware was significantly strong enough to out pace a console...but not in ways that the game could be considerably more complex...
It isn't just the look. Personality goes a long way. Crysis Warhead had some personality due to the lead character. You get none of that from Crysis 2. I have had to force myself to slug through it as it is because the game is, and here come the disagrees, a borefest.
Crysis Warhead had a grit to it and the ability to associate with the character you played because he wasn't made of wood.
As a gamer it is beneficial to have something on which to latch. Games give you varying degrees of this feature. Just Cause 2 was a game that could have benefited from 10 times the number of comments from Rico while he was going about his "job". But that game still has so much more character than Crysis 2.
There is little worse in gaming than getting a new title and then feeling the need to yawn and re-box it after a couple of levels for a later, more desperate time.
Crysis 1 looks better because you're surrounded by the jungle, the greens of the trees and the blue waters will obviously look nicer compared to Crysis 2 which is a grey, city affair. Although I do agree it has been consolized, but then Crytek are a business and they'll probably double their revenue by releasing on consoles.
Honestly can't say i'm surprised. It seems Crytek are all talk. Their game looks great, but they haven't beat all console games and the haven't beat Pc games. Not even their own game.
I am disappointed, Crytek promised this wouldn't happen.
Not the greatest advert for the Cryengine either.