FiringSquad interviews Crytek Boss

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

An interesting read, Cervat Yerli talks of future features (surprisingly including 3Dc) and improvements, and current optimizations including for the AMD-64;

<A HREF="http://www.firingsquad.com/features/crytek_far_cry/" target="_new">http://www.firingsquad.com/features/crytek_far_cry/</A>


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[TheRod]

Interesting article!

It gave me one more reason to buy an Athlon 64!

I can't wait to play FarCry, I have it, but my Radeon 8500 is not powerful enough to let me enjoy this beautiful game. It will be the first game I will play with my next system!

--
It's tricky to use words like <b><font color=green>AMD</font color=green></b> or <b><font color=blue>Intel</font color=blue></b> in a signature some users could think your are biased.

 

[HardWareBoss]

Have not read it yet. Did he say anything about patch 1.3?

 

[pauldh]

Thanks, good read. 3Dc was nice to see. Seems to me that patch 1.2 was rushed probably/possibly because of pressure from NV with their cards hitting shelves. I think although they mention it was a performance patch, it should have said NV performance patch. I wonder percentage wise how much testing was done on ATI hardware compared to GF6800. Based on the IQ and performance hit, I'd say too little time for sure. So hopefully with 3Dc and such they are putting some time in on ATI hardware and ATI will gain back all and even more performance than it had in 1.1. I don't think Crytek/Ubi did it on purpose for NV's sake, I think they rushed to help NV performance/IQ bugs and did little testing on ATI hardware.

Also intersting the quote on IQ and SM 2.0. Seems SM3.0 is performance only and SM2 isn't putting limitations on their IQ at all.

Quote: " Yes, and we’re not using more because we don’t need more. If you look at the image quality you can achieve with 2.0 – with 2.0 you can achieve pretty much any quality you want for right now."

All this Farcry talk has me ready to play the game through a second time.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Yep he does make mention of a few features that will be added in 1.3 (like 3Dc and HDR), but he won't go into too much detail because it hasn't been outlined yet, and he also wouldn't provide an expected release date, which isn't surprising considering everyone else's missed dates.

Another interesting quicky interview at TheTechReport with Cervat;

<A HREF="http://techreport.com/etc/2004q3/crytek/index.x?pg=1" target="_new">http://techreport.com/etc/2004q3/crytek/index.x?pg=1</A>

Not as detailed, but some interesting things like the fact that there will be two versions of the 1.2 patch, one with quick save and one without (seems one of the most frustrating things for some [many reviewers mentioned it] was those way points), it will be added to the later release. Also he mentions that he is unaware of any instances where ATI runing FP24 caused artifacts.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[pauldh]

I am sure people will love the quicksaves, but to me they were unneeded. So you have to replay some parts a few times, big wooptie-doo. I never understood why people bashed the game because of a lack of quicksaves. Gave them more chances to improve their skills or try a different route. Anyway, in the end I was thankful for no quicksaves because I would have used them and made the game too short/easy. It was a better challenge without them.




ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Seems to me that patch 1.2 was rushed

Hehe, just posted after yours, hope you check out the second 'blurb' very brief but enlightening, and I think that the statement about their being 2 versions of patch 1.2 does, to me at least, indicate that they probably weren't ready to release what they wanted but that the first release (sans Quicksave) was likely rushed to market to please nV.

Seems SM3.0 is performance only and SM2 isn't putting limitations on their IQ at all.

True but that may change, although from what he said I doubt it would change much. Especially since he doesn't envision stretching the boundaries too much. But we'll see, it'll be interesting to see the impact of the next patch too. Hopefully it doesn't hurt either company's perfromance for the benifit of the other.

All this Farcry talk has me ready to play the game through a second time.

Yeah, the demo was good enough for me. UT2K4, Morrowind and NHL2003 have me occupied (plus all the summer movie release ).

Anywhoo gotta catch a ride, everyone's going out for dinner to celebrate a co-worker going into the clergy. She's always wanted to and is going to remote Alberta. OIE![chocked]

- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[pauldh]

Well, after celebrating, check firingsquads homepage again. They updated their Farcry 3 review with added cards. FX5900XT/R9700 Pro/ GF6800. The XTpe sure did well in their review with the A64 3800+.



ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Thanx it was a nice little get together, kinda short (helps when there's no drinking) but it was nice.

BTW that was supposed to be the <shocked> emoticon. Duh, was hurrying to get outta dodge!

Anywhoo, yeah just checked the review. The occasional good outing by the X800series. This is definitely the top end GF6800s' game, but did you notice the performance of the GF6800 with AA/AF. I was really surprised against the R9800XT. Without AA/AF the GF6800 has a healthy lead, but enable it and alot of the times the R9800XT surpases it. Surprising.

Still waiting for a review by [H]. I'd like to see how they test everything, and what their take is on the negative IQ impact on the ATI cards.

They just did another <A HREF="http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjM1LDE=" target="_new">GF6800 review (GFG OC)</A>, and <A HREF="http://www.hardocp.com/article.html?art=NjM1LDI=" target="_new">even with the 61.34 drivers</A> it had render issues, so it was THE PATCH that fixed the render issues, not the drivers <A HREF="http://forumz.tomshardware.com/hardware/modules.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&p=405368#405368" target="_new">like some people said</A>.

It's because of investigations like that that I like [H]'s reviews, and the histograms really give you a better idea of global performance. The addition of apples to apples comparisons at the end is a nice touch too.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

With all this SM3.0 talk, alot of mentions of Stalker, <A HREF="http://www.gamershell.com/news_BSTALKERBNewTrailers.shtml" target="_new">and just in time for some trailer demo movies</A>.

Like I said before, I'm still not impressed from what I've seen of the graphics, and the jumpy animal movements, but as these two quick movies show, the AI is pretty damn impressive even among the monsters.

Suddenly I have renewed interest, and I'll be interested in seeing if the playable demo's graphics are far more stunning than these compressed movies. The sky did look nice about 30 second into the Zone movie. :lol:


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[pauldh]

Some of the Stalker screenies are amazing though. Especially the distant scenary. I'll have to look into that more later.

By the way, have you tried the Novalogic Joint Operations Demo. I was a big fan of the first Delta Force and even Land Warrior. Once learning the controls and objectives, I thought Joint Ops was alot of fun. Amazingly smooth for 100 players in the game.


ABIT IS7, P4 2.6C, 1GB Corsair XMS 4000 Pro Series, Radeon 9800 Pro, Santa Cruz, TruePower 430watt

 

[Terracide]

TheGreatGrapeApe:
They didn't test the 1.2 patch, so there test is kinda "out-of-date"...
To bad really...

Terracide...

Don't pretend - BE!

 

[entium]

The usual he doesn't look into everything. Most of the time he is driving blind.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I know they didn't test the 1.2 patch, but the statement made by entium was that the 1.1 patch and the 61.34 drivers alone fixed it all, which [H] proves that they didn't.

It WAS ONLY the patch 1.2 that fixed it, that was the point.

It is 'out of date' but not 'out of place' per say.

Don't worry, I know that it's been fixed, however the review just came out yesterday so it's the first chance to show it.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Terracide]

TheGreatGrapeApe:
I won't go into the debate over others, sorry
(no offence intented)

I just think that posting review of FarCRy 1.1, when all others are benching the 1.2 patch is a bit...well...too little...

It dosn't depict the "true" performance as of today, and is therefor (in my book) useless :/
They don't benchmark in DX8 either right?

And [H]ardOCP got to have know the 1.2 patch was imminent?
So why not use it?

And I'll say nothing about them paring a 6800GT(OC'ed) with a X800XT-PE
That's a whole other debate

Terracide...

Don't pretend - BE!

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Now worries man, it's all good.

Yeah, I agree, the review is definitely 'old' by now. It still remains one of the few with IQ comparisons of the 61.34 drivers w/ patch 1.1 (ComputerBase IIRC showed the performance differences by Partial Precision, but new images).

If it weren't for other issues going on I would have only posted the review, and I too would have said that it seems a little anachronistic/archaic now.

In now way would I mention this in a 'current context', other than 'this' is what it looked like, before, and now it's not there. LARS/Borsti did a FAR better job pointing out how IQ has improved dramatically with the new patch, well improved on the GF6800 and somewhat on the FX59xx, decreased in the ATIs of course.

Anywhoo, no offence taken, really it takes more than that, I realize that the past few days have been a little confusing/hectic ofr someone not familiar with the backstory/history of all this.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! - <font color=green>RED </font color=green> <font color=red> GREEN</font color=red> GA to SK

 

[Terracide]

TheGreatGrapeApe:
No problem, I have been here a while, just never arsed myself to post until recently, so I have an idea of what going on, and don't think I need to mingle into that

Terracide...

Don't pretend - BE!