MMMMmmmm Foliage. 8)

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

Just looking at the recent screenies from Oblivion (1 week 1 day to go 8) ) and was thinking, if this foliage is deformable/interactive this is going to be one heck of a vertex heavy game.

Take a look at this stuff an consider how it compares to FartCry's heavy vertex load;

It'll be interesting to see the difference between similar pixel power cards that have different geometry capabilities.

 

[Action_Man]

It needs AA. It does look nice, shame it can't have HDR and AA at the same time.

 

[cleeve]

The X1x00 series can do AA & HDR at the same time, it's only Nvidia's chipsets that are limited to no AA & OpenEXR at the same time.

I believe Grape mentioned that the creators of Oblivion are making a "non-OpenEXR' path for Nvidia cards that will allow some form of HDR & AA with 6x00/7x00 cards.

But those are some damn fine screenies, nonetheless.

 

[Heyyou27]

I need my workaround! :lol:
I won't be buying Oblivion, simply because I have too many games I don't play as it is.

 

[Vokofpolisiekar]

You can say that again - if there was a hibernation period in the PC games industry, I'd be over stocked for 3 years!!!

Nonetheless, Oblivion is the RPG I have been waiting for for a LONG time - I just love games that use dynamic situations and AI plus the graphics are supperb (nice benchmarking if you ask me) - I'd rather buy such a game wiht near infinite replayability than FPS with one shot gaming principle.

Although, STALKER is also something with dynamic environments and AI - so I'll make an exception....

 

[Acert93]

Still sad self shadowing got turned off 🙁

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I believe Grape mentioned that the creators of Oblivion are making a "non-OpenEXR' path for Nvidia cards that will allow some form of HDR & AA with 6x00/7x00 cards.

Yes that is what the developers eluded to. Of course no definite stuff, and those statements were even prior to the Xbox launch so something may have changed if it was buggy (although they said it was a radiant AI bug more than anything [monste/foes killing off main NPCs and entire villages on their own before you even had a chance to use them in your quest]).

But those are some damn fine screenies, nonetheless.

Yeah I wonder the settings for that, but it does look like Max resolution no AA/AF. I just wonder whether the foliage and ground cover do the 'spontaneous appearance' thing like in the Vulpine benchmark or whether it has great enough draw distance that you don't seee green mounds suddenly porut rocks and features as you get closer.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I won't be buying Oblivion, simply because I have too many games I don't play as it is.

Yeah I understand, Oblivion is only for people who can clear off a good chunk of their gaming schedule IMO. Morrowind has caputred well over 1,000 hours of my gaming time, and with the communiy's mods it 's just ridiculous. Oblivivon may or may not be as engrossing/demanding, but if you aren't ready for it possibly being so, you might be in trouble.

I finihsed up some of the games I have been putting on hold, and others are just going to have to wait. I hate the timing of Oblivion though because ski season is still going for another 2 months! :?

 

[Action_Man]

I'm pretty sure that because of the way they implemented HDR even the X1k series can't do it with AA, just bloom and AA or something like that. Need to read it again.

 

[parlee]

id go with skiing 😀 since a "decent" laptop that will play oblivion at fps/detail settings that would make the game worth playing ur talkin bout 3k+ for a laptop, and 2 months of sking is argrably more fun 😱

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

no worries just get a decent laptop and when you not skiing play the game. of course you might not be able to afford both but ask yourself, whats more important.

Well right now, I have an OK laptop in the Gateway (X700 + PM1.73GHZ with 2GB DDR2-667[@533]), it should handle the minimum requirements for Oblivion, where I can do the mundane stuff like talking to people, collecting items, etc. Of course it would be nice to upgrade.

All my major skiing expenses are done 2 season passes, all the ski gear I want (bought new skiis+bindings [total 4 now], new Karbon jacket, new helmet, new gloves), so at this point it's just gas money ($10-25 per trip [depending on solo or with people]). For me the expensive times of the year for skiing are beginning of the season (passes and repair/purchase gear) and at the end of the season when the gear sales are on.

Considering how powerful laptops are getting without necessarily going to the desktop replacement category, I'm hopefully I can find an all-in-one solution by the end of the summer or fall when the Merom and X2-Turions come out.

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

I hate the timing of Oblivion though because ski season is still going for another 2 months! :?

That's cuz your in Canada you lucky dog! It was 78F (26C) down here in Pennsylvania today. It was beautiful but too early for such nice weather (and severe thunderstorms tonight, hooray! 😱 . I love storms.)

T-storms are pretty wicked, especially coming across the lake. In Calgary we get a very VERY rare phenomenon called Thunder-Blizzards. Because the conditions for snow and thunderstorms are usually so extreme they don't occur at the same time (seemingly imporssible), it's seen as a rare occasion. However because of our location we get chinooks which bring 20C+/70F+ temperatures in the middle of January/February or 0C/40F temps in the middle of July! Crazy weather. So it's not just the weather in Canada, but the mountains is great for long seasons. Last ski day is May 24 (pronounced two-four for obvious reasons) with the Slush Cup at Sunshine Resort. Always great day to ski in your shorts.

That game is beautiful looking. It looks like if you wanna play that at max quality your gonna need a 7900/1900. It'll be an interesting benchmark. This is one of the games being talked about that could put ATI's cards in the lead, right? One of the shader heavy games?

It will be interesting, the X1900 does have some advanatages especially in the vertex department, but the GF7900 has some interesting culling abilities as well. Overall based on what the developers said, I'd say it will favour the X1900, but who knows now with the nice refresh on the GF7900.

I'd also like to see what all this CPU offloading stuff is they keep talking about, perhaps the vertex side won't be as demanding on multi-threaded/cpu rigs after all. As always we'll need to wait and see.

Just 7 more days!