| advertisement |
Crytek has been busy this month, giving Crysis 2 players a a Directx 11 Ultra Upgrade, allowing the game to use a powerful graphics card's full potential. It also released the cryEngine 3 Sandbox Editor. Crysis 2 players interested in the DX11 upgrade will first have to patch the game to version 1.9 (136MB), before installing the DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade (545MB), and Hi-Res Texture Pack (1.65GB). The texture pack is meant for system with a 64-bit operating system and a GPU with more than 768MB of video memory. Patch v1.9 should update automatically once you start the game while connected to the internet.
New graphics features introduced for CryEngine 3 with the DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade include Hardware Tessellation and Displacement Mapping, Parallax Occlusion Mapping, Hardware-based Occlusion Culling, HDR motion blur and post-processing, Improved Tone Mapping, Improved Water rendering, Interactive Water, Realistic Shadows with Variable Penumbra, Particle Motion Blur and Shadows, Custom Shape Based Bokeh Depth of Field, and Real-time Screen Space Directional Occlusion (contact shadows) on top of the already present SSAO. A new and more complete advanced graphics menu has been added in-game. Also promised, is improved multi-GPU support, which makes us worry about singlecard owners like ourselves.
The new CryEngine 3 Sandbox Editor, allowing them to create their own maps, mods, and content for the game. Giving fair amount of control, Crytek will be providing additional tools with the package, including plugins for maya and 3ds Max, Poly Bump, FMOD Designer, and more. For beginners, sample content has also been provided to help build and edit. The crymod.com mod community has also been re-opened, allowing fellow Crysis 2 modders to share and discuss their work.