Far Cry 2 the new graphics king?

[BenSkywalker]

If I could take SS and post them from my 360 and titles I have on my pc I would. I cannot see that the 360 has 4xAA. Because even when I'd hooked it up to my pc monitor rather than my tv, on a 24" display it still showed jagged lines on all edges, noticeably jagged.

Some screenies for ya. Figured these killed two birds with one stone. They are comparing Bioshock on the 360 and the PC, not sure how you are saying the PC makes the 360 look ancient(not saying it doesn't look better, but ancient?) oddly enough the one point where the 360 is edging out the PC is in AA, look around the door casing for the most obvious spot.

I don't see how anyone can miss the difference between Bioshock on high settings on a pc vs what you see on a 360.

You used the term ancient, I gave the link to the screenies, people can see for themselves the massive rift in visuals you are talking about in that title.

High resolution, AF, AA, gabs more of raw gpu horsepower in the pc just put the 360s visuals to shame. It's just not capable of what a PC is.

AA the 360 up to 4x has a huge hardware edge over PCs, it isn't even close, for AF the PS3 is superior to your current 4870x2(not that the PS3 is great, just the 4870 is straight trash for base texture filtering). Raw shader power and fillrate current GPUs have a huge edge, just like they did over the PS2 for PC hardware that couldn't dream of running GT4.

The 360 is a nice machine I like it.

I'd say it's garbage, hands down the weakest choice for a console this gen, but you know, you say tomato I own all the platforms as I play for the games, not for the machine. As a gaming machine the 360 is certainly inferior to the PS3 or Wii(for very different reasons), but that would limit exclusives from being in my grasp.

And excels at sports games I find. But as far as visuals, it's a far cry from anything you see on a pc.

This is what I'm looking for, games on the PC that show this huge edge(if what you see in Bioshock is what you consider huge....). Crysis is the only one I've seen that I would say can clearly differentiate itself from the current console games, and even then compared to RE5/KZ2 it doesn't seem to be that far ahead.

They'd need elevators all over the island so that Xbox360's memory could handle it. And it would have massive pop in. Soldiers would appear 3 feet from you.

Do not underestimate the HUGE performance edge of writing code directly to the hardware gives you.

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

They'd need elevators all over the island so that Xbox360's memory could handle it. And it would have massive pop in. Soldiers would appear 3 feet from you.

Do not underestimate the HUGE performance edge of writing code directly to the hardware gives you.

I was making fun of Mass Effect. If you haven't played the game, it took several significant design modifications to make it work properly on the Xbox 360.

Most console games fall into the same trap, look at the Halo series, shitty textures, bland environments, all because the Xbox360 cannot handle a lot of various high-res textures.

Look at Deus Ex 2, cut the environment into tiny areas so that consoles could handle each area without issues.

It's an extremely common theme in the console world. It doesn't necessarily make for bad games, but it shows a severe short coming of the hardware.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Most console games fall into the same trap, look at the Halo series, shitty textures, bland environments, all because the Xbox360 cannot handle a lot of various high-res textures.

Look at Deus Ex 2, cut the environment into tiny areas so that consoles could handle each area without issues.

It's an extremely common theme in the console world. It doesn't necessarily make for bad games, but it shows a severe short coming of the hardware.

No, it shows how sub par the typical PC devs are when dealing with fixed hardware. Don't confuse the two. Check out what Capcom, Insomniac or Naughty Dog's top dev teams can do the current consoles- they are FAR more talented at extracting performance out of consoles(some assembly always required ).

 

[skace]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
No, it shows how sub par the typical PC devs are when dealing with fixed hardware. Don't confuse the two. Check out what Capcom, Insomniac or Naughty Dog's top dev teams can do the current consoles- they are FAR more talented at extracting performance out of consoles(some assembly always required ).

Fair enough, however I was only looking at it from the perspective of games that had they been made exclusively for the PC would have turned out differently.

 

[badnewcastle]

The requirements hint that Crysis is more demanding at least a step up from the Far Cry 2 requirements...

Crysis mins...

Far Cry 2 mins...

I've also read that Far cry 2 will not be as demanding.

Differences:

Pentium D 2.8 Cyrsis vs. Pentium D 2.66 (min)
Core 2 Duo 2.2Ghz for Crysis vs. Core 2 Duo Family for Far Cry 2 (Recommended)

6800GT 256MB vs. 6800 256MB for Far Cry 2 (min)
8800 GTS for Crysis vs. 8600 GTS for Far Cry 2 (Recommended)

 

[nitromullet]

I can certainly see why the "4xAA" is free on the 360...

http://www.firingsquad.com/med.../orangebox_oct9/04.jpg

http://www.firingsquad.com/med.../orangebox_oct9/06.jpg

http://www.firingsquad.com/new...cle.asp?searchid=17772 (article index)

I've been considering a 360 lately, but screen shots like that concern me.

 

[ghost recon88]

Originally posted by: nitromullet
I can certainly see why the "4xAA" is free on the 360...

http://www.firingsquad.com/med.../orangebox_oct9/04.jpg

http://www.firingsquad.com/med.../orangebox_oct9/06.jpg

http://www.firingsquad.com/new...cle.asp?searchid=17772 (article index)

I've been considering a 360 lately, but screen shots like that concern me.

QFT! Console systems will never have the graphics horsepower that the latest greatest PC components.

And back to the original question, the physics in Far Cry 2 look insane!

Check out these video clips:

E3 trailer
Immersion trailer

 

[Jax Omen]

@Ben Skywalker

Yeah, I'd consider the difference between PC High and 360 to be quite significant, as demonstrated in your link. the 360 textures look flat by comparison, the water looks terrible, and the fog is nonexistant.

 

[Munky]

I don't care how it looks compared to Crysis. I'd much rather have open-ended gameplay with good-enough graphics than a rail shooter with the graphics performance of 3dmock.

 

[BenSkywalker]

I can certainly see why the "4xAA" is free on the 360.

It is free due to the 10MB eDRAM, it is always 'free' in terms of performance. Valve is, at best, a third rate developer in the console space(EA tends to whip them). Yes, it appears that they failed to enable free AA on a VERY low quality graphics game for NO performance hit. Given that consoles require assembly code to extract optimal performance, that should give you a good idea of why PC devs are largely laughed at in the console space.

Yeah, I'd consider the difference between PC High and 360 to be quite significant, as demonstrated in your link. the 360 textures look flat by comparison, the water looks terrible, and the fog is nonexistant.

Hmm, 360 is showing heavier fog for me, much heavier actually(not better, just heavier- I do think the PCs fog looks more accurate). You failed to talk about the horrific AA on the PC when compared to the 360 though. Why is that? The insane power of the PC falling down against the ancient 360? Or is that a feature of the PC, displaying more aliasing now one of the benefits of the all powerful PC?

 

[Coldkilla]

No.

 

[shortylickens]

I had a 360 briefly and only rented games for it.

One of the few I enjoyed was Test Drive Unlimited. It looked pretty darn nice on the 360. I pruchased it for Windows.

My 7800GT made it look a little better. When I traded it in for a 7900GTX it was much better.
Higher framerates and slightly better quality, mostly because I could customize the anti-aliasing and anisotropic filtering in a profile under the nvidia control panel.

With my Radeon 4870 I can go all the way up to 2048x1536 on my computer monitor.

The Xbox 360 sure as hell cant do that. And even if it could no TV can handle that resolution.

Saw a friend playing Mass Effect and that too is much better on my computer. Too bad they dumbed it down for console crowd.

 

[EvilComputer92]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

I can certainly see why the "4xAA" is free on the 360.

It is free due to the 10MB eDRAM, it is always 'free' in terms of performance. Valve is, at best, a third rate developer in the console space(EA tends to whip them). Yes, it appears that they failed to enable free AA on a VERY low quality graphics game for NO performance hit. Given that consoles require assembly code to extract optimal performance, that should give you a good idea of why PC devs are largely laughed at in the console space.

Yeah, I'd consider the difference between PC High and 360 to be quite significant, as demonstrated in your link. the 360 textures look flat by comparison, the water looks terrible, and the fog is nonexistant.

Hmm, 360 is showing heavier fog for me, much heavier actually(not better, just heavier- I do think the PCs fog looks more accurate). You failed to talk about the horrific AA on the PC when compared to the 360 though. Why is that? The insane power of the PC falling down against the ancient 360? Or is that a feature of the PC, displaying more aliasing now one of the benefits of the all powerful PC?

Halo 3 also lacks any form of AA.


screenshot

This combined the with fact it runs at 1138x640 really shows the jaggies when playing. If the AA is free why does Halo 3, the 360s premier exclusive, lack AA.

 

[CottonRabbit]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
You failed to talk about the horrific AA on the PC when compared to the 360 though. Why is that? The insane power of the PC falling down against the ancient 360? Or is that a feature of the PC, displaying more aliasing now one of the benefits of the all powerful PC?

Are you comparing AA in the Bioshock comparison you linked? If so, I don't know how you can see AA differences in 570x320 pics. Besides that, they never mention what AA level the PC version is using and the author even says:

the PC still offers higher resolutions and extreme anti-aliasing support.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Halo 3 also lacks any form of AA.

screenshot

This combined the with fact it runs at 1138x640 really shows the jaggies when playing. If the AA is free why does Halo 3, the 360s premier exclusive, lack AA.

Here are a bunch of screenies. Looks to me like IGN messed up resizing images a few times, Halo 3 is quite clearly using AA, rather well too.

If so, I don't know how you can see AA differences in 570x320 pics.

I wouldn't be able to unless there wasn't a shockingly bad example of aliasing, which there is on the PC shot(door casing, right hand side).

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker

I can certainly see why the "4xAA" is free on the 360.

It is free due to the 10MB eDRAM, it is always 'free' in terms of performance. Valve is, at best, a third rate developer in the console space(EA tends to whip them). Yes, it appears that they failed to enable free AA on a VERY low quality graphics game for NO performance hit. Given that consoles require assembly code to extract optimal performance, that should give you a good idea of why PC devs are largely laughed at in the console space.

You failed to talk about the horrific AA on the PC when compared to the 360 though. Why is that? The insane power of the PC falling down against the ancient 360? Or is that a feature of the PC, displaying more aliasing now one of the benefits of the all powerful PC?

You can't argue both sides of this. I can see that Valve is probably not the best console developer so the lack of AA on the 360 version of TF2 is not the platform's fault, but the developer's. By the same token the lack of AA on the PC version of Bioshock is also the developer's fault, and can not be attributed to the platform. It is pretty well known that any modern PC graphics card can do AA if it's possible with the game's engine.

The difference between the two platforms is that on the PC in some cases you can force AA even when the developer didn't implement direct support for it, and in cases where there is support for it a PC with the right graphics card can conceivably run much higher levels of AA than a 360.

 

[BenSkywalker]

You can't argue both sides of this. I can see that Valve is probably not the best console developer so the lack of AA on the 360 version of TF2 is not the platform's fault, but the developer's. By the same token the lack of AA on the PC version of Bioshock is also the developer's fault, and can not be attributed to the platform. It is pretty well known that any modern PC graphics card can do AA if it's possible with the game's engine.

Actually all of the current GPUs in PCs could AA any game, with or without engine support, if it was enabled at the driver level to work around rendering techniques, they don't have that enabled atm due to the performance hit(4x would always be a 400% increase in load). I was pointing out that particular one as some others in this very thread brought up the superior quality and AA of Bioshock on the PC, thought that was a bit amusing

 

[450R]

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
[...]

Hey, that's great. Can we get back to Far Cry 2 now? Thanks.

Personally, the graphics are more than acceptable and the gameplay looks even better. This is the kind of game I have no problem paying full price for because of the replayability factor.

 

[ConstipatedVigilante]

Originally posted by: 450R

Originally posted by: BenSkywalker
[...]

Hey, that's great. Can we get back to Far Cry 2 now? Thanks.

Personally, the graphics are more than acceptable and the gameplay looks even better. This is the kind of game I have no problem paying full price for because of the replayability factor.

Exactly. Crysis got a bit stale for me after the aliens arrived because it just lost a lot of its free roaming appeal (which was actually fairly limited). The idea of being able to burn down a forest, having your vehicles and equipment break down, and being able to properly track enemies makes me think of Crysis with a bit of a random factor thrown in - and without the pesky aliens.

 

[nitromullet]

Originally posted by: ConstipatedVigilante

Exactly. Crysis got a bit stale for me after the aliens arrived because it just lost a lot of its free roaming appeal (which was actually fairly limited). The idea of being able to burn down a forest, having your vehicles and equipment break down, and being able to properly track enemies makes me think of Crysis with a bit of a random factor thrown in - and without the pesky aliens.

I'm hoping that FC2 will still have a FC1 feel though. Crysis was very much the successor to FC1, which is one of the reasons I really liked it. I really hope they didn't RPG up FC2 too much. I've already bought it on Steam, so I guess I'll just have to see.

 

[GodlessAstronomer]

Originally posted by: skyofavalon
Fight Night rd 3 ,Mass Effect, hold a candle.Wrex in in Mass Effect looks better than anything in Crysis.

Mass Effect is an awesome game but graphically it's not even in the same league as Crysis.

 

[skace]

I think the argument over whether 360 / PC looks good is largely silly if you guys are going to use screenshots from sites like Gamespot. If you are going to compare games, do them with your own machines, where you know what settings you've set, you know the images aren't compressed and you know they haven't been modified in photoshop.

The part I keep kicking myself for is not remembering to link to any of the Crysis realism photos from my home PC. Because frankly, once those get linked, the argument is closed.

 

[MarcVenice]

I think some of you should take a look at S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky, and how awesome it looks if you turn on all the eye-candy. It will be less demanding then Crysis, with a gtx280 being able to handle Clear Sky at 1920*1280 pretty well. I wonder if Far Cry 2 is going to beat either Clear Sky or Crysis: Warhead in terms of graphics. It'll look nice, but better, we'll have to see.

 

[skace]

I had to run Clear Sky at medium details, oddly enough. However, I got to keep dynamic lightning on, which is easily the best part

 

[SniperDaws]

lmao, i just got a PS3 and i have to say only the cartoony games like Ratchet and clank and Tekken look anygood on it, that thing that is Grand turismo Epilogue looks like shit simple as that. i like both the pc and ps3 but the pc's games are by far more complex and more detailed.

This statment doesnt work with Consoles though-

You would think common sense would be enough to make a person realize that 2 year-old hardware is simply not as good as current hardware.

Because although there is a head limit with Graphics for the Xbox360 and ps3 they are no where near hitting it and software titles will continue to look better and better as time goes by until the head limit is reached and by then the next consoles will be round the corner.

Why oh why cant we have Tekken style games on the pc ill never know.