Simplified TG2 - VIDEO

[dhavalmistry]

doesnt DX10 software require DX10 compatible videocard??

[DiscoBall]

OMG. Perhaps in 20 years time when we all have incredibly fast plastic processors we will be able to use TG2 like that.

..Plastic you say? lol

In 20 years time we will be able to actually PLAY in Crysis environments - virtual world

Uhh also, DX10 software does require a DX10 compatible videocard, but Crysis has been made to be kinda like backwards compatible - it can go on Dx 9.0c. Sorta like emulating

[dhavalmistry]

ya I hope its DX9 quality is same as DX10

[absolutehavok]

*

[xanga433]

2.8gHz minimum? Gah!! *thud*

[king_tiger_666]

a single 8800gtx ran crysis beautifully and was shown at one of the press releases where they showed you blowing the palm trees in half.
the other cool feature is if you run through bush the leaves bend around you with proper physics.

[ProjectX]

It does have global illumination I think...I know it has Parallax Occlusion Mapping and Ambient Lighting..so they may be.alternatives

As for King tiger, I thought it's only been 3 months late? It was scheduled for Q1 2007 I remember, as I remember having wishes of getting it on New Years

Parrallax mapping is a form of normal mapping, but it allows for generating actual geometry from a texture (or is that displacement mapping - could even be both). Ambient lighting is NOT global illumination. Ambient lighting just lights the area (without casting shadows) by a certain amount, Unreal Tournament 1999 had ambient lighting, quake might even have ambient lighting, I can't remember. Global illumination seems to calculate light reflection off of surfaces and (certainly in TG2) the effect of the atmosphere on sunlight, whereas that would instead be faked by an artist in crysis.

BTW> one of the main progblems with the preview window may be occlusion. Occlusion is a pass (a calculation of the scene) in which it works out what to render and what's invisible. Since Terragen generates entire planets that's a lot to occlude, and calculating all of that on the fly just isn't possible at the moment.

And then once it's done the occlusion, it's gotta actually render your scene! All things considered, the preview is pretty damn fast.

[Oshyan]

Crysis is indeed very impressive and I think many in the landscape design and rendering industry should be looking at it for inspiration. It is not so important to look at what they achieve in realtime in terms of render quality and effects; although that is very impressive, it is possible only because of a great deal of previous work done by artists to create all the shaders, tree models, etc. and much of it would not be applicable to your own custom scene - in other words you work within the limitations of what others have created previously. More important is the ease of use in modifying the scene which they have enabled - everything from terrain modeling to vegetation placement, including instancing.

Although I think it is doubtful we will get to quite this level in the initial TG2 release, it is certainly our goal to achieve a similar ease of use in editing. Terragen's traditional strengths in its rendering engine and atmospherics will of course remain and continue to improve as well.

- Oshyan