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Crysis
Author: Joe MartinPublished: 16th November 2007
Revenge of The Graphical Analysis!
So far we’ve looked at the graphical presets available to players as well as four of the different settings, all of which have four options in them. I’m almost screenshotted out, but I’ll push on for you guys because there’s still a few more options to look at.One of the odd things about Crysis in my opinion is that it seems to have some areas which are skimmed over graphically that stand out as being particularly bad only because the rest of the game is so lushly rendered. An example of this would be the gunners who stand inside the enemy jeeps and fire their machine guns at you.
They’re fairly easy to take out and, as you might have predicted, my favourite method is just to get behind them and put a silenced pistol round in their heads. Richard prefers to just have a fist-fight with the car itself, I bet.
What makes these guys so odd though is that when they die the slump realistically in the car, which you naturally then steal and drive off in as soon as the driver hops out to shoot you. When you drive off in the car however, the dead enemy remains in the same position forever. Obviously, to expect him to ragdoll around as you perform complicated moves with the car is pretty ridiculous – but you do end up expecting that anyway, mainly because the graphics and physics everywhere else can be so fantastic.
It’s at times like that that it’s important to remember that Crysis may be a massive step forward graphically, but it’s still not perfect and nor should we expect it to be. Anybody who seriously criticises something like that should be laughed out of town.
Particle Effects
Particle effects are things like the amount of debris kicked up when you shoot a surface, so that’s what we did to test it. Normally, I’d bag a headshot every time (or so I tell myself), but for this setting I ended up shooting the ground for a good five minutes.
Left to right: particle effects quality on Low, Medium, High and Very High settings.
This is something which is quite hard to screenshot consistently unless you’ve got the reflexes of a cat, so, although I’ve done my best, you may have to take these screenshots with a small pinch of salt.
The difference between the settings is pretty obvious though – the higher the setting, the more impressive the debris is. It’s not just about the size and height of the dirt-spray, though that is a factor. It’s also about the complexity of the spray and the main reason that the higher settings look better is because they use more complex particles and more colours.
It’s pretty impressive to see this effect in full-action at times, especially if you’re hiding behind some metal or wooden cover and the enemy spray some lead your way and chew your cover to pieces. That’s the main reason you’ll want to push this setting as high as you can – but don’t you dare lower that shader quality setting just to see a little more dirt on screen! I mean it!
Water Quality
Last, but definitely not least is the water quality. There’s a fair few parts of the game where you’ll be near water, either near the sea or a river or in a boat. One of my favourite things about the game is that it fences players in sensibly and, unlike Far Cry which would have you hunted down by invincible helicopters if you went too far out to sea, Crysis uses something more clever.Namely, sharks. First they start circling you as a warning, but push further on and they’ll move in for the kill to stop you going too far. Anyway, lets look at the screenshots, m’kay?
Left to right: water quality on Low, Medium, High and Very High settings.
The differences here don’t even need to be pointed it’s so obvious, but I’ll do it anyway because Tim pays me to do so.
On the low settings the water looks... well, it looks crappy to be blunt. The water is flat, uninteresting and almost mono-colour. Medium is a whole lot better and easily more than passable for most players, but on High and Very High we get a chance to see what the engine can really do. The game suddenly looks a magnificent, with crystal clear water, realistic colouring and fantastic dynamic light refraction under the waves.
The difference between High and Very High is subtle, but worthwhile and making the jump to the highest setting will make the water altogether more realisitic. The seams between land and water are much less obvious and the waves roll more fluidly and soothingly. It's really quite calming. On top of that the edges are a lot softer, making the Very High setting clearly worth the push.
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