jmke

Yerli and the others see Warhead as sort of a relaunch for the Crysis franchise. For one, Crytek's programmers have spent the last year optimizing and tuning the engine to improve both performance and visuals. For example, Warhead will introduce a new particle system as well as a new global ambient lighting system that boosts the image quality "at almost no performance cost" according to Yerli. Some before-and-after shots show off the new level of detail now achievable, right down to being able to see the grain in a wood plank or pores in human skin. "This is being done in DirectX 9," Yerli noted, which is good news for those who haven't or are unwilling to upgrade to Windows Vista and DirectX 10. And that brings up Crytek's second point, which is that the rest of the PC ecosystem has matured quite a bit since Crysis shipped last year. Since then, Microsoft has released Service Pack 1 for Vista, which improved performance for 3D applications, and graphics hardware companies such as Nvidia have improved their driver support, which is critical for a game like Crysis.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/884/884351p1.html

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