Crysis Graphics
From Crysis - inCrysis Wiki
Crysis is one of the first few games with native support for the DirectX 10 API. It is one among Call of Juarez, Lost Planet, and Company of Heroes (patched revision) as a first generation DirectX 10 computer game.
The CryEngine 2 boasts many impressive graphical features, some of which include:
Depth of Field - Blurs objects which are out of focus. Anything the player looks at (aiming) will be focused on. The blur amount also changes depending on the situation. For example, blur is increased when using iron sights or when modifying your weapon, but returns to a subtle level when back to regular gameplay.
HDR Lighting - Simulates the effect of bright light on the human eye. When areas are bright, the 'eye' will adjust to dim the scene so that things are clearer, like our real eyes.
Day and Night Cycle - All lighting on every object in Crysis is dynamic (no pre-generated lighting), so night and day transitions smoothly and accurately from dawn, noon, dusk and midnight, in real time. There seems to be a small hitch in the fact that the moon does not move.
Interactive Flora - Trees, bushes, grass and leaves bend, freeze and break realistically, in real time depending on the player's, or enemies' actions. It seems only a select few types of vegetation are actually procedurally breakable. Small shrubs, grass, and large trees don't seem to break, whereas palm trees or coconut trees do.
Motion Blur - Objects moving fast in relation to the viewpoint blur realistically, much like the effect of a slow camera shutter. In DirectX 9, screen-based motion-blur is used, which can give some people headaches, due to the technique behaving slightly like ghosting. DirectX 10 uses object-based motion-blur, which is the most realistic, and doesn't give anyone headaches.
Parallax Occlusion Mapping - Creates the illusion of depth on flat surfaces, using a shader algorithm which calculates what parts of the texture should be shown and how, depending on a normal map. This is much more advanced than simple bump mapping. This technology also tends to exhibit some artifacts, which can only really be seen when surfaces are viewed at low angles.
Realtime Ambient Maps - Atmospheric (reflected) lighting is applied to every in-game object, simulating, not accurately, radiosity. It seems this feature is either not as apparent, or completely absent from the game's DirectX 9 mode.
Soft Particles - Eliminates visible hard lines from smoke, explosions, fog etc by alpha blending each particle depending on any polygon the particle intersects. This helps make particles such as battle dust, water spray, tornado dust as well as other intense particle effects seem much more real.
Soft Shadows - Blurs the edge of all shadows to simulate the "penumbra" effect. It seems the blur is generic, meaning the blur doesn't increase depending on the shadow's distance from the object casting it.
Subsurface Scattering - Light scatters as it passes through translucent objects such as glass, leaves and human flesh. This makes objects look more realistic when they are thin, or can easily allow light to pass through, or diffuse through the material.
3D Ocean Technology - Shaders, physics algorithms, high resolution meshes and textures combine to create realistically animated waves, complete with accurate caustic effects, reflections, as well as refractions. However, the water does not have any physics applied to it. The water does have settings which effect the general look, these settings being environmental factors which don't seem to be dynamic.
