PS3/360 Cry Engine 2 to Look Near High Settings on PC

by Patrick Steen on April 7, 2008 at 8:01 pm

It almost sounds too good to be true. Almost? It is too good to be true. Could Cry Engine 2 on consoles really look any where near as good as Crysis on the PC? Crytek’s Engine Business Manager, Harald Seeley, states that they expect the console versions to “look like they’re running at high settings, or nearly high settings, on a PC.” *Shock.*

When asked what differences there would be between the PC and console versions of the Cry Engine 2, and whether the engine will be tailored to each platform, Seeley replies:

Yes, we definitely tailor the engine specifically to each platform. More than just the difference in CPU and video hardware capabilities of PCs and consoles is at play here. So are the much smaller memory budgets we must work with, the lack of a hard disk on some models, and the acceptance requirements of the hardware vendors themselves. All have an effect on how we approach each version of the engine.

The surprising thing has been how well the consoles can perform visually, once this tailoring is in place. We expect the final outcome will result in games that look like they’re running at high settings, or nearly high settings, on a PC. Actually, we found it as much or more challenging to address the memory limitations of the consoles when converting our current AI system, as we did while converting our rendering engine or physics system, which was not something you might have expected at the start.

As to the differences between Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 development, and the possibility of a Wii engine, Seeley states:

Well there is no doubt that porting our engine to the PlayStation 3 is the more challenging of our two ongoing conversion projects, but that works to our advantage in the end. We feel certain we have the ability to get the most that is possible out of that platform, and therefore PS3 games which run on our engine in the future will definitely stand significantly apart from other games that don’t.

We haven’t seen a great deal of demand for third party engines for the Wii, the limited complexity of games which can be developed for that console also limits the need for the kind of sophisticated tools and middleware which we are known for. So I doubt we will be providing any engine technology for that console in the near term.

Poor Wii, but bring out the parade for the Xbox 360 and Playstation 3! For the rest of the interview, please visit IGN.

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Tags: budgets, consoles, Crysis, engine_business, hardware_capabilities, hard_disk, memory_limitations, physics_system, playstation_3, ps3_games, seeley, video_hardware, Xbox, xbox_360

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Comments »

Trekster_gamer
on April 7, 2008 9:03 pm

Sounds like this
Easy to develop for better DEV tools 360
Harder,longer to Develop for PS3 (games look and usually run worse)

Might as well develop for the orginal Xbox as it has more power than the Wii, bottom line Wii can’t handle this Engine…

I really can’t wait for this game on my 360!
madpuppy
on April 8, 2008 1:35 am

Interesting, coming from a PC gaming background I am really impressed with the visuals and smoothness of games on the new crop of consoles, my first console system was the Xbox and the only reason I bought that is because it had in-game surround sound and I wanted to have a game system in my theater room, after that I was one of those fools outside of EB at 11:45 at night to pick up my pre-ordered 360, man all of us old guys standing out there in the cold.
:P
now I own a 360 aPS3 and I have a Wii in another room of the house, not really impressed with that machine, but, I am not a mario kind of guy.

Things have changed Consoles are really impressive and I liove both my machines for different reasons. (I still built a quad core system with 4gigs of corsair dominator ram and an XfX 8800gt Alpha dog edition for PC gaming though) :)
needtocontrol
on April 8, 2008 8:07 am

“Sounds like this
Easy to develop for better DEV tools 360
Harder,longer to Develop for PS3 (games look and usually run worse)

Might as well develop for the orginal Xbox as it has more power than the Wii, bottom line Wii can’t handle this Engine…

I really can’t wait for this game on my 360!”

What utter bullshit. How you derive that from what’s written above I’ll never know, no doubt just stuck in your M$ v Sony fantasy world. This is a story about a GAME, if you hadn’t noticed. Who cares about slight differences in platform, only annoying little tossers like you, that’s who!

I’m sure Crytek will change their plans with regard to the Wii now that you’ve offered your expert opinion.

Now off you go back to school.
DavidGX
on April 8, 2008 5:13 pm

M$… yeah.. that’s showing him who’s not a fanboy o_O
Mepsipax
on April 8, 2008 5:54 pm

okay guys key words here “it looks the same” doesn’t play the same. e.g F.E.A.R was released for the 360 and it lacked many technical aspects of the pc version which was released in 2005! Now take a game like crysis and put it on the next gens and you’ll have to cut down on so many things. I own crysis on my top of the line gaming pc and I still get some hiccups now and then but at least I will be able to destroy a village hike a few kilometres down the road come back and every little piece will still be in place because I have this thing called ram. Oh and the wii is more powerful than the xbox.
Trekster_gamer
on April 8, 2008 10:15 pm

“needtocontrol”
Sounds like you just can’t get rid of your love affair with Mario and Mediocre games/systems, and in case you haven’t noticed you moron people do care about what a system can do. It is you who needs to go back to school, there is NOTHING minor that separates the Wii from the 360 and the PS3, the Wii has about the same power as the original Xbox. So if in fact they do release this game on the Wii even someone who is as foolish and blinded as you apparently are will see there is a world of difference between how games like this perform. And HELL no people don’t want to use a Wii remote to play FPS games such as this. Now, go away TROLL you are nothing more than a minor annoynace….
qq
on April 9, 2008 1:34 am

The reason for this is simple, the console versions can get away with running at lower resolutions. There’s no way you’re running at a comparable quality at 1080p.
Acronyms
on April 9, 2008 2:56 am

My PS3 is waiting …
Robbie Crash
on April 9, 2008 3:15 am

“Sounds like you just can’t get rid of your love affair with Mario and Mediocre games/systems, and in case you haven’t noticed you moron people do care about what a system can do. It is you who needs to go back to school, there is NOTHING minor that separates the Wii from the 360 and the PS3, the Wii has about the same power as the original Xbox. So if in fact they do release this game on the Wii even someone who is as foolish and blinded as you apparently are will see there is a world of difference between how games like this perform. And HELL no people don’t want to use a Wii remote to play FPS games such as this. Now, go away TROLL you are nothing more than a minor annoynace….”

What people like you don’t get is that the Wii isn’t about power. It never was, and it never claimed to be.

Nintendo said when it was still code named that they’d given up on the hardware race, and for good reason. There’s a lot on the Wii which is par for the course, but the games that people are most excited about (SmashBros excepted) are the ones that don’t fit into the traditional game roles.

Wii was about fun, and as anyone who’s played one can attest to, they are that. Do they have hardware that can run Crysis at high/near high? Hell no, but since they’re not claiming to, how anyone can fault them for that is beyond me.

I’ll stick with my PC for high end graphics and intense ‘hardcore’ gaming, but when I want to play something fun with a few friends for a half hour before going out, firing up Warioware or Rayman is way more of an entertaining idea than loading up GRAW or some such.
Lonyo
on April 9, 2008 3:20 am

Any indication of what resolution they are aiming for?
At or near high at 720p sounds really pretty easy when you consider the PS3 effectively has a near 7800GTX car in it, and 720p isn’t a huge resolution.
Memory is usually going to be a problem though.
bioaquadoloop
on April 9, 2008 3:46 am

hey needtocontrol, how many times do they say “crytek engine 2″ in the article? they are 100% talking about the differences between the different consoles and their relative benefits when releasing an engine that will run on the consoles. an engine is built to MAKE games, its not a game itself.

flame and be flamed
peter
on April 9, 2008 4:08 am

this is exactly what i was hoping/looking for when i bought my ps3….why use a pc to play games when a console is so much quieter, energy efficient and just overall better built to handle the task.

it brings gaming to a basically hassle free experience with no compromise.
Tyler
on April 9, 2008 11:10 am

I don’t really understand where you are getting this BS about the original XBOX being more powerful than a Wii, when the GC was as powerful as the XBOX and the Wii is an upgrade on it.

I’m moderately disappointed with the fact that they are not developing an engine for the Wii, but I was expecting it. Meanwhile, I don’t think this will run well on the PS3 either, as they have so many problems with which to try and get around. They are going to have to invest a lot of time to make a good PS3 engine, but when they do, the games should run very well.
Bob
on April 9, 2008 12:04 pm

Stop fighting children…its just a game…
tow_boat
on April 9, 2008 11:51 pm

this is exactly what i was hoping/looking for when i bought my ps3….why use a pc to play games when a console is so much quieter, energy efficient and just overall better built to handle the task.

it brings gaming to a basically hassle free experience with no compromise.

If you read the article

“look like they’re running at high settings, or nearly high settings, on a PC.” *Shock.*

It will not be as good as the PC version just almost….and they were shocked at that
ORB
on April 10, 2008 2:04 am

True, stop fighting,
no one gives a damn about ur loads of text
needtocontrol
on April 10, 2008 9:37 am

Indeed. Apologies for the earlier flame (must change avatar), it was pretty ignorant and irrational looking back. Also for the fail regarding the game/engine thing. But… I’ve never owned a Nintendo, except for a gameboy many years ago :o)
MoJo
on May 4, 2008 2:15 pm

thanks for the news
Gamers Quizzes
on May 5, 2008 5:10 pm

Rats I was hoping for the WII version first

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