A Year Since Far Cry - how have graphics improved?

[Terminat.]

Okay, with March dawning, its coming up to a year since Far Cry was released. Now, we all know that the graphics on that were stunning - but how have they improved since?

In HL2, the graphics look pretty much the same, despite it being released six months after Far Cry. Admittedly, the characters are more detailed in terms of animation etc. but it wasn't a huge improvement. The same is probably true for D3.

Now, of course, HL2 was set in a gritty urban world and D3 is set in near-total darkness, as opposed to the paradise island of Far Cry - but we can still fairly say that they were only a mild improvement over Far Cry at the most.

So how has the games industry pushed forward the boundaries of technology since Far Cry's release?
(We're talking first-person shooters here, since it's kind of hard to compare RTS to Far Cry)

I mean, it's been a whole year, in that time we've seen the release of the:

X850
X800 Series
6800 Series
6600 Series
Release of PCI-E graphics cards


So is there an imminent game that will finally give those above vga cards a good workout? Or have graphics barely improved in a whole year?

[Tatuya]

We won't see much for awhile I'm afraid. Graphics card technology has to still improve inorder to support things like the Unreal 3 engine. Plus, usually when a lot of new technology comes out, we sit on it and use it for awhile then create something new(some studios STILL use the quake 3 engine). Since source is such a great engine, look for it a lot in the future. But until that time when, I doubt that new improved graphics are coming out until we can use the ones we have more efficiently (resource-managing and lean code). Just my $0.02

[Panzerknacker]

but how have they improved since?


I say no.

In my opinion, Far Cry is still the best looking game to date. It has the best 2.0 shaders and the beautiful jungles. Maybe F.E.A.R can beat it or Stalker, although I'm not sure.

[Radical]

I thought Far Cry had better graphics than HL2, so I'm hoping that F.E.A.R. will oust Far Cry as the graphics king.

[N1vek215]

Sure it's been a year, but it's not like every year there is a huge leap in graphics technology. Now that the new engines are out, we will only being seeing tweaked engines for new games. Just look at how many games run on the quake 3 engine.

[Albuquerque]

I say no.

In my opinion, Far Cry is still the best looking game to date. It has the best 2.0 shaders and the beautiful jungles. Maybe F.E.A.R can beat it or Stalker, although I'm not sure.
I'm going to say that HL2 and FarCry are pretty equal, but only for a few reasons:

HL2 went crazy with high resolution texture mapping, but didn't do much in the way of bump and reflection maps. Of course that also makes the opposite true -- they don't go psycho with reflections and bumpmapping to make it look overly fake.

FarCry is mostly "normal resolution" textures but with a lot more bumpmapping and reflections. There are certainly places where it looks a little too fake and "plasticy" as some call it, but the overall visual impression is stunning.

Both are finely detailed: FarCry features incredibly dense and diverse foliage that you would expect to see in a tropical paradise. HL2 features wide and varied pieces of litter, rocks, and other things you would expect to see in a dirty city. Both also have the environment completely nailed: FarCry gives you blue ocean, clear skies with plenty of sun (or moon), waves that reflect everything and visual accuity (sp?) for miles that are again, just like you'd expect on a tropical island. HL2 gives you clausterphobic city streets, destroyed, filthy, with a sullen skyline and almost dreadful lighting. This is exactly what I would expect in a world like that.

There are other aspects to AI, physics and vehicles, but that's not graphics related so I'll skip those :)

[austinbmxnig]

i think hl2's graphics are pretty awesome, maybe different than what some expected, but it definately has that half life "feeL" to it