Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Farcry Patch Gets Nvidia Shader Engine Boost

Posted by simoniker on from the hilarious-benchmarking-shenanigans dept.

An anonymous reader writes "Anandtech has posted a detailed article on good-looking PC FPS Farcry's forthcoming 1.2 patch which takes advantage of Nvidia's Shader Model 3.0 engine. The patch is supposed to boost Farcry performance for all video cards, but with Nvidia [supposedly] getting the biggest boost from SM3. (Further details on Nvidia's SM3 engine can be found via HardOCP) Benchmarks are included in the Anandtech article." The article also notes: "ATI assures us that they have also been working with CryTek on their efforts. Since we have seen a performance improvement with the latest driver and new 1.2 patch, we don't have any reason to think that anything extraordinarily fishy is going on behind the scenes between NVIDIA and CryTek."

21 comments

  1. Online? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    Can you play multiplayer deathmatch or CTF with farcry or is it one player/co-op only?

    1. Re:Online? by Pluvius · · Score: 1

      Every PC FPS worth a crap has competitive multiplayer. Might as well ask if you can play an MMORPG online.

      Rob

    2. Re:Online? by Poseidon88 · · Score: 3, Insightful
      Every PC FPS worth a crap has competitive multiplayer.

      That's a broad and categorically false statement. The Thief series, Morrowind, System Shock 2, Deus Ex... All wildly popular FPS games that had no multiplayer at all, but instead focused on making an excellent single-player game.

      But to answer the original question, yes Far Cry has competetive multiplayer modes, including Deathmatch, Team Deathmatch, and Assault. Assault is the most fun. One team is on attack and the other is on defense. The attacking team has to capture control points one at a time, while the defending team tries to hold them off. Engineers on the defensive side can use pre-placed crates to construct walls and emplaced weapons. Attacking engineers can blow them up with explosives, or build bridges to allow vehicles to cross water.

    3. Re:Online? by Pluvius · · Score: 2, Insightful

      That's a broad and categorically false statement. The Thief series, Morrowind, System Shock 2, Deus Ex

      The only one of those that's an FPS is Thief, and even that's being a bit loose with the definition of "FPS" (your general objective is to sneak, not to shoot). The others are FPRPGs.

      Rob

    4. Re:Online? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      Tell me who played Morrowind and didn't dream of a multiplayer version.

    5. Re:Online? by Gundragon · · Score: 1

      The term "First Person Shooter" is not a very good term to describe games like FarCry. First Person is a viewpoint, games like Heretic II (old, yes) use exactly the same mechanics as a traditional FPS (hell, it's built on the Q2 engine) but are set in Third person. Calling Thief an FPS is like calling Splinter Cell a "3rd Person Shooter". It doesnt do the game and it's conecpt justice.

      --
      "One of the main causes of the fall of the Roman Empire was that, lacking zero, they had no way to indicate successful t
  2. Um, don't get too excited about that 15% by stoneymonster · · Score: 4, Informative

    The 15% speed boost is in "run" speed, i.e. the speed with which your character places one foot in front of another while fleeing drooling monsters, not a 15% FPS boost on your video card. The poster is confusicated.

    1. Re:Um, don't get too excited about that 15% by Dizzle · · Score: 1

      Cleverly worded though. I guess that means a 15% increase in walk speed too.

      --
      -Dizzle
      "I most likely AM so interested in myself."
    2. Re:Um, don't get too excited about that 15% by Marc_Hawke · · Score: 2, Informative

      Probably not. You have an 'endurance' meter. You can 'sprint' (ie extra speed burst).

      In the article is said there was a 15% run speed increase, and a 30% run duration increase. So, I'm guessing they are just talking about sprinting. That means normal movement is probably unaffected.

      --
      --Welcome to the Realm of the Hawke--
    3. Re:Um, don't get too excited about that 15% by dzym · · Score: 1

      And the way I read the patch document, it was only for multiplayer. So you're still not going to be able to outrun those pesky drooling ape trigen monsters.

    4. Re:Um, don't get too excited about that 15% by Zed2K · · Score: 1

      And that speed boost in running has ZERO to do with nvidia optimizations and therefore ZERO to do SM 3.0 benefits. That is just an adjustment to game balance.

  3. Looks like they updated the post for correctness. by stoneymonster · · Score: 0, Redundant

    Thanks guys.

  4. Or if you don't have a 6800 by Cornflake917 · · Score: 2, Informative

    The patch only takes advantage of the Geforce 6800. And if you look at the benchmark's it adds about 2 fps. Not something I would spend 400 bucks on.

    --
    Abaddon: An Xbox 360 Indie game
  5. 6800 by vehn23 · · Score: 4, Funny

    I picked up a GEForce 6800 "nu" last week after doing some research etc. The couple games I tried I was very happy with. And then.. I try to install Splinter Cell Pandora Tomorrow, which came free with the card - and it tells me it doesn't support the card even after patching. Awesome.

  6. Um, poster was right. Maybe you check facts too? by Vaevictis666 · · Score: 4, Informative

    Actually no, he's right. Check out link number 3 (the actual benchmark) and go to one of the tests.

    For example, on the "Level Analysis: research" page, at 1600x1200 no AA/AF:

    Card SM2 SM3 Increase
    GF6800 Ultra Extreme 76.4 87.9 17.4%
    GF6800 Ultra 67.9 77.6 14.3%
    GF6800 GT 60.9 70.0 14.9%
    GF6800 39.0 47.9 22.8%
    Radeon x800 XT Plat 69.6 69.6 0%
    Radeon X800 XT 64.9 64.9 0%
    Radeon X800 Pro 49.8 49.8 0%

    I'd say that looks like a 15% or more increase for nvidia cards...

  7. Originally it said 15% for ALL video cards. by stoneymonster · · Score: 1

    Thanks for playing.

  8. Re:Um, poster was right. Maybe you check facts too by notamac · · Score: 1

    Or a 15% boost for cards supporting SM3... given that that's *not* the Radeon X800... well you don't see an increase do you?

  9. What get's me about AnandTech.. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Interesting

    is that they moan and bitch like this:

    "If these are the only differences between the SM2.0 and SM3.0 paths, then all we heard about were the performance enhancing features. We do appreciate NVIDIA providing us with the patch and information before it went live on Ubisoft's website, but we would still rather have had some of this information directly from the source. Obviously, we want to present a fair and unbiased account of what's actually happening, and we should be fine as long as we take proper precautions and consider as many angles as possible."

    Well, the patch isn't _even released yet_ and they have the balls to bitch that the FarCry developers haven't send them detailed descriptions detailing every change - bah!

    Tels

  10. Dynamic branching on ATI cards by unassimilatible · · Score: 2, Interesting
    HardOCP also reports on dynamic branching by non-PS 3.0 cards. Pic here and downloadable demo link here.

    --
    Slashdot "libertarians": Small government for me, big government for those I disagree with. -1, I disagree with you
  11. Umm... by veritron · · Score: 1

    Whoever moderated this informative is a drooling idiot. It's an obvious joke.

    Think about it - for a patch changing VIDEO CARD SETTINGS to only affect the character's movement speed would basically mean that the patch screws up the gameplay by making it easier. It makes absolutely no sense at all - and the links don't support that either.

  12. For the last time. by stoneymonster · · Score: 1

    I didn't suggest there was no improvement to any video cards. The ORIGINAL POST said that there was a 15% across the board (all video cards) improvement, which must have come from the first line of the changlog for 1.2, which if you READ it states: 15% increase in run speed. The original post was then corrected, making my comment look out of place. If you read the anandtech article, you'll see that there is some improvement on Nvidia boards (which support SM 3.0) though it varies between none and 15-20% depending on the level, and none on ATI boards which do not support SM3.0. I never meant to suggest otherwise.