Crysis 2 DX11 “Ultra Upgrade” Pack Now Available!
From NVidia’s GeForce.com
When Crysis 2 hit stores on March 22nd it became Crytek’s first multi-platform game to be developed solely by their studios throughout the world. Because of the level of work required to ensure that all three versions of the game were equally as good, Crytek ultimately ran out of development time, preventing them from implementing planned DirectX 11 features before launch. Post release, the studio’s developers were free to focus only on the PC version of the game, and so for the past few months they have been beavering away in their offices to create the most extensive and advanced DirectX 11 features seen in any game to date.
Called the Crysis 2 DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade, the three-part, 2.32GB release is a free visual upgrade add-on that introduces DirectX 11 tessellation, a wealth of graphical improvements for both DirectX 9 and 11, and a high-resolution texture pack only suitable for use on graphics cards with 1GB of video RAM.
As mentioned, DirectX 11 hardware tessellation is the headline feature, but the Ultra Upgrade also introduces soft shadows with variable penumbra, improved water rendering, and particle motion blur and shadowing. Having been originally omitted from CryEngine 3, Parallax Occlusion Mapping has been reintroduced, as has full-resolution High Dynamic Range motion blur, making the game’s use of camera panning more detailed and defined. To improve performance further hardware-based occlusion culling has been implemented, resulting in performance improvements from objects and scenery out of view not being rendered.
You’ll need:
It also appears that you’ll need a 64-bit OS, at least for the Texture pack. I didn’t notice any such requirement when installing the Tessellation pack.
**update** After some additional play it appears the 64-bit OS is not a direct requirement as the game still runs in *32, however you will need the added memory that 64bit allows, hence the requirement for the higher quality textures.
Here is some updated screen shots and video in the new version. Crysis does itself proud with this pack – it’s once again a benchmark for modern hardware. I was brought down from 113fps in DX9 to 20 to 30fps in DX11 at full Ultra 2560×1600 with High Resolution Textures. It’s playable but may need to actually turn some stuff down :/
Before (DX9):
After (DX11 – High Resolution Textures):
