Crysis 2 - If only you could see it this way – maybe you can? This is my opinion and like most may not be yours, but the beauty of forums and the web is that we can express these opinions and points of view.


In my opinion, only a handful of people in comparrision to the masses can REALLY TRULY and FULLY appreciate Crysis 2 visuals for all they are worth. I would say the extreme PC enthusiasts with the best of the best hardware and the Crytek development teams are the only ones who REALLY know the true potential of this game visually right at this time - though as hardware progresses and drivers progress, others may follow suite as what happened with the original Crysis over the past few years.


When Crysis 1 came out and there were tweaks to simulate what you “may” get had you played it with hardware that wasn’t even out yet because the game was so visually intense and stressful on hardware that at the time the hardware could not handle it. Sure it was some due to optimization issues, but overall today hardware has finally gotten to where the average user can enjoy the majority of visuals that the original Crysis could deliver without special tweaks – now enter Crysis 2. The same can be applied to this game as well because this game also requires some SERIOUS horsepower to really appreciate what it is capable of and for the general user, that hardware isn’t out yet or more specifically isn’t in the “affordable” category of the masses when combining current hardware that can handle this game in a multi-gpu fashion.


When Crysis 2 first released I was on the “Crytek Bashing” side of the fence because I was so disappointed in the minimal visual increase over the previous releases, good game play, decent story, but visually it was seriously lacking that punch the original Crysis had delivered amongst all other options of games at the time. I was playing Crysis 2 on three GTX 580 1.5GB cards at the time as well, so it wasn’t like I wasn’t able to really play it full out, it wasn’t the hardware, and the game itself had been rushed to market and was still limping on console level graphics. Us PC gamers are not here for console graphics - the way I see it, PC games always are much more graphically intense than consoles will ever be able to handle – one of the reasons we are PC gamers, we need that visual stimuli more so than the console groupies.


Then came the patches and finally the DX 11 and High Resolution pack. Now that was the look and feel we all were really expecting to begin with and it in turn took the high end rigs that were initially cutting through the game like butter to a more FPS crunching mode of struggling to handle it. Now comes the tweaks and the ways to try and get some more fluidity to the visuals.


I thought initially I was playing with serious horsepower, but oh how I was wrong. Only after upgrading to three GTX 580 3GB version cards and pushing my Core i7 990X 6-core to 4.75 GHz did I even begin to realize how incredible the visuals were in this game, especially playing at 5980x1080. Yeah “Frank” finally pushes this game to the max on visuals and last night I saw for the first time the photorealism in this game fully in a way I could totally appreciate and have never experienced in any other game – this one just moved to top spot for me in a HUGE leap forward.


I know some of you are thinking “but I can play it fully maxed out at 1920x1080 (or a tad higher res)” – to those I can say again, unless you are playing it at a three screen resolution, you are missing 2/3 of the full visuals in any given scene. I have taken screenshots of both a 1920x1080 view and a 5980x1080 view of the same scene and shown how 1920x1080 only shows 1/3 of the full picture. It’s like looking through a peephole or opening the door to see, the peep hole does nothing compared to opening the door in terms of full visuals and ambience.


Another anology would be blinders on and off, with blinders on, all you see is what is in front of you, blinders off, and you now have peripheral vision and a wider field of view, making things much more “realistic”. All I can say is it is an impressive thing to witness and experience. I am very interested now to see the next two “major” FPS games being released this year and how they compare, because this game right now is KING IMO!


I know this game has issues and had its issues, I know that its part Crytek and part Nvidia’s (drivers and specifically fixes for 3WAY SLI users) issues to take care of, however for the moment in time I had last night it all became worth the pain up to this point. I cannot stress enough the beauty this game has the capability to produce. I was having serious issues with this game – it was frustrating knowing the $$ I had put out to build the rig I have and getting minimal results. When playing Crysis 2, I really could not (troubleshooting post here: https://secure.gamesas.com/forums/viewtopic.php?f=40&t=38274 ) – until I started troubleshooting with Nvidia and ended up using a third party program by Wasdie (thanks whoever you are) because my configuration used to act as if it was overlaying frames or 3D was turned on or something where it was double images that caused massive headaches and made the game unplayable. Now that is fixed the game is amazing visually.


When I fired up “Crysis2AdvancedGraphicsOptionsV1_8” and made my settings, then saved and moved the autoexe.cfg file to the Crysis 2 root folder – most of my issues went away – well minus the flashing issue present with most 3WAY SLI rigs. Other than that, I was staring at a beautiful game that worked for me. I expect as drivers get more mature for the GTX 580 3GB cards and specifically the 3WAY SLI users, we should see a massive increase in FPS, for now though it is still somewhat playable at 5980x1080 around 35-40 FPS with the following settings:




Here are a couple 5980x1080 screenshots of the same scene – the screenies do not do the actual motion video justice, it just goes flat, but still gives a basic idea:
http://img840.imageshack.us/img840/1738/crysis22011082616444183.jpg
http://img692.imageshack.us/img692/8997/crysis22011082616444897.jpg


Apparently Crysis 2 needed this cfg file (on my system) to operate like it should – the way Crytek should have had the game working to begin with – as we all know this game still has its issues, but it’s getting better. I am still very much disappointed in the so called “Advanced Options” in Crysis 2, this program by Wasdie addresses the needs of advanced PC enthusiasts, that panel Crytek gave is a minimalistic joke IMO.


I am not here to bash to things still outstanding for tweaks and fixes we are all hoping will follow, however I am here to show my appreciation for a game that I wanted to visually impress me that finally has. It takes some serious horsepower to get the full visuals from this game. Things I saw this time through I never saw before the last 4 times I played the campaign when I thought I was cranking up max everything – such as dirt falling from ceilings where it used to not before, fog, smoke, dust, and visuals associated in those scenes were more realistic and deeper in ambient feel.


Not that they were not there before, I am talking overall quality and ambient feel, they were so much more profound, so more realistic, reacted and felt more real – it was so amazing on the visuals that I seriously stand behind the fact that only a handful can TRULY appreciate what visuals this game produces – its where the enthusiasts have the major advantage. I am not saying skills and kills – I am talking visuals and game play beauty. Hardware doesn’t mean we are better players, just we get to see it oh so much better……………..


Personally the way I view it, I put Crytek back on top of graphical pedestal, where they had previously been with the last two Crysis games, they took their punches on this one and came back swinging in the best way possible – this game is visually amazing with the right hardware!


So in conclusion I would simply like to say thank you to Crytek for the visuals I expected months ago when I first purchased this game – better late than never, but OMG so beautiful now and what a treat to experience with the right hardware! I will be playing the campaign through again just to enjoy the eye candy.


“FRANK N STEIN” SPECIFICATIONS:
CASE: Corsair 800D
MOBO: EVGA Classified 3 (E770)
CPU: Intel Core i7 990X 6-Core @ 4.75Ghz
RAM: Corsair Dominator GT 3x4GB 2,000MHz DDR3 (12GB)
GPU: 3x EVGA GTX 580 3GB VRAM 3WAY SLI + 1x EVGA GT 520 PhysX
S/C: X-Fi Soundblaster Titanium PCi-express
SSD 1 (BOOT): OCZ Vertex 3 60GB RAID 0
SSD 2 (PROGRAMS): OCZ Vertex 2 RAID 0
HDD 1: WD Caviar Black 1.5TB HDD
HDD 2: WD Caviar Black 2TB HDD
PSU: Silverstone ST1500 1,500W
MONITORS: 3x Asus VW246H 24” LCD’s w/Planar Monitor Arm/Stand
MOUSE: Razer Naga Molten Edition 5,600 Dpi 1ms Laser
K/B: Saitek Cyborg v7
SPEAKERS/AMP: Yamaha RX-V567 A/V RCVR, Klipsch 5.1 HD 500 Surround Speakers
COOLING: EK HF CPU Block, EK Mobo Block, 3x Watercool Hole Edition GPU-z3 W/B, MCP 655 12v Pump, Koolance ERM-2K3UCU external cooling system, Black Ice Xtreme 3 High Performance Rad (w/ 3 Push & 3 Pull 120m fans), Primochill ?”ID x 3/4” OD tubing, Koolance QDC’s, Bitspower Rotary 90’s, and misc connectors/hardware.
FRANKS BUILD LOG: http://hardforum.com/showthread.php?p=1037684041#post1037684041
FRANKS YOUTUBE: http://www.youtube.com/user/FrankNSteinPC?feature=mhee

This post is very much appreciated. I recall how I felt when even your machine was struggling with Crysis 2: You already had all of the upgrades I was planning/dreaming of and it still didn't work right. I also enjoyed this post because it partly confirms my gut hunch on best upgrade path for me in general: vram, vram, vram. And finally, I enjoyed your new enthusiasm. And, congratulations.

I have to ask: what kind of GPU utilization you are seeing?

Oh my god, better do your research dude.
You do realize that the third party tool created by wasdie isn't fully working with the newest patch.
so you are playing the game @ extreme not ultra.
and now you say it looks better then ever????
sounds to me like you just trying to bring forward your playing with 3cards going sli on triple screen.
and in no way some tree or object will have better shading or more geometry ,etc....., because of the triplescreen usage, only fov will increase , and maybe the overall scharpness ,
because of the higher resolution. (and i see that the height is 1080)(Full HD height) so no change here. only the width
But you definitially don't know what your talking about.
besides what game would it be if to enjoy it fully, users need triplescreens??????!!!!!!!(combined with 3cards for performance)

And another thing , that "double image glitch" you experienced , is called PostMSAA
some technique acting like normal fsaa only not that intensive and not as good offcourse.
more like a blur thing.
(the fact you didn't even now this prove's much)

So better search on the net before posting rubisch like this ,
just to come off with your setup.
it really isn't that good either i had better.
but you don't see me brag on about it here, do ya?

^jealous troll.

@OP hey great to see you've found a workaround for your problem.
enjoy the game
must be awesome playing on 3 LCDs...

so you are playing the game @ extreme not ultra.


^ While he sounds troll he has got a point. That tool only supports 1.8 before the dx11 upgrade so you are only playing in extreme (unless you changed the setting back to ultra).

Yeah I failed to mention that I had then been able to go in and set it in the game itself, did not think that a valid part of the story I was trying to convey. I was not trying to get into any deep dark technical jargon that distracted from the fact of the journey and experience. As I said to start out with it was "my opinion" and others have theirs, so the beauty of the forum and internet is that we all have the ability to post, no matter how much fun or abrasive we are in our discussions or replies.

End result is I am playing it on Ultra and was not able to before I found this work around and then when I did I was amazed at the visuals - I mean seriously - amazed, so much so I had to or felt compelled to mention it. Really, it does take some serious hp to push this to the beauty it can deliver right now - its beautiful. - again, that is my non-technical opinion.

It would look and run better on your hardware and enhance the experience. We know you have a great PC The1STCAV no need to advertise it so much. :p

Ultra at 1920x1080 is really nice but I still end up playing Crysis and Crysis Warhead more.

It would look and run better on your hardware and enhance the experience. We know you have a great PC The1STCAV no need to advertise it so much. :p

Ultra at 1920x1080 is really nice but I still end up playing Crysis and Crysis Warhead more.
OK let me clarify this - first, yes I am proud as hell of Frank, but really I wasn't trying to make it about the rig. I knew the questions would be (from those who do not know me) - "well what do you run?" so I included it. This is also because the basis of the story was about the experience of a high end rig and its capabilities, even when I thought I was running one to begin with.


Yeah, 1920x1080 is awesome and I also play a lot of Crysis and Warhead and still love them as well. I was just simply blown away by the added vision that this full experience (three screens w/everything maxed out) gave and was simply expressing the experience and the somewhat journey getting here and the appreciation for the visuals I always wanted to see out of this and finally did. I got a renewed excitement for the game and just wanted to share it.

Uh, yeah... but "Crysis 2", "good story" and "good gameplay" don't really fit in one paragraph. C2 MP gameplay would be pretty good if it wasn't for the crippling flaws. The SP is a joke. Saying C2 story and gameplay are "good" might be just as valid opinion as any, but compared to games that are praised for their gameplay or story, or are at least generally considered alright, it's a joke.

C2 visuals are average. That's the best C2 does, and DX11 patch duct taped on a game designed on hardware with less memory than cellphones these days doesn't really change that.

But I'm glad someone can get so much out of the game, because all I get is some fun out of the potentially good but crippled MP.

I've still to read all your post The1ST but i'm gonna enjoy it when i do, i appreciate my hardware also and can understand where you're comin' from.
OK you took the game to another level with maxing it out on 3 monitors, that setup ain't for me, neither is C2 in 3D, but i do like my ultra settings, and i do like melted butter smoothness.
Dude i know how amazing the controls /dynamics /and gameplay are, i know how freaking ubertastic it looks too(i'm a massive Crytek fan cause of this game), how about the night scenes in HD high contrast while the colored reflections are bouncing off the puddles, pretty sweet huh?
Anyways i'm looking forwards to reading your journey the pics look cinematic, why not give Frank another fan for laughs he'd probably appreciate it, or a mega PSU or sumptin, i dunno celebrate your achievement with an upgrade!