

The new per-pixel displacement mapping -- first, turned off





Per-pixel displacement mapping -- enabled

Per-pixel displacement mapping -- enabled





When Epic Games demoed the Unreal 4 engine earlier next year, Crytek barely batted an eyelash. The company's new trailer for the upcoming Crysis 3 is evidence of why. The game environments are stunning, and the company swears the footage its showing is drawn from real-world gameplay. The game engine is flexible; it looks as though the PC version will stand out quite a bit from the Xbox and PS3 flavors.When Crytek released the original Crysis , it inadvertently shot itself in the foot. So much attention had been focused on the game's lavish visuals and detail levels (and the horsepower required to run the game at the highest image quality) that sales were slow initially as players without top-end rigs were concerned about whether or not they could handle the game. This trailer makes a point of discussing how CryEngine 3 is designed for both current consoles and next-gen devices / PCs, with several demos of how various technologies look when enabled and disabled.Tessellated vegetation and enhanced light mapping and global illumination are all on the way as well.Personally, I watched the entire video wondering if the game would actually be worth playing. I've never had much luck getting into Crysis, despite being fond of the FPS genre in general. Then, I saw something so amazing -- so-- that it wiped away all doubts.You saw it here first, folks. Tessellated toads. Really good tessellated toads.All hail our Crytek overlords.