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damefan on 23 March 2011
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CGI-Quality said:
damefan said:
CGI-Quality said:

They are detailed from a distance, but then you get up close and they lack the crispness of walls seen in the likes of Gears of War 2 or God of War III. In fairness, Crysis 2 is significantly more open than them though.

I disagree wholeheartedly. Explain what walls you are talking about because IMO I think Crysis 2 walls, bricks, etc look the best out of every game I've played close up. Super close up every single game this gen looks a bit off. Its because of bumpmapping. Its only going to look so good. No matter how high res of a texture you use it will still look flat if looked at in the right angle because its only a one poly flat plane with two textures positioned on top of each other. One texture is desaturated which creates the bumpmapping. Unless someone actually takes the time to model each brick in order to create dimension, etc then walls will always look flat at the right angle.

There is bump mapping, but not on every wall. The first walls in the first level, for instance, are flat. There are quite a few areas that are flat.

Yes, if you get extremely close in other games, they will look flat. But in Crysis 2, you don't have to get but so close to see they aren't as bumped as walls in other games in the genre. That's one main reason I wouldn't credit it as the best looking console game (besides texture pop-in, some low-res shadowing, and spotty reflections). The ligting is superb and some of the water effects are top notch though.

All-in-all, the game looks good, but it is not without glaring, visual flaws.


I would disagree with you about not being bump mapping. I guarantee there is bump mapping on every wall. There are varying degrees of bump mapping. Not every bump map is as visible as the other. Certain colors and textures aren't going to have as pronounced bump mapping as other because the colors are lighter. In order to have pronounced bump mapping you need to have a texture which has a pronounced light and a pronounced dark in the texture or colors. All bump mapping does it push the lights forward and the darks backward, but if you have a light wall this effect won't be very pronounced if any. Still I guarantee they put some sort of bump mapping on every wall. It only takes a few more clicks in Maya.