A Look Into Team Fortress 2's Graphics Shaders

Why this art style? How is it achieved? How does it work? Learn from the best!



It looks like more and more developers are looking into the real worlds artistic history, rather than just trying to imitate it. The reception both Bioshock and Team Fortress 2 are getting for their distinct art styles may be a sign of things to come. Maybe it will may even be the new World War 2... maybeee not.

Tech-5 Video Walkthrough

Tech 5 is showing off some amazing 3D graphics, up there with the likes of UE3 powered games and Crysis. But whats most surprising is that iD is even planning on hitting the 60fps sweetspot with their latest game, 'RAGE', on both the Playstation 3 and Xbox 360!

For those counting down the doom of the Xbox 360 with the new fangled texture streaming, well, if having two DVDs is much worse than one Blu-Ray disc then you have a small victory.

Direct Links:

Engine Exploration
Walk Through Part 1
Walk Through Part 2

Engine Exploration:



Walk Through:

A Game That Really Mysteriously Did Not Show At E3

It was supposed to feature on the Playstation 3, Xbox 360, PC AND Mac, the big next-gen engine iD has been working on after Doom 3, it could have been the game of show but no one seems to have missed it. Whats surprising is this missing game is actually a mystery, John Carmack said it would be at E3, E3 came and went, no news about it.



This isn't Final Fantasy where TGS is round the corner, this isn't Price of Persia where the developers are working on another title, this isn't GTA IV or Spore where it was announced beforehand it wouldn't show, this isn't Rainbow Six where the last game in the series was only just released, this isn't God of War 3 that is being kept under very tight wraps (to the point it is supposedly 'not in development'), this is iDs big next gen debut, the one John Carmack promised to show us at E3 running on all the high profile platforms, WHERE IS IT!?

Where the hell are you!?

Ah well, Quake Con it is, don't leave us out in the cold Mr. Carmack!

Related Post: John Carmack Shows off New Game Engine - At An Apple Conference!

UE3 PS3 Exclusivity Fails To Generate Anger From PC Owners

A few years ago, when screenshots of Gears of War were few and prized above all else, and Unreal Tournament 3 was called Unreal Tournament 2007 there was a rumour that the Playstation 3 would launch with Unreal Tournament 2007. That meant that Unreal tournament 2007 would launch on the Playstation 3 well before the PC and that ruffled quite a few feathers.

Now, Sony has nabbed exclusivity to Unreal Tournament 3 for Summer 2007, that is, Unreal Tournament will launch on the Playstation 3 first as a timed exclusive. Cliffy B keeps making the point in the following interview. Most obvious is at 3:00 and I quote 'this holiday season Unreal Tournament 3 will be on the Playstation exclusive'.



Yes, between all the Gears of War PC talk Cliffy repeats severel times that Unreal Tournament 3 will be a Playstation 3 exclusive for the summer of 2007. This may be a sign of things to come, rampant piracy on the PC and lots of fighting over exclusivity by the two big wigs (Microsoft and Sony) means that we may start seeing more PC titles going to console first. If they can get one of the biggest titles on the market to be console exclusive for any period of time then no franchise is safe.

Call of Duty 4 Multiplayer Gameplay

While it's sad that it won't be taking any advantage of Windows Live Anywhere features it still retains the gameplay of past iterations.



Watch in HD

John Carmack Shows off New Game Engine - At An Apple Conference!

John Carmack has unveiled a new game (dubbed 'Tech 5') engine and glimpses of a new IP that ID has been working on for the last few years. Whats surprising is that this game will be shown on a PC, Xbox 360, Playstation 3 and Mac at E3.

Though that isn't all, clearly Mr. Carmack wants to impress Mac owners making it clear that there is yet another (exclusive?) Mac related announcement thats going to be made at E3.

Sign of changing times?


Video:



Screenshots:

VIA Engadget

In Game DirectX 10 vs. DirectX 9

Screenshots of Crysis running in DirectX 10 and DirectX 9.0.








To find which screenshot is running in DirectX 10 and which are running in DirectX 9.0f (if you haven't figured it out already) click here.

Test Yourself With Crysis

There are two images, one image is a photograph, the other is a screenshot taken in-game (realtime) where the artist has used the photograph as a reference (scroll down for the answers).

For the first one the photograph is on top, the photograph is on the right for the second and the top is the photograph for the third.

Here are some more, via inCrysis and a friendly Digg user.

Crysis: DirectX 10 VS DirectX 9.0 Video Comparison

At this point in time on our planet earth theres only one game that can truly demonstrate the graphical advantages of DirectX 10 over 9.

New Brothers in Arms: Hells Highway Trailer

After not showing anything Brothers in Arms related Ubisoft has been depriving many from media of its much anticipated title but you can't keep a good game hidden and here’s the latest direct feed trailer to prove it.



For those who are lov'n the YouTube:

Bioshock Water

Bioshock's water effects have not only met peoples expectations but have left behind any game that would like to claim to have the best looking water in the dust.







It makes Half-Life 2's water look like pre-Quake 2 era.

CellFactor - Download the Beta

CellFactor will be a free playable tech demo for Ageia's PhysX card. From early impressions the main gameplay seems to revolve around Half-Life 2 with gravity gun, which is to say you pick things up and throw them at people, albeit unlike Half-Life 2 it is taken to an extreme.

There will be five maps to play and while the game is free to download only people who have the PhysX card in their system will be able to play all of them, people who don't only get two out of the five.

From early previews the game seemed to be giving the impression that it was nothing more than a spectacular demonstration of physics and that the one thing in it that should make a PhysX card worth a purchase, real time water, received negative backlash because it looked terrible (despite having pseudo-realistic water-like behavior). It appears water is MIA in newer versions of the game.



Recommended system requirements (for the beta):

AGEIA PhysX Accelerator (required)
Windows XP Home, Pro, MCE w/ Service Pack 2
AMD Athlon 64 or higher or Intel Pentium 4 2.5GHz or higher
1 GB System Memory
Shader Model 3.0 Graphics Card (GPU) with 256MB RAM
2GB Free Hard Disk Space

Download the beta here