HDR Lighting...
 

HDR stands for High Dynamic Range and its being touted as the next big thing in visual realism for gaming.
http://www.shacknews.com/onearticle.x/37418
I find this cool to imagine in games, these are HL2 characters put in real photos using HDR:

[img]http://members.iinet.net.au/~kris.mar/Previs%201.jpg[/img]
[img]http://members.iinet.net.au/~kris.mar/Comptest7.jpg[/img]
[img]http://members.iinet.net.au/~kris.mar/Comptest16.jpg[/img]

Loads to be found here:

http://forums.facepunchstudios.com/show ... ge=1&pp=20

yum

I always thought that effect was a waste of time, anyone thats seen it in farcry probably knows what i mean, everythings basically overbrightened and it looks more or less like the sun is exploding in some of the screens. You also practically half your framerate and i think lose the ability to use antialiasing. The hl2 effect does look more subtle than the completly over the top look that farcry has though.

Pics of it in "the lost coast" level here http://www.bit-tech.net/gaming/2005/06/ ... iew/3.html

The Far Cry HDR is a waste. It's so over done. Far Cry always looked cartoony and over blown, but that just added to it.


Real implementation of HDR should be fairly impressive. Simple things like beams of light shining through a crack in the wall or temporarly going blind when entering a bright room from the dark while your eyes adjust. It's all steps to creating life like graphics. U3E HDR should be truely impressive.

As for performance. 6800s aren't powerful enough to handle it at high res. 7800 and R520 definitely be able to if they are as powerful as rumored. Only using high levels of HDR in Far Cry kills performance. I can easly run the 2nd level of HDR (light beams and other simple things) at the same resolution as normal. Only when you put all the over blown effects (level 7) does it half your performance. 1024x768 was the highest I could go in staying above 30fps. At that low of a res and no AA, it looks terrible.

[img]http://members.iinet.net.au/~kris.mar/Comptest9.jpg[/img]

Roflmao, how cool.

I think FarCry looks great but I think I one of the only 1000 people still playing it. If framerate is a problem then its time for an upgrade

[quote="Sgt>Stackem":66b3f]I think FarCry looks great but I think I one of the only 1000 people still playing it. If framerate is a problem then its time for an upgrade[/quote:66b3f]

FPS is only aprob if you want your gamer to look like this for some reason.

[url="http://krazygamers.com/downloads/Far%20Cry/FC_HDR03.jpg"]http://krazygamers.com/downloads/Far%20Cry/FC_HDR03.jpg[/url]

http://krazygamers.com/downloads/Far%20Cry/FC_HDR07.jpg

oOo:

I remember reading the hardocp forums when that patch came out and most of the nvidia crowd jizzing themselves with how "good" that shite looked. oOo: oOo:

Its obvious that this is ATI propaganda.

biggrin:

No, just don't wanna blind myself with retarded looking effects when im playing a game. beer:

Its cool, my hacks usually disable weapon models.

[quote=geRV][quote="Sgt>Stackem":4356c]I think FarCry looks great but I think I one of the only 1000 people still playing it. If framerate is a problem then its time for an upgrade[/quote]

FPS is only aprob if you want your gamer to look like this for some reason.

[url="http://krazygamers.com/downloads/Far%20Cry/FC_HDR03.jpg"]http://krazygamers.com/downloads/Far%20Cry/FC_HDR03.jpg[/url]

http://krazygamers.com/downloads/Far%20Cry/FC_HDR07.jpg

oOo:

I remember reading the hardocp forums when that patch came out and most of the nvidia crowd jizzing themselves with how "good" that shite looked. oOo: oOo:[/quote:4356c]
Mine never looked like that... oOo:

[quote=Akuma][quote=geRV]Mine never looked like that... oOo:[/quote:df6c8]

Suppose it depends on how high you set the effect, could also look more exagerated in static screens i suppose.

pre-rendered?

...

oOo:

Looks very impressive to my technically ignorant eyes.....and you gotta figure the majority of the market is people who don't know excessively about video cards....

So, cool - The future of gaming looks fun.