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Gaming Effects Versus Hollywood, Part II

By ATI 

Reflections On The Water

Water doesn’t always have to reflect. Often, a churned-up surface or a little fog is sufficient. In Splinter Cell, the sea is very calm, but a stronger swell would reduce the reflections and make the water surface look more natural. In Stalker: Clear Sky, a little fog would have made the marshland look more realistic. The wetland does not specifically need to reflect, and it is possible that a soft haze would actually take some pressure off the graphics card.

The improvement of good water and glittering light effects on the PC can be seen from the new games with DirectX 10. The improved lighting reflects the surface better, the lighting reflexes are amazing, and the wave structure looks more natural.

29 Comments Comment from the forums
  • lucuis 12 November 2008 15:25
    It can only get better :)
    Reply
  • roynaldi 12 November 2008 19:36
    Wasser -1, Wasser -3, -5, Wasserfall, Bewegungsunscharfe*.....

    German Tab names for the pics... Very Nice guys!
    *movementSharpness!?!?
    Reply
  • neiroatopelcc 12 November 2008 20:13
    Part 1 had german names for the images too. I don't see how that is of any importance though as the titles for the respective pages were translated. Some of the games were in german too in case you missed it btw (bioshock amongst others)

    Anyway. I read the article and can't help to somehow be disappointed. Sure it's well written and explained, but somehow there's something missing! it seems to be more of the first part and not enough hollywood somehow. There are like 85% gaming screenshots, 8% reallife and the remaining 7% are hollywood. Also the article only covers stuff hollywood uses and games do too - nothing mentioned of stuff that pc's cant do yet other than visual enhancements that aren't treated as manipulatable objects - but then hollywood doesn't really supply that either, as all their stuff is static each time it's displayed.

    In short : not enough hollywood, and too much pc tech.
    Reply
  • thr3ddy 12 November 2008 20:46
    roynaldiWasser -1, Wasser -3, -5, Wasserfall, Bewegungsunscharfe*..... German Tab names for the pics... Very Nice guys!*movementSharpness!?!?Bewegungsunscharfe
    Reply
  • thr3ddy 12 November 2008 20:47
    Crap sorry about the double post. Bewegungsunscharfe = Motion blur.
    Reply
  • 12 November 2008 20:52
    Why are there no examples of the Source engine in these articles? The physics is unparalleled in a lot of ways. The new cinematic physics engine? Hello? What they do with characters alone (mostly in animation/facial animation) is amazing. I also don't notice any Gears/UT3 examples, which is just weird.
    Reply
  • 12 November 2008 21:16
    Tis a shame you mention water graphics and have no references to Uncharted.

    @Anony-Guy the first example was UT3 engine (stranglehold. I must admit though gears 2 had better water graphics.
    Reply
  • hellwig 12 November 2008 22:29
    I remember a cool water effect in Giants. If you ran through a body of water, the water would appear to react to your legs, and waves of water would rush up against the them. Of course, this wasn't really the water reacting, it was just a secondary effect being drawn at the point where the legs met the water. It still looked cool for a game from 8 years ago.

    I'm surprised there were no examples of water from Serious Sam. SS had transparent water, shadows cast underneath by the ripples on the water surface, etc..., and again, all back in 2000/2001. The Serious Engine was so impressive when it came out, far better than Quake III and UT, the other options at that time.
    Reply
  • cruiseoveride 12 November 2008 23:19
    Where is the Playboy Mansion PC vs Real life comparison????
    Reply
  • JonnyDough 13 November 2008 01:36
    What they need is better ripple effects now. When you walk through water, your character needs to slow and teeter more. Each stride should make noise, not just a general noise of sploshing. When you drop a gun in water, it needs come out dripping wet. When you swim, you need to do it in lunges, not smoothly. When the tide rolls in, the sand needs to change a bit over time. Your footprints need to disappear with each wave, etc. These little things aren't that hard to implement, and should not be taking up much system resources. I think it's just laziness on the part of most developers. There's always this "time limit" and "budget" that interfere as well...but then you have a monster giant corporation like EA who is spending money on stupid things like SecuRom instead of producing great games that will make sales.
    Reply