Console Version Of Cry Engine 2 Comparable To High-End PC

Crysis

The next time we hear some outdated nonsense about how consoles can't approach the visuals the PC is capable of, we're gonna have some kind of meltdown. Here's more evidence of the power of the next-gen consoles, courtesy of Ripten and Crytek.

What are the differences between the PC and PS3/360 versions of the much-lauded Cry Engine 2, used in the PC blockbuster shooter, Crysis? Well, many of you might assume the PC version of the Engine is far superior, but according to Crytek's Engine Business Manager, Harald Seeley, that really isn't the case. In fact, he says they expect the console versions of the Cry Engine 2 to "look like they’re running at high settings, or nearly high settings, on a PC." Believe it, PC nuts. Here's more elaboration on the topic:

"The surprising thing has been how well the consoles can perform visually, once this tailoring is in place. We expect the final outcome will result in games that look like they’re running at high settings, or nearly high settings, on a PC. Actually, we found it as much or more challenging to address the memory limitations of the consoles when converting our current AI system, as we did while converting our rendering engine or physics system, which was not something you might have expected at the start."

As for how the PS3 and 360 versions will compare, it seems that, despite the challenge, the better version of the Engine will end up on Sony's platform. Oh, and there's no chance the Cry Engine 2 will show up on the Wii, but then again, that's not really a big shock.

"Well there is no doubt that porting our engine to the PlayStation 3 is the more challenging of our two ongoing conversion projects, but that works to our advantage in the end. We feel certain we have the ability to get the most that is possible out of that platform, and therefore PS3 games which run on our engine in the future will definitely stand significantly apart from other games that don’t."

4/7/2008 Ben Dutka

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