The Ultimate Showdown: CryENGINE2 vs. Reality

60 Comments by Griffin McElroy Feb 23rd 2008 8:30PM
Filed under: Culture

Crytek recently whipped up a tech demonstration for their haughty, hardware punishing software, CryENGINE2, to show off at GDC. Mimicking an unforgettable ad for the Sony Bravia, the demo turned quite a few heads -- but how did the visuals of the ball-droppin' doppelganger compare to the original advertisement? Never one to miss an opportunity for a video comparison, Gametrailers whipped up the above video. What do you think -- are video games nearing photorealism? Or were your discerning, pixel-counting eyes not fooled?

Tags: balls, bravia, commercial, cryengine2, crysis, crytek, engine, sonybravia, tech-demo, techdemo

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(Page 1) Reader Comments

Beau Kebodeaux: Feb 23rd 2008; 8:34PM

Reality also moves at more than 30 frames per second

Obie: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:21PM

Agreed. Let's see the cryengine emulate a scene from "Transformers" on then gimme a call.

GamerCrusader: Feb 24th 2008; 12:26AM

I think that to be effective it only needs to be at 40 frames per second with a variable rate between frames (Certain frames playing faster and then slow.. Makes a sort of stuttering effect) This would make it much more believable. At least from my perspective.. More than 30 frames per second though, yes. WANT.

Obie: Feb 24th 2008; 12:35AM

Technically the ad was shot on HD-24, which is 24 frames per second. The problem is that the cryengine footage seemed slower than that.

Dan: Feb 24th 2008; 11:41AM

There seems to be a note missing:

"*rendered on a supercomputer... user experience may vary"

colin: Feb 25th 2008; 4:46AM

obie has quite a point. there is a good reason that film is shot in 24 frames per second. NTSC Video is 30 (or 29.97 to get technical) and i believe PAL is 25. Though every pc-gamer has it in their mind that 60+ fps is better*, reality says for watching something (i.e. not participating) 24 fps and your brain's capability of persistence of vision are the best combo. high framerate does not equal more realistic, if anything, it makes it more surreal.

*60 fps IS better when you are jumping through space rotating your field of view 90 degrees southeast, fragging a noob, then reversing back 180 degrees for a quick double kill and to drop some grenades at the respawn all before you hit the ground again. thats fine and dandy, but it isn't realistic.

Sam406: Feb 23rd 2008; 8:36PM

As goo as the graphics are, there's still a marked difference between CryENGINE2 and reality. Most notably on people and cars.

Sam406: Feb 23rd 2008; 8:40PM

Oh, and I want to see this add at the speed the bouncy balls SHOULD be going, ricocheting like bullets.

Grog: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:06PM

No joke.

I think I would have been amazed if I had seen it by itself, but the comparison video actually made it look pretty bad... which was a pity.

Eh: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:55PM

Those things dont count since they fall into the category of "art." Do you know how incredibly hard it is to create a photorealistic model of a person? There arent many people in the world that can do that. People forget that 3d models are created by artists and the quality is limited to the artist's abilities and time given to create the model, it has nothing to do with the technical abilities of an engine.

Eh: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:56PM

ThornedVenom (Ludwig Defense Force): Feb 23rd 2008; 8:39PM

I have the impression that it took them a lot more than Crysis-level hardware to render that bitch.

Daran: Feb 23rd 2008; 8:41PM

That's amazing, it's also good to see we're quite not at real-life levels yet in terms of graphical caliber.

I'd like to be able to discern the difference for a little while longer.

Nick the Hero of Canton: Feb 23rd 2008; 8:43PM

This is the ultimate showdown...of ultimate destiny!

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!): Feb 23rd 2008; 9:15PM

good guys, bad guys, and explosions! as far as the eye can see/
and only one will survive, i wonder who it will be?/
this is the ultimate showdown...of ultimate destiny!/

lol great video and hilarious song.

Neebs: Feb 23rd 2008; 8:53PM

Lawl at the chicken.

eldee: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:40PM

lol i saw that too

Neebs: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:44PM

By the way, if you've never played Crysis,
1. You should.
2. The main animal you encounter in the game is the chicken. A lot of them.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!): Feb 23rd 2008; 9:12PM

that looks pretty damn real. it's certainly not photorealism as i can easily tell the apart but we are getting pretty close to that point. it wont be long before we are "playing real life" so to speak what with the advent of super realistic physic engines and bleeding edge graphics such as this.

JakubK666: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:19PM

Murder Simulator will suddenly get a new meaning...

milestailsprowe: Feb 23rd 2008; 11:03PM

they werevery close if the emgime didnt make everything look s hazy I would not be able to tell it apart besides from the car and number of balls

bm: Feb 24th 2008; 3:38AM

I can't wait till it happens. The sooner all games can achieve exact photorealism easily, the sooner it will become a "non-feature" like it really is, nobody will care anymore, and the industry can finally focus on -creativity- for a change.

Ghen: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:15PM

Truth be told, its not whether CryEngine2 looks close to reality or not... Its the fact that the question is being ASKED AT ALL.

PSN: KillaKornbread (the shirt is a lie!): Feb 23rd 2008; 9:17PM

exactly.

Nushio (NDF - Blue): Feb 23rd 2008; 9:46PM

As far as I'm concerned, the fact is that Reality is really poor at adapting itself to match CryEngine's enviroment. So its really not Crytek's fault, but Nature itself for not looking more blocky.

Dauragon88: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:20PM

OH GOD! I JUST FELL INTO THE UNCANNY VALLEY!

my legs appear to be broken..........i will try to stand up

*CRACK* AAAUGH!!!

the bones are sticking through the skin....

the wounds are beginning to smell like almonds....

Autopsy15: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:51PM

...almonds?

Derick: Feb 24th 2008; 12:52AM

He really does eat too many almondjoy....

Figboy: Feb 24th 2008; 6:15PM

lol. nice Austin Powers reference.

Spirit: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:25PM

One thing I notice... I see very realistic environments, but the people still look a little computer-made.

I don't think we'll see anything this insane for consoles for a little while longer. To render graphics like this, you'd need to tape together a lot of Gamecubes.

ApolloIV: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:25PM

If this doesn't impress you, you have no soul.

Sam406: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:40PM

Wow, I've have been told I'm not gamerz, now here you go telling me I have no soulz.

But to be fair, It's not that the engine is not impressive, it's just that the "CryENGINE2 vs. Reality" is an absolutely ridiculous consept.

It's good yes, but it's not the Matrix.

eldee: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:44PM

to be fair to crytek, they didn't make that trailer, just copied the bravia ad.

bm: Feb 24th 2008; 3:41AM

Oh right! Forget being moved by art, creativity, or any of that bullshit, geek drooling over a software engine trying to mimic the most boring thing of all - reality - is how the human soul is measured!

Jay: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:31PM

Haha, bouncing kettles, awesome :]

Kspraydad: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:41PM

CryEngine on SONY confirmed.

:)

eldee: Feb 23rd 2008; 9:45PM

sweet, I can't wait to install a 20GB game to my HD rather than play it off the disc like console games are supposed to do! :)

maverick_saturn_626: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:00PM

'Supposed to do'? By whos law eldee? Yours?

bm: Feb 24th 2008; 3:43AM

The law of any sane human being.

Markusdragon: Feb 24th 2008; 6:24AM

The law of any sane being with a Hard Drive that only has a 40 gig capacity.

jdeuel: Feb 24th 2008; 10:03AM

while we're at it, no more game saving, storage of any sort is insane guys!

fuck you, if i want to install a game for better load-times, i shall.

Abuzar: Feb 24th 2008; 11:08PM

Game saving is a ESSENTIAL feature. Consoles were meant to be plug and play though, which they are. Gamesaving doesn't take away from the plug and play idea, installing games does.

maverick_saturn_626: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:02PM

This looks incrdible as far as I am concerned, best preview of graphics I have seen since Heavy Rain and Gears.

Kalus: Feb 24th 2008; 12:31AM

I think it's really difficult to compare Heavy Rain to Gears of War. Gears of War had a lot going for it at once, but the attention to detail crammed into such a small space for Heavy Rain was fantastic.

Eh: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:03PM

At least they have good taste. That is the greatest commercial of all time. Period. Its the most amazing thing ever in HD, youtube ruins it (720p version is at the bravia ad site).

Poisoned Al: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:05PM

I liked the Bravia ad with the bunnies myself, but still, there were moments where I forgot which was real and which was fake. True those moments didn't have any cars or people in them, but fact remains that for a short time, I couldn't tell them apart.

Gangsta Smurf: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:10PM

Reality... it is not.

ApolloIV: Feb 23rd 2008; 10:37PM

@Sam406 I'm with you that the reality thing is stupid but I'm just saying that the graphics are very impressive. My apologies if you took that as a flame.