Crysis 2: Ultra Upgrade makes gorgeous shooter even prettier

Tessellation, displacement mapping, parallax occlusion, and other weird terms that’ll help you tighten up the graphics

Words: GamesRadarTylerNagata on June 28, 2011

Crysis 2 looks great now. But it’s about to look a lot better for PC owners with DirectX11 support from Crytek’s recently released Ultra Upgrade. The update will make use of tessellation, displacement mapping, parallax occlusion, improved tone mapping, and other technical terms that’ll help you tighten up the graphics if your video card can handle it. On Wednesday, Crytek will also release the Crysis 2 Map Editor Pack for free, which can be downloaded at mycrysis.com.

Above: Graphics!

Jun 27, 2011

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blocpartier - June 29, 2011 6:50 a.m.

Oh my, that is beautiful! The shadows, penumbras, and water were spectacular!
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e1337prodigy - June 28, 2011 7:18 p.m.

why they didn't have DX11 and map editor available from the beginning I don't know, it might have gotten higher ratings.
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SonicX_89 - June 28, 2011 2:52 p.m.

That is one pretty game. I thought it looked good on the 360, but damn.
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DaveGoose - June 28, 2011 2:36 p.m.

Wow how did they get that many graphics?
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Odpaterson - June 28, 2011 11:18 a.m.

Installed this yesterday and OH MY GAD. I've never spent so long in a game JUST looking at walls. It's amazing.
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insertdisk - June 28, 2011 8:34 a.m.

Does this mean that the PC people will shut the hell up? Slightly off topic does anyone else find that motion blur is obtrusive in FPS's?
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Balaska - June 28, 2011 5:42 a.m.

Hmm interactive water... I seem to remember a little known PC game called Half-Life 2 had interactive water...
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CrashmanX - June 28, 2011 5:11 a.m.

@Taterboob, I don't think you understand this. Xbox 360 hit it's graphics ceiling awhile ago. It's pretty well stuck where it is. PS3 has a little bit more room before hit tops. PC on the other hand (What we just saw here) has an infinitely high ceiling. When I can't distinguish reality from Games, then we've only touched the walls.
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Gahmah - June 28, 2011 4:39 a.m.

Oh how much better can it.... well, fuck.
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enoop - June 28, 2011 4:38 a.m.

Also taterboob this update puts the graphics past the current console generation.
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enoop - June 28, 2011 4:34 a.m.

Good, I was a little disappointed when i got like 80 FPS on max when this first came out.
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TheRandomFool - June 28, 2011 4:23 a.m.

Well, at least there can be no more foolish complaints about how "it's not as good as the first one!". Thank god its on PS3; trying to run that would kill me with shrapnel from my exploded driver.
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taterboob - June 28, 2011 3:39 a.m.

I don't know. I'm at the point where I fail to see much of an improvement. To me, the PS3 version that I played looked fine (amazing, even). I'm starting to feel like we're hitting the ceiling of graphical capability for at least the next couple of years until the new consoles are ready to roll out. Not to say that's a bad thing, of course. I think it's great that we live in a time in which most games released are generally pretty impressive in a graphical sense, and good art direction is what sets them apart.
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BriNk581 - June 28, 2011 3:38 a.m.

shoot... My pc can barely run on highest... How can I run this? Hmm lets give it a try lol
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minelbp - June 28, 2011 3:35 a.m.

holy shit, Jumping pixels Batman! That is a lot of graphics! I wish I could play that :(
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WarWasp - June 28, 2011 4:22 a.m.

Holy graphics Batman
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