Will HL2 use 3dc?

[Nex321]

...will it?

If so does anyone have a screenshot that shows before and after?

 

[Kazuki_Fuse]

I sure hope so. I think it would 'cause HL2 and ATI go hand in hand.

 

[Lanthanide]

Press release bumpf by ATi says that it will. AFAIK there hasn't been any official word from Valve on this. There is a website somewhere with a screenshot that's supposed to show the differences, but it's pretty blurry and a little questionable as to whether it is actually showing 3DC at all.

 

[EVIL]

you might want to e-mail that question to valve, we might be able to get an exclusive schreenshot

 

[Sparta]

What is 3DC?

 

[czrsink]

3-D Chimps?

 

[lans]

Yep, I remember one of the ATI posters about 3DC saying that "games using it:" and half-life 2 was listed on the top.

 

[EVIL]

What is 3DC?

Quoted from ati.com:

"3Dc™
3Dc is an exciting new compression technology designed to bring out fine details in games while minimizing memory usage. It is the first compression technique optimized to work with normal maps, which allow fine per-pixel control over how light reflects from a textured surface. With up to 4:1 compression possible, this means game designers can now include up to 4x the detail without changing the amount of graphics memory required and without impacting performance."

 

[Sparta]

I take it this feature is only available with the latest graphics cards? Like the X800?

 

[sk0t]

I take it this feature is only available with the latest graphics cards? Like the X800?

Yes, they are the only cards to support it atm. (not sure about the future x600 series though)

Do bear in mind that 3dc can be used in 2 ways:

1. To increase performance by compressing existing normal.maps
2. To increase eye.candy by implementing normal.maps with up to 4x higher details.

And quite possibly a mixture of the two...

Personally I belive that hl2 on release will mainly support 3dc for performance, but perhaps they will add more details for x800 owners in a patch (this is my speculation, its not facts!)

 

[Gorgon]

http://forums.sudhian.com/messageview.cfm?catid=74&threadid=60270

3dc in action pictures.

for full demo of 3cs visit Humus website:http://esprit.campus.luth.se/~humus/3D/3Dc.rar

http://esprit.campus.luth.se/~humus/

 

[pixartist]

lol i dont see any difference

 

[Gorgon]

there is a small diffrence when you play the humus demo.

if you have an Ati Card with 3dc option such as x800 types then try to download the above demo and watch the excitement.



EDIT: http://www.3dvelocity.com/reviews/c3dxtpe/c3dxtpe.htm

Go down a bit and you will see how 3dc can change the look of a game.

 

[|_HeLL_|]

This is like when s3 introduced s3tc and directx introduced dxt1-5 texture compression ages ago. Today games use these compression methods for standard textures and it's a CRUCIAL feature as it saves lots of wasted memory size and bandwitch as it doesn't have downsides: its like to compare the bmp and a jpg image file: you can make a poor compressed jpg file so you will see a decrease in quality, like the unfamous compression artifacts with nvidias in quake 3. But if you make a good texture compression like Soldier of fortune 2 you will hardly notice the difference.

Did you remember when the first unreal tournament added s3tc support? The difference between the compressed and non-compressed was huge! Apply that with 3dc to the today games which has started to use normal maps massively and you will have x4 quality using the same texture size and bandwitch. I hope Microsoft Team will adopt these feature soon to the main directx feature set.