Crysis 2 Thumbs Db
Ellen Woolcock
I wanted to share my accumulated Knowledge here, so This Topic is Dedicated to helping you get the best graphics/gameplay quality out of Crysis, by using a combination of files and Tweaks. I will provide links to any resources, i will also try and keep my eyes peeled for notable advancements to update the thread.
As you may already know, the CryEngine 2 is Extremely Customizable. By using a 'Custom Config' you can tailor the game to suit the performance range of your computer, but since the games been out for a while now, and many of you have uber computers, im going to focus on trying to get the best quality without compromise, so you can stress those Xfire 5970's or whatever beast your rocking under the hood :thumbs-up:
Yeah, i know your probably thinking 'Wait this is Crysis..?' but i found a lot of textures lacking when you got up close. I noticed this most on Rocks and the floor, while crawling though brushes with a silenced SCAR. This first pack is Made by Rygel and should help to alleviate some of it. Here's Some Comparison Screenshots i managed to find:
Recently Silent from Crymod released his new High Resolution Foliage Mod. This mod is simply superb at dealing with... well Foliage texturing (duh!) and it really makes a big difference throughout the game world. Also we have possibly The Most Sexy Nano Suit Retexture to date. Created by Lamarr at Crymod:
Same installation Path as before - ...\Electronic Arts\Crytec\Crysis\Game (all .pak files go here unless stated otherwise) IMPORTANT NOTE: you can use a simple "load order" trick, which is to remove the "zz" preceding the file name to counter any conflicts what may arise to a limited extent. As it stands you need to rename Rygels pack (zzTexturesupdatepart1&2.pak) to remove the "zz", this should let us use both packs together for best results.
(If you feel comfortable messing around with things, use WinRAR to open the .pak file and delete the "Bushes" and "Trees" folders, along with any other conflicts from the archive. The idea is to delete files what you already have in Silents High Resolution Foliage Pack, so it helps to have both archives open to play a little spot the difference. It wont take too long and will ensure there are no conflicts. It will also help you to have a better understanding of how to mix and match things in a modular fashion should you spot something you really like to use for example.) Just make sure to make a backup copy of the pack your editing incase you delete something wrong by accident and have to download all over again
Now you need a Custom Config, and a ToD mod (Time of day) The config will take you beyond 'enthusiast' settings and the ToD mod will Enhance the Lighting of Crysis to something much more realistic, you will be shocked at how much of a difference it makes. Crysis WARHEAD Doesn't have nearly as much potential for graphical splendor as the original games does as ToD moding has been locked out.
There's alot of tweaking to do with this config file, but its a good base config to work with, and ill cover the tweaking a little later, for now though you have a functional ultra high quality config along with the HD textures.
IMPORTANT NOTE: Ran into some problems while Testing a new TOD in later levels, some issues with it need to be Resolved (16/02/2011) Feel Free to use this version Until I Update the post with the New (much improved and simpler to install) one.
You will also need to temporarily Remove the High Res Packs you just installed from ...\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis\Game so place them with your backup of the 'Levels' folder for now.
(ignore those errors which come up, unless you get loads of popups saying something about a layer texture format.. in that case make sure you have all the high res textures removed from the crysis\game folder)
This shader tweak is GOLDEN! Previously you were not able to use PoM (parallax occlusion mapping) which makes textures 3d and also have Anisotropic filtering enabled at the same time, resulting in Blurred out floors. Now however, thanks to the genius of Xzero we can have fantastic 3d texturing AND have full x16 Anistopic filtering, meaning beautifully detailed floors like this:
IMPORTANT NOTE: You must remember that the Edge Anti Aliasing we are using in the config is Incompatible with the FSAA which you have in the games menu options. The 2 are different So Please remember to turn it off in game so that it can properly utilize the EdgeAA. It's considered to be a "cheap" alternative to the FSAA, however it actually works very nicely and with Xzero's modified AA Algorithm it actually looks AND performs better too!
The Installation path is the same as before. Just Drop Xzero's files into: ...\Electronic Arts\Crytec\Crysis\Game In addition to this however you Must Delete the "ShaderCache.pak" file whats in there. Also Delete the "Shaders" folder which is located in My Documents\My Games\Crysis. Once thats done and you restart the game, Load up a level (not a quicksave or checkpoint) and you will notice alot of things like textures missing. Dont worry though, its normal! This is because the game is re-compiling the shaders, so once thats done (may take a minute or 3) you should be able to play the game as normal. (There are 2 more shaders i am awaiting for from Xzero, so when they come out you will have to follow the above procedure again.)
Xigmatek's Xtreme effects 2 (XFX2) Is FINALLY out! and its as every bit chaotically beautiful as us Crysis moders could have hoped for. If you want to oogle over big explosions, fantastic physics, particles.. whatever just install this, as Xigmatek's the master of physics mods for Crysis bar none in my opinion. HUGE fan of his previous work and you should be too (take a look through his youtube channel, some very creative and insane physics based weapon mods in there!)
NOTE: The following updates are taking into consideration the performance loss of installing Mods from the Previous post. I have changed them to more optimised values for the best image quality with minimal playable frames in mind. I have also added advice tips to some variables for Single AND Multi GPU users. Some variables Listed below are NOT in the Config, so add them in!
You Should make a Shortcut of the Crysis exe what you use on your Desktop and add -devmode to the end of the Target. So for example it should look like this: "C:\Games\Electronic Arts\Crytek\Crysis\Bin64\Crysis.exe" -devmode - This will also enable cheats (a full list of which can be found here: ) so i advise you to not use the Multiplayer component from the Crysis install, but rather just install Crysis Wars separately, so you wont be booted from Multiplayer.
I spent many weeks tweaking away on my CCC based Crysis config, but there was just so much additional work to do that i scrapped it and went hunting for a true 'Ultra' config. This is when i bumped into the one included in Yodastar's ToD mod, it was an Excellent basis to tweak on. The 'Ultra config' is already very high quality, so i only needed to do some minor work to get the most from it. Lets get started:
In here there is a ton of different variables to modify, but Don't go crazy and just start setting veiw distances to 100000 - thats not how this works, delicacy and an uncommon amount of common sence is needed. First up - Use Ctrl + F so that its quick and easy to find the correct variables which need to be modified (highlighted in Green Below)
If you wish to change the Field of view (FoV) from the current 75 the variable cl_fov= is the one you want to look at. Bearing in mind that the Higher the FoV setting, the more potential performance loss as more is being displayed on screen. (default is 60)
r_MultiGPU= (Default is 2) For Single GPU setups use 0. IMPORTANT: If you are using a Multi GPU Setup change this to 1 The reason is that 2 enables automatic detection, allowing for more headroom on a Multi GPU setup, however this is only true for Nvidia SLI setups, so for ATI users Crossfire Scaling is Off by Default.
r_MotionBlurShutterSpeed= this controls how intense the motion blur will be in game. Much of the time i found that setting it to 0.5 (slider in game set to full) made everything far too blurry, so i started testing different variables. I suggest a value of 0.025 or 0.03
e_gsm_cache_lod_offset=2 Bump this to 3, Changes the update factor of shadows. Setting to 5 means all shadows are updated in realtime, but this comes at an extremely heavy performance cost (not worth it as you cant really see that far in the game anyhow)
Set e_vegetation_use_terrain_color= to 0, this will make the game use original colours for vegetation in the game, (much more realistic) instead of the same shade of green on all plants. As a side note this will also fix any Flickering issues you might come across on vegetation using some configs)
r_UsePom=0 Set this to 1 to enable Parallax occlusion mapping (or 3D Textures for short) Previously you were NOT able to enable this without losing Anisotropic filtering altogether, which resulted in blurry floors. However using the Global Ambient Lighting Mod From Xzero (listed in First post) you now can!
Here are some Experimental AI values, to improve on the games AI. It also enables the AI interest system which can make soldiers get scared of unpredicted events. For example a frog moving through bushes makes noise and disturbs them, as a result a soldier can get scared and open fire at the bush. NOTE: These settings are pretty tough, so if you want more of a challenge out of the game, then go for it, else just leave this one out.
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