CryEngine 3: PS3 vs 360

Crytek discuss the pros and cons of the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of CryEngine 3.
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CryEngine 3 PS3 Demo
CryENGINE 3 Revealed

Article written by nofi in PS3 News, on Sunday, May 17, 2009 at 9:00.

In an in-depth look at CryEngine 3 (the latest iteration of Crytek’s incredible tech) in this month’s Edge magazine, Mark Atkinson, Crytek’s director of technology, has plenty to say about the hugely promising console versions of the engine.  “Everyone said we couldn’t do this on a console,” he said to Edge, “We did it.”  Claiming the PS3 and Xbox 360 versions of CryEngine 3 are “equivalent to medium- to high-spec PC settings” and coming complete with all the dynamic scenery and destructability from its big brother, we have high hopes for the first games to use this beast.

Development of the cross platform tech wasn’t easy though, as Atkinson says. “It’s been tricky, but we’ve got a strong PS3 engine with all the major systems running on SPUs.  With middleware, what you want is for someone else to do all that so the developer can just concentrate on making games.  We have parity between the platforms now: both run at the same speed.”  Although this ’same speed’ clearly depends on what the engine is doing at that particular time.  “If the game’s shader-heavy it runs a bit faster on 360; if it’s compute-heavy with physics and particles, then the SPUs take over and it’s a bit quicker on PS3.”

See for yourself in this video, from GDC, comparing the two console versions of CryEngine 3:

Evidently, then, it appears the guys at Crytek have managed to wring the most out of both consoles, and created an engine that will surely rival the likes of Unreal 3 once the developers have gotten their hands on it. If you want to read more of the interview and get more information on CryEngine 3, you can read the initial console impressions on the Edge website here, and the rest of the article referenced above can be found in the actual Edge magazine, issue 202, which is on the shelves now (with BLUR on the cover). Go buy it.

Further Reading:

You can also read the official CryEngine 3 announcement press release here.

Comments

Please note that all comments are the opinion of the individual author and not TheSixthAxis.

Newer Comments

  1. 3shirts | 17/05/2009 09:38
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    Come on now, that title’s a bit of a misrepresentation. He actually says some bits are faster on 360 and some faster on PS3!


    • proog | 17/05/2009 09:40
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      I agree. Was about to say the same.


      • SirGregThorn | 17/05/2009 09:54
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        Huh ?
        The title doesn’t say that it’s not.


  2. spooner_22 | 17/05/2009 09:42
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    Indeed


  3. BioEye | 17/05/2009 09:42
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    CryEngine on the PS3?
    *party*


    • darknight88 | 17/05/2009 10:01
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      Ill join u in that party


      • 3shirts | 17/05/2009 10:29
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        I won’t be invited :(
        Or I will but I’ll embarass myself and be asked to leave


  4. Pixl1983 | 17/05/2009 11:17
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    Really looking forward to the first release to use this. I’m excited by the potential. When Heavy Rain an UC2 come out, that’s when the PS3 will start to break ahead in terms of graphics. Those PS3 specific engines are the ones to look out for.


  5. FruitOfDoom | 17/05/2009 11:23
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    Great stuff!

    An impressive acheivement and I hope developers use the tech well.

    It seems yet more confirmation that 360 handles graphics a little better. With the PS3 excelling in particles and physics. Yet only when cross platform?

    Killzone 2 and MGS4 are examples of better looking games that are tailored to PS3 tech. Yet the 360 has no exclusive to match either. So do we really believe Crytek 3.0 is using the PS3 tech as well as it could?


    • Raen | 17/05/2009 13:29
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      Well it depends. Just because the 360 runs smoother under certain loads with graphics, doesn’t mean that it’s graphical output is overall better. You also have to think that, while MGS4 and KZ2 are awesome graphically, the physics loads isn’t as great in those games. As far as I know neither features the deformity possibilities offered by the CryEngine, meaning that more SPUs are available for graphics calculation. They won’t run as fast, but they’ll still make the game look good. If those games were physics heavy I’d imagine they wouldn’t look as breathtaking. And as for matching PS3 graphics? We’ll see what Alan Wake can do…


      • cc_star | 17/05/2009 13:46
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        The only difference I can get see between the graphics on each machine is the 360’s dedicated anti-aliasing chip means graphics have less jaggy’s but the PS3 gets round this by softening the graphics, or adding a very faint blur filter, which I prefer the look of, (although Eurogamers graphics comparison editor thinks the opposite).

        More SPU’s = better physics processing and therefore better destructible stuff, but weaker ability at shading, leaving a (very) slightly less detailed look, which your wouldn’t really be able to tell anyway.

        Anyway just like the machines, the engine won’t be pushed to it’s limit for a year or two anyway, making the whole debate pointless at the minute


  6. rht992 | 17/05/2009 13:20
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    It does look good. but it does prove that the p.c. has better graphics by miles “medium to high spec”.
    I have to agree with fruitofdoom KZ2 and MGS are two of the best looking games around on any, well, anything and they just prove the ps3 has the best graphics on consoles.
    I reckon this will be the same as the unreal engine, it looks great already but in a year developers will be taking full advantage of it and we gamer’s will have plenty of amazing games to look forward to :)


    • cc_star | 17/05/2009 13:39
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      I think the Unreal Engine looks terrible on the PS3


      • Watchful | 17/05/2009 14:26
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        Unreal Engine does sell the PS3 a bit short. Having played through Bioshock on both 360 and PS3, it’s obvious the engine runs so much better on the 360.

        Got my fingers crossed for TimeSplitters 4 using the CryEngine though. :)


  7. Exstrodinair | 17/05/2009 13:39
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    soooo uno crytec took over free radical….does that mean they’re developing star wars battlefront if soo then thats the most exciting thing ive heard since bungie embraced O.D.S.T’s!!!


  8. ghost5 | 17/05/2009 16:43
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    It’s nice to see an independent developer giving both the pro’s & con’s for each console as I would like to think they are unbiased.

    As someone mentioned above, yeah both consoles are miles behind a PC in terms of power and graphics – they where when they where released – but they cost only a small fraction of the price of a medium powered PC.


  9. Averna | 17/05/2009 17:45
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    Interesting. They said that its meant to ‘look’ better on the 360 but ‘process’ better on the ps3 (paraphrasing here), but if you look at the 1:20 mark, check out the grass and general leafage.. Id much rather the PS3 version if this is accurate.. I mean I could spot that a mile off and thats a pretty heavily compressed video, I can only image the difference when its running in 720p (I would assume it wouldnt be pumping along on 1080p)


    • cc_star | 17/05/2009 18:45
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      In most comparison videos I always prefer the PS3 version, even when the creator of the video is trying to show you a PS3 weakness, except for when a game is running on the Unreal Engine like Wheelman, which looks pretty poor on the PS3, and anything by Ubisoft that uses the Assassin Engine, like Assassins’ or Shaun White.

      I really hope the Assassins engine gets some PS3 loving by the time AC2 is released


      • Averna | 18/05/2009 01:58
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        Yep, Ill agree with ya on that.


  10. tyrant161 | 17/05/2009 19:14
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    I have played both versions of bioshock, ps3 and 360. I must say that i think that the ps3 version looks loads better, same with unreal tournament 3, again, ps3 version looks better and faster, also the same goes for several other multi platform games such as far cry2, GTA4, Prince of persia and burnout paradise..all these games have a more fluid and smoother look to them…ok so this new cryengine is good on both systems, difference is,that the PS3 will run the cryengine without getting the red ring of death…..lol. (I know, ive had it 7 times, then saw the light and moved to PS3).


    • cc_star | 17/05/2009 19:18
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      Watch out for the pesky yellow one, although rarer I can confirm it does exist


  11. nutellapr | 17/05/2009 19:34
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    Obviously, the folks at Crytek are being nice for the media in order not to upset Sony or Microsoft. But who’s kidding, Crytek either have dumbed down their engine so it will work equally well on both platforms or their programmers haven’t advanced to an expert level to take advantage the PS3’s SPU which can easily do shading (see http://www.beyond3d.com/content/news/497). Insomniac, Naughty Dog and Quantic (Heavy Rain) seem to have figured out how to offload a lot of the shading to the SPUs which are by far quicker than a GPU used by both Sony and MS. I thought that demo video was weak as a marketing/sales tool. Quite a static scene.


    • Averna | 18/05/2009 01:56
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      Even dumbed down it would appear that the cry engine would outperform the unreal engine, which I think would be the leading 3rd party engine (I could be wrong)


  12. iBirch | 18/05/2009 18:25
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    Can’t wait to see this in action. :)


  13. Lahmy88 | 25/05/2009 11:51
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    It truly will be a CryEngine…
    PS3 fans will cry at how awesomely beautiful PS3 CryEngine games will look.
    X360 fans will cry because the 360 games won’t look as good as the PS3 games.


  14. Commando101st | 17/05/2009 10:09
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    The tweet did though.


  15. 3shirts | 17/05/2009 10:28
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    Title’s been changed now. When I posted that it was Crysis: “Bit quicker on PS3″


  16. darknight88 | 17/05/2009 10:43
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    Well here’s a personal invitation… I hereby invite 3shirts in front of all these amazing TSA witnesses to come to darknight88 and BioEye’s party of celebration.
    And by the way…all self-embarrassing idiots allowed.


  17. SirGregThorn | 17/05/2009 12:44
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    And by the way…all self-embarrassing idiots allowed.
    Then I’m invited as well ;)


  18. BioEye | 17/05/2009 13:47
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    Everyone’s invited! :D


  19. darknight88 | 17/05/2009 14:07
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    Sorted! Done!


  20. Raen | 17/05/2009 13:59
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    PS3 developers have a good solution to the jaggies issue, but as you stated it’s a matter of preference.

    Agree on the fact that there’s still a coupla years till meaningful comparisons can be made. And I’ve generally been about game play over graphics, but then again I guess that means I should like the physics of the PS3 more than the 360 to some extent. Opps…


  21. FruitOfDoom | 17/05/2009 14:46
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    Yeah the 10MB e-DRAM on the 360 was a great move by ATI, andcis probably the only reason 360 graphics are keeping up.



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