Return to the frontpage Read all the latest news-items on one page Download drivers, demo's, patches, tools in our huge file-section Our game reviews Our articles and guides Our latest hardware reviews and tests Return to homepage Be one of the 150.000 users discussing in our forums Search specific things in our news and articles
 
 You are here: Home » Game reviews


 3DMark06 review

 By: Hilbert Hagedoorn | Edited by  | Published: January 18, 2006  

   

Skinny dipping on the Canyon Flight

This is probably the map that all of you will like the most. I certainly love what has happened here. Again, rich geometry, detail and complexities have been added. Just have a look at the HDR effects in this level, then notice the tremendous detail the ship, monster and and the face of the "captain" have. Simply incredible. That crewmen is using a new shadowing technique called the Strauss shading model, Strauss shader shades an object using the Strauss physical light model. This shader is very good at metallic looking highlights. Have a look at the screenshot and notice the differences.

More importantly and I found this to be flabbergasting, look at the water, the fog and banking, amazing. You'll also notice vegetation at the top of the cliffs. Wowzers.

3Dmark06 - Copyright 2005 - Guru3D.com
3Dmark06 - Copyright 2005 - Guru3D.com

A lot is happening in this scene. Atmospheric light scattering and fog effects, HDR and look at that water effect.

The water in this scene is utilizing HDR refractions and reflections so basically wherever a reflection of a light source is extremely bright, "white hot" spots occur along with blooming on water. Yet also depth fog is one of the things you'll notice here (which just looks amazing when you focus on the monster when it's under the ship). The fog I mentioned earlier is made by using a technique called heterogeneous fog which gives the scene that humid feeling.

"Hetero" of course means difference, a heterogeneous fog simply means a mixture visibly different substances or phases. The three phases or states of matter are gas, liquid, and solid.

3Dmark06 - Copyright 2005 - Guru3D.com
3Dmark06 - Copyright 2005 - Guru3D.com

The crewmen looks much better with the Straus shading model. Look at the monster below the ship, depth fog making the sea monster look like it's deep in the water.

Weather is great, so the entire scene is lighted by one light, the sun, and that is challenging for sure when it comes to dynamic shadowing which you'll see throughout the scene.

3Dmark06 - Copyright 2005 - Guru3D.com

The seamonster then, it became prettier, but it's still not a rather pretty looking pet is it?! Here we see HDR reflection of the sun, dynamic soft shadows clearly visible on the monster. Pixel shaded water with depth fog as explained already, heterogeneous fog and of course atmospheric light scattering & fog.





 

Pages (8): « First ... « previous 2 3 [4] 5 6 next » ... Last »


 

previous page

homepage

 

Check lowest prices on these products in Guru3D.com price guide, among the available categories: Retail & OEM Processors - Video Cards - Motherboards - Memory - Soundcards - Hard Drives - Monitors - Printers - DVDs - CD-RWs - PDAs and more !

Copyright (c) 1997-2008 Hilbert Hagedoorn, All Rights Reserved. Webdesign by Mohsin Ali - Legal disclaimer/notice
The Guru of 3D, the Hardware guru, and 3D Guru are the trademark ownership of Hilbert Hagedoorn.



  Site Navigation
   Home
   Latest News
   Submit News
   Hardware Reviews
   Articles & Guides
   VGA Charts new
   Game Reviews
   Forums
   Download Section
   Guru3D Price Grabber
   Guru Price Grabber UK
   Guru PC Buyers Guide
   Guru3D Stereo Section
   Guru3D Clan
   Guru3D Folding@Home
   Contact us
   Join our news-letter
   Set as Homepage
 

  Affiliates

RivaTuner
nVHardPage
3DMark Vantage
SiSoft SANDRA
Guru3D Driver Sweeper
nVTempLogger
ATI Tray Tools

Reader Rig of the Month
  Links
Driver Scan
Your company ?
Your company ?
  Downloads
NVIDIA GeForce drivers
ATI Catalyst drivers
Benchmarks & Demo's
Game Demo's
NVIDIA Chipset drivers
Intel Chipset drivers