FAR CRY IS A VERY good game, so good that many people will do anything to make things faster.
As usual, both Nvidia and ATI are battling over who will get the performance crown.
Nvidia has special relations with UBI and Crytek, but with ATI it is a different story.
As Crytek developed the now historical 1.2 patch for the game and included Shader model 3.0 ATI had to do something and get some money into game to convince Crytek to make new patch and include Shader model 2.0b for ATI cards.
Coincidentally, this patch would help NV3X cards in use as they use a similar instruction set and have a similar spec to the ATI R3xx and R4xx.
We are told that some things could be made much faster in Shader model 2.0b once it's done and that some effects can be rendered with fewer passes. You can, for example, process four lights with Nvidia Shader model 3.0 while with 2.0b you can do three and with the current Shader model 2.0 just two.
The Nvidia benefit from ATI's boon is just a side effect and if the NV3X generation benefits well that's just tough cheese.
For all of you that have the FX NV 3 X generation of cards ATI is your best friend.
We believe some money was involved with ATI and Crytek. Shouldn't Nvidia chip some of its cash in, too?
Source:
The INQ!
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