The Frostbite 2 engine powers Battlefield 3 and was built exclusively on top of the DirectX® 11 API as a minimum requirement for the PC platform. Why was such a decision made and were you not concerned that excluding DirectX® 9/Windows® XP users would impact your potential customer base?

Battlefield as a game and DICE as a studio have a strong PC heritage. The first Battlefield games were created for the PC. We also have a philosophy at DICE that we want to develop our games to the best possible strengths of each individual platform.

In order to fully take advantage of a modern PC with a DX10 or DX11 card, and while making the game and engine future proof, going directly to DirectX 11 API was the right decision. Requiring that as a base was what would result in the best possible game experience.

We made a qualified guess in the beginning of the Frostbite 2 and Battlefield 3 development that the adoption of DX10/DX11 GPUs together with Windows Vista & Windows 7 would be high enough when we launched Battlefield 3 to reach a wide gamer audience, and Battlefield 3 as a major PC title would be a strong motivation for the last gamer hold outs to make the necessary upgrades to DX11 and Vista/Win7.

Coming back to DirectX® 11, do you feel you could have achieved the same level of graphics quality without this API? Could you give examples of what DirectX 11 hardware level features Battlefield 3 use?

I do not think we would have been able to achieve the same overall graphics quality in Battlefield 3 without DirectX 11; it is a great modern base for our engine and rendering systems.

We use multiple DirectX 11 hardware features in Battlefield 3 when users are running on a DX11 GPU:

• Tile-based lighting through Compute Shaders.
  We developed a novel technique for highly efficient dynamic lighting that scales up to hundreds of large light sources at high resolutions and with adaptive super sampling by dividing the screen into multiple small 16×16 regions (tiles) and have a DX11 compute shader evaluate the lighting contributions from all light sources.

• Terrain Displacement Mapping.
  The terrain in Battlefield 3 is built with high-res destructible heightfields that we stream when moving across the terrain which enables us to have very high terrain detail across large levels. On DX11 we are able to fully show the detail we have in the heightfields by using DX11 tessellation and displacement mapping. This creates very detailed & accurate silhouettes of the terrain in a distance and drastically reduces pops in terrain detail while flying over it.

• Shader Optimizations.
  We have quite a few shaders that take advantage of the increased capabilities of the DX11 Shader Model in order to increase performance.

• Object Instancing.
  A common problem with most engines is that the more objects & detail you want to show on screen, the more draw calls are issued on the CPU to the GPU and each draw call can have quite a lot of overhead, even in DX11.

In Battlefield 3 we wanted to have tons of objects being rendered at long view distances, esp. on the HIGH & ULTRA graphics quality settings and when flying over the landscape levels. We developed a comprehensive instancing approach where all of our different type of objects can be batched together into large single draw calls that draw multiple objects at the same time.

This significantly reduces the amount of draw calls on the levels. For example, on Damanvad Peak in ULTRA detail improved from 4000 draw calls to 900 draw calls which massively improved performance for both low-end machines and high-end machines.

What are the advantages of using virtual texturing for terrain rendering in Battlefield 3? How does your implementation differ from other terrain rendering techniques?

Most terrain rendering techniques are based on compositing multiple layers of textures and shaders over the terrain to represent different types of natural and artificial materials such as grass, sand, gravel, tarmac, etc. That was also what we did in Frostbite 1 with a very flexible technique we called Procedural Shader Splatting in which each terrain material could be represented as its own custom shader graph network that our level artists created.

For Battlefield 3 we wanted to further improve on the quality and the size of our landscapes and our new terrain virtual texturing system was a key part of that.

This new technique takes advantage of the major frame-to-frame coherence that exists in terrain texturing & shading; when you move over the terrain (even when flying) there are many portions of the terrain that look exactly the same over hundreds of frames. So instead of having the GPU shade & texture every pixel every frame with these complex & heavy terrain shaders, we instead render out parts of the terrain shaders and cache them in large dynamic virtual textures covering the entire terrain. This cache gets updated on-demand as you move over to the terrain.

This has multiple major benefits & implications:

• Improved Performance.
  As we’ve moved out a quite large chunk of our terrain shaders from being rendered at every pixel to instead be cached in the large virtual texture, we can save GPU performance in the rendering and reduce frame rate problems in complex areas.
• Higher Quality.
  Thanks to the performance we saved with this technique and because the virtual texture rendering is more scalable then tradition texturing, our level artists are able add a lot more variation and unique high quality details on the terrain to achieve even higher quality visuals.
• Longer View Distance.
  The virtual texturing technique actually enabled us to further increase the view distance of our terrain without removing significant layers of detail of the terrain quite close to the camera. The desert landscape on Operation Firestorm is a good example of this.
• Memory Usage.
  One drawback of the technique, beyond the complexity of implementation, is that it requires extra GPU memory for the virtual textures in addition to the normal terrain textures. This is not that much of a problem on PC though due to the generous amount of memory being available in modern GPUs that often have 1 GB, even 2 GB of RAM as in the AMD Radeon™ HD 6950s and HD 6970s.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=xC0JoiNYNgw

As you can see from the trailer, this is an action-packed online game that combines futuristic weapons, smart team play, and a variety of environments to battle in. Visit our game page for the full rundown as well as a DirectX® 9 vs DirectX® 11 comparison. We’ll be sure to post more here on the blog as we get closer to the release. You can also visit the Blacklight: Retribution official website to learn more.

Also make sure to follow us on Twitter @AMDGaming as we’ll be giving away codes to the closed beta!

David Doel is on the AMD Gaming Marketing team. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.

Refusing to kneel to the Syndicate, you take the fight to Steelport, a once-proud metropolis reduced to a struggling city of sin under Syndicate control. Take a tank skydiving, call in a satellite-targeted airstrike on a Mexican wrestling gang, and defend yourself against a highly-trained military force in the most outlandish gameplay scenarios ever seen, igniting a city-wide war that will set Steelport on fire.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97u5usT9WY

Saints Row®: The Third™ gives you control of the Saints at the height of their power, and you live the life to show for it. Now Steelport is ripe for the taking, and it’s up to you to make the city your own. Mold the skyline based on your choices, outfit your crew in classy gangster gear or furry costumes, and make life-or-death decisions that will change Steelport, and the Saints, forever. This is now your city. These are now your rules. Strap it on.

• Impressive PC tech: With support for AMD Eyefinity technology and DirectX® 11, Saint’s Row: The Third is an over the top experience for all of your senses.
• Over The Top, the action is fun, and better than anything you can imagine.
• City of Sin: Disrupt and dismantle the Syndicate stranglehold on weapons and cybercrime. Discover the secrets of Steelport, where there is action on every street corner, for better or, more likely, worse.
• Weapons of Mass Destruction
• Initiation Station: Create, share, and download the most outlandish characters every seen, from washed-up celebrities to naked ninja pirates. Inside every sinner, there is a Saint.

Developed by: Volition Inc.
Published by: THQ

© 2011 THQ Inc. Developed by Volition, Inc. THQ, Saints Row: The Third, Volition, Inc. and their respective logos are trademarks and/or registered trademarks of THQ Inc. All Rights Reserved. All other trademarks, logos and copyrights are property of their respective owners.

• Meet or exceed the console player experience in terms of visual quality, stability, and framerate in both singleplayer and CO-OP play while supporting a range of hardware/software configurations
• Take advantage of DirectX® 10/11 features and allow users the ability to control display options settings via in-game menus and the display.ini file
• Ensure the game has solid mouse and keyboard controls paired with appropriate UI messaging while also maintaining gamepad support

In this development blog, we will outline some of the features we support in Saints Row: The Third and share some of the things we learned along the way.

Part 1 – Visual Features
Part 2 – Solid Controls
Part 3 – AMD Eyefinity

Part 1 – Visual Features

When we began work on the PC version of the game, our first order of business was to support at least the same set of features that the consoles had. We brought over every one of the features as they were being added to console, and converted them to DirectX® 11. But, we also started planning from the beginning to add additional features to take advantage of DirectX® 11.

Several obvious features that we felt any respectable PC game should support were CrossFire, additional resolutions, and an in-depth display options menu.  But, we also wanted to add a set of special rendering features that could only be done on PC.  Many options, like full SSAO and high resolution lighting and shadows, were obvious extensions of our existing engine features that we were able to improve thanks to the sheer power available on mid and high-end PC’s. Additionally, god rays and diffusion depth of field are expensive effects that can only be done in addition to everything else in Saints Row: The Third if you have the power of a PC.

The first new feature we wanted to take advantage of was DirectX® 10’s geometry shader support.  In RFA we did this by adding support for point-light shadows.  The shadows from a point light are rendered to all faces of a cube map simultaneously using a geometry shader.  In SR:TT we took this one step further by using a similar set of geometry shaders to render cube-map reflections for vehicles.

The vehicles on console do have real-time reflections, but they use a distorted low-res map that has to be rendered in two separate passes.  Thanks to the new technique, reflections are much higher resolution, completely undistorted, and can render with half the work by the GPU.  This required integration of geometry shaders into our material pipeline, which puts us on the road to supporting further DX10 features in the future.

The next new feature to take advantage of for us was compute shader support in DirectX® 11.  AMD had already assisted us in implementing a high quality diffusion depth of field effect that could run on any card with sufficient power.  The obvious addition to this was bokeh, which is what results in the little hexagonal shapes in stuff that is out of focus.

We used a compute shader to do real time image processing on the scene that took the depth of field into account.  From this we were able to generate thousands of little sprites which replace the bright highlights in the image with their bokeh shape counterpart.  Combined with the improved quality of diffusion depth of field using shader model 5, we ended up with a very cinematic look.

Overall, we are very happy with the visual direction for PC and think our players will be too.

Contributors:

Pictured: John Buckley, Jim Brennen, JT Hooker, Ben Truwe, Kate Nelson

JT Hooker, Senior Programmer
Jim Brennan, Principal Programmer
John Buckley, Principal Programmer
Kate Nelson, Associate Producer
David Bianchi, Systems Designer

The contents of this blog were provided by these employees of Volition Inc. The information and opinions presented in this presentation may not represents AMD’s position, strategies or opinions. Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the content herein and no endorsements are implied.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=FRqfFfuVuNE

Battlefield 3’s new technology allows you to experience superior animation, unparalleled lighting and special effects, epic scale and incredible sound design. With support for AMD Eyefinity and DirectX® 11, Battlefield 3 leaps ahead of its time with the power of Frostbite 2, DICE’s new cutting-edge game engine. This state-of-the-art technology is the foundation on which Battlefield 3 is built, delivering enhanced visual quality, a grand sense of scale, massive destruction, dynamic audio and character animation utilizing ANT technology as seen in the latest EA SPORTS games.

The DICE team set out to bring animation to the next level. ANT technology lets them create more believable behavior than ever seen before in shooters. Simply put, in Battlefield 3 you will be able to engage in some of the largest maps ever created. Destruction is enhanced on both a macro and micro level. Chips fly off blocks of concrete used for cover, while whole facades and buildings collapse in screeching clouds of dust and debris. Frostbite 2 now enables deferred shading, dynamic global illumination and new streaming architecture. Play the game and experience the difference! Building on acclaimed high dynamic range (HDR) audio from previous Battlefield games, Battlefield 3 builds on the best-in-class legacy with a brutally realistic soundscape.

Developed by: DICE
Published by: EA

© 2011 EA Digital Illusions CE AB. Battlefield is a trademark or registered trademark of EA Digital Illusions CE AB in the U.S. and/or other countries. All rights reserved. EA and the EA logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. in the U.S. and/or other countries.

Battlefield 3 and the DICE logo are trademarks of EA Digital Illusions CE AB. EA and the EA logo are trademarks of Electronic Arts Inc. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

This year, we have a special treat set up at the Eidos booth where you’ll have a chance to experience Deus Ex: Human Revolution™ before it is released on PCs featuring AMD Eyefinity technology! Deus Ex: Human Revolution had an incredible showing at E3 2011 and we anticipate it will be a hit at Gamescom. Set to launch on August 23rd in North America and August 26th in Europe, Deus Ex: Human Revolution is one of the most technically impressive games and the first to handle native AMD HD3D technology.

We’re also looking forward to the release of BATTLEFIELD 3 later this year and will be dropping by the Dice booth to see the demo, set up on PCs featuring  AMD Eyefinity technology. From the demos I’ve seen so far, the FrostBite™ engine looks fantastic and I can only imagine how brilliant it’ll look running on systems with AMD Radeon™ graphics cards.

If you’ll be at Gamescom please drop by and say hello at any of the four booths. If you can’t make it out to Cologne, then get your updates and follow us @AMDRadeon, Casey Gotcher, Director of Graphics Marketing @supgladiator and me @nCharms on Twitter for more from Gamescom.

Required Bio / Disclaimer:

Peter Ross is a senior marketing manager at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites are provided for convenience and unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links sites and no endorsement is implied.

In light of the incredibly positive critical and commercial success, we had the chance to ask Codemasters a few questions about the game and AMD technologies, including how DiRT 3 performs on our new A-Series APUS.

What is your focus with DiRT 3 and how has it changed in comparison to the last game?

We have moved away from the festival vibe that we had in DiRT2 as we wanted to create a more professional motorsport vibe for the player in DiRT3. We have kept the race disciplines that worked and refined those that didn’t.

We’ve also introduced Gymkhana which will give players a new discipline to master. The style of the game is cleaner and more stylized and the player no longer lives in their battered old RV. DiRT3 will encourage players to focus more on their racing and events rather than hanging out in the menus.

How are you taking advantage of DirectX 11 graphics and in what way have you improved support over DiRT 2?

DirectX 11 is our preferred rendering path over DirectX 9. It offers better performance and allows us to get the most out of the feature set of modern GPUs. For example we use tessellation extensively around the tracks for the water, cloth, deformable snow and the in car drivers. We’ve optimized the tessellation algorithm to offer an 80% speed up compared to DiRT2. DirectX 11 allows resource creation on multiple cores. We have taken advantage of this to give us noticeably faster loading times compared to DirectX 9. Our DirectX11 path features HDAO which is a technique implemented using DirectCompute11 and uses the depth of the scene to compute each pixel’s ambient occlusion. The ambient occlusion term is then used in our lighting model to darken areas which should receive less ambient light; areas, for example, like the wheel arches of the cars and in the crevices in buildings, piles of logs or whatever else is down the sides of our tracks.  The effect really helps to glue the scene together in a way that a game’s lighting model cannot normally achieve. We had HDAO in DiRT2, but since then we have worked with AMD to improve the effect making it faster and removing many of the artifacts normally associated with this technique. We now provide two versions: one at full resolution and one at a reduced resolution for a compromise between performance and image quality.

In what ways have you taken advantage of AMD technologies?

DiRT3 supports AMD Eyefinity technology which allows gamers to play games at incredibly high resolutions over several monitors. We also support AMD HD3D native 3D stereoscopic rendering which literally adds another dimension to the visuals.

Go into a little detail about how  DiRT 3 supports AMD Eyefinity technology, and how it affects the gameplay experience.

We support several configurations of monitor such as 3×1 and 3×2 landscape modes as well as 5×1 portrait mode. This has enabled us to display the game at insane resolutions like 7680×1600 (3×1 mode) or even higher for 3×2 mode. We keep the horizon line, OSD and menus all on the middle monitor so all the important information is straight in front of you. However, we widen the field of view to fill the other monitors giving a really panoramic view of the track. This fills your peripheral vision giving you a sense of really being there.

What are some of the visual effects that we’ll be treated to?

Rain and snow feature for the first time in the DiRT series as well as multiple times of day. This gives us a huge range of different driving conditions for each location. High end PC gamers can enjoy contact hardening shadows. This technique uses a filter kernel that produces soft shadows that tighten the closer the shadow is to the shadow caster. The post process system has been improved with better lens flares, smoother motion blur, star filters and color grading. We also have a great digital interference effect for when you crash.

How has your physics model evolved since DiRT 2 and what sort of impact has that had on the feel of the cars?

The game’s handling model has been improved and refined since DiRT 2. We were happy with the foundation we had built but we wanted to give players a greater sensation of weight in the car.

Rally drivers use the weight of the car to help them slide around corners so we added a series of systems that allow us to model the suspension and tyre physics more accurately. This means that the weight of the car moves around more realistically and allows the player to unsettle the car and throw it into corners.

What are the different racing events that we’ll be able to participate in?

We have a great variety of Off Road racing disciplines in DiRT 3, including the all new Gymkhana as well as DiRT favorites, Rallycross, Landrush, Trailblazer, head 2 head and of course Rally. Numbers wise we have over 100 events across six disciplines.

Disciplines such as rally have multiple vehicle classes available so you can race the same event in cars from the 1960s all the way through to the present day. Each vehicle class has its own handling characteristics and each vehicle within those classes has its own character. This creates a huge variety of challenges and which allows the player to customize their experience to suit their ability.

Tell me a bit about the new gymkhana mode.

Gymkhana is our new discipline for DiRT3 and we are really excited to be the first game to represent it. Having Ken Block help us develop the handling of the Gymkhana cars has really given us an insight into how these cars behave and the types of maneuvers they are capable of. Once we set out those basics we were then able to create Gymkhana environments in which the player can hoon these cars around.

We are going to guide the player into the experience as they progress through the DiRT Tour. At the end of their first season they will be invited to the Gymkhana Academy where Ken Block will give them a selection of tutorials on each of the trick types the player will need to master. Once they have proved competence in these maneuvers the player will get to compete in their first competitive Gymkhana Event.

Away from the competition spotlight we also have the Compound at Battersea, London where the player can practice their Gymkhana driving. This is a more industrial setting, similar to the environments in which Ken films his Gymkhana videos. It is here that the player can hang out with friends online and create runs which they can then upload to YouTube direct from within DiRT3.

How many different cars will we be able to take control of and what are some stand-outs in terms of rally cars from the past and present?

DiRT 3 has the largest number of racing vehicles that have ever appeared in a Codemasters off road racing title. An extensive Rally car contingent is mixed with the ever exciting Rallycross, Raid and Trailblazer car classes. And new for DiRT, high powered gymkhana cars, stadium trucks and super buggies join the fold for a complete off road racing package.

For rally we have every major rally car from the past 50 years of motorsport history, from the iconic 60’s Mini Cooper S, through the 70’s and 80’s with RWD classics such as the Fiat 131 Abarth. We have also included Group B the deadliest rally cars of all time as well as rally cars from the 90’s and all modern rally cars such as Ken Blocks Ford Fiesta RS Rally Car and the brand new Mini Countryman Rally Edition which are battling out on the world stage this year in the WRC.

Tell me a bit about the different tracks on which we’ll be competing . What locations do they cover and what sort of terrain will we be faced with?

We have over 100 routes in DiRT 3; Our Rally and Trailblazer events will take place in Finland, Kenya, Norway & Michigan in the USA. Rallycross, Head to Head and Landrush events will take place in Aspen, Monaco, and an abandoned smelting plant.

These environments allow the player to experience a multitude of surfaces including Gravel, Asphalt, Mud, Dirt, Snow, Ice and many more. They will be tackling all kinds of environments from the forests in Finland, to the mountains in Aspen and the safari landscapes of Kenya.

How well does DiRT 3 scale between different systems? For example, a PC using a discreet AMD Radeon™ graphics card versus one using the discrete-class graphics in the AMD Fusion APU?

We’ve made the DiRT3 graphics scale from ultra-low all the way up to ultra-high so the game is playable on AMD’s A-Series APUs right through to the AMD Radeon™ HD 6990 and beyond. To give you an idea of the settings, the medium preset is roughly equivalent to the detail settings of the console version. Everything above medium adds more resolution and detail, and everything below medium will scale back the expensive effects – which can give you an improved framerate, especially on lower end systems. The ultra-high settings are designed to tax even the best GPUs; this mode enables the full resolution HDAO and contact hardening shadows.  Games using AMD  CrossFire™ technology will scale nicely – especially on systems with some of the faster CPUs that have been a popular choice for hardcore gamers.

We thank Codemasters for their time. DiRT 3 is out now and if you’re in the market for a new graphics card or APU head on over to our DiRT 3 bundle page to see how to qualify for a complementary download of the game.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=m2Yhy8TCl54

Forced to become mechanically-augmented to save your own life, you soon find yourself chasing down leads all over the world, never knowing who you can trust. At a time when scientific advancements are routinely turning athletes, soldiers, and spies into super-enhanced beings, someone is working very hard to ensure mankind’s evolution follows a particular path. You need to discover where that path lies. Because when all is said and done, the decisions you take, and the choices you make, will be the only things that can change it.

Working with AMD, the developers of Deus Ex: Human Revolution are pioneering native AMD HD3D support for AMD Radeon products resulting in an extraordinarily unique visual experience. The support for DirectX® 11 powered by AMD Radeon continues, delivering improved tessellation – offering a more realistic rendering of objects -- plus improved depth of field and lighting. Multi-display AMD Eyefinity is also supported, giving you an incredible sense of your surroundings. Don’t just play the game, experience a revolution in AMD HD3D with AMD graphics and processors.

Developed by: Eidos Montreal
Published by: Square Enix

Deus Ex: Human Revolution © Square Enix, Ltd. 2011. Square Enix and the Square Enix logo are registered trademarks of Square Enix Holdings Co, Ltd. Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Deus Ex, the Deus Ex logo, Eidos, the Eidos logo, Eidos Montreal and the Eidos Montreal logo are trademarks of Square Enix Ltd.

Apple has been on a roll, and AMD is proud to work with Apple by leveraging our expertise in graphics and our long experience on the Mac platform and MacOS X. Working closely with AMD’s hardware and software development teams, Apple masterfully harnesses the raw compute power of AMD Radeon hardware to build customized Mac solutions.

The iMac is widely recognized as the epitome of style by combining eye-catching design with technological efficiency. It is the marriage of form and function — of art and artistry. The iMac evokes the possibilities of transforming ideas into expressions of creativity.

Part of what makes the elegant design possible is the power of the AMD Radeon graphics under the hood:  it’s there in every Core Image filter, and every Motion effect, every Video transition, and in every sweetly malicious puzzle in Portal 2.  With AMD Radeon graphics, users can, for the first time, experience a full HDMI color space range along with 10 bit HDMI deep color support, to more accurately represent their visions. The result is iMac users getting to experience the richness of AMD Radeon on the Mac — for gaming, visual content creation, pristine video playback and more.

AMD has worked with Apple to achieve greater power savings and, with AMD Radeon, additional connectivity support for up to four external displays.

AMD Radeon graphics help to define the dramatically enhanced capabilities of the latest generation of MacBook Pro. Now users of the new 2011 iMac can experience similar level of graphics improvement with the additional advantages of higher display resolutions and ultimate performance. AMD is especially proud to be the graphics choice on iMac for two successive generations.  I encourage you to test drive the new iMac for yourself and enjoy the marriage of rich, accurate color reproduction matched with state of the art visual performance.

Casey Gotcher is Director, Product Marketing at AMD. His postings are his own opinions and may not represent AMD’s positions, strategies or opinions. Links to third party sites, and references to third party trademarks, are provided for convenience and illustrative purposes only.  Unless explicitly stated, AMD is not responsible for the contents of such links, and no third party endorsement of AMD or any of its products is implied.

www.youtube.com/watch?v=1BEWA0L0rW8

Working with AMD, the developers of DiRT 3 have continued their support for DirectX® 11 with the inclusion of contact hardening shadows through Shader Model 5.0, improved high definition ambient occlusion, and stunning tessellation support with realistic water, snow, and cloth. AMD CrossFire support is present allowing up to four GPUs to work together to improve graphical performance, and for an unparalleled view of your surroundings AMD Eyefinity technology makes its multi-monitor return with support for up to 5 displays in portrait mode. Don’t just play the game, immerse yourself in the complete racing experience with AMD technology.

Developed by: Codemasters
Published by: Codemasters

© 2011 The Codemasters Software Company Limited (“Codemasters”). All rights reserved. “Codemasters”®, the Codemasters logo and “DiRT”® are registered trademarks owned by Codemasters. “DiRT 3”™ and “EGO”™ are trademarks of Codemasters. Ford Motor Company Trademarks and Trade Dress used under license to Codemasters. All other copyrights or trademarks are the property of their respective owners and are being used under license. Developed and published by Codemasters.