ATI and Crytek, the international award winning team that created the award winning Far Cry, have teamed to create a realtime interactive CGI movie called "The Project", that harnesses the capabilities of the new ATI Radeon™ X800 XT and PLATINUM EDITION for Hollywood-style “machinima”—photo-realistic cinematic computing that promises to change the way you’ll game in the future! ATI & Crytek bring Hollywood-style “machinima” to PC gaming “We believe that this demo created for ATI is bringing us all one step closer to Hollywood-quality PC gaming,” says Jack Mamais of CryTek. The international team that created the critically acclaimed and best selling Far Cry FPS game, Crytek has created a demo game using their CryENGINE™ that illustrates the future merger of Hollywood and PC gaming technology. “We had cinematographers in mind when we created this demo.” says Mamais. “The CryTek CryENGINE™ is a technology that a cinematographer would love because it emulates so much of the techniques and technologies of cinematography.” How? By using “machinima,” 3D gaming technologies and techniques that are evolving into a recognized art form around the world.

Machinima—the holy grail of both Hollywood and PC gaming
Machinima, or “machine cinema”, is the holy grail of both Hollywood moviemaking and 3D PC gaming. Machinima is made possible by pairing today’s sophisticated 3D game engines like Crytek’s CryENGINE™ with ATI’s cutting-edge Radeon™ X800 graphics technology. Far beyond the usual blow-away-the-monster visuals, machinima offers photo-realistic cinematic computing where scenes, sets, and characters can be pre-visualized and rendered in real time, and where the mood and perspective can be rapidly changed. Think of it as a “living storyboard” with the ability to pause the frame, move the camera, or zoom in on the action in any direction. “We imagine that one day this will be how film directors plan and pre-visualize their future movies,” says CryTek’s Mamais. “Directors could effortlessly make sets, change sets, change lighting, change characters, change camera angles—things that you cannot do with any two-dimensionally drawn storyboard. Imagine being able to craft scenes, down to the finest details of light and camera angles, long before any cameras actually roll!”

A “cliffhanger” demo
The ATI-Crytek demo is very much like a 1930's adventure-serial “cliffhanger” movie, but set in the present. Like a good movie, the storyline interjects a sense of emotion and “cinematic moment” that draws you in immediately. Scientist Vibe Johnson is on a remote island laboratory conducting a secret genetic re-sequencing experiment on a newly developed mutant creature in an attempt to make it invisible. With Johnson is the owner of the laboratory, a shady businessman who is checking on the progress of the project. But the experiment goes awry and people are killed. The now-invisible creature goes on a rampage and escapes a heavily armed security team. Meanwhile, a young adventuring couple, Chuck and Lisa, arrive at the island by boat. To protect the secret of the experiment and the invisible creature, the businessman orders his security team to kill Chuck and abduct Lisa. But scientist Vibe Johnson has plans of his own…

Behind the scenes
“It is because of amazing cards like ATI’s Radeon™ X800 XT and Platinum Edition series that we are able to create Hollywood-style graphics on today’s PCs,” says Michael Endres, Crytek’s Art Manager for the demo. Compression of normal maps using ATI 3Dc and “object instancing” reduces the amount of processing needed for displaying multiple similar objects in a scene, such as rocks and trees. Real-time post-processing effects, once the exclusive domain of high-priced compositing programs, can change the overall mood by adjusting the color, gamma, and saturation. A depth-of-field camera effect can change the apparent focal distance, animating the scene to make it appear that the scene is being viewed through a different lens perspective. Special pixel shader effects for the “invisible” mutant create a new refraction-like effect, and Crytek programmers created “ATI-Water”, a new water shader effect made especially for this demo. “Without these advanced ATI cards and technology we would not be able to do this,” says Crytek’s Andres. “This demo demonstrates specific technical achievements of Radeon™ cards, and we are big supporters of ATI's efforts in this area. We love ATI!”

What’s next
The ATI-Crytek demo uses same next-generation CryENGINE that will be used to create the successor to Far Cry. Since the CryENGINE enables immediate playability of a created game without the lengthy wait for compiling, enthusiasts into creating “mods” will have an easy way to make new gaming content for themselves. The ATI/Crytek demo shows just how easy it can be, especially since it is optimized to run on ATI’s Radeon™ X800 XT series and the new Radeon™ PCI Express graphics boards. Download the demo and see for yourself how photo-realistic “machinima” cinematic computing will change your future gaming experience!