Lost Planet 2

The DirectX 11 version employs advanced graphics techniques, including hardware-accelerated tessellation and displacement mapping on bosses, characters and water. DirectCompute is a new feature in DirectX 11 that uses the processing capability of the GPU to simulate waves.

The following JavaScript applet is an image quality comparison script. In this example, four DirectX 9 screenshots are compared with four DirectX 11 screenshots. What makes this comparison effective is that the screenshots were taken during the same frame and can therefore be superimposed over one another.

DirectX 9 vs DirectX 11

Comparison 1  -  DirectX 9  vs  DirectX 11

Comparison 2  -  DirectX 9  vs  DirectX 11

Comparison 3  -  DirectX 9  vs  DirectX 11

Comparison 4  -  DirectX 9  vs  DirectX 11

Comparisons can be made by clicking the links that are located under the displayed image. This action will overlay the currently displayed image with the selected image (~100 KB). The overlay process will run faster once all of the images have been saved in your browser's cache.

The test system consists of an Intel i7-940 CPU, 6GB of Corsair DDR3 RAM and Windows 7 Professional 64-bit. Driver version 258.96 was used for the GeForce GTX 480 and Catalyst version 10.7 was used for the Radeon HD 5870. High quality texture filtering was enabled on the GeForce GTX 480 and Catalyst AI was disabled on the Radeon HD 5870.

Results are from benchmark B.

Across all resolutions under DirectX 9, the GeForce GTX 480 and Radeon HD 5870 offer similar performance.

Under DirectX 11, the GeForce GTX 480 outperformed the Radeon HD 5870 by an overall average of 34%. As the level of tessellation increased, so did the relative increase in the performance of the GeForce GTX 480 over the Radeon HD 5870. With medium tessellation the lead was 32% and with high tessellation the lead was 36%.

Lost Planet 2 Performance

Lost Planet 2 takes place ten years after Lost Planet: Extreme Condition as the snow has melted and replaced with lush jungle life. For fans of the Lost Planet series, the GeForce GTX 480 is the GPU of choice when it comes to applying all of the advanced rendering techniques in Lost Planet 2.

The standalone benchmark can be downloaded here. Lost Planet 2 is scheduled for an October 15th release date.

Update: ragejg updated his GeForce GTX 460 review to include performance results in the Lost Planet 2 benchmark against the Radeon 5830.

ADDITIONAL INFORMATION

Tessellation/Displacement Maps

Lost Planet 2 uses the N-Triangle technique with tessellation to round out the edges of polygonal models. Additionally, in the case of level bosses, a high resolution displacement map is used with the tessellated mesh to add fine grain details.

DX11 DirectCompute Soft Body Simulation

With certain level bosses, such as the one present in benchmark test B, a collection of tetrahedral elements are created inside of the bosses' skin mesh for use in computing forces propagated inside of the model.

Motion from the skeletal animation is converted into forces that are applied and propagated throughout these elements, and through a physical simulation that is efficiently calculated on the GPU using DirectCompute. The end result is a blobby secondary motion that is then blended back into the character's skin mesh to create the final motion.

DX11 DirectCompute Wave Simulation

In addition to the tessellated 3D mesh, a height-field is created for water surfaces in the game that is used for physics calculations. Actions such as characters entering and moving through the water as well as gunshots and explosions are converted into forces that are then combined and propagated throughout the water height field.

This is done via a wave simulation algorithm on the GPU through DirectCompute. The end result is realistic wave motion that travels across the water's height field. The displacement of points from the height field are then applied to the tessellated water mesh to create the final water surface.

3D Vision Support

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