Crysis 2 DirectX 11 Patch Analysis

Shadow Detail

Crysis 2 has received several improvements to the way it handles shadows as a result of the 1.9 patch and DirectX 11 upgrade. For starters, Crysis 2 is now the first released title to support Screen Space Directional Occlusion (SSDO) - an alternative to the Ambient Occlusion (SSAO) methods used in most current games.

SSDO provides smoother contact shadows and the implementation used in Crysis 2 is so efficient that, according to Nvidia, it's been applied to every light source in the game.


Further enhancements to Crysis 2's implementation of shadows include the addition of support for variable penumbras on soft shadows, basically meaning that shadows appear to become softer over distances. This creates a more realistic effect than the usual method of applying a blur over an entire shadow... but it's hard to spot unless you're looking at very long shadows.

Still, shadows are still noticeably softer at higher settings and this creates a more realistic and immersive world on the whole. The improvement between the Extreme and Ultra setting is subtle in screenshots, but more noticeable when the game is in motion and background shadows, such as trees, are moving.

Particle Effects

Crysis 2's particle effects look much better once the DirectX 11 patch has been applied, but the improvement is still hard to capture given that particle showers are inherently unpredictable and in-motion. Still, we've done our best to capture the effect with the screenshots below.


Particle effects in Crysis 2 benefit from a number of new features, the most important of which are support for motion blur and shadow effects. The result of this is that particles in Crysis 2 v1.9 will blend more easily into the scene on account of having scene-matched lighting. They will also appear more realistic when in motion, with faster particles blurring more than larger, slower ones.

This means that, while it may initially seem like there are fewer individual particles in the screenshots which show higher settings, this isn't actually so; those particles are just blending into the scene better. When you're actually playing, the benefit of DirectX 11 particle effects becomes clear, with clouds appearing more populated and complex. This is definitely one of the areas where DirectX 11 provides immediate, tangible visual benefits.