DICE is building anticipation for Battlefield 3 by trickling out information and features regarding the game, and it’s working. A tech demo video of their new Frostbite 2.0 game engine has released, demonstrating the quasi-realtime radiosity the game will be putting to use.
Dice recently touted a few of the new features of their Frostbite 2.0 engine, and one of them was “Quasi-realtime radiosity”. Realtime radiosity is a lighting technique which takes reflective surfaces into account as a scene is rendered, thus creating a more realistic and warmer look to computer generated environments. When done correctly it really pays off, and the video below demonstrates the incredible difference it can make by showing various scenes with different lighting overlays.
This should be especially noticeable in Battlefield 3, where in game destruction will change what surfaces are reflecting light, thus changing interior and exterior lighting as buildings get destroyed mid-game.
Also in Battlefield 3 news, it has been confirmed that the spotting feature from previous iterations will be making a return. The feature allows players to ‘spot’ enemies they see, placing a temporary marker above the opponent’s head that all team players can see. It’s especially effective for picking out enemies while players with a better angle pick them off, as well as for directing your team on where to go without the hassle of describing which tree a defender is using for cover. Alan Kertz, Battlefield 3‘s senior gameplay designer, confirmed this, among other things, via Twitter.
He goes on to state that “Dolphin Diving is out. Period.” This refers to the act of going prone while mid air, which when done repeatedly allows for movement at a normal rate, but with a hit box the size of the player’s head. As you can imagine, it was very frustrating to shoot at what was essentially a floating head carrying an assault rifle, so it’s great to hear this is fixed.
Lastly, he tweeted “There will be a knife, there will be dogtags. No details for now.” Collecting those dog tags made knifing an enemy sweeter than ever, so the return of this feature is very welcome. Hopefully the hit detection of the knife is vastly improved from Battlefield: Bad Company 2‘s performance, since knifing an enemy 3 times in a row without killing them could get very irritating before.
So we have improved lighting and graphical performance, encouraged team work as usual, discouragement of cheap gameplay, and an incentive to knife your best friend in the back. Sounds like a lot of fun is coming our way this fall, and Battlefield 3 is already available for pre-order on various websites. Are you ready to secure your copy?
