Far Cry
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Far Cry was the first in a series of next-generation first person shooters released around 2004, followed by Doom 3, Half-Life 2, and F.E.A.R. Because it evolved out of X-Isle, a tech demo Crytek developed for the GeForce3 GPU, Far Cry runs remarkably well on DirectX 8 Nvidia hardware. However, a fast DirectX 9 video card is required to play the game at maximum settings.
The latest patch available for Far Cry upgrades the game to version 1.4. While this patch has the advantage of being cumulative, it introduces a number of undesirable changes:
As the incremental 1.4 patch does not include any substantial fixes or improvements, PCGames9505 recommends only patching Far Cry to version 1.33. While this requires installing several incremental patches and may interfere with multiplayer gameplay, it should provide the best single player experience.
On systems running Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10, Far Cry suffers from a bug that causes water reflections to be rendered incorrectly: vegetation is reflected while terrain is not. This problem does not appear to be tied to video card vendor or graphics driver version. While it is not known to affect Windows XP systems, there is no known solution for newer versions of Windows.
Far Cry has a developer console accessed with the tilde key (~). A few important console commands are listed below:
Additional console commands and variables are listed in the Far Cry Tweak Guide.
While Far Cry was primarily developed as a Direct3D 9 game, its engine supports a number of alternate render paths. Starting with GeForce 6 and Radeon X1000 series video cards, the game uses a Pixel Shader 3.0 path with optional HDR rendering support. On GeForce FX and Radeon 9800 / X800 series video cards, it uses a Pixel Shader 2.0 path, while on Radeon 8500, GeForce4 Ti, and GeForce3 series video cards, it uses Pixel Shader 1.4, 1.3, and 1.1 paths, respectively. On Direct3D 7 video cards, Far Cry uses the fixed function pipeline and disables all pixel shader effects.
Far Cry also includes an experimental OpenGL renderer which can only be selected through the developer console or the game's configuration file (enter r_Driver OpenGL in the console to enable it). While the OpenGL renderer is buggy and generally inferior to its Direct3D counterpart, it can provide superior performance with some (older) Nvidia video cards.
The latest patch available for Far Cry upgrades the game to version 1.4. While this patch has the advantage of being cumulative, it introduces a number of undesirable changes:
- Enemies are able to see through opaque surfaces such as tent walls;
- Doors no longer open automatically (the player must press the Use key to open them);
- Explosive countdowns and other text-based notifications are removed;
- Grass rendering cannot be disabled without starting the game in developer mode;
- The shakiness of the sniper rifle scope is significantly more pronounced.
As the incremental 1.4 patch does not include any substantial fixes or improvements, PCGames9505 recommends only patching Far Cry to version 1.33. While this requires installing several incremental patches and may interfere with multiplayer gameplay, it should provide the best single player experience.
On systems running Windows Vista, 7, 8, and 10, Far Cry suffers from a bug that causes water reflections to be rendered incorrectly: vegetation is reflected while terrain is not. This problem does not appear to be tied to video card vendor or graphics driver version. While it is not known to affect Windows XP systems, there is no known solution for newer versions of Windows.
Far Cry has a developer console accessed with the tilde key (~). A few important console commands are listed below:
- r_displayinfo 1 - enables on-screen display of engine statistics, including frame rate
- e_vegetation_sprites_distance_ratio - controls the distance at which vegetation models are replaced with quads
- g_timezone 31337 - enables statistics mode, usually only unlocked after the game is completed
Additional console commands and variables are listed in the Far Cry Tweak Guide.
While Far Cry was primarily developed as a Direct3D 9 game, its engine supports a number of alternate render paths. Starting with GeForce 6 and Radeon X1000 series video cards, the game uses a Pixel Shader 3.0 path with optional HDR rendering support. On GeForce FX and Radeon 9800 / X800 series video cards, it uses a Pixel Shader 2.0 path, while on Radeon 8500, GeForce4 Ti, and GeForce3 series video cards, it uses Pixel Shader 1.4, 1.3, and 1.1 paths, respectively. On Direct3D 7 video cards, Far Cry uses the fixed function pipeline and disables all pixel shader effects.
Far Cry also includes an experimental OpenGL renderer which can only be selected through the developer console or the game's configuration file (enter r_Driver OpenGL in the console to enable it). While the OpenGL renderer is buggy and generally inferior to its Direct3D counterpart, it can provide superior performance with some (older) Nvidia video cards.