Crytek is a fervent supporter of virtual reality (VR), with on going projects including Back to Dinosaur Island, The Climb and the recently revealed Project Sky Harbor all in the works. And it’s The Climb that has seen a recent update today by way of a second developer diary video being launched, with the team discussing the challenges involved.
The first dev diary was titled Base Camp, looking at the groundwork that went into creating the videogame. This second video is called Ascent and focuses on several aspects of development, mainly how the team got round the challenge of hitting 90 frames-per-second (FPS) to ensure a smooth comfortable experience, whilst also attaining the high level of detail in the landscapes and close up.
The studio had to develop new ideas and new processes to achieve what they needed, creating landscapes out of fewer objects, so where an area might normally of had hundreds this was reduced down to single figures for the sake of optimisation. Also tried for the first time was photogrammetry, where pictures are taken and loaded onto 3D models to give a far more realistic effect.
This is the second video for The Climb that Crytek has released inside a week. During the Game Developers Conference (GDC) 2016, Crytek unveiled a new area based on the Alps, with snow capped mountains and a fairy tale castle in the background.
VRFocus will continue its coverage of The Climb, reporting back any further updates.
