Assassin's Creed 2 Eyefinity

I

Intel_Hydralisk

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Feb 6, 2005
Messages
4,743
Yes I bought AC2 despite the DRM. Let's keep the DRM discussion to the other threads.

Props to Ubisoft for at least releasing the eyefinity patch before release (unlike Bioshock 2 / Mass Effect 2).

Here are some in game screens and a little video I made:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mtyCbErQYE4

AC2_5.jpg


AC2_4.jpg


AC2_3.jpg


AC2_2.jpg


AC2_1.jpg
 
game looks much in those shots than those hi-res ones released before the game was.
 
Nice screens. I wanted to get an Eyefinity set up but was put off by the fisheye effect you get with wide FOVs. Once they start fixing that I might go for the Eyefinity ;)
 
Tudz said:
Nice screens. I wanted to get an Eyefinity set up but was put off by the fisheye effect you get with wide FOVs. Once they start fixing that I might go for the Eyefinity ;)
Click to expand...

There's no 'fix' for it because it's not wrong. It's optically correct. People aren't used to seeing such a wide FOV, but to get rid of the 'fisheye' you'd have to warp the geometry like a fisheye lens on a camera.

Screens look great. Now they covered Eyefinity but how about 16:10 straight up? Have they done that yet?

I'm surprised.
Click to expand...
I think anything other than 16:9 is still anamorphic like AC1. I played AC1 on a 16:10 screen and it was fine... 4:3 and 5:4 screens might feel a little crunched. I was planning on buying AC2 for a long time, then decided not to due to the DRM and price... then decided to go for it when they announced the eyefinity patch.

game looks much in those shots than those hi-res ones released before the game was.
Click to expand...
Honestly it's all about finding the right spot to take the screenshots... I remember one picture in the high res shots that looked like the geometry was really poor. I actually found that particular spot in game... and it turns out it was the edge of the map so the geometry was lazily designed. Terrible spot to take a shot.
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
There's no 'fix' for it because it's not wrong. It's optically correct. People aren't used to seeing such a wide FOV, but to get rid of the 'fisheye' you'd have to warp the geometry like a fisheye lens on a camera.
Click to expand...

Its only optically correct if you're using a single flat screen with a very high FOV and sitting very close to the screen.

It's optically incorrect when you have 3 screens surrounding you, pointing directly at you.
 
Tudz said:
Its only optically correct if you're using a single flat screen with a very high FOV and sitting very close to the screen.

It's optically incorrect when you have 3 screens surrounding you, pointing directly at you.
Click to expand...

Then what you suggest is that there's 3 different point of views which I doubt is possible to 'fix' and would be engine based. Games run with 1 fixed point of view... namely directly in front of you.

I actually tried what you're saying a while ago with screenshots, and it looks really messed up. You can try it yourself... stare straight ahead and take a shot, look to either side at whatever angle you desire (the angle of what your side monitors would be I guess) and take 2 more shots. Combining them is strange to say the least. It would actually break the immersion if you were to look straight ahead and have really weird incorrect images for your peripherals.
 
Last edited:
Intel_Hydralisk said:
Then what you suggest is that there's 3 different point of views which I doubt is possible to 'fix' and would be engine based. Games run with 1 fixed point of view... namely directly in front of you.

I actually tried what you're saying a while ago with screenshots, and it looks really messed up. You can try it yourself... stare straight ahead and take a shot, look to either side at whatever angle you desire (the angle of what your side monitors would be I guess) and take 2 more shots. Combining them is strange to say the least. It would actually break the immersion if you were to look straight ahead and have really weird incorrect images for your peripherals.
Click to expand...

What I propose would simply be a panoramic type "camera" in the game. That would be far closer to reality to the warped images you get at the moment. The warped images to me just look really weird, especially when the game is in motion.

Also for taking 3 screenshots like that to work, you'd need to ensure the FOV is set correctly. To calculate the correct FOV, you use FOV = 2*arctan(A/(2*B)) where A is the width of your screen and B is the distance you sit from the screen. For Eyefinity with 3 screens, assuming all 3 screens point directly at you, the FOV should be FOV = 6*arctan(A/(2*B)), Most people play with a FOV far higher than that.

But yeah, I think a panoramic camera viewpoint would be better. Just look up google images.

This is what 150 degrees should look like (this would be the angle you get when sitting relatively close to an eyefinity set up, so that the flank monitors almost reach around next to you)...

http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/12577090.jpg
 
Last edited:
I wish there was somewhere I could go where I could demo an Eyefinity setup. On the surface of it, I would definitely think I'd be a "just get a bigger single screen" person but the amount of praise I've seen around here for starters makes this an item that I think I would be foolish to dismiss out of hand, sight unseen.
 
Q-BZ said:
I wish there was somewhere I could go where I could demo an Eyefinity setup. On the surface of it, I would definitely think I'd be a "just get a bigger single screen" person but the amount of praise I've seen around here for starters makes this an item that I think I would be foolish to dismiss out of hand, sight unseen.
Click to expand...

I was in the boat as you and after seeing it in the flesh I was kinda disappointed, probably because I had such high hopes from all the awesome reviews its been getting. The main thing drawing me to it is that I love race and flight sims and it looks brilliant for that... except for the warping of course :p
 
Tudz said:
What I propose would simply be a panoramic type "camera" in the game. That would be far closer to reality to the warped images you get at the moment. The warped images to me just look really weird to me, especially when the game is in motion.

Also for taking 3 screenshots like that to work, you'd need to ensure the FOV is set correctly. To calculate the correct FOV, you use FOV = 2*arctan(A/(2*B)) where A is the width of your screen and B is the distance you sit from the screen. For Eyefinity with 3 screens, assuming all 3 screens point directly at you, the FOV should be FOV = 6*arctan(A/(2*B)), Most people play with a FOV far higher than that.

But yeah, I think a panoramic camera viewpoint would be better. Just look up google images.

This is what 150 degrees should look like (this would be the angle you get when sitting relatively close to an eyefinity set up, so that the flank monitors almost reach around next to you)...

http://www.panoramio.com/photos/original/12577090.jpg
Click to expand...

I'm fully aware of cameras that take wide FOV shots... and it's also a fact that in those images the geometry is warped.

I don't understand what you mean by the images look weird in motion, because to me it's precisely in motion that it all makes sense. I've tried eyefinity in roughly 30 different games including racing, flight sims, FPS, RPG, etc.

To get rid of the 'side monitor distortion' you'd have to bend straight lines. For example, this picture:

baltimore.png


Notice how the road is no longer straight. I won't comment on the picture you linked since I don't know which lines are supposed to be straight, but in the one I showed it's easy to see that the road is supposed to be straight. Personally what convinced me was a simple thought problem: Just imagine a 3D grid and try to make it 'correct' with a wide FOV (i.e. 150). There's no way to get rid of the 'warping' without bending the grid. Also, if you were to introduce a different point of view for each side monitor the grid would become nonsensical.

I spent some time thinking about it after getting my eyefinity setup, and the way it is now is definitely correct provided you're looking at the game point of view (middle monitor), since that's how the game renders it. Obviously if you look at the side monitor directly it's not the correct point of view.

To change the point of view you change where you're facing in game and not where you're facing in real life.
 
Last edited:
Tudz said:
I was in the boat as you and after seeing it in the flesh I was kinda disappointed, probably because I had such high hopes from all the awesome reviews its been getting. The main thing drawing me to it is that I love race and flight sims and it looks brilliant for that... except for the warping of course :p
Click to expand...

You need to use it for a while to get used to it... it gets more and more awesome as you get accustomed to the wide fov.. you kind of have to train yourself to look at it properly... I was a bit let down also once I got my own setup built but I quickly felt differently after just a night on it.. after a week I was pretty much hooked. but still and all, it might not be for everyone.. ymmv

to the OP - hows the performance on a single 5870??
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
I'm fully aware of cameras that take wide FOV shots... and it's also a fact that in those images the geometry is warped.

I don't understand what you mean by the images look weird in motion, because to me it's precisely in motion that it all makes sense. I've tried eyefinity in roughly 30 different games including racing, flight sims, FPS, RPG, etc.

To get rid of the 'side monitor distortion' you'd have to bend straight lines. For example, this picture:

baltimore.png


Notice how the road is no longer straight. I won't comment on the picture you linked since I don't know which lines are supposed to be straight, but in the one I showed it's easy to see that the road is supposed to be straight. Personally what convinced me was a simple thought problem: Just imagine a 3D grid and try to make it 'correct' with a wide FOV (i.e. 150). There's no way to get rid of the 'warping' without bending the grid. Also, if you were to introduce a different point of view for each side monitor the grid would become nonsensical.

I spent some time thinking about it after getting my eyefinity setup, and the way it is now is definitely correct provided you're looking at the game point of view (middle monitor), since that's how the game renders it. Obviously if you look at the side monitor directly it's not the correct point of view.

To change the point of view you change where you're facing in game and not where you're facing in real life.
Click to expand...

Yeah I know what you mean bending straight lines, the ideal would be a single wrap around monitor which makes those bent lines straight again ;) The only reason the lines are bent is because you are trying to project a panoramic image onto a flat screen. But instead what we have is 3 monitors that are trying to simulate a wrap around monitor, whilst what most games try and do is project an image as if it were one large flat display (or 3 displays which are all parallel to each other, rather than pointing at you). Its hard to explain and would be easy to draw a picture, but I dont have any CAD software on this PC to draw it or anywhere to host an image.

If you introduced a difference POV for each monitor the grid would look fine, assuming you set the FOV correctly and dont move your head closer to any of the screens, but I imagine it would be more difficult to set up.

What we have at the moment is wrong, even if you're looking at the centre screen and not looking at the flanks. If I'm staring at my monitor (single monitor) the speaker in my peripheral vision where a 3rd screen would be if I were using Eyefinity is not warped or stretched at all. A square box in your peripheral vision should still be a square, it wont become a trapezium just because its in the corner of your eye instead of the centre.

I understand if you stare at the middle screen maybe you wont notice as much because you wont notice what's in your peripheral vision as much, but that doesn't make it correct :p When I was playing with it, it felt "weird" because the world was twisting and warping around me, no matter how much I stared at the centre of the screen my brain was drawn to the peripheral of objects warping as I moved. Even after lowering the FOV my brain refused to ignore it.

Plus, I dont want to have to focus on the middle screen all the time :p

Maybe I just expect too much from Eyefinity, as I mentioned in a previous post I was expecting a lot before I tried eyefinity based on all the comments and then was pretty disappointed by it when actually using it. People were saying these flaws weren't noticable when gaming or you could fix it by staring at the centre screen and not looking left or right, but even immersed in BFBC2 couldn't make my brain forget everything that was wrong with it.

If I have any free time at work tomorrow I'll make some pics in CAD of what I mean ;)
 
revenant said:
to the OP - hows the performance on a single 5870??
Click to expand...

Between 45-62 fps (the 62 fps hardcap... is this really UE3?, didn't know) at 5760x1080. Everything's maxed... the only thing that's not on is anti-aliasing as is the case with most games.
 
Intel_Hydralisk said:
Between 45-62 fps (the 62 fps hardcap... is this really UE3?, didn't know) at 5760x1080. Everything's maxed... the only thing that's not on is anti-aliasing as is the case with most games.
Click to expand...

huh - nice.. well, maybe I will have to check this one out.. :)
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top