Okay guys BioShock demo is available. I downloaded it in 1 hour from Guru3D's servers which are really fast since the demo file weighs 1.8 Gb!
Download link:
http://www.ozone3d.net/smf/index.php/topic,781.0.html
BioShock is a DirectX 9/10 3D game and is built over the Unreal Engine:
This game requires a SM3-capable graphics board. SM3 (Shader Model 3.0) graphics cards are all Geforce 6/7/8 and Radeon 1k/2k.
From what I saw, BioShock tries to exploit many 3D graphics effects such as water reflection, dot3 bump mapping, particle system, all powered by real time shaders.
I played the DX9 demo with a 8800 GTX at 1920x1200 (and all graphics settings pushed to the max) and the average FPS was around 50.
I used the very latest forceware drivers, the 163.44:
http://www.ozone3d.net/smf/index.php/topic,780.0.htmlHere is the start, just after the aiplane crash. The water is cool but a little bit too reflective as if it was composed of mercury.
A closer look at the fire. I like the drops on the camera lens and we can see the scene through them. Nice!
Another two images of the crash:
The particle effect is quite realistic (this particle system uses a big texture of a water splash).
Crash from far:
The floor: a pure dot3 bump mapping effect with much specular!
Just for fun:
This scene shows bump mapped walls and ground.
What a pity there's no shadow behind the ... sun ? At least a simple lightmap would have been cool.
This is a splendid atmosphere, isn't it ? This is certainly achieved using dot3 bump mapping coupled with high dynamic range rendering (HDR).
Here is a look at Rapture:
The Shoot'em all can start!
ummh.. where are the shadows ? Looks a little flat and unrealistic...
Yeah, I got the first technological advanced weapon:
And now I let you discover the rest and have fun with BioShock!
Conclusion: This first insight of BioShock gave me a good impression. But it's not the top-notch 3d graphics title I heard. It uses correctly all common (but all the same high-end) graphics effects
(dynamic lighting / bump mapping, hdr rendering, texture reflection) and particle effects are very nice. But the shadows didn't convinced me.
Don't hesitate to post more screenshots, especially from the point where I stopped...
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