Chronicles of Riddick have a setting called "2.0++", featuring Soft Shadows, something we will later see in the Unreal 3 engine.
If you're up for the challenge, try grabbing a computer that can run that setting in a decent framerate...

I personally have an A64 3800+ with 6800GT. I run HL2 in 1920x1440 and Doom 3 in 1600x1200 without problems... If I am to play with Soft Stencil Shadows I am forced to go down to 800x600 with AA or 1024x768 without AA...

Forget about HL2... we know that almost any computer will play that "ol' engine" at 60+ fps... Any benchmark from now on should contain Chronicles of Riddick, and I am very excited to see how the next-gen graphiccards can handle the game.

Has this type/method of Shadowing not been used before? What are the advantages against that used by Doom3/HL2 etc.
Does it use an existing GFX engine or a new one?

You have a blazing setup, I'm suprised it can't run better than that.

ID Software was first again with something new, this time Dynamic Light. They are followed by games like S.T.A.L.K.E.R, Splinter Cell 3, F.E.A.R. and Unreal 3. This is also used heavily in the tests by Mad Onion in their 3d Mark 05.
Dynamic Light means that the light is not pre-rendered with a lightmap, so light will be blocked by any obstacles that stands in it's path, including characters. Light will "wrap" itself around any object that blocks it.

While the rest of the boys decided that dynamic light was in, Valve had earplugs. Half-Life 2 does not even contain an attempt to have dynamic light like the other boys. For benchmarking this is the reason why Half-Life 2 will blow past the 60fps border with ease, no matter how much you turn on in the engine. The sad part is that it makes it impossible to produce games that uses darkness as an element.


First game, post Doom 3, was Deus Ex 2/Thief 3. Thoose game didnt really use that feature though, and the implementation was pretty simply compared to D3.

A problem with the shadows in Doom 3, as many have adressed, is that the shadows are very "sharp" and pitchblack dark. Now the tech-demo of Unreal 3 appeared, besides dropping everyone's jaws, it introduced Soft Shadows as a buzzword. Shadows that doesnt die in stright lines, but take off gradually.

Then came Chronicles of Riddick, using an updated version of Starbreeze's Enclave engine. It uses a 16-tap (4x4 pixels) filterkernel to acheive smooth shadows (that is, if you run the game in 1600x1200, its roughly the same job as running it in 6400x4800). The result just looks great, but it also requires extreme machine resources to be playable.

This is what it looks like:
http://jemym.no-ip.com/ChroniclesOfRiddick-Shadows.jpg

I run the game in 2048x1536 without Anti-Aliasing. The top image is rendered with 8fps, the bottom is rendered with 31fps

Chronicles of Riddick (couldnt find images from the PC version):
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/chro...ml?page=17
http://www.gamespot.com/xbox/action/chro...ml?page=79

Unreal 3:
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/screens/...cLight.jpg
http://www.unrealtechnology.com/screens/SoftShadows.jpg

Stalker:
http://www.stalker-game.com/download/gal...ray_50.jpg
http://www.stalker-game.com/download/gal...ray_33.jpg

Doom 3:
http://img.gamershell.com/static/screens...0_full.jpg
http://img.gamershell.com/static/screens...9_full.jpg

Splinter Cell 3:
http://www.shacknews.com/images/image-o-...ell3/1.jpg
http://images.3dgamers.com/screenimages/...der_pc.jpg

F.E.A.R:
http://images.3dgamers.com/screenimages/...shot04.jpg
http://images.3dgamers.com/screenimages/...orhall.jpg

3d Mark 2005:
http://www.futuremark.com/news/data/2004...n_big.jpg?
http://forums.x-tremepcshq.com/index.php...ost&id=479

Thats an Excellent explanation, Thanks, I have been ... informed.

Looking forward to trying it out for myself.

BTW. The latest Chronicles of Riddick film will go down as one of my all time favourites. If theres not going to be a film of Butchers bay then the game will fill in the story before pitch black. (I guess Pitch black might not have much use for shadows! LOL!)