BFBC 2 HBAO Comparison Images

me too, cant tell the difference between the on and off. starting think its only noticable in dx11 or somthing because there really is no difference.

 

No difference at all to my eyes. I would like to ask those who see the difference to circle the areas where the HBAO is apparent. Thank you!

 

It's a similar effect to normal ambient occlusion, better shadow effects (Although SSAO like used in Crysis is better but this is faster apparently and it's not like HDAO which is better still like used in Call of Pripyat or the latest Clear Sky patch.) like for example the corners of the building in the second picture or the top of the metal sheet in the first picture, both being darker and "better" shadowed.
(Much improved in motion than it looks like in still pictures but it's not a very noticeable effect even so I would say, quite nice to have though if the performance hit can be handled, more powerful GPU's and such, DX11 further adds optimizations - DX10 adding this HBAO effect and AA support plus shader works but DX11 also adds shadow filtering which might affect performance a bit as well, no tesselation used in this game however.)

 

In my opinion, the ambient occlusion in BFBC2 blows, AO forced in Farcry 2 works better, it adds much more depth to the game and makes the grass appear more 3d and less sprite-like, the same with fallout 3, but HBAO appears to just enhance bloom or something, and not really increasing anything noticable, that said, AO is not worth it in any game, it literally halves frame rates and the visual difference isn't that great, it will be good in 3 years time with new hardware..going back and using all the bells and whistles in older games. So extra visual features are never bad.

In all the 480 reviews even with 800core clock etc it only gof a 55 frame AVERAGE maxed with 8aa and HBAO on...so I imagine the min frames would be around 40, which is absolutely unacceptable for a shooter, and also unacceptable for "the fastest single gpu video card"

aka HBAO is not worth the hit, even on a high end card.

 

Yeah, I play with HBOA off and 2xAA and my 260 struggles...so much so that I bought another one for SLI....will be here tomorrow, hopefully it gives me the performance I'm after.

 

Are you hiting 100% GPU usage with that GTX 260 ?
Because you should with that CPU.

There been reports that nVidia cards doesn't scale well in Bad Company 2.

First benchmark indicated that , and then some user reports here on forums.

 

See interestingly enough, while people say that this game is all about the cpu performance, I went from 8800gtx to 4890 and the game plays sooo much better now. Maxed, 4xAA and it feels silky smooth (HBAO off). 8800gtx ran the game a fair bit worse with no AA.

 

these screens made me want to play BC2..

 

Yeah GPU usage is always at 99-100%

If the cards don't scale well I'll just sell them and get 5770 CF

 

Just spent 5 mins scrolling up and down between the pics and couldn't see any difference at all

I'll try the non-resized ones...

 

Nope, still nothing.

Think I'll check the date of original post to see if it was done of the 1st of April :/

 

i tried to see a difference but couldn't.. maybe its my crappy work monitor

i like the idea of a few extra drop shadows and stuff but for games to really move on we need not only better pixel shaders and tessellation + ray trace but better display tech like eyefinity/3D gaming and 120hz refresh.

small changes are welcome but not at the expense of 15 FPS

 

What am I supposed to look at? I guess that is the thing, if I can't see a difference there is no point in taking a hit in performance. You say there is a big difference? We looking at same pics or what?

 

The OP is obviously on drugs.

 

Again, I challenge those who said they see the difference to circle it in the screenshots.

 

Don't be silly guys, there is a diffrence.

The shadowing with HBAO on is more rich and multiplayered then the pics without hbao wich are "flat" and only one layer, quite subtile but it is there.

It is obviously not worth the 10-12 fps in performance drop you get ( atleast I get that ).

/edit

Might add that HBAO doesn't put shadows where there where none before, but it enhance the current shadows and seems to use a diffrent lighting filter, softening the light at some surfaces ( like a dimmer effect ). As I said initially it is multilayered and quite subtile.

I'll do some arrows for you when I'm done with dinner

While you wait for my paint arrows you can DL the two indoor pics, put them in the windows mediaplayer and play them as a slider in f11 mode, if you still do not see a diffrence then I'm afraid you monitor is broken/not calibrated ( the diffrence is really striking, whole diffrent lighting )


Ok here is a pic with arrows to highlight obvious spots where the shadowing is of a higher quality, but really the whole scene is rendered with a finer lighting filter wich really stands out if you put the pics in a slideshow.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

Might aswell link to the off photo aswell so you don't have to go back to 1st page.



Uploaded with ImageShack.us

 

...open the pics into their own tabs and then cycle between the off and on pics.

 

I didn't notice a difference...until I saw the non-resized shots. Darker, more realistic shadowing. Still not worth the performance hit. Does look awesome though.

 

Yah the more I look at it the more I wanna use it now, really changes the whole lighting and atmosphere of the scene, makes it softer and more natural. Shame it comes with a -15ish fps penalty

 

there is a difference, those that dont see it need to open their eyes ,

guess these screens don't justify it in its full glory lol, but yea it makes/adds more depth to the game, it looks like there is a thin shadowing applied to the whole image, especially corners, distant stuff and characters.. now if only i could run it with above 50fps and its all good, but no it dips to as low as 30fps with it enabled sometimes..

http://developer.nvidia.com/object/siggraph-2008-HBAO.html

checkout here and how it works, its from nv but doesn't matter the principle is the same..