An interview with the art director for Far Cry 2, Alex Amancio. He talks about making the plant life look real, while using very little memory. Plus how the foliage reacts to wind, every piece of grass blows with the wind. They also compare the art to Crysis, and talk about making it for both PC and consoles.

All the trees and grass are dynamic, simulating the wind. What kind of challenges did that lumber on you as the art director?

Amancio: It was really hard. Even with the dynamic time of day the game has to look good at every time of day, but it needs to look different. If you have a linear level you can just basically tweak an area and then have the perfect area, because you know where the player's coming from.

How much on location research did you do?

Amancio: We went to Africa for a period of about two weeks. We stayed in the wilderness, we didn't stay in any hotels, so we basically went from point to point camping in the middle of the Savannah and in jungles.

And how have you found managing these assets to work on both consoles and PC?

Amancio: Obviously it's a huge challenge. We have constraints but they're totally different constraints. We kept all of them in check from the beginning and by doing that we basically built the game around their constraints.

Shadow net583x s via computerandvideogames.com »