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Crytek's "Hunt: Showdown" Getting Engine Upgrade & Free PS5/Series S|X Upgrade Early 2024 - Dropping Last-Gen Support

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Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?

Crytek are upgrading Hunt to run on CryEngine 5.11, with plans to release it in early 2024. The update will bring a new map (with a new biome) designed to act as a showcase for the engine upgrade's new graphical bells and whistles, which include DirectX 12, FSR 2.1.2, and HDR. The trade-off is that the game's minimum spec will rise to an Intel 7th gen CPU (or equivalent and an Nvidia GTX1650 Super (or equivalent). The current minimum specs on Steam mention an Intel i5-4590 and a GTX 660.

"After five and a half years of Hunt, we wrestled with the numbers and reviewed the install base," says Hunt general manager David Fifield. "Among active users, these upgrades should impact less than 10% of the community, while greatly enhancing the experience for the other 90 percent."

For console users, this upgrade will spell the end of support for PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in April 2024, but free upgrades will be available to new console versions on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series S/X.

There are other updates on the way, including a UI overhaul to coincide with the engine upgrade. Before that, there will be gamepad support, changes to progression and base weapon unlocks, a matchmaking refactor, and a gradual rollout of the ability to inspect your weapons in-game.


 

Neon Xenon

Member
The free upgrade to current-gen for PS4 and Xbox One players is nice of Crytek.

On the topic of the game itself, more people should check out Hunt: Showdown. There's very few other games like it, especially in terms of atmosphere.
 

Inviusx

Member
Been waiting for this. I think it's taken them too long though, popularity seemed to peak a few years ago they should have really struck when the iron was hot. Still, I will check it out now if there's a proper 60fps performance mode.
 
The free upgrade to current-gen for PS4 and Xbox One players is nice of Crytek.

On the topic of the game itself, more people should check out Hunt: Showdown. There's very few other games like it, especially in terms of atmosphere.
I’ve had it since release but my problem with the game is that matchmaking takes way to long and the game can be over in less than a couple of minutes if you run into some bad luck.

I’ll check it out again when the upgrade drops but I’ll be way behind. I’m sure it has a very loyal community that are now insanely good at the game.
 

Gandih42

Member
I always thought this game sounded super cool. The slow paced and atmospheric approach really makes it stand apart from the more mainstream 'Battle Royale' games. I hope this update is an indication that it found a niché where it can live comfortably, so I can one day join the fray.
 

Luipadre

Member
Finally. Game looks hideous on consoles. With a proper nexgten version, this game finally can have its spotlight on console

PC version looks a bit dated aswell, lacks proper AA. New upgrade will probably fix that issue too
 
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Tripolygon

Banned
Nice. Crytech were ahead of their time with this game using raytraced lighting.
As far as I know they didn’t have the modern hybrid ray tracing that current games use. They used SVOGI. But no the first game to use that type of GI was the little game called The Tomorrow Children and it used a 3 bounce setup compared to Hunt Showdown single bounce lighting.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
As far as I know they didn’t have the modern hybrid ray tracing that current games use. They used SVOGI. But no the first game to use that type of GI was the little game called The Tomorrow Children and it used a 3 bounce setup compared to Hunt Showdown single bounce lighting.

Voxel raytracing is raytracing.
 

Tripolygon

Banned
Voxel raytracing is raytracing.
So is ray casting for audio convolution and collision testing. I didn't say it wasn't ray tracing. I'm specifying the type of ray tracing used which is not what is currently referred to as raytracing in modern lighting terms. And again, The Tomorrow Children was the first game last gen to use it before Crytek implemented it in their engine. Unreal Engine 4 had it, but it was too costly to run on last gen consoles, so they scrapped it. Unity had plugins for it way back in 2013. Crytek was definitely not ahead of the curve.
 

Mister Wolf

Member
So is ray casting for audio convolution and collision testing. I didn't say it wasn't ray tracing. I'm specifying the type of ray tracing used which is not what is currently referred to as raytracing in modern lighting terms. And again, The Tomorrow Children was the first game last gen to use it before Crytek implemented it in their engine. Unreal Engine 4 had it, but it was too costly to run on last gen consoles, so they scrapped it. Unity had plugins for it way back in 2013. Crytek was definitely not ahead of the curve.


Crytech has it in games that mattered. The Tomorrow Children is a small scope game that's an afterthought now. Unreal's implementation was obviously too heavy on performance since no one bothered to use it. Hunt Showdown is still active getting updates to this day. Kingdom Come Deliverance which uses CryEngine with SVOGI sold over 5 million copies. Thanks to CryEngine Kingdom Come Deliverence is the first open world game to utilize raytraced GI. Long before Cyberpunk, Metro Exodus, and all the rest. Crytech was using raytraced GI years ago and Unreal is just now catching up with Lumen. Give them their flowers.


 
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CamHostage

Member
Too bad the video didn't show any visual upgrades this new version of the engine brings. (Unless that fiery stage was a tease of the new biome? I haven't played Hunt in a long while. ) I'm anyways curious what new stuff Crytek is trying out.
 

CamHostage

Member
This should be the norm for these types of games. Many others should take note.

If it still works, then it works, no reason to cut the back off if it still scales. This change is probably economical more than it is for some amazing engine power upgrade. If only 10% of the player base is still on old-gen (or are projected to be after this Christmas) then they can save time and resources by not having to produce and QA those versions.

It's a good thing for this game that they're making this decision and looking forward, sounds like they have some plans on how to use the headroom in the new area. However, the idea that games are being "held back" with old-gen versions really depends on the game. There are these seemingly-paradoxical releases where a game goes next- gen- only but also includes a Switch version; this does make sense when the factors add up that way. Min/max is not a fixed gap.
 
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Tripolygon

Banned
Crytech has it in games that mattered. The Tomorrow Children is a small scope game that's an afterthought now. Unreal's implementation was obviously too heavy on performance since no one bothered to use it. Hunt Showdown is still active getting updates to this day. Kingdom Come Deliverance which uses CryEngine with SVOGI sold over 5 million copies. Thanks to CryEngine Kingdom Come Deliverence is the first open world game to utilize raytraced GI. Long before Cyberpunk, Metro Exodus, and all the rest. Crytech was using raytraced GI years ago and Unreal is just now catching up with Lumen. Give them their flowers.
Congrats on selling 5 million copies I guess but...
Nice. Crytech were ahead of their time with this game using raytraced lighting.
Still does not make Crytek ahead of their time. Nvidia invented SVOGI and others implemented it before Crytek. Modern ray tracing is more advanced than SVOGI like Cyberpunk Path Tracing is on a different level.
 
So wait, does this mean people playing on PS4 will not be able to play the game they purchased anymore unless they buy a 400 dollar hardware upgrade?
 

Luipadre

Member
Shameless bump. I started playing this game again and its still one of the best and most unique multiplayer shooters out there. Playing on PS5 and i cant wait for the native PS5 version and engine upgrade. The events are fun, still finding matches easily on console and hopefully the engine upgrade and native PS5 version will bring lots of new players to the game on console. They added so much stuff since the last time i played it, it was kinda overwhelming at first. I must say the UI overhaul is very needed and glad its coming, because its a bit of a clusterfuck currently

All in all, if you havent tried it, do it, when the big update drops early this year. You can get it mad cheap for both PC and console and the PS5 upgrade will be free

 

Arsic

Loves his juicy stink trail scent
Game is hot fire. Been at it again last few weeks. Tried Tarkov again and got pissed at its issues, then reinstalled this to get the same high, and have been very satisfied.

It took a hot minute to not get shit on game in game out, but now I’m back on track. Community really leveled up.
 

Luipadre

Member
Game is hot fire. Been at it again last few weeks. Tried Tarkov again and got pissed at its issues, then reinstalled this to get the same high, and have been very satisfied.

It took a hot minute to not get shit on game in game out, but now I’m back on track. Community really leveled up.

My first day back was REALLY rough. Like almost 0 kills and extracts. Now i started to play with random duos and doing really well. Today i had a 6 kill game with 2 boss token extracts. FeelsGoodMan

Audio is god tier in this game and i heard many people dislikes the new weather conditions but personally im loving the rain and the ash bloom, its so atmospheric and you can play more agressively
 

Davernos

Member
I got called cheater so many times that I don't believe 99% of the cheat claim
I was in the same boat as you until I experienced a couple of very weird kills. Then, investigating about this issue, I noticed a Twitch streamer called "Huuge" catching cheaters online. I was amazed at how many cheaters he discovered just by spectating games. Just a single guy. Crytek should triple their efforts on fixing this problem. Cheating is an everyday growing concern on the Hunt community.
 
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