Square Enix’s Crystal Dynamics and Intel have teamed up to optimize the PC-exclusive graphics for the upcoming Avengers game. Intel would not provide any details on numbers about the partnership, though, it did confirm that it is has a two-year commitment to continue to support Avengers and is its biggest gaming deal yet.
AMD or Nvidia which are graphics card companies would usually be the sort of partnership we see for graphics improvements in games. Intel has mostly focused on the CPU, over the GPU and may seem like an odd choice for improving graphical fidelity. But the improvements made to Avengers by Crystal Dynamics are designed to take advantage of Intel’s expertise by optimizing CPU-based tasks, like the physics engine, which allows more headroom for the GPU to take on other tasks.
The improvements made by Intel can be divided into three categories. The enhanced armor destruction, which improves the visual damage effects when players damage enemies. The new system generates, glass shards, metal plates, and rubble as physical objects, which interact with the player and the environment.
The two companies say that the debris will persist in the environment longer on high-end machines for added realism. There is also environmental damage which is caused by the characters’ ultimate “Heroic” attack, which will be improved with shockwaves or energy blasts that creating more debris and interact with existing debris.
PC players will also benefit from beautiful fully-fledged-fledged water simulation, which will react to the environment just like it would in real life. Crystal Dynamics’s belief is that improvements like this, highlight the advantages of optimizing for both the CPU and the GPU. The company has stated that it was already pushing the GPU side of things as far as it could go, if effects like water simulation were added, the computational load would limit other aspects of the game. By offsetting that to the CPU, it is providing a fuller experience.
The Intel optimizations have three levels low, medium, and high which are tuned to each of these types of processor 4-, 8-, and 10-core. That means that even if you have an entry-level gaming PC, you will still get a benefit when playing Avengers. Even though Intel developed these features, all PC players will be able to take advantage of them, not just Intel users.
The goal of the partnership between these two companies is beyond just the initial launch. Intel promised to continue supporting Avengers for two years, and Crystal Dynamics’ Foundation Engine has these improvements baked into it. This means it is possible that things like water simulation could come to future PC titles, too.
This gaming partnership comes just as Intel is getting ready for its biggest gaming and graphics push yet, with the launch of the 11th Gen Tiger Lake processors, Xe graphics architecture, and standalone DG1 GPUs all coming this fall. Ss Intel’s CPU and GPU efforts become more aligned, This CPU / GPU optimization by Intel will be seen more.
Intel has already confirmed that specific Avengers optimizations will be coming for the future Intel GPUs, presumably referring to the Xe-LP integrated graphics which is debuting later this week, with the company promising that 30fps / 1080p will be obtainable when playing the game on upcoming ultrabook and thin and light machines.
Marvel’s Avengers is launching with all the Intel-designed enhancements on September 4th. If you cannot wait until then pre-order it here.
