Slightly Mad Studios’ Martin Griffiths has released some interesting info regarding an upcoming patch for the studio’s recently-released Shift 2 Unleashed title over at NoGripRacing.
In a detailed posting, Martin explained some of the graphic engine details, clearing up some confusion regarding anti-aliasing and giving us an outlook at an upcoming patch that will deal with some technical issues:
So yes, the upcoming patch includes SLI/Crossfire scaling. To give you an example a GTX 295 will go from 48fps to nearly 70fps in 1080p. Also the rendering team found some further optimizations so that normal (non SLI) graphics performance should be 5-10% faster with the patch.
Input lag – we’ve solved the latency issues reported using some wheels. There was a dead-zone issue and a threading problem introduced very late in development that have been fixed.
Garage screen crashes/CTDs – a fast button press issue that wasn’t seen during development is also fixed in the patch.
A black screen issue on starting a race requiring a pause/unpause to fix is also addressed. This was caused by a timing difference with the protection system.
NVision – some reverse/double stereo issues with the mirrors and environment maps have been addressed in the patch. NVidia very kindly provided us with more hardware for the render team to address this – Kudos to them for that.
There are also some more minor fixes in the patch – the above represent the vast majority.
Development work on the patch is almost done, the code then has to be approved by EA, making a release by the end of the month likely.
