![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Monday , October 19, 2009
- Author:
- Mark Warner
- Editor:
- Brent Justice
- Google +1
Batman: Arkham Asylum & PhysX Gameplay Review
In Batman: Arkham Asylum, the Dark Knight pummels an endless stream of thugs, but will the game deliver the same two-fisted brutality to your video card? Find out as we examine gameplay performance and image quality on nine of today's video cards. Extensive testing of NVIDIA's PhysX and what it means to your gameplay experience!
Image Quality
Batman: Arkham Asylum is not resplendent with an abundance of graphics options, but it is at least respectable. There are fourteen total options, seven of which we are actually concerned about here. The following image quality comparisons illustrate what effect these settings have on image quality.
The following linked images are in PNG format to prevent JPEG compression artifacts, and range in size from 946KB to 1.75MB.
NOTE: All of the image quality features below are supported on NVIDIA and AMD GPU powered video cards, except for Fog Volumes, which is a PhysX only feature.
Bloom
The Bloom option is supposed to toggle the HDR bloom lighting effect. During our testing, we found that it doesn’t seem to actually have any visible effect on image quality.
The above image clearly shows that the Bloom setting doesn’t seem to affect either the flared spotlights or the smaller lights in the guard tower in the background. We also witnessed no performance differences between "Off" and "On."
Dynamic Shadows
The Dynamic Shadow option toggles shadows cast in real time by mobile game objects.
As we can see from the comparison above, with Dynamic Shadows enabled on the top half of the screenshot comparison, the guards, the Joker, and the gurney are all casting stencil shadows even as they move down the entry hallway. On the bottom half, the only shadow we can see is the result of Ambient Occlusion. The stencil shadows cast by those dynamic objects are gone.
Motion Blur
The Motion Blur option toggles the blurring effect that is visible when Batman is moving or turning very quickly.
In both halves of the screenshot above, the camera viewport was panning very quickly from side to side. With the motion blur effect enabled, the motion of the camera is plainly apparent. With motion blur disabled, however, the screenshot looks like the camera is sitting completely still.
Distortion
The Distortion effect is easy to spot in motion, but harder to illustrate in a still screenshot. The effect creates a ripple effect behind some of Batman’s tools, such as the Batarang and the Batclaw.
In the image above, Batman is throwing a Batarang in both halves of the image. In the top half, in the center of the image, you can see a ripple swiping down from the upper left to the lower right. That is the "wake" of the Batarang in flight, and that is what the Distortion effect does. In the bottom half of the image, the ripple is not visible, since the Distortion effect was disabled.
Fog Volumes
Fog Volumes are a physics feature that creates volumetric fog elements that are fluid and displaceable. PhysX is responsible for the fog volumes, so if PhysX is disabled, they will not appear. If the PhysX option is enabled, the fog volume elements will always appear, even if the discrete Fog Volumes option is disabled. If PhysX is disabled, the fog volume elements will not appear, even if the discrete Fog Volumes option is enabled. Therefore, the actual "Fog Volume" toggle option in the settings interface doesn’t actually do anything. You can’t disable it if you have PhysX enabled, and you can’t enable it if PhysX is disabled.
In this screenshot, the fog volume in the chamber is enabled and shown on the top half, and disabled and not visible on the bottom half. PhysX was enabled on the top half of the image and disabled on the bottom half of the image. As the guards walked through the fog, they kicked it around and displaced it as they moved through it. When they stopped, the fog filled the voids back in.
Spherical Harmonic Lighting
Spherical Harmonic Lighting is a technique to efficiently create realistic shading and shadows.
In the image above, we can see that the shadows on the Batman on the left side of the comparison, taken with the Spherical Harmonic Lighting setting enabled, are not as harsh or dark as the shadows on the right. The shadows are not as harsh, and the overall tone of the Batman’s skin and suit is slightly warmer with Spherical Harmonic Lighting enabled.
Ambient Occlusion
Ambient Occlusion is a popular shading technique used to add depth to a scene by causing objects and surfaces to interact with light sources. The overall effect is very subtle and easy to miss. Simply put, Ambient Occlusion allows surfaces and objects to block (occlude) ambient light, creating soft shadows around some details.
On the left side of the first screenshot above, there is some extra shading around the statue which is most visible around its right arm. On the right, that shading is missing, though there are some other shadows present. With Ambient Occlusion the statue has a better impression of depth.
In the second image above, we can clearly see that there is a brightness difference on Batman’s belt, which is visible through some tears in his cape. The left hand of the image, with Ambient Occlusion enabled, shows the belt to be quite a bit darker than on the right of the image, with Ambient Occlusion disabled.
Random Screenshots of Interest
The following screenshots were taken on an NVIDIA GeForce GTX 285 with a GeForce GTS 250 running dedicated PhysX duty. The screenshots were taken at 1920x1200 with 8X MSAA and maximum in-game graphics options, including the High PhysX setting. The linked images are in JPEG format and range from 91KB to 617KB in size.
