The Cult of Rapture, 2K Games’ official Bioshock support site, has posted a new video demonstrating the game’s remarkable water effects, as well as a Q&A with two of Irrational Games’ “water gurus.”
Rapture, the setting for 2K Games’ upcoming shooter, is an underwater city in distress, and as such, water features prominently throughout the game. Irrational Games, developer of Bioshock, has gone to great lengths to produce realistic, believable water effects, and based on early feedback, has succeeded admirably.
According to FX Artist Stephan Alexander and Graphics Programmer Jesse Johnson, the water effects in Bioshock are designed to work on both DX9 and DX10 technology, but that DX10 is used to accelerate the performance of some effects, which may allow for greater detail in some areas. However, Johnson said that in spite of the presence of DX10 effects, the water effects in the PC and Xbox 360 version are “nearly identical.”
Water in the game will do more than just set the tone of ambiance within Rapture, it will also have a direct effect on gameplay. Bodies will float, water will douse fires and conduct electricity, and water levels within the flooding city will change as the game progresses. “At certain times, ocean windows will crack and start spurting jets of water,” Johnson said. “Entire tunnel sections will collapse causing their emergency containment doors to bow out and leak under the pressure of ocean, and even indoor structures like pools and tanks that were built to contain water will break.”
Scheduled for release in August of 2007, Bioshock is described on the 2K Games website as “The Shooter 2.0.”
