Shortly after GSC Game World announced the prequel to its moody, post-apocalyptic shooter S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Shadow of Chernobyl last year, word started going around that the title would have an updated 3D engine with support for the latest DirectX 10 graphical goodies. As Shacknews reports, the Ukrainian game development studio has released a video of S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky that specifically showcases some of the DirectX 10 eye candy we can look forward to.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky. Source: Game website.
The video is available either as a low-quality stream on this page or as a larger, higher-quality download over at FileShack. In it, you'll see Clear Sky's game world rendered in all its twisted glory with volumetric lighting (a.k.a. "God rays"), soft water shorelines, dynamic volumetric smoke, volumetric fire, dynamic wet surfaces, raindrop splashes, and more
A good part of the demo is devoted to the smoke effects, which are fully dynamic and can be affected by the player. For instance, shooting a fan that slowly oozes out grey smoke makes it speed up, clearing the air for a few seconds. The water effects also look delightfully realistic, and they're reminiscent of both 2K Games' BioShock and Nvidia's Cascades DirectX 10 demo.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R.: Clear Sky is scheduled for a release on August 29. The game will be available through both retail stores and Valve's Steam content delivery platform.
