Crysis 2 DirectX 11 patch coming Monday

Making good on its promise, Crytek has announced that it will finally add DirectX 11 graphics to Crysis 2. The developer plans to release three separate downloadable add-ons that improve the game's visual quality alongside patch 1.9 next Monday, June 27. To be clear, although patch 1.9 will enable DirectX 11 support, you'll have to individually download and install the "DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade," "DX11 Tessellation Pack," and "High Res Textures."

The DirectX 11 Ultra Upgrade will deliver a host of graphical improvements and performance optimizations for both DX9 and DX11 APIs. After installing the update, folks running Crysis 2 in DX9 will gain real-time local reflections and contacts shadows. In addition to those effects, DX11 platforms will enjoy hardware tessellation, parallax occlusion mapping along with various shadow, water, particle, depth of field, and motion blur enhancements.

To enable hardware tessellation, however, DX11 players will have to download the DX11 Tessellation Pack, which contains pre-tessellated geometries. As its name indicates, the third optional download simply contains high-resolution textures for a variety of assets. Both DX9 and DX11 versions of Crysis 2 will support the snazzier textures, but it's worth noting that you'll need a graphics card with at least 1GB of VRAM and a 64-bit OS.