AMD and Creative Assembly to Deliver the Ultimate Alien: Isolation Experience

[Cristian_25H]

AMD today announced a new technology partnership with Creative Assembly, developer behind the highly-anticipated "Alien: Isolation." Developed in conjunction with the AMD Gaming Evolved program, "Alien: Isolation" is fully optimized for a premium PC gaming experience, including native support for: AMD Eyefinity technology, 4K UltraHD, AMD CrossFire multi-GPU technology, and a wide range of DirectX 11 effects tuned for the Graphics Core Next architecture in recent AMD Radeon GPUs and AMD Accelerated Processing Units.

"The AMD Gaming Evolved program is committed to making games look great and run well for all PC gamers," said Ritche Corpus, director of ISV Gaming and Alliances, AMD. "By working with truly talented developers like Creative Assembly, we deliver on that commitment with fun and beautiful games like 'Alien: Isolation,' which give PC gamers the high-end technology they deserve."





Players will discover the true meaning of fear in "Alien: Isolation," a survival horror set in an atmosphere of constant dread and mortal danger. Fifteen years after the events of the "Alien" motion picture, Ellen Ripley's daughter Amanda enters a desperate battle for survival, on a mission to unravel the truth behind her mother's disappearance. As Amanda, players will navigate through an increasingly volatile world confronted on all sides by a panicked, desperate population and an unpredictable, ruthless Alien. Underpowered and underprepared, players must scavenge resources, improvise solutions and use their wits, not just to succeed in their mission, but to simply stay alive.

"'Alien: Isolation' is a game that plunges players into a haunting, terrifying atmosphere," said Clive Gratton, Lead Programmer, Creative Assembly. "The visual experience plays such a fundamental role in the 'feel' of the game that we went the extra mile to craft an in-house engine that fully articulates our vision. AMD has graciously helped us augment that engine for the PC with a number of effects, such as contact-hardening shadows, compute-based particles, HDAO and DirectX 11 tessellation. Support for immersion and performance technologies like AMD Eyefinity and CrossFire technologies make the whole PC experience even better!"

Gamers looking to try the rich graphics and terrifying environments of "Alien: Isolation" for themselves can secure a complimentary copy by purchasing an eligible AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics card from a retailer participating in the new Never Settle: Space Edition promotion beginning Sept. 2, 2014.

View at TechPowerUp Main Site

 

[JTristam]

Fix'd:

AMD today announced a new technology partnership with Creative Assembly, developer behind the highly-anticipated "Alien: Isolation." Developed in conjunction with the AMD Gaming Evolved program, "Alien: Isolation" is fully optimized for a premium AMD gaming experience, including native support for: AMD Eyefinity technology, 4K UltraHD, AMD CrossFire multi-GPU technology, and a wide range of DirectX 11 effects tuned for the Graphics Core Next architecture in recent AMD Radeon GPUs and AMD Accelerated Processing Units.

"The AMD Gaming Evolved program is committed to making games look great and run well for all AMD gamers," said Ritche Corpus, director of ISV Gaming and Alliances, AMD. "By working with truly talented developers like Creative Assembly, we deliver on that commitment with fun and beautiful games like 'Alien: Isolation,' which give AMD gamers the high-end technology they deserve."


Players will discover the true meaning of fear in "Alien: Isolation," a survival horror set in an atmosphere of constant dread and mortal danger. Fifteen years after the events of the "Alien" motion picture, Ellen Ripley's daughter Amanda enters a desperate battle for survival, on a mission to unravel the truth behind her mother's disappearance. As Amanda, players will navigate through an increasingly volatile world confronted on all sides by a panicked, desperate population and an unpredictable, ruthless Alien. Underpowered and underprepared, players must scavenge resources, improvise solutions and use their wits, not just to succeed in their mission, but to simply stay alive.

"'Alien: Isolation' is a game that plunges players into a haunting, terrifying atmosphere," said Clive Gratton, Lead Programmer, Creative Assembly. "The visual experience plays such a fundamental role in the 'feel' of the game that we went the extra mile to craft an in-house engine that fully articulates our vision. AMD has graciously helped us augment that engine for the AMD-powered PC with a number of effects, such as contact-hardening shadows, compute-based particles, HDAO and DirectX 11 tessellation. Support for immersion and performance technologies like AMD Eyefinity and CrossFire technologies make the whole AMD-powered PC experience even better!"

Gamers looking to try the rich graphics and terrifying environments of "Alien: Isolation" for themselves can secure a complimentary copy by purchasing an eligible AMD Radeon R9 Series graphics card from a retailer participating in the new Never Settle: Space Edition promotion beginning Sept. 2, 2014.

 

[Relayer]

Mantle? TrueAudio? TrueAudio could be awesome in a title like this.

 

[RejZoR]

@JTristam
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's what NVIDIA is doing, not AMD. It's NVIDIA who is constantly pushing their proprietary bullshit around making exclusive effects and dumbing down casual stuff (which can be otherwise run on any GPU easily) to makem their's look better. AMD never does that. They just make their stuff run better but doesn't affect NVIDIA users at all. And that's how it should be done and is done by AMD. Maybe you shoudl bitch at NVIDIA instead...

 

[pjl321]

Mantle? TrueAudio? TrueAudio could be awesome in a title like this.

Totally agree, why would AMD slap their name on this without implementing all the stuff that elevates them above just good value?

 

[Recus]

@JTristam
Sorry to burst your bubble, but that's what NVIDIA is doing, not AMD. It's NVIDIA who is constantly pushing their proprietary bullshit around making exclusive effects and dumbing down casual stuff (which can be otherwise run on any GPU easily) to makem their's look better. AMD never does that. They just make their stuff run better but doesn't affect NVIDIA users at all. And that's how it should be done and is done by AMD. Maybe you shoudl bitch at NVIDIA instead...

Wow, you are worst than Putin. Why you acting like AMD's sh*t doesn't stink?

Forward+, DirectCompute AO, Global Illumination...

TressFX

Interesting how you trying to hide AMD's stuff saying only Nvidia doing it.

 

[arbiter]

Wow, you are worst than Putin. Why you acting like AMD's sh*t doesn't stink?

Forward+, DirectCompute AO, Global Illumination...

TressFX

Interesting how you trying to hide AMD's stuff saying only Nvidia doing it.

Yea its Funny how ppl think that AMD doesn't do any of it, but they do. Nvidia doesn't make a public stink about it when it happens they just get off their butt and do something about it.

 

[RejZoR]

Wow, you found one single game after looking for it for 3 hours. I can tell you 50 games ruined by NVIDIA right now. And TressFX just makes fuckin hair look nice. How does that affect you as an NVIDIA user? I'm AMD user and i don't give a shit about it.

 

[X71200]

I doubt this game will be good since AVP sucked hard and seeing from the trailer that was released a while ago it seemed slow paced.

 

[arbiter]

Wow, you found one single game after looking for it for 3 hours. I can tell you 50 games ruined by NVIDIA right now. And TressFX just makes fuckin hair look nice. How does that affect you as an NVIDIA user? I'm AMD user and i don't give a shit about it.

take your troll shit to an AMD forums where people will care what you say. there are plenty of games that some what crippled on nvidia hardware cause they are AMD game.

for everyone else lets not feed this troll anymore.

 

[the54thvoid]

In balance, it does 'feel' as though NV "unintentionally" gimp more games than AMD. Dirt used lighting effects that suited the AMD arch to a T. Turning it off removed the advantage. Can't use phsyx as an equivalent because it hurts performance on NV. Turn it off for an even fight.
Hell, look at BioShock 3. Gaming Evolved title ran far better on NV hardware. AMD seem to be less 'hobbling' than NV when they partner up with devs.
I must be biased though..... Please check my system specs before trolling me out.

 

[Fluffmeister]

AMD also said GameWorks particuarly on Watch_Dogs was intentially gimping their performance, but the game runs better on AMD hardware, sure the game is poo, but the whole Forbes AMD is the golden light article was a lie and pure FUD.

With that said, who really cares anyway. /shrug

 

[RejZoR]

take your troll shit to an AMD forums where people will care what you say. there are plenty of games that some what crippled on nvidia hardware cause they are AMD game.

for everyone else lets not feed this troll anymore.

Trolls don't give valid arguments mind you. When has AMD removed (one thing is adding exclusive efects and another removing those that have been present in games since the early age of PC gaming) entire effects just to make their shit look better? For NVIDIA, that's prety much every single PhysX powered game from Mirror's Edge to Alice's Madness Returns to Batman Arkham, Watch_Dogs and the list can go on and on. Because no one in this friggin world will convience me that my system without HW PhysX is incapable of rendering some shitty shattered glass on the ground. Play some Mirror's Edge or Watch_Dogs and then play Red Faction from year 2001. Be amazed, the most realistic glass shattering even for today's standards done on a friggin single core CPU with clocks hardly surpassing 1GHz mark. And NVIDIA wants me to believe my 4GHz quad core can't do it today. Up yours NVIDIA.

 

[JTristam]

@arbiter
The word is "fanboy", not "troll". Trolls ignore criticism, they just want to get in and spark a conflict then leave. Fanboys can't take criticism, even consider facts as one.

And bitching? Nay. I have God, a life, a job, a fiancee and if everything goes as planned will get married by the end of this year. I don't have time for anything else, bitching included. What I was trying to say was that's an AMD optimized game. Why holding back? As if they were shy about this game being heavily optimized for their hardwares. The PR came directly from AMD and there are references to AMD exclusive techs here and there. They even admitted they worked closely with CA. Using the word "PC" in that article kinda gives the impression that this is just a PC game and nothing more. Like there's no exclusivity or something. It is not like that. People who don't drink or submerge themselves in Kool-Aid -as @HumanSmoke put it- can see it clearly and they won't accuse me of bitching. Whether you like it or not, this is *a* AMD game, not *a* PC game. So like I said, why holding back? NVIDIA gamers (and to some extent, Intel ones, in case they are "brave" enough to run this game on Intel Iris HD) should be aware of this so they won't complain if this game run poorly on their rig.

I never care what people should buy or use. People like AMD, people wanna buy everything AMD, people game with AMD, go ahead, there's nothing wrong with it. Everyone should have freedom to decide what to buy with their own money. Their money, their decision. Even if it's their loss, it's theirs, not mine. They gain something, it's theirs, not mine. I don't have anything against AMD so why the bloody hell would I bitch about it? Doesn't make sense at all. I thought I was doing AMD a favor here and AMD gamers would be happy to read it. But whatever, I hate to discuss anything further in anything where fanboys involved. It never ended well. I rest my case. This is my last response to this article.

Like I always said; fanboys = retards. Doesn't matter the color or side.

 

[RejZoR]

I buy whatever price suggests and the company general attitude towards gaming scene. NVIDIA is just ruining it with their anal pushing of "exclusive" proprietary crap. I'd never mind anything PhysX related. Like liquid simulations or some other heavy particles shit that actually needs horsepower to calculate. But when they start removing shattered glass on the ground, fog and smoke effects altogether, removing flying debris like pieces of paper carried by wind for anyone other than GeForce users, that's the kind of company i don't want to support to even encourage them to continue with their crap. Actually i don't mind ANY kind of proprietary crap for as long as someone doesn't go and intentionally dumb down the base game and effects. be it AMD or NVIDIA. Add crazy effects that only work on Geforce or Radeon cards, but for the love of God, don't remove stuff that we had in games for decades just to make your proprietary crap look so awesome and spectacular. NVIDIA is especially obsessed with their side to side comparison videos which always make me vomit. Fancy floating smoke on one side and blank vent on the other. At least make a static smoke efefct there, is that too much to ask, every bloody game from the 90's had that. Glass shattering and falling on the ground, staying there on one side and on the other glass shattering and disappearing in thin air even before it hits the ground. That's the kind of bullshit i hate, not the proprietary stuff itself.

 

[Mindweaver]

Guys stop with the "Troll" and "Fanboy" names. Get along or move on or just have a healthy debate with out name calling. This is an AMD thread not an Nvidia thread.

 

[Fluffmeister]

I buy whatever price suggests and the company general attitude towards gaming scene. NVIDIA is just ruining it with their anal pushing of "exclusive" proprietary crap. I'd never mind anything PhysX related. Like liquid simulations or some other heavy particles shit that actually needs horsepower to calculate. But when they start removing shattered glass on the ground, fog and smoke effects altogether, removing flying debris like pieces of paper carried by wind for anyone other than GeForce users, that's the kind of company i don't want to support to even encourage them to continue with their crap. Actually i don't mind ANY kind of proprietary crap for as long as someone doesn't go and intentionally dumb down the base game and effects. be it AMD or NVIDIA. Add crazy effects that only work on Geforce or Radeon cards, but for the love of God, don't remove stuff that we had in games for decades just to make your proprietary crap look so awesome and spectacular. NVIDIA is especially obsessed with their side to side comparison videos which always make me vomit. Fancy floating smoke on one side and blank vent on the other. At least make a static smoke efefct there, is that too much to ask, every bloody game from the 90's had that. Glass shattering and falling on the ground, staying there on one side and on the other glass shattering and disappearing in thin air even before it hits the ground. That's the kind of bullshit i hate, not the proprietary stuff itself.

The problem is a lot of those effects ARE PhysX effects, really the onus should then be on the dev to implement those effects (or cut down versions of) for people who choose to buy an AMD card instead.

PhysX gets a lot of hate but it offers nice effects and as you say realistic physics don't come cheap, but when people start moaning that can't get those effects then frankly the dev and or AMD need to offer a alternative frankly, not nV.

 

[arbiter]

I buy whatever price suggests and the company general attitude towards gaming scene. NVIDIA is just ruining it with their anal pushing of "exclusive" proprietary crap. I'd never mind anything PhysX related..

For the Record Nvidia was open to licensing PhysX, MS and Sony did for xbone/PS4's. AMD refused to purchase a license cause they believed nvidia should gave it out for free and that is kinda stupid for a company to have some net tech and give it away for free. AMD claims to make their stuff open although mantle has been far from it, and their profits are a fraction what nvidia is, wonder why?

 

[Octavean]

No one seems to even know if this new Alien: Isolation game will even be worth playing and I see a whole lot of arguing about stuff that seems like arguing for the sake of arguing.

So AMD bought ATI and tried to make the best of it.

So nVidia bought Ageia and tried to make the best of it (PhysX)

So nVidia bought 3DFX and tried to make the best of it (SLI)

So what?

I buy both AMD and nVidia video cards and I just don't care if there is a proprietary subset of features for said cards.

 

[esrever]

For the Record Nvidia was open to licensing PhysX, MS and Sony did for xbone/PS4's. AMD refused to purchase a license cause they believed nvidia should gave it out for free and that is kinda stupid for a company to have some net tech and give it away for free. AMD claims to make their stuff open although mantle has been far from it, and their profits are a fraction what nvidia is, wonder why?

Physx licensing to the consoles is just nvidia trying to stay relavent in a space where they have lost all control of. A company does not have to have proprietor things to make money from it, if their system is well designed, they can still profit from it since they know the design better than their competitors. Mantle is brought up every time people talk about open source things and I am pretty sure AMD isn't making it open yet is just because it is still in closed beta as they said it. They have nothing to gain to put a wall there in the long run because nobody is ever going to pay for mantle. AMD will gain much more from mantle if people use it for free than they will ever do by selling it closed. AMD never refused to purchase a license for physx, physx was just never relevant enough in gaming for AMD to bother. AMD always seem to have no problem putting other companies' IPs into their designs, they just don't bother putting physx in because there is no good reason to.

 

[RejZoR]

No one seems to even know if this new Alien: Isolation game will even be worth playing and I see a whole lot of arguing about stuff that seems like arguing for the sake of arguing.

So AMD bought ATI and tried to make the best of it.

So nVidia bought Ageia and tried to make the best of it (PhysX)

So nVidia bought 3DFX and tried to make the best of it (SLI)

So what?

I buy both AMD and nVidia video cards and I just don't care if there is a proprietary subset of features for said cards.

Just for the record, SLI (Scalable Link Interface) from NVIDIA has nothing to do with 3dfx SLI (Scan-Line Interleave).

 

[Fluffmeister]

Physx licensing to the consoles is just nvidia trying to stay relavent in a space where they have lost all control of. A company does not have to have proprietor things to make money from it, if their system is well designed, they can still profit from it since they know the design better than their competitors. Mantle is brought up every time people talk about open source things and I am pretty sure AMD isn't making it open yet is just because it is still in closed beta as they said it. They have nothing to gain to put a wall there in the long run because nobody is ever going to pay for mantle. AMD will gain much more from mantle if people use it for free than they will ever do by selling it closed. AMD never refused to purchase a license for physx, physx was just never relevant enough in gaming for AMD to bother. AMD always seem to have no problem putting other companies' IPs into their designs, they just don't bother putting physx in because there is no good reason to.

Equally nVidia can already beat AMD in games running Mantle anyway. Besides it's AMD trying to make their CPU's more relevant seeing as nVidia don't sell weaker CPU's that play second fiddle to Intel.

With DX12 coming I'd say they have no good reason to support Mantle either.

 

[esrever]

Equally nVidia can already beat AMD in games running Mantle anyway. Besides it's AMD trying to make their CPU's more relevant seeing as nVidia don't sell weaker CPU's that play second fiddle to Intel.

With DX12 coming I'd say they have no good reason to support Mantle either.

Its not about nvidia beating AMD or anything of the such. Mantle and DX12 enable games to better take advantage of multiple cores. It helps everyone running a modern CPU. Nvidia will never support mantle, but game developers might do so if it doesn't cost anything to add to their game. Intel will support mantle before nvidia does. Intel might support mantle if it becomes more relevant but its very unlikely any time soon. We will have to wait and see if AMD can deliver with mantle once DX12 comes out because they will be able to do more with mantle than microsoft can with DX12 because of specialization in the architecture. Who knows, maybe they will be able to put mantle into openGL and it will one day just work on openGL for every AMD card.

 

[arbiter]

Its not about nvidia beating AMD or anything of the such. Mantle and DX12 enable games to better take advantage of multiple cores. It helps everyone running a modern CPU. Nvidia will never support mantle, but game developers might do so if it doesn't cost anything to add to their game. Intel will support mantle before nvidia does. Intel might support mantle if it becomes more relevant but its very unlikely any time soon. We will have to wait and see if AMD can deliver with mantle once DX12 comes out because they will be able to do more with mantle than microsoft can with DX12 because of specialization in the architecture. Who knows, maybe they will be able to put mantle into openGL and it will one day just work on openGL for every AMD card.

Mantle does cost extra cause you have to modify the game code to use it, which also requires more time to debug etc. Most games with mantle now got a check from AMD to add it.

 

[HumanSmoke]

Physx licensing to the consoles is just nvidia trying to stay relavent in a space where they have lost all control of. A company does not have to have proprietor things to make money from it, if their system is well designed, they can still profit from it since they know the design better than their competitors. Mantle is brought up every time people talk about open source things and I am pretty sure AMD isn't making it open yet is just because it is still in closed beta as they said it.

Wouldn't matter if Mantle was open source - although anyone with any knowledge of tech history would know that AMD are keeping it closed currently to retain a marketing edge. AMD aren't a software company as they've proved many times - you think that if Intel, and particularly Nvidia, with their software teams, had code access they couldn't accelerate the code refining process?
Do you also think that AMD could run the risk of Nvidia tuning Mantle to a degree that it rivals or exceeds what AMD are achieving? What kind of marketing edge does that bestow on a company that developed the API.

Anyhow, as I said it a moot point. Unless the API is truly open - i.e. development and future spec changes are handled by a consortium of partners, neither Intel or Nvidia would sign up for the exact same reason that AMD wouldn't buy into PhysX. The company might be privy to code and its usage but you are trusting development and your future to a competitor which is a big gamble for any company. If you think that is an exaggeration then tech history is littered with similar examples.