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In the ongoing quest for truly realistic videogame graphics, some have taken to spending thousands of dollars and developing hundreds of mods to achieve more perfect visuals. But you can get a taste of next-gen graphics without going to all that trouble, thanks to the free-to-download Valley Benchmark tech demo from Unigine Corp, available now for PC, Mac and Linux.
The demo, based its maker's proprietary game engine, renders a gorgeous, 64 million square meter mountain range that can be explored freely. It's little more than a hiking simulator at the moment, but one that might just leave you shocked by what your machine can handle.
Run the app and it kicks off with an automated flyover sequence of the simulated valley, rendering mountains, trees and even grass 10 kilometers away and hundreds of feet below. It looks and feels like a pre-rendered cut scene, but click the "camera mode" button at any point and you're given the ability to literally drop into the world with full freedom of movement.
My MacBook Pro Retina was only able to push the game at about 20 fps on "ultra" settings, but Unigine Corp. CEO Denis Shergin says that even weak machines should be able to run Valley Benchmark on low settings and still look impressive.
"The Valley runs at 15 FPS even on Macbook Air," Shergin says, "but you can find a rig for less than $1000 to run the benchmark smoothly."
Shergin says his company made the demo primarily to attract developers. "We definitely would love to see more open world games based on our engine," he said.
For now, Uningine is promoting its product as a tool for running vehicle simulations. In June the company first revealed its next project, a modified, even bigger version of Valley Benchmark with a built-in helicopter simulator.
Read on to see more screens from the Valley Benchmark demo, or download the demo for your PC, Mac, or Linux machine for free.
All images courtesy UNIGINE Corp.
