Ubisoft went through a bit of the impressive technology being tossed into Far Cry 2. First we looked at the weather and lighting. All of the clouds in the sky are procedurally created. We watched as the clouds naturally gathered and formed more ominous puffs of water vapor while a storm gathered. This cut off a lot of the light that looked so attractive while it filtered through tree branches. The oncoming storm also brought wind with it, which showcased some of the coolest environmental effects shown.
As the wind built up, we watched it begin to blow the brown grass that covered the savannah. A little more wind and the branches on trees began to sway. At this point, a few bullets into the trees hacked off a few branches, which then tumbled away due to the wind. More wind yet and the branches began to get torn straight off of the trees (The trees can be ripped apart from as far as the eye can see, as a few well placed rockets showed us a bit later in the demo). Storms like these won't be scripted in the game. Rather, they come over time naturally or can move in drastically according to how dramatic the current situation in the game is. A thrilling victory might be met with a ray of sunshine whereas a large fight might gather a storm. This is the kind of stuff that people with fantastic PCs will use to show off their rigs.
Next we were shown a grass fire. We watched as it spread slowly across the land and engulfed trees which then warped and charred. Those toasted trees can still be torn apart with incoming fire, if you happen to point your gun that way. This part looks very cool, but it can also affect gameplay. Ringing in enemies with fire, torching grass near an oil tank to cause a delayed explosion, or burning down trees to expose enemies all seem like possibilities provided you have a flamethrower on hand.
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