Cervat Yerli the Crytek CEO and god of Crysis has given an interview to GamingHeaven as well as releasing some DirectX10 screenshots to show off.

Ok first the interview:

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Gaming Heaven: With all the recent DX10 games released gamers can't help but be a bit disappointed with the overall situation. Is this due to limitations of the DX10 architecture or were the developers simply lazy, not putting enough emphasis on DX10?


Cevat: I dont want to put words into other developers situation. I am sure they have their good reasons. We took from the moment DX10 was announced the decision we will push it to its limit.


Gaming Heaven: We were told several times that more or less anything that is possible in DX10 can also be done in DX9, but with greater performance drops. Does this mean Crysis will look more or less the same in DX10 and DX9, or do you intend to make the DX10 version a completely different experience?


Cevat: No it will be different in look. You could effectively do almost anything already with SM 2.0 hardware, but the raw power you need needs to be there too. Plus it must be economical to develop certain features. So under the line, DX10 will certainly benefit from performance gains and hence have some technologies appear now, that were possible before, but not in such dense and alive environments. Its really the context you have to evaluate features, not individually.


Gaming Heaven: With all the videos of machine gun fire chopping down trees one can't help but wonder what the limitations of the engine are. Will we be able to chop down every single tree on the island, or are there artificial »barriers« in place that will prevent the game from getting bogged down with all the physics simulations of countless tree trunks?

Cevat: Certain trees are too big to be cut by machine guns, that’s true in real-life. Of course any engine has its limitations and as such we present a world that is highly interactive, but not unlimited. Finally its not about the trees, but the moment where they change the gameplay or battlefield and whilst doing this increase immersion.


Gaming Heaven: In the gameplay videos we have seen several different locales, namely air carriers, the proverbial Crytek jungles and the frozen version of them. Will modders have the ability to include new scenaries into the game, or is the engine »locked« to what you guys provide us with?


Cevat: The modder can add any theme or expansion wihtin our outside of the Crysis Themes if they desire. Their creativity paired with the technical specifications is the limit. They can create new vehicles, new characters, new worlds, new sounds, new cutscequences, new weapons etc…or just modify what we have provided.


Gaming Heaven: Performance, the main question every gamer has. What will be needed to run the game at playable framerates? How about playing with everything maxed? Will current rigs be able to run the game at 1920x1200 without making sacrifices? Do you recommend ATI or Nvidia and have you any performance figures for us for the Nvidia 8800 and ATi 2900?

Cevat: Everything maxed and at that resolution, you will need a seriously high rig of the latest generation available now. Bear in mind we don’t expose, but have built in scaleability for the upcoming 1-2 years. That will be available as hardware catches up. So when I say maxed, its maxed for now.


Gaming Heaven: Crysis is one of the few bastions of PC gaming. What were your main reasons to ignore consoles? Wouldn't the fixed architecture make them prime candidates for optimizations?


Cevat: Yes would be. But the original Crysis game as we designed wouldn’t be possible on consoles that’s why and our key reason to ignore other platforms is to focus on quality and the game.


Gaming Heaven: In Far Cry the open ended nature of levels gave players plenty of choices on how to approach a mission. Does Crysis offer even more opportunities, or is it mainly the same as before? How about the alien ship/carrier levels? By design they should be pretty linear, right?


Cevat: Crysis offers you more options effectively, also adding the nanosuit into the mix your playstyle will differ more greatly. Some sections are more linear, but the nanosuit and weapon customization add layers of non-linearity.


Gaming Heaven: The new weapon system you will be introducing with Crysis – how did you come up with the idea? Aren't you afraid players will be able to upgrade their weapons to near godlike characteristics?


Cevat: The idea came simply about the fact that people have preferences and choices. The tune their choice, they now should customize their weapons with the available modules. A godlike status is not possible though


Gaming Heaven: The story in shooters isn't the most important aspect, but it can help a great deal. Will Crysis have a more personal story, similar to something we saw in Half Life 2 or the recently released Bioshock?


Cevat: It's an old Hollywood adage: show don't tell. Showing you something always has more impact than telling you something. Where traditionally games tells player the story, through radio messages and data recorders, Crysis shows it to you with dozens of beautifully choreographed actions sequences and ambience through an environment that is a character itself, it evolves and is alive – speaking in a metaphor.


Gaming Heaven: The enemy AI – in Far Cry players often accused the AI of cheating, firing at Jack even though he was well hidden in foliage. Will staying behind a bush actually make us »invisible« this time around?


Cevat: That was never a cheat. What happened is that the AI enemies saw the player going behind a bush, effectively blind shooting into the bush and potentially hitting the player. We improved this though this time so it feels more right and not like a cheat.


Gaming Heaven: While on the subject of AI, does the Crysis AI code support squad combat? If you were to pit two 10 men AI teams against each other, would they try to flank one another? Is suppressing fire a tactic they can use?


Cevat: The core AI system supports it. In Crysis if you are fighting alongside a squad member or friendly AI, the AI will handle either you or the AI that is attacking him. Suppressing and flanking along other tactics are part of their intelligence.


Gaming Heaven: Scripted sequences – Far Cry had a few and they can help forward the story in ways dynamic encounters never will be able to. With the huge open ended levels of Crysis, how do you intend to tackle the problem of players who manage to avoid the script triggers?


Cevat: Encounters are not to tell story, but to create the adventure through the players experience. So he can tell the action bits of the story. The players will experience a non-linear gameplay to the point where we funnel the experiences to tell the story through aforementioned choreographed action sequences.


Gaming Heaven: What is the aspect of Crysis you are most proud of? Now that the release date is closing in, were there any features you liked that had to be cut in order to finish the game in a given timeframe?


Cevat: The highlight for me is the Nanosuit. You will get used to it and don’t want to miss it. It will save your life couple of times! No features that were liked were harmed during the development of Crysis J So yes we are very excited about this fact and hope our fans will be too!

It's come a long way.

Do we have any DX9 comparisons thank you please?

That looks and sounds amazing, guess we'll just have to wait one more month until the demo so we can see for ourselves. I, for one, can't wait.

quote Scott_ill

Do we have any DX9 comparisons thank you please?