Crysis Interview January 31, 2007 John JCal Callaham

Introduction

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FiringSquad: First, why was the decision made to give the main character a super-suit to use in the game?

Cevat Yerli: The suit is based loosely on technology that is being developed for soldiers on future battlefields. The partial cloaking, highly effective armor and strength augmentation features have been prototyped in the real world and given the advantages these give to soldiers there is little doubt they will see use in the future. Since Crysis is set in the near future we decided to use the suit to add another dimension to the FPS experience alongside futuristic weapons and vehicles.

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FiringSquad: How does giving the player access to extra abilities affect the gameplay in Crysis?

Cevat Yerli: It has a huge impact on the way you attack certain scenarios in the game. For example the player can alternate between armor and speed modes to attack an enemy compound front on. Since the suit can offer enough protection to recover from multiple direct hits, as long as you put enough firepower down there is a good chance you can survive. However if a player’s ammo supply is low there is no choice but to either avoid any confrontation or pick the fights you want to fight. This is where the reactive camouflage plays a big role. With the camouflage ability you can optimize your stealth tactics to the degree that you can hunt down all enemies if you want to. Strength modes are particularly fun when you interact both with the environment and enemies with your fists.

The suit gameplay also has a huge impact in multiplayer. Being able to get out of firefights using the speed augmentation presents some interesting situations. We’ve seen players run into an enemy base, unload with all their weapons then run away as fast as possible. Nothing can really be achieved from this but its loads of fun! If they have one of the cloak modes enabled, finding them after the hit and run attack is not easy. There is specialized equipment that can prevent this type of attack however but this must be purchased using the reward system so teamwork is really needed. Players who can master their suit can have a huge advantage over those who choose a more static gameplay style.

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FiringSquad: In terms of weapons, what sorts of weapons will be made available in the game and how many options will the player have access to for customising the weapons?

Cevat Yerli: Currently there are 14 handheld weapons with a variety of vehicle mounted weapons. Most of the weapons have modifications available like different scopes that affect the handling of the weapon, under-barrel grenade launchers, flashlights, laser aiming aids and a range of different ammunition. We have 3 types of grenades, frag, smoke and flashbang but one of the coolest weapons is the player’s bare hands! Using the strength mode on the suit the players muscles get augmented to the point of a steroid freak. Objects can be grabbed and used as shields and then thrown at enemies if ammunition is short. In addition to the more mundane objects in the world, living enemies can be grabbed by the throat and used as shields, they will object to this treatment however J Oh and the destroyable trees aren’t just for looks, they can also be picked up to create an odd sort of camouflage.

In Multiplayer there is a range of gadgets also available to help your team to win. Portable radars, repair equipment, electronic lock-picks and alien devices are all available but must be earned through the reward system.

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FiringSquad: The game employs a solid in-game physics engine. How much interactivity will the player have with the enviroments in the game?

Cevat Yerli: As most people would have seen, all but the largest trees in the jungle can be shot down or destroyed with heavy weapons. In addition to this, almost every object in the world can be picked up, shot, exploded or pushed around. Basically if it looks like it should react to the player, it does. Being set on a small island the construction of many of the dwellings can’t stand up to the modern weapons of war (and nano-enhanced suits!). Huts can be destroyed to escape an ambush, or to ambush those inside. Scaffolding can be systemically destroyed and small fuel canisters can be stacked up to create spectacular ambushes. We also use advanced rope physics, breakable glass, physical waves in the beautiful oceans and a physically correct particle system adhering to all physics in the world. Smoke gets blown around by explosions and moves off with the shifting wind.

Crysis Interview (con't)

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Cevat Yerli: It’s one of the hardest parts of developing a FPS. Getting the AI to seem like they are real, thinking players who act randomly in all environments is unbelievably hard. In Crysis we have large open spaces and with the destroyable environments you can’t hardcode cover spots for AI to hide behind. Because of this we developed an advanced cover system for AI using smart objects that can move and change status in realtime. AI also has a full range of movement available to it like going prone and sprinting between cover spots so the flanking behaviour seen in Farcry is now much more advanced. And considering the main enemies in the game are speaking Korean most people won’t be able to listen in to their squad commands.

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FiringSquad: We saw the DirectX10 version at CES. How does the DirectX10 version compare to the DirectX9 version in terms of features and improvements?

Cevat Yerli: DX10 simply allows us to increase the visual quality of the shaders and particle effects, to the degree that some features are DX10 only. The hardware performance is a generation above DX9 so that there is a major gain in frames per second. Both versions of the game play are exactly the same though, while in Multiplayer we are evaluating technologies that may benefit gameplay in DX10 to finally enrich that PvP experience to a new level. Given the host of improvements Windows Vista offers for gamers though, we would recommend upgrading as soon as possible.

FiringSquad: The motion blur was used to great effect in the CES demo. How hard was it to get that effect to work and not be a distraction to the player?

Cevat Yerli: The motion blur comes in several flavors depending on the system specs and player preference. We have a global blur effect that is applied when the player moves his camera very quickly, for example sprinting or getting hit by a large explosion. Also we have object-based motion blur that applies only to objects that are moving. The combination of these create an extremely cinematic feel to the visuals. Depth of Field (DOF) is another feature that makes the in game camera feel like human eyes, objects further away get blurrier. It’s a simple concept but hasn’t been seen in many games. A new feature we have added for a true cinema feel is a slight DOF applied to the player weapon so when your eyes are focused on the action in front of you, anything close goes out of focus. If you’re reading this using a monitor take note of how the keyboard looks when you are reading off the screen, it lacks all the detail you would see when focused on it. It is not a feature everyone would want to use since our weapon models are so beautiful but it’s there for those players who want to believe they are taking part in a movie!

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Is it safe to say that Crysis will ship with the game's level editor and mod tools like Far Cry did?

Cevat Yerli: Absolutely and the editor has been extended beyond even Far Cry’s lofty heights. The CryENGINE 2 editor (Called Sandbox) is capable of doing every single game feature in realtime while parameters are changed. For example the time of day settings for levels are not a single set of numbers like most games. Instead level designers use spline based editing allowing artist friendly adjustment of over 30 light settings that can vary from minute to minute using the engine’s dynamic time of day.

Finally is there anything else you wish to say about Crysis?

Cevat Yerli: With so many great looking games coming out lately it’s been a nice surprise to see the reception Crysis is getting at tradeshows and on forums. We are all dedicated gamers and are really excited about the future of gaming on all platforms. The power of the machines these days is staggering and it is a great time to be in the gaming industry.

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