14 DAY TRIAL // Crytek has confirmed that the PC version of next year's Crysis 3 shooter will have all sorts of advanced graphical settings that take advantage of DirectX 11, unlike its predecessor which received a patch that enabled many visual features after its launch.
Crysis games have set new benchmarks in terms of graphical beauty and performance not just on the PC, like with Crysis 1, but also on consoles, as Crysis 2 appeared on the PC as well as on the PS3 and Xbox 360.
Sadly, the PC version of Crysis 2 didn't exactly have a glorious release on the PC, as Crytek was forced to delay the implementation of certain DirectX 11 features in the game until after its actual launch.
This was due, according to Crysis 3's Technical Director, Marco Corbetta, to the console versions of the game, which took a long time to complete.
"On Crysis 2, a decision was made to focus on console, launching the title on all platforms simultaneously and bringing the same console UI menu experience to PC, but with a plan to release a dedicated DX11 PC version right after launch of the multiplatform version. However, getting out the DX11 version with all the features included that we didn’t have time to develop while working on the console versions, took much longer than expected," he told PC Gamer.
With Crysis 3, however, the studio is putting a lot of energy into the PC version and Corbetta confirms that the game will launch with a variety of features, like high-resolution textures and advanced graphical settings.
"Crysis 3 will already ship with hi-res textures, advanced graphics settings, tessellation and DX11 support. Additional tech areas that have been enhanced since Crysis 2 are: AI navigation system, animation system, water, fog volumes, cloud shadows, POM, AA, cloths, vegetation, particles, lens flares and grass," he said.
What's more, Crytek spent a lot of time improving the general performance of the game and implementing support for different anti-aliasing techniques.
"For Crysis 3, the past year has involved a lot of performance and memory optimization work on many areas and for all platforms, as well as work on the rendering side. One of our big goals was to improve image quality, and a lot of work went into developing several DX11 based anti-aliasing techniques for PC, which means gamers will now be able to pick their favorite."
PC gamers will be able to see just how great Crysis 3 looks on the PC in early 2013, when the game is released.