Crysis 3 intended to have DirectX 11 support on PC from day one

Crytek continues its multiplatform approach to development with Crysis 3, aiming to satisfy everyone from console owners to the PC gamers that are so hardcore, they cosplay as "parallax occlusion mapping." The developer hopes to have Direct X 11 support for PC at launch this time -- one of several advantages, it says, of having spent 14 months creating content and enhancing CryEngine 3, as opposed to building it and an accompanying game for three major systems.

"Yeah, I'm pretty sure we're going to have that," said Rasmus Hojengaard, Director of Creative Development. "I don't know if we've announced that yet, but obviously we're going to have DirectX 11 support since we already did it [for Crysis 2]. We basically started from a Crysis 2 DX11 patch, as starting point, and then we developed our technology from there on. We'd be pretty stupid not to capitalize on the technology we did for that and utilizing that from the get-go."

Crysis 3 was running on PC during a recent unveiling in San Francisco, where Crytek showed off its vision of New York City as a devastated, metropolitan mire being swallowed by nature. While the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions aren't ready to be shown yet, Hojengaard says they will benefit from the studio's philosophy in art design, with the game being "actually less reliant on shader technology than, you know, just really good moods, good light setups, and good asset creation."

That approach, in turn, also supports the PC version, which still lives beneath the franchise's reputation for crippling even the most exorbitant hardware. "We also want to make sure, even if you're on the PC, even if you don't have the super powerhouse, nuclear power plant at home, you can still run the game and get a beautiful experience from it."