inCrysis Q&A with Sebastian Spatzek!

[sxdemon]

Hey guys, here you go, the full interview.



Crytek Quality Assurance Manager Sebastian Spatzek kindly visited our IRC channel on Tuesday, September 18th and donated some of his time to give answers to quite a bunch of various questions from Crysis fans. The interview session lasted for 2 and a half hours and produced some very nice reading for Crysis/Crytek fans. Thanks to NBtX for the idea and for the organization, thank you very much to all involved and extra special thanks to Sebastian!

Expect more Crytek/Crysis IRC Q&A's and other cool things at the inCrysis Demo Pre-Launch Celebration and Party!



inCrysis IRC Q&A With Crytek QA Manager Sebastian Spatzek

2007.09.18


Ossyss3y: What is the optimal throughput up and down to play on the 32 player server?

CrySeb: Well as with system specs this is also not a final number yet. Especially for the Beta we're heavily optimizing server strain. So I cannot give a final number as answer. It won't be any harder on your connection than other current AAA games.

Epic720: What, if any, are the plans for an autobalance in the MP?

CrySeb: We hear you guys in the forums and this is definitely on our radar. You should expect an update on this soon.

TheSnatchDoctor: I'm interested in knowing if in single play, the difficulty will be as hard as in the original Far Cry and what challenges await?

CrySeb: SP will have four different difficulty levels. And we made sure we're no easy going game. We built up a little reputation with the difficulty in Far Cry and we liked it

B4zzA: Hey, what was the most challenging part about making the game?

CrySeb: That is a good question. I think one of the most challenging parts is to get all the different people under one hood. You got very involved artists working together with even more involved coders at times. Making sure they all play the same melody is among the top challenges.

SpinifeX: I was reading a crazy forum topic about people interacting with the turtles we've seen in a few videos of Crysis, I was wondering whether there's been any issues with people complaining about animal cruelty? And also, do you ever have many issues with violence in your games? For instance, how did you decide where to draw the line on how bloody and violent Crysis should be?

CrySeb: Well, violence right now is heavily discussed by media, press and whatnot. This is no different here in Germany. Actually it's far more challenging to not get put on the index by the German rating boards. You have to find a good balance between making a mass market (read, not banned all over the world) and still have red blood and non robot enemies in the game. Strangely enough the german ratings board never ever complained about the animals. I shed a tear everytime a turtle dies however

sammy_b: Seb, I was wondering, how long did it take to actually develop the engine and are you still adjusting and developing as you go along?

CrySeb: From the first concept art piece to today it's about 4 years. The game and engine were developed together. So it's a constant process of inventing, tweaking, breaking, fixing. This process will continue until the day we ship and beyond. There's always something to do

Nxs: Halo 3 got to grace the cover of Mountain Dew, can we expect Crysis to cover Budweiser?

CrySeb: I hope everyone saw the Ctrl+Alt+Del strip about the Halo commercials As for Crysis marketing I personally hope we will go Spaceballs style and have Crysis everything. However this is not up to Crytek but to EA

Barutsu: Will you also be able to pick up objects and throw with them in MP with DX9?

CrySeb: Not in the stock game DX9 MP modes

ins\: Will the SDK be released at release date? I'm looking forward to modding Crysis and it would be great to have it soon after the release. Also, will it have the C++ code straight away, or will that come in a later SDK? (like the C++ SDK of Far Cry, which was kinda late).

CrySeb: The plan right now is that Crysis will have the full package for the modding community by release. This includes C++.

Ryo: There's been a lot of talk on the forums about using the broken pointy pieces of trees to stab things, or stick in the ground. Is there any development on that, or would it be something that could be modded in?

CrySeb: You can use these pieces as weapons. However stabbing and alike are not in the stock game

notme: We heard about online restrictions in DX9 MP mode, especially concerning the physics. Will the LAN DX9 MP mode be also restricted like that?

CrySeb: There won't be any difference between LAN and online MP modes. Except for being online and LAN

warfjm: Concerning the story change, multi-part question. Why did you change from meteorite crash to archaeological find? Did that make the development of Crysis longer?

CrySeb: Actually we had to adjust the story to deliver the best possible quality at the earliest date possible. However the story was always subject to change. I hope we will include parts of the early days on the making of DVD so you will get a glimpse of that.

BulleTTime: What are the possibilities of getting AI characters in multiplayer, and did Crytek precode any on that?

CrySeb: We decided early in development to not have bot support. However I'm confident that our mod community can do this fairly easy and quick. The engine definitely does not block this.

kalvo: How much of the buildings and other structures in the map are built from these "prefabricated pieces" shown in a presentation long ago? Also, is all the terrain made of Voxels?

CrySeb: Actually pretty much darn everything consists of the prefabs and therefore can be completely destroyed. The terrain is not all Voxels however the Voxel usage is quite high. Especially for indoor caves and alike it's an excellent tool.

Midair: Have you planned to put in some kind of recording tool?

CrySeb: Plans for this exist, however I cannot promise anything on that for final release.

apppe: How is it to develop such a big game with so many people? Do you make many new friends, and do you really wanna go to the work on Monday when you're laying in your bed on Sunday?

CrySeb: First off, who's saying we're lying in our bed on Sundays?! The experience working in a team like this on a title like this is just amazing. It is hard to put in words but you really get together over the years, especially during crunch times. I have made friends for life here at Crytek. Another part of this is the mix of different nationalities. Mix of different cultures and understanding. Very interesting and challenging

SpinifeX: OK, I am wondering whether the different ammunition is still going to be in Crysis? Like the sleeping tag gun thing?

CrySeb: Yep, plenty of it! Different ammo, different weapon attachments (that are weapons) etc..

Nxs: Smoke preferred? Lights or regular?

CrySeb: The heavy stuff please! No time for lights! :P

CrySeb: What's with you guys and slaughtering turtles? (Killing chickens is much more fun.)

osyss3y: When is a public server demo going to be available (Beta or otherwise)?

CrySeb: We do not plan on having private servers for the beta. Full release, we will see

Epic720: Are you planning on making a dedicated server for Linux?

CrySeb: Yes we do have plans for that. We learned a lot however with the Far Cry version of that and are more careful now.

Epic720: So a Linux server is not possible with DX10?

CrySeb: If we're going to release a Linux server it will have full support. So says the plan. Plans might be subject to change at all times

MAdEinUK1: What is the poly limit allowed for characters and buildings?

CrySeb: The polycount limit in CryEngine 2 is a lot, lot higher than in CryEngine 1. However of course there are limits that will melt even current highest end hardware. I have seen scenes with well over 2 million polygons and the fps didn't take a dive so it all depends on how well optimized the rest you see is.

TheSnatchDoctor: Will there be helis and jets in both single and multiplay that we can fly?

CrySeb: There will be attack helis and transport/support VTOLs for release. I doubt that jets will take the mod community very long

BulleTTime: Will there be different content libary's for single and multiplayer, or will both have acces to all content?

CrySeb: Of course we have a certain order in it, but both MP and SP use mostly the same archetype libraries. In general you can use anything anywhere, as long as your hardware can take it :0

snaileri: How long the Beta testing will last? Will we see updates (patch files) released for the Beta?

CrySeb: There will be constant updates during the Beta, be it small server side patches or larger tweaks and balancing patches. We plan to let the Beta servers run until somewhat close to street date.

kalvo: Can server admins access all console commands in-game and can they allow commands for server users too?

CrySeb: This is probably asking for rcon possibilities if I'm not mistaken? Not sure there

Nxs: Could you send me a signed pack of smokes as it will go well with my Bill Gates signed six pack?

CrySeb: Signed by the whole company? :P

Nxs: Just him would suffice

CrySeb: Haha, I will think about it, shoot me your snail mail as pm in the Beta forums :P

Ryo: If a North Korean shoots down a tree and there's no one to see it, did he really shoot it down?

CrySeb: As you will most likely encounter the shot down tree when you wander around on the Island after all is killed and done you will have to ask yourself how this tree got mown down? :P Always suspect the chickens.

Midair: How big do you hope/see this game in terms of ESports?

CrySeb: We have high hopes and already have plans in place. However we have to wait and see what the ratings boards say. A indexed or 18+ game will have a hard time with going big in ESports. Sadly something not entirely in our hands.

barutsu: Will there be different climates among the multiplayer maps? (like a desert, or a snow covered map?)

CrySeb: Absolutely!

Epic720: What is the max texturemap size? Can it support overlapping uv's and concerning the texturemaps, does the engine support non sqare textures, like 2048*1024 for example?

CrySeb: The questions are alright, I'm just not a engine guru

Epic720: Well thanks for helping to get the answer

CrySeb: Trying to find R&D folk atm

CrySeb: Ok, can't find anyone. I suggest we call for a special modding community questions Q&A some time and I'll make sure to have some R&D folks present.

Frander: I recall there being options to change ammo type when modding your weapon, Incendiary, Normal, and Tag bullets. I haven't seen or heard about them in a looong time. Have it died out?

CrySeb: There will be plenty ammo types and weapon/weapon attachments in the final game :0

ninetech`ddprz: Is there any future for me as a duel (1on1) player in Crysis? And do you plan to update Crysis with new game modes? (like Death Match/Duel/Team Death Match?)

CrySeb: The smaller PowerStruggle and pretty much all DM maps are good for 1v1. We have regular 1v1 lunch break tournaments. As for other game modes, not for the initial release of the game. Let's see if the modding community is faster than us afterwards

apppe: Will Crytek be at the CeBIT event?

CrySeb: Wasn't that back then in June/July? Alex, our community manager, was there. Other than that, I do not know if Crytek will have a presence at future events as I am not involved in the marketing and PR planning. I just usually get dragged to these events as booth monkey

Snaileri: Will there be more technical support released for the Beta with its patches? (like quad-core support?)

CrySeb: As I said above, there will be plenty of patches. What they will include and what not I cannot say at this point.

PoWeRs`: Can you switch nanosuit powers say in the air like jump high shoot, switch to another mode land, etc.?

CrySeb: Of course, a common tactic to be honest You can switch suit modes as fast as you can. Of course there is an engine side limitation to prevent overly abusive macro usage.

Ryo: Any plans for expansion packs?

CrySeb: Let us finish the game first before asking for that, will ya!

geekboi: Did Cevat forbid the Crysis development team to play Bioshock before Crysis was done? ;> Gabe Newell did...

CrySeb: Haha, no he didn't. He wanted to check it out himself without locking himself in I think ;D But we're too busy playing Guitar Hero anyway so no time for Bioshock

Midair: I heard (in an interview) that you have finished the game and are only making some small adjustments and polishing it, so do you think you guys will meet the dead-line with ease?

CrySeb: Official press answer here: We feel very confident with our set release date And yes, it's very much only polishing, tweaking and balancing left.

BulleTTime: I recently saw some info on inCrysis that said it's not possible to disable the nanosuit for mods. Is this true?

CrySeb: I've heard this question before. I have to admit I have no idea where this info is coming from but the nanosuit is just a piece of model and the suit modes are code. Nothing that can't be changed when you have a full C++ SDK me thinks

Killuah: Will there be any installation limitations, like in Bioshock? Or forced online registration?

CrySeb: Our plans for that are not final yet. However rest assured we closely followed what happened to Securomshok.

snaileri: Does nanosuit's speed-ability help in smoking cigs? Do you have a nanosuit in Crytek's office?

CrySeb: No it does not, unfortunately, as it is not attached to your lungs An obvious flaw in the design I tried to point out but got slapped by the militant non-smokers in the office. We do not have a model of the nanosuit YET. If all goes well the masterchief statues better look out

crack-man: Did some PCs die during the making of Crysis (at Crytek)?

CrySeb: Yes. We mourn every one of them. I personally had to swap my PSU 3 times the last 3 days. It has of course absolutely nothing to do with the game but I feel my office is built over an old pet cemetary or something.

LunarBlue: What games are you yourself looking forward to in the near future?

CrySeb: Well, a very close one would be Team Fortress 2. Other than that I cannot wait for Warhammer. (Yes, blame me, I like MMOs!!) In short: too many good games, not enough time

Nxs: If the tables were turned, what questions would you be grilling us with?

CrySeb: Since I'm from QA I would make sure to check with you guys about anything buggy. However we luckily have a bugtracker for this and communication is much easier there Other than that we're all just normal humans so I'd prolly ask you what beer you like best and if you're going to kill me if I smoke in front of you?

Killuah: Fosters.

BulleTTime: Heineken.

CrySeb: Good, and now remember you are talking to a German here living in Germany and then rethink your answer ;D

PoWeRs`: What are the advantages of quad-core over dual-core with Crysis?

CrySeb: The quad-core for the mass market and in games is still very young. So we're trying to get as much support as possible into Crysis but cannot promise anything. I can say that our physics system will happily absorb any additional core you have in your rig.

Killuah: Will the shadow of the cloaked player (as seen in the videos) get removed? Bug or feature?

CrySeb: A current feature. Very much depending on the communities feedback.

Ezekiel: Is it possible (even though EA shot the rumor down) to port a game like Crysis to Xbox 360/PS3?

CrySeb: Crytek's credo is: Hard takes a day, impossible a week! Well, to be serious, the answer is we're fully focused on the PC release of Crysis right now.

Midair: Will there be any fps-lock? I’ve heard something about 60fps-lock, any official word on this?

CrySeb: This is also something we do not have come to a final decision on yet. Sorry.

crack-man: Do you guys have a afterwork bar or do you go home and play online vs. each other?

CrySeb: That totally depends on the type of person you are. We have a night club directly under us if that's what you like. Some of us stick in the office and do geeky things like Guitar Hero drinking contests. Others go out and enjoy what a big city like Frankfurt has to offer.

Frander: Do you find your job a quality in life? Is it a life style to you?

CrySeb: For me personally it is, yes. I have found my purpose in life by buggin other people and I have found the perfect company for that with Crytek.

apppe: Will the game have different endings like S.T.A.L.K.E.R./Bioshock?

CrySeb: We will most likely not feature multiple endings. We will make sure that the one story string we have kicks enough us [ass? =)] for the player to not worry about the "what ifs"

Killuah: A lot of players are worried about the DX10.1 discussion. Will Crysis take any advantage from this advanced version?

CrySeb: Sorry, can't say anything about that yet

SpinifeX: You said you've had to replace your PSU a few times, what's the deal with Crytek and computer parts? Are computers assigned to people, or are there loads of computers scattered everwhere and people just use whatever one they want? Do they start taking it out of your pay if you break your computer too much?

CrySeb: Everyone here has at least one personal machine. This is your work machine and you drag it with you if you move within the company. Other than that it is possible to request more/different hardware from our IT dept after checking with your dept. lead. Since I am chief of QA I can directly go ahead and get what I need, within reason of course haha. We do not have to pay for broken hardware unless we broke our keyboard by angrily banging it on our desk. We also have so called 'pits' where we have a bunch of good machines so everyone can pop in and play some MP or SP when his machine is compiling or broken or whatever.

BulleTTime: I noticed there's some sort of vehicle system to make it easy to add vehicles. Is this system fully usable for multiplayer? Does this system also support custom content?

CrySeb: Yes and yes As I said, with the planned release of all editor and tools and C++ SDK with release there is hardly a thing you can't do if you know how.

crack-man: Are there a lot of keyboard-bangers as you said?

CrySeb: I for one am one haha. So I brought in my personal keyboard and since then I am a much calmer person.

Ryo: I've noticed lots of frame tearing in the movies of the game I've seen, will that be worked out by the end? Or is it just fixed by a simple Vsync?

CrySeb: What you've seen is footage from pre-Beta code. Don't worry about that for final game

Nsx: I read a little bit ago that Crytek was looking to relocate. Any truth to this?

CrySeb: We are not actively looking to relocate our main studio. If the German government decides to really ban production of the "Killergames", well, we're out of here.

crack-man: Do some of you guys look like real nerds (like in the movies) or just a regular (any hot chicks @ work)?

CrySeb: We got everything here. True geeks, pretty-pretty muscle gym guys and of course we got girls as well

crack-man: Do you guys speak English or German at work, as I see lots of different nationalities?

CrySeb: The official company language is English. Everyone has to speak this in order to work here. If of course two Germans talk to each other and no one else is involved in the discussion they will most likely talk in German

ins\: About the DX10-exclusive multiplayer thing. Would it be possible to code let's say normal physics to DX9 in it using the SDK?

CrySeb: I am excited to see what the community will come up with when they have access to our full range of tools (<-- awkward question dodge answer ftw!)

snaileri: Will Crysis have customizable difficulty levels?

CrySeb: We have four very well balanced difficulty settings already. You should find the perfect one for your needs very fast.

Necrotic: How hard is it to kill someone generally? (e.g. no common single shot to the head like CS I hope.)

CrySeb: It all depends on the type of enemy. Armor, what type of armor, if MP, what suit mode is he/she in, how much energy does he/she have left. There is no simple answer to this. Except for a gauss bullet to the head will be pretty much painful no matter the circumstances

J0HND0E + TheSnatchDoctor: Now, there is option to join Beta with subscriber/Founder FilePlanet account. Will there be any option to play Beta for users without subscriber account? And when we will be able to get non-FP keys for Beta?

CrySeb: We work together with FilePlanet on the Beta. As for the Founder/subscriber/etc. issue I cannot go into details yet, I am afraid.

McTerry: Why there is not a license for indie companies for CryEngine?

CrySeb: I'm sorry, I do not work for engine licencing nor do I have insight into their work I suggest you check out out the Crytek homepage and get in touch with these guys.

Killuah: Will Crysis take advantage of special harware systems? Like the games with the NVIDIA logo are supposed to do? I am pointing especially to the Intel vs. AMD fight.

CrySeb: Well there is nothing special about the current graphics cards, imho. Some of them just do their job better than others. If you put names into the sentence I just said I am not to blame

Mocib: Any possibility of another machinima coming from Crytek?

CrySeb: I would love to see this with CryEngine 2. However I am not aware of any plans yet for an official machinima.

Mocib: Will the SP demo be a full 1:1 representation of the quality of the retail version i.e. is it "fully featured", technology wise? DX9+DX10, highest res textures and so on? Also, will the SP demo feature a benchmark mode?

CrySeb: We plan to have all of this answered with a 'yes!' when the demo comes out.

Mocib: I don't quite like the way the player just "glides" as he moves, it's like he moves on rails and you don't really get the impression that the player is walking or running, you're just changing your gliding speed, so to speak. Will there be an option where the view bounces/stutters etc. as you run/walk/crawl and so on? I hope you know what I mean.

CrySeb: Yes I know what you're talking about. There is heated discussion going on internally as well. For now I can say this is not final yet!</B>

crack-man: Is there a gaming session involved at work and when Cevat Yerli is also in the game, are you giving him some extra point to gain respect? Or do you own his ass?

CrySeb: That depens if I'm using my real name at this very moment or some stupid nick Naa, the atmosphere here is very family like, even with our bosses. You of course respect them but if he crosses my way in MP I will not lower my gauss because his family name starts with Y You better not post this answer any where though haha.

Ezekil: Being that you are based in Germany, have you come under any scrutiny from the government over there since the announcement of the game?

CrySeb: Yes we did. We had some not so nice incidents of press coming in and harassing us. On the other hand we had very positive experience with the German ratings board as well. It's a mix really and it always depends on what type of person you meet.

Killuah: Will the German release have any cuts to gore or anything because of that?

CrySeb: This is nothing final yet and something we can only partially control but we're trying not to have C&C style robot enemies bleeding green.

BulleTTime: What is the max multiplayer map size? Will the multiplayer performance depend on map size like it did in the Source Engine for example?

CrySeb: The current max map size is 16 sqkm, if I'm not mistaken. It all depends on what you pack in there before your machine gives up. The size itself isn't that bad

Necrotic: What kind of aimbot protection will be in-game? Private or PunkBuster? What kind of ramification will there be for abusers? (i.e. Valve bans cheaters.)

CrySeb: We will have both. Working together with the Evenbalance guys was very productive so far. Also we will make sure that the engine itself does not offer too much contact surface

[Sano64]

Nice, thanks for the post!

[Ashen]

good interview

[Blak_Phoenix]

very nice!

[sxdemon]

I like this Sebastian