Crysis Interview

Atomic: As a developer, what advantages are there working with DirectX 10 over DirectX 9?

Diemer: DirectX 10 is designed to give a cleaner interface, with lower CPU overhead, and an extended feature set which allows complex rendering solutions to be achievable in real time.

Atomic: When do you think we'll be seeing the full extent of DX10's capabilities?

Diemer: The current DirectX 10 hardware supports DirectX 9 very well, which is essential given that gamers have not yet transitioned fully to Vista. The larger the Vista market becomes the easier it will be for hardware and software vendors to focus fully on improving their DirectX 10 support.


Atomic: Would you advise gamers to start moving to DX10 hardware now? Should it be a priority?

Diemer: A significant number of gamers are already moving to DirectX10 capable hardware such as the NVIDIA Geforce 8800 series, so the real issue is whether they should move to Vista in order to fully exploit their hardware. The launch of Crysis is a clear signal that there's no better time to move to Vista than now!


Atomic: Does the fact that current-gen consoles use an older version of DirectX than Vista PCs make multi-platform development tricky?

Diemer: This isn't really an issue, as the PS3 does not support DirectX and fully exploiting the Xbox 360 means that developers need to architect their solutions for that platform, which has it's own unique features. Multiplatform development is tricky, but the move to DirectX 10 does not significantly impact on this.