As the result of a competition held recently, a member of Crysis-Online nicknamed Vinnie, had a very informative chat with the Art Director for Crysis, Michael Khaimzon. A lot of great information was shared, most of which was to do with becoming a game developer. However, some new light on the system requirements managed to popup... but only a little bit :-)

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Vinnie: How did you get into the game developing community?
Michael: It had nothing to do with my education first of all, in fact, I didn’t graduate. My physics teacher called me in one day and said “if you don’t stop drawing in my classes, I will kick you out and you will never achieve anything!”

Vinnie: So you were good at drawing?
Michael: Not amazingly good, just enough to impress. I managed to graduate from a graphic design college. That’s my professional education. Then I worked for like 3-4 years as a designer and then art director in the multimedia industry. I was 22 when I graduated.

Michael then posts a link to his portfolio which he has asked not to be published

Vinnie: Wow, those are awesome. So you made these with photoshop or are these hand-drawings?
Michael: I used 3DS max and Photoshop

Michael: So you want to be a coder?
Vinnie: Hmm, not really.

Michael: Well what position do you want?
Vinnie: I don’t really know yet, but coding graphics, AI and Physics is what I’m looking into.

Vinnie: But about your progress. Did you show your work to Crytek and then just join them?
Michael: Kinda. I also worked on some 3D stuff. I sent a resume with some 3D stuff, real-time too, and I guess they liked it. Back then, Crytek was a different studio.

Vinnie: So that was a long time ago. Even before FarCry came out?
Michael: Yes, it was Xisle back then. It was like this dinosaur island. Let me tell you how it all started. Crytek had created a demo for Nvidia, with a huge island and dinosaurs walking all over it, with bump maps and refractions etc. Back then it was a big achievement.

Vinnie: I do know about an ATI demo which Crytek made?
Michael: Come on, dinosaur island demo. It was super well known 5 years ago. But then again, you were only 11 :-)

Vinnie: Does Crytek use Max or Maya?
Michael: We use 3DS Max here, not Maya.

Vinnie: Could you tell me what programs Crytek uses? And what programming languages?
Michael: Well, we use 3DS Max, Photoshop and sometimes XSI. I have no idea what coding languages and things like that are being used. All that is like another universe to me.

Vinnie: Hehe, I didn’t realize Crytek was THAT big.
Michael: It’s big. It takes about 2 minutes to cross the office. We have 150 people of 24 nationalities.

Vinnie: I guess it grew a lot when the development of Crysis began?
Michael: Yep. When I came here there were only 8 people or so.

Vinnie: So what do you recommend me to do if I want to work for a company like Crytek?
Michael: First finish school. I think? :-). Be good at what you do. No one cares about certificates and diplomas.

Vinnie: Really?
Michael: Yes.

Vinnie: So I have to send Crytek my portfolio?
Michael: Yes, sure.

Vinnie: Is it possible for me to make a trip to Germany with my dad and take a look at the Crytek office, to see what the people at Crytek do, and see if this is what I want to do?
Michael: Not really :-) I’m not the right person to answer this question anyway.

Vinnie: Who should I contact about that?
Michael: I have a better offer… You send in an amazing portfolio one day, and if it’s good, Crytek will bring you over for an interview and pay for the trip :-). You will then kill like 20 birds with one stone :-)

Vinnie: And in that portfolio there must be?
Michael: Whatever is appropriate to the position you want to apply for. Or an overall demonstration of your skill.

Vinnie: Haha, well here’s the point. I only just started learning c++ :-)
Michael: Well give it some time then. Just send it when you’re ready.

Vinnie: What kind of computers are being used at Crytek?
Michael: Man, everyone has a different machine here. I don’t even know the specs of my machine. I honestly have no idea. Well I've got an NVIDIA 7800GTX, I know that much.

Vinnie: Haha, same card as me.
Michael: So, you will enjoy Crysis :-)

Vinnie: You really think so?
Michael: Well it runs here, and there is no amazing secret hardware or software I have :-)

Vinnie: So you think my pc will run Crysis fine. Maxed out at 1024x768?
Michael: I think so

Vinnie: So Crysis runs fine for you? At the highest details?
Michael: Sure, but it’s not even optimized yet :-)

Vinnie: Do you know the specs of the rigs at E3?
Michael: No, I’m not sure.

Vinnie: So Crysis is in the last stage of development right now?
Michael: Yep

Vinnie: How is the optimizing and bug fixing done etc. Or is that to much coding related?
Michael: Phone… Hangon…

( Michael returns… )

Vinnie: So, where were we? About the optimizing, how is this done? Do you know?
Michael: From the coding side no idea, from our side its LODs, textures stuff like that.

Vinnie: What texture sizes are used for models? What’s the maximum texture size?
Michael: Depends. Some are 4096 pixels, while others are only 32 x 32 pixels.

Vinnie: So the max is 4096?
Michael: I guess so, I haven’t seen anything bigger so far.

Vinnie: What about the maximum map size? In square kilometers for example?
Michael: I got no idea how big they are in KM’s, but they are fucking big :-)

Vinnie: Is there a tool like CryEd included with the game? ( When it’s shipped )
Michael: I’m not sure, I don’t make such decisions. Don’t forget, my job is to make Crysis look good :-)

Vinnie: Have you ever heard of SpeedTree?
Michael: Yes, I considered it in the beginning.

Vinnie: Are the trees in Crysis rendered with this program?
Michael: No, SpeedTree is based on sprites. It’s a different approach. It’s not suitable for us.

Vinnie: Do you know how the “Fully Destructible Environments” are done in Crysis? Like cutting down trees.
Michael: Yes, it’s very simple. All the trees are REALLY breaking :-). You shoot it, it breaks. However, keep these questions for the Art Team Q&A so I don’t get the whole spotlight here :-)

Vinnie: What features will be added with DX10?
Michael: Too technical for me :-)

Vinnie: I really didn’t know Crytek was so big :-)
Michael: Yeah, same here. It gets bigger everyday.

Vinnie: It’s really a big dream for me, to work at Crytek :-)
Michael: It depends on you :-). If you’re good, you will :-)

Michael: Anyway Vinnie, I got to run soon.

Vinnie: Thanks, I’ll leave it here then. Thanks for everything :-)

Michael: No problem.

Vinnie: You’re a really nice guy. Thanks for taking the time to talk to me. It’s been an honor.

Michael: I hope we release Crysis soon so all you guys can enjoy it. After all, we are making this game for you.

Vinnie: That’s awesome. Hopefully there will be a beta :-)

Michael: Hopefully :-)

Tom: Thank you also Michael for participating in this chat and giving Vinnie a possible life changing opportunity.

Michael: No problem. I’ll catch you guys later :-)

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A big thankyou too Michael Khaimzon and Crytek for making this all possible. It's great to see this kind of information being shared between a developer and a fan. Great stuff.

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