A while back you released your PC spec requirements. Some of them seem pretty hefty, which leads me to believe that PC was the lead platform. Is this the case?
KH: We didn’t have a lead platform; we opted instead to develop each platform in parallel, with each team focusing on the specific requirements of the hardware as we went along. That way, we could bring out all three versions as close to each other as possible, while still getting the most out of each specific platform. We’re really happy with how that turned out for the consoles, but we’re even happier with what it’s meant for the PC. We’ve closed the gap between console and PC release dates, which is something the community had been wanting us to do for a long time, and the PC version has been tested on a huge range of hardware.
In terms of the original list of specs we distributed, they were the extremes of the entire range that we had tested, from the lowest players could reasonably run, through to the most powerful rigs we could put together. We know that variety and customization is one of the strengths of the PC platform, so if you’re a hardcore PC player with an incredibly customized rig, our game is going to shine on your system. If you’re coming in at the bottom end, you’re still going to be able to have a great time playing Max Payne 3.
To give you another example, here is a more comprehensive breakdown of our recommendation on PC specs:
LOWEST TESTED SPECS
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Intel Dual Core 2.4 GHZ or AMD Dual Core 2.6 GHZ, or better
2GB System RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce 8600 GT 512MB RAM
or AMD Radeon™ HD 3400 512MB RAM
Low Recommended Specs
Windows 7/Vista/XP PC (32 or 64 bit)
Intel Dual Core 3GHz or AMD equivalent
3GB System RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce 450 512MB RAM
or AMD Radeon™ HD 4870 512MB RAM
At this level, you will be able to comfortably run the game at 30 frames per second with a 1920 by 1080 screen resolution.
High Recommended Specs
Windows 7/Vista (32 or 64 bit)
Intel i7 Quad Core 2.8Ghz or AMD equivalent
3GB System RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce 480 1GB RAM
or AMD Radeon™ HD 5870 1GB RAM
At this level, you will be able to comfortably run the game at 60 fps at 1920 by 1080.
Highest Tested Specs
Windows 7/Vista (64 bit)
Intel i7 3930K 6 Core x 3.06 GHZ
or AMD FX8150 8 Core x 3.6 GHZ
16GB System RAM
NVIDIA® GeForce® GTX 680 2GB RAM
or AMD Radeon™ HD 7970 3GB RAM
Of course, higher-spec rigs than those that we tested should also have no problem with the game – these tested specs are our way of letting everyone know that a massive amount of work has gone into ensuring that nearly any PC in this range will be able to run the game comfortably.
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What are you doing to take advantage of the powerful hardware available in a PC?
As you can see from the specs list above, we’ve worked hard to make sure the game will run smoothly on a wide range of PC builds. But it’s when you get towards the top end of that range that you can really push a game to its limits, and the game will look and run incredibly on the most advanced current machines around at the moment and well into the near future.
You’ll find that screen resolution is scalable, there’s triple and even sextuple monitor support which helps to run higher screen resolutions, there’s various anti-aliasing options, scalable water quality, scalable shadow quality, increased detail for characters and vehicles and a scalable texture filter that further increases visual quality. We’re also supporting DX11 with Max Payne 3, with features including Hull/Tessellation/Domain Shaders (which adds curvature to the character/vehicle models), Gather4 (for optimized shadow sampling / FXAA), Geometry shader / Stream Output and DX11 texture samplers to name a few.
As you can tell, there’s a lot for PC fans with higher-spec hardware to sink their teeth in to.
35GB is a pretty hefty install size, even for a PC title. Why the large size? Are we seeing HD textures or better rendered cutscenes?
Both, and more. As we said earlier, one of the goals with Max Payne 3 on PC was to have a game that runs beautifully out of the box on day one across a wide range of machines. The PC is the only platform where you can really max out the high end if you want to, and we wanted Max Payne 3 on PC to have the potential to look beautiful on the highest possible resolutions on the biggest monitors available - so while we can still scale performance down to suit even reasonably low-end rigs, every asset is available at the highest resolution possible, from audio to video to textures.
The installed size of Max Payne 3 is due to the no-compromise quality of its assets, which already push console disc space to the limits. A good portion of the extra space requirements on PC can be attributed to the increased size of the textures, which are four times the size of those on consoles. In addition, the audio quality is significantly higher than the consoles due to lower compression rates, which improves audio fidelity. Again, this comes back to the range of possibilities that the PC platform opens up for us. That, combined with higher video settings when running the game, results in substantially better visual quality.
Assuming that there's full gamepad support, do you find that the gamepad works as well as the mouse and keyboard in Max Payne 3?
Correct, there is full gamepad support with Max Payne 3. We also wanted the kind of customizable options you get within a PC game to transfer over to the gamepad so players will be able to completely fine-tune the aiming mechanics to tailor them to their playing style and preference, something that PC gamers have come to expect with mouse and keyboard controls. You can change the reticule, alter the horizontal and vertical reticule speeds, remove or amend kill indicators, not to mention selecting your preferred aiming mechanic. It’s also worth mentioning that console players will also have these options; everything within this game across all platforms is about customization and player preference.
