The space RPG Starfield from Bethesda is undoubtedly one of the most anticipated games of the year. However, a few days ago we learned the unpleasant news for many that on consoles it will only run at 30 frames per second. John Linneman and Alex Bataglia of Digital Foundry have now filmed a special video where they talk about Starfield and, among other things, answer the question of why the frame rate is so limited.
Starfield is a very ambitious game that is exclusive to the current generation Xbox. It offers a very wide open world, or rather an open universe. In addition, one of the features of this game is, for example, that it saves the position of all items on all planets, which in itself is a big load on the CPU, not to mention the AI of the NPCs.
Although Todd Howard claims that the game can run at over 30 frames per second, and in some cases even 60, the frame rate is very inconsistent. And as noted by Digital Foundry, in the case of an unstable frame rate limited by the processor, unpleasant stuttering can occur.
It is the CPU limitation that is a very likely explanation for the frequent question of why developers simply don’t lower the resolution. It simply would not help practically, would not help the processor in any way. While the resolution isn’t that simple either, Howard was talking about “4K”, but according to Digital Foundry’s calculations, this seems to be an increased resolution, the game renders around 1296p internally.
On the other technical side, Starfield uses its own real-time Global Illumination but not Ray Tracing, real-time Cubemaps are used for reflections, shadows are created using the Screen-space technique and, for example, volumetric lighting is quite detailed even at a distance. So while the game doesn’t seem to use ray tracing at all, the developers have implemented some effective techniques that have resulted in a very high quality visual.
Let’s get back to frame rate. John Linneman argues that 30 FPS will again become the standard and after all, there is nothing to be surprised about, only now we will properly enter the period of a completely current generation of games that aim at an ambition much higher than previous cross-gen titles. We wrote an article on this topic last October when Richard Leadbetter of Digital Foundry expressed the same opinion. How do you perceive the problem?
The DF Direct Special Offer you’ve been waiting for! @dark1x And @Dachsjaeger analyze the excellent Starfield Direct, discussing rendering, visuals, gameplay – and, of course, the decision to cap 30 fps. https://t.co/E9Ch5HhptH pic.twitter.com/gSTInGTt3g
— Digital Foundry (@digitalfoundry) June 15, 2023
Source :Indian TV
