Last week, Remedy head of communications Thomas Puha announced that Alan Wake 2 would still feature a performance mode on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X consoles, despite the team focusing on visuals from the start, aiming for a consistent 30 frames per second. Now he’s talked about the whole issue in more detail on IGN’s Next-Gen Console Watch.
In it, he reiterated that the developers are very ambitious and want to create high-quality graphics in upscaled 4K at a cost of only 30 FPS. However, according to Pooh, the frame rate is absolutely stable, as the studio already learned from the development of Control, where optimization for consoles was left to the last minute. In AW2, with every advancement they made, they made sure the game worked well on consoles as well.
The creators have been thinking about the idea of a performance mode for some time, but, paradoxically, the key for it was the console that will not receive this mode at all – the Xbox Series S. According to Pooh, development for it was very difficult. While the processor is virtually identical to the Series X, the GPU is much less powerful and the biggest problem is the reduced memory. Therefore, the developers had to adjust the detail and resolution in order for the game to run at 30 FPS on a weaker console.
As for more powerful consoles, Pooh confirmed that the performance mode is indeed aimed at 60 frames per second, rather than 40, which is also quite possible. We can probably expect the same level of detail and resolution from it as the Series S, although Pooh was reluctant to reveal exact numbers just yet. The frame rate in Dark Place is expected to be a stable 60 frames per second. In and around Bright Falls, which is very challenging due to the amount of vegetation and abundant light, the situation can vary.
Pooh adds that you’ll get the full experience on PS5 and XSX in quality mode, while he once again commented on how players are approaching games that only have a 30 FPS mode:
“A lot of people say things like: “Developers are lazy,” no. It’s a choice, we can’t do everything. You just can’t. We don’t have endless resources, especially at Remedy, we don’t have endless money to do everything. And you have to choose what you want to do. Do you want us to make a game on the weakest platform, or do you want us to make a game that takes full advantage of the strongest platforms? Imagine having a studio where everyone wants to do their best. It’s obvious what we’ll choose,” says Puha.
Alan Wake 2 will be released on October 27 on PC, PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X|S.
Source : Zing
