After taking part in Battlefield 6′s open beta final month, I used to be impressed by how nicely it carried out on console. And photographs of the beta operating on an Nvidia 1060 GPU, an almost decade-old card at this level, additional impressed me. So once I just lately talked to a number of the devs about BF6, I used to be curious how the staff made it run so nicely, and so they defined it was about not pushing consoles too exhausting and at all times optimizing throughout growth.
Throughout my video name with Battlefield 6 technical director Christian Buhl, I requested if he felt like the present era of consoles was tapped out and wanted to get replaced or in the event that they nonetheless had some efficiency to squeeze out of them. He advised Kotaku that whereas he at all times seems like “there’s extra room to enhance efficiency,” he doesn’t anticipate devs to “double body charges” in future PS5 and Xbox Sequence X/S video games at this level. And with Battlefield 6, the studios engaged on it weren’t even attempting to push these consoles to some theoretical breaking level. As a substitute, the objective was at all times to make an internet FPS that ran very nicely.
“We additionally have been deliberately not attempting to push tremendous exhausting on [PS5/Xbox Series X/S,]” mentioned Buhl. “We didn’t need to push to the sting and fail. We wished to be sure that we had an expertise that we might optimize, that we might get to the purpose the place it was going to run reliably at 60 frames per second, or, you already know, over 80, no matter settings you most popular. And that was our focus, proper? Like, get stuff in there, get it performant, after which add [more].”
Buhl admitted that previously, builders engaged on Battlefield video games had a unique method. Typically groups would “construct a bunch of cool shit after which attempt to make it work.” This time round, that wasn’t the case, and Buhl advised me that in growth, Battlefield 6 needed to “continually be working; it needed to continually be performant.”
“Clearly, it’s not like we’re 100% hitting our targets all through growth. However each time we [dropped] too low, we put efficiency optimization efforts in place, paused work, [and said], ‘You possibly can’t add stuff till we get this optimized,’” defined Buhl. “In order that we might sort of be sure that on the finish, we weren’t attempting to do that big carry of taking it from 30 frames to 60 frames, or one thing like that. We have been taking it from, like, 55 to 60, proper? And that’s a way more possible effort.”
The continued debate round online game efficiency
Battlefield 6 on consoles does nonetheless use upscaling tech. Buhl confirmed to Kotaku that on PS5 and PS5 Professional the sport makes use of PSSR. And on all consoles, FSR is accessible too. Nevertheless it’s clear the devs have been targeted intently throughout growth on delivery a recreation that ran nicely regardless of the place you performed it, even when that meant chopping again visuals or results.
The subject of online game optimization has grow to be a sizzling one following the discharge of Borderlands 4 final week. Many declare the extremely anticipated looter shooter is poorly optimized on PC and console, with gamers complaining about having to make use of low settings and DLSS to run the sport on beefy rigs. For a degree of comparability, BF6 is fairly playable on a 1060. Borderlands 4 is very much not. That card is beneath the minimal PC specs for each video games.
In my expertise on each PS5 and PC, Borderlands 4′s efficiency has undoubtedly upset me. Particularly on PS5, the place some others and I’ve run into a difficulty the place the sport’s framerate drops decrease and decrease as you play longer and longer. Gearbox CEO Randy Pitchford has pushed again on these criticisms, claiming the sport could be very nicely optimized for what it’s and has prompt some gamers have to decrease settings. And when you aren’t completely satisfied, you may simply return the game and get your money back.
Battlefield 6 is out on October 10 on PS5, Xbox Sequence X/S, and PC. EA advised me the sport will help 60FPS on all platforms, even Xbox Sequence S, and on some machines, just like the PS5 Professional, the sport can exceed that framerate.
