Players expect to be able to play new titles on various platforms. A developer explains that it takes a lot of work behind the scenes. With a post, he provides insight and reveals how complex the work involved is.
When you buy a game and start it on your favorite platform, you can generally either assume that the game runs somewhat smoothly or offers dozens of options for settings.
Martin Griffiths, programmer of the No Man’s Sky engine at Hello Games, has demonstrated with an example how difficult it is to develop a game and why this freedom of options actually means a lot of work. He reports this to Gamesradar.com.
Because the problem in game development is not the game itself, but the variety of dozens of combinations of hardware that can now be found on the market. And if you want to cater to each platform, a lot of work goes into it. He himself writes about this:
It is a long list that hopefully reflects the complexity associated with the release of a major cross-platform game like ours
On the X platform, he mentions the following platforms and combinations that they wanted to accommodate in No Man’s Sky:
- PS5 (Base)
- PS5 (Base, PSVR2)
- PS5 Pro
- PS5 Pro (8K)
- PS5 Pro (PSVR2)
- PS4 (Base)
- PS4 (two versions: 1080p and 4K mode)
- PS4 (PSVR)
- PS4 Pro (PSVR)
- PS4 (PSVR, Enhanced Version when installed on PS5)
- Xbox One, Xbox One S
- Xbox One X (4 versions: Quality/Performance, 1080p/4K)
- Xbox Series S (4 versions: Quality/Performance, 1080p/4K)
- Xbox Series X
- Switch (Handheld)
- Switch (TV Mode)
- PC (about 140 different combinations of graphics options, including AA, Super Resolution, quality modes, and more)
- Mac (a similar number of options, with development support from The-Forge)
- PC (Steam Deck, Rog Ally, Intel, Laptop/)
- PCVR (about a dozen supported headsets and most of the same options as in normal PC mode)
It is quickly evident that even individual platforms, such as the PS5 or Xbox, require many different versions and options. This makes development even more extensive.
The magic word for many players today is “optimization”
A topic that currently excites PC and console players is the optimization of games. In many cases, games are released either bug-ridden or in a technically problematic state. Even with fast hardware, you can’t get stable frame rates if the game is poorly optimized.
For this reason, the community frequently calls for better optimization: If developers invest more time and love into development and optimization, it would run much better right away, and there would be less criticism. After all, they want to buy and play the game, not despair over annoying technical problems.
Players have long criticized something that has been referred to as “miracle technology” for a long time, as many now believe: Features like DLSS lead to developers spending less time optimizing their games. In the end, the games won’t run without the miracle technology
: All major games are currently failing catastrophically on Steam – Players believe: A great feature of graphics cards is to blame for it
