Starfield will be locked to 30FPS on consoles, but that shouldn’t take too much away from the experience. The news comes directly from Starfield director and longtime Bethesda spokesperson Todd Howard, who described the game’s performance across platforms ahead of an extended gameplay overview at Xbox’s Starfield Direct. Howard explained that Starfield will run in 4K on the Xbox Series X, and in 2K on the S, but is locked to 30FPS either way. PC players, however, may be able to run the game at a higher frame rate – provided their specs are up to snuff.
30FPS was once a more common frame rate; it’s close enough to the standard cinematic rate of 24FPS that it doesn’t feel jarring. But as hardware has gotten stronger over the past few console generations, much has improved. Many games are now able to offer a higher rate of 60, sometimes even 120FPS, for a less choppy gameplay experience. A higher frame rate can provide smoother portrayals of rapid, detailed motion. It’s become almost a fundamental demand for modern console games to provide a 60FPS performance mode, regardless of whether that’s a reasonable expectation. Higher frame rates can be advantageous for many games, but aren’t always necessary, particularly not for Starfield.
Howard went on to clarify that, while Starfield was capable of running at 60FPS during development, Bethesda chose the lower frame rate for the sake of consistency. Starfield already looks like a very graphically demanding game – it’s no surprise that it’s pushing even modern consoles to their limits. Even if it could hit 60FPS at times, it probably wouldn’t be able to stay there throughout its entire runtime. A game that occasionally runs at 60FPS with frequent dips below it can be extremely disruptive to gameplay – consistency is key. If Starfield can remain at a steady 30FPS, that’s preferable over it shooting for the 60FPS moon but missing the mark.
While players are concerned about what Starfield’s 30FPS lock could mean for its performance, it might be for the best. Bethesda’s games are notorious for being buggy at launch; it often promises the world ahead of a game’s release, and winds up exceeding console limitations as a result. Its developers being honest about a game’s limitations isn’t the worst thing, even if it provokes some negative responses at first. Players know what to expect from Starfield‘s performance ahead of its September 6, 2023, release date – hopefully, it lives up to the hype.
Source: Bethesda Softworks/YouTube
2023-06-13 19:00:05
Original from screenrant.com