Are you happy with the PS4’s initial first party racing game running at thirty frames per second, half that of the competition’s Forza 5? It seems Evolution are battling internally over the best solution, but hearing that they’re having to have this debate is disheartening, even disregarding the Xbox One’s launch title.
Sony’s free-to-play community-based racer might look pretty on launch, but the E3 demo didn’t do the game a huge amount of favours, and hopes are high that the demo to be shown next month is of a different course with better visual fidelity.
“I’d rather have more stuff going on at a prettier level and a lower frame rate,” says Driveclub‘s art director Alex Perkins [via], “but that’s where the arguments start.”
“The coders would rather have a higher frame rate, and put less stuff in. So it comes down to Col Rodger‘s decision in the long run. Personally I’m quite happy with a 30 frames a second game, as long as it’s rock solid at thirty, and being an art director I want it to look beautiful.”
“There is a hell of a lot going on,” Perkins adds. “Increased visual fidelity does cost, there’s no argument about it. The PlayStation 4 is very capable of doing both but we’ve gone for a fully dynamic environment, so you can go any time of day, anywhere on the planet, and it’ll calculate the atmospheric density, whether you’re up the top of a mountain or at sea level.”
Cute. But we were told the developers are aiming at 60 frames a second, and – to be honest – it really needs to achieve that level. If that means sacrificing atmospheric density, let’s do that.
Bilbo_bobbins
They are on the edge, if they don’t go 60 FPS there will be a lot of questions asked for the PS4 too.
Dar-Kaus
Someone give Mark Cerney a call, he’s got to be the go to guy for problems like this.
Adam Garrett
Hopefully they realise that this is a mistake for a top rate racing game and they change it up to 60, even if it means the game wont calculate the atmospheric density.
bunimomike
Didn’t seem to bother Forza Horizon much and that was lovely looking as well as highly reviewed. A consistent FPS is far more important. Add to this that most people will be won over by graphical fidelity and a lack of screen tearing.
Adam Garrett
Forza Horizon is an Xbox 360 game, we’re talking about a PS4 with around 8 times more power. Forza 5, the Xbox One launch game, has been confirmed to be 60 fps.
Alex C
Exactly. I want graphical fidelity, no screen tearing AND 60FPS on PS4. Anything less is a poor show, especially as DriveClub isn’t (as far as I can tell) pushing the boat out visually. Not yet, anyway.
bunimomike
No denying that but 30 FPS can free up resources for developers to do things that are far more visually arresting without sales being penalised for being a lower frame-rate. God knows, from the evidence I’m finding online, that a locked 60 or 30 FPS impacts actual sales much at all. However, we love our eye-candy and, as a visual species, it can really sell us a title when looking at trailers, etc..
Don’t get me wrong – if a dev said “but with 30 FPS we can have an extra tree on the hilltop per level” I’d take him out the back and shoot him! The sacrifice has to be justified. If not, then they’ve got something seriously screwed up.
blarty
Is Forza 5 1080p and 60fps? Because as I recall Titanfall, the other big 60fps XB1 poster boy looks like some of it’s graphical assets are distinctly below par to ensure that 60fps moniker.
Alex C
Yep. 1080p/60, and it’s gorgeous.
gazzagb
60fps is a must, especially for a racing game. I’m not going to notice the atmospheric density while I’m racing, but I definitely will notice a slower, 30 fps game.
indigo19
Not just a racing game, but from what the devs have been saying a constantly evolving game that they expect to have us playing long in to the future.
60 fps or go home, simple.
KeRaSh
I honestly don’t care. Best case scenario would be that they had an option in the game that either enabled 60 fps or some additional graphical details.
I’m not a racing fan so I’ll get it because it looks pretty. If they manage to make it as pretty as in the target renders, I’ll be more than happy with a locked in 30 fps.
Kevatron400
Yeah I’m firmly in this camp too. As long as the frame rate doesn’t peak and trough all over the place, I really don’t think I’d even notice the difference.
Kennykazey
This is an important showoff piece for Sony, it has to be 60 to fulfill its purpose. If that means dropping some calculations and reducing the fidelity in some aspects then so be it.
Cadabena
MotorStorm in 2006, said to be 1080p 60fps; déjà vu?
Michael
Kidnap Perkins until Driveclub is released.
blarty
He’s not really a dev though is he…. he’s the art director, it’s his job to ensure it looks the best it can from an aesthetic point of view, it’s the devs who have to make sure it looks that good with the least amount of compromise, and of course the art director is going to put his stick in the ground and say ‘Looks over frames’, it’s akin to ‘Man who dislikes dogs passes by Great Dane without patting him on the head’
xdarkmagician
whether or its not 30fps or 60fps, it’s not going to affect sales since most are going to get the game withPS+, but if Sony wants Drive Club to still be relevant in 2 years they need 60fps, period, because every other racer game in that time will run at 60fps.
1080p/60 needs to be next gens standard.
freezebug2
Maybe I’m being a bit naive possibly greedy but I thought that all releases for next gen @ 1080p/60 as a basic standard was a given.
CarBoyCam
I thought that was going to be the norm too, Freeze. If my 1.5 year old PC (which is marginally less powerful) than a PS4 can managed 1080p at 60fps on games, then surely a PS4 can? :/