Few weeks ago, we have reported a tech analysis that revealed how Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter’s frame rate gets unlocked on Xbox One X, going up from around 25-30 up to 60 frames per second.
Few weeks ago, we have reported a tech analysis that revealed how Ghost Recon Advanced Warfighter’s frame rate gets unlocked on Xbox One X, going up from around 25-30 up to 60 frames per second.
Based on this analysis, Digital Foundry goes even deeper and ponders how a process like that could change the future landscape of gaming, where we could get all (or at least many of) the Xbox One titles running at double the frame rate on the next Xbox.
You can check the full analysis and “what if” scenario in the video below, while we’ll report some of the most interesting considerations that Digital Foundry comes up with in its dedicated written feature.
“The question is whether the 30fps titles of today could also feature options to unlock frame-rate – just like BioShock on Xbox 360. Back in the day, Irrational Games would never have known that the title would eventually run so much better on next-gen hardware, but developers today will know that their current games will have access to more processing power on the Xbox consoles to come – and perhaps there is an opportunity here given that it is possible to make a number of informed guesses about the level of power new Xbox hardware may deliver,” DF’s Richard Leadbetter says.
“But equally, it’s worth remembering that some titles are simply hard-wired for 30fps – they’re just designed that way. For example, Horizon Zero Dawn on PS4 Pro has a performance mode that doesn’t unlock frame-rate, but acts to provide an absolutely rock-solid, zero compromise lock to its target frame-rate.
Guerrilla’s technology uses free CPU time within the 33.3ms per-frame budget to opportunistically stream in open world data ahead of time and unlocking Horizon’s 30fps cap may have unforeseen effects elsewhere within the engine. That isn’t to say that 60 frames per second isn’t possible given a generational leap in CPU power, but it seems likely that it would require significant developer input – a dedicated patch, essentially.”
On top of that, Digital Foundry also remembers that a pre-patch Xbox One X version of The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt runs at double the standard frame rate, so in certain cases it could be possible that the intervention of the developer is not necessary at all. That could definitely be a more viable option for users to see improvements on games even though developers are not actually required to build expensive and time/resources needing updates.
Published: Jul 23, 2018 09:19 am