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[DF] Starfield Reveal Analysis: Next-Gen Scale, But What About Performance?

Bullet Club

Member



Starfield's recent trailer has revealed the true next-gen scale of the game, so it seemed the right moment for John Linneman to jump in with an analysis of what we've seen so far - from early resolution and performance metrics to what we can glean about the game's graphical tech and design. There's plenty to get excited at this early stage, but also a few areas of concern...
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Thank god it's John. But that title looks to have been picked by Alex. Whats last gen performance supposed to mean? We will always get 30 fps games until the end of time. Most devs will always target visual fidelity.

Anyway, time to give it a watch.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Good thing they have a full year left to polish out the performance, other aspects like rendering resolution are already great but could use a pass of AA.
 
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Swift_Star

Banned
It's too early to analyze Starfield's scale and performance. All we've seen are snippets of a game still in development. They should at least wait until there's a 30-minute hands-on before doing a deep dive.
But it’s quite weird to have such a snippet of the game performing badly… these are usually controlled, they chose what to show, there’s literally no reason as to why they couldn’t iron out those sections to run smoothly for a showing.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
We're looking at a build a year away from release and footage from a build likely even older, I've got confidence they'll iron it out before release.
I am not commenting on the build, and if you check my post history... I stated it will be cleared up by then... I am commenting on their commentary which does not line up with history.
 
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There was a deleted comment that said the game looked like PS3 graphics. I think that what he was referring to.
Yup my post calling that out was deleted some weird shit is going on i better leave this thread before i get perma ban lol
 
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ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Excellent video that makes the "this doesn't look good. . ." comments kind of wild. It isn't DOOM or RE2R, nor is it trying to be. For a game of this size and density, from a studios whose engines burst into flames if you eat a box of CRAM, the game looks quite good.

. . .honestly, in terms of graphics, at the end of the day the question should be: are the graphics and art direction taking you out of the experience, and I don't think you can say "Yes. . ." here with a straight face.

Thank god it's John. But that title looks to have been picked by Alex. Whats last gen performance supposed to mean? We will always get 30 fps games until the end of time. Most devs will always target visual fidelity.

Anyway, time to give it a watch.

It means exactly what it says: that the game looks like it runs with the exact same technical performance as BETHESDA games on last-generation hardware.
 

Mr Moose

Member
I don't understand why this game is current gen only. Looks like last gen.
Probably started out as one.
As for Starfield, Bethesda’s new sci-fi role-playing game, Howard says we shouldn’t expect to play it soon: “We’ve been talking about it for a decade, we started putting things on paper five, six years ago, and active development was from when we finished Fallout 4, so two and a half, three years.” When it comes to both The Elder Scrolls VI and Starfield, he says, “everyone should be very patient. It’s gonna take a while for what we have in mind to come out.”
This was from 2018.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
It's too early to analyze Starfield's scale and performance. All we've seen are snippets of a game still in development. They should at least wait until there's a 30-minute hands-on before doing a deep dive.
Yep. The whole demo was clearly duct taped together and performance issues, especially in a Bethesda game, likely won't be ironed out until much closer to launch.

If anything this video serves as a good snapshot on the current state of the game so we can compare it to the final product when it drops.
 

Markio128

Member
If that trailer was putting the best foot forward, then there is clearly a lot of polishing still required.

The scope may be next gen, but each individual part certainly isn’t. The shooting bits don’t look anything special, the characters look better than Skyrim’s, but miles behind Cyberpunk’s, the landscapes look decent, but no better than Death Strandings, the space combat looked okay? The ship creation is a cool idea, but looked a bit drab in the trailer. And that’s without mentioning performance.

Even when those 3 or 4 early creatures walked past, they just seemed to be cut and paste copies of each other.

On a positive note, the cities look pretty cool and there seem to be plenty of people milling around, the differing biomes look interesting and the music sounds great.

I dunno, I’m still looking forward to it, but it hasn’t (yet) met my expectations.
 

MastaKiiLA

Member
No man's Sky ≠ Starfield.

don't be dumb.
Reading comprehension failing you? It's specifically about the scale. In that regard, there is a very fair comparison to be made. If you don't think so, then we can agree to disagree. I don't need to use insults. I'm not emotionally attached to any games, and I think most people are capable of understanding my post.
 

Kacho

Gold Member
what are the chances of this hapening? .... knowing Bethesda's track record.
Very high. A lot of games are in a rough state during development and things improve dramatically by launch.

I think it's safe to assume that performance in the final product won't be anywhere near as bad as it was in the demo. There will be lingering performance issues post launch and that will mostly affect the consoles versions. Bethesda always patches up their games to fix performance issues and bugs, so like we see with a lot of modern games it will be **fine** at launch, but will be much better after 6 months of patches.
 

ANDS

King of Gaslighting
Reading comprehension failing you? It's specifically about the scale. In that regard, there is a very fair comparison to be made. If you don't think so, then we can agree to disagree. I don't need to use insults. I'm not emotionally attached to any games, and I think most people are capable of understanding my post.

Maybe don't knock another poster when you're not able to distinguish between procedurally developed content and procedurally generated gameplay.
 

ChorizoPicozo

Gold Member
Reading comprehension failing you?
no.
it's specifically about the scale.
you are falling to undestand the 'scale' in a videogame context.
In that regard, there is a very fair comparison to be made.
only superficiallly at best.
If you don't think so, then we can agree to disagree.
There is nothing to disagree when you are using a dumb comparison.
I don't need to use insults.
Dumb is not and insult. Is like saying bro.
I'm not emotionally attached to any games, and I think most people are capable of understanding my post
Only people with a very specific agenda will "understand" your post.
 

Jigsaah

Gold Member
Playing it on PC so the framerate is not an issue. I've played Fallout 76 on PC, a horridly unoptimized game at 120 fps. If I can run this at a solid 60 I'm okay until they inevitably patch it. That being said. I really hope they get some of the lighting and AA cleaned up. I want the game to look close to last year's trailer. I'd be satisfied with that.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
Obviously its not a visual powerhouse, but the subtle improvements are appreciated. I love better visuals, however Visuals have stopped being an hindrance for me since the PS4 PRO + X1X.

Reguarding the performance anything more then the rare 1-2fps dips during combat will be disappointing, considering these console are still quite new the CPU is 4-5x the power of last gen consoles. I would of thought frequent and severe dips below 30fps would of been a problem resolved.
 

Ev1L AuRoN

Member
So far, I'm underwhelmed. It's hard to put my finger on it, but there is definitely something about this game presentation that didn't sit well with me. I played a lot of Bethesda's RPG's and I never once find them technically impressive, maybe The Elder Scrolls: Oblivion on the PC back in the day. This one is clearly more striking, but seeing a 30fps game with poor frame pacing and so many things that we pretty much expect from a modern game like SSR absent made a bad first impression on me.
 
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