Bethesda’s 45-minute deep dive into Starfield was one of the most fascinating parts of the summer games conferences, offering a huge amount of insight into the technical underpinnings of one of the most ambitious upcoming games. After taking the time to investigate it more deeply, John Linneman and Alex Battaglia have reunited to discuss the Starfield Direct in detail – covering everything from the reasons behind the game’s 30fps console target, what 4K on Series X actually means, the implications for Series S and the rendering tech on display.
First up: the frame-rate elephant in the room, which wasn’t actually discussed in the show itself. Todd Howard later stated in an interview with IGN that the game would run at a locked 30fps for consistency, with a 4K output resolution on Series X and 1440p for Series S. It’s not unusual to see Series X releases run at 4K 30fps, but it is slightly rarer to see no option for a lower resolution target and perhaps reduced settings to hit 60fps instead. So why doesn’t Starfield offer this option?
The answer is more nuanced than you might expect. John puts forward the argument that a frame-rate target is a design decision – after all, even consoles in the 80s could hit 60fps, but clearly many developers have opted for a 30fps experience instead in the decades since. The question is what frame-rate allows you to hit your design goals for the game? In the case of Starfield, it’s clear that this is an open-world or even “open universe” game, with item permanence, AI, simulations, and a lot of interlocking systems to create an immersive experience.
00:00 Overview00:53 Why is Starfield 30fps on consoles?12:31 Visual impressions and real-time global illumination17:15 Reflections and motion blur23:31 Screen-space shadows and terrain rendering28:06 Volumetric lighting, fog, and bokeh depth of field32:40 Character rendering36:01 Gameplay impressions
With all of the CPU demands that this sort of a game entails then, dropping the resolution might not have much of an effect on the overall frame-rate. As a developer, you may as well crank up the visuals and embrace that 30fps output for an overall more consistent output, knowing as well that the PC release ought to run at 60fps for those that need a higher frame-rate and have machines capable of delivering it.