Fidelity against fluidity: how will the next torrent of titles weather burgeoning technical limitations?

Please, extend your sympathies to the Series S - or the developers contending with them.

Per the recommended requirements for Capcom’s upcoming Monster Hunter Wilds, one’s graphics card must include digits assembled of 4060 or 6700 to perform to a 1080p, 60fps standard - to the tune of ‘medium’ presets with frame generation enabled. Should you still bear a noble GTX 1660 Super, expect to upscale to 1080p from a 720p native resolution, shaded by ‘low’ settings limited to 30fps. If you are similar to myself, accustomed to a 144hz refresh rate upon parsing Word documents, beast brawling five times less smoothly would be more uncomfortable than an decaffeinated morning seminar. Nevertheless, either model presages a coming crisis for home consoles: if personal computers of a potent persuasion cannot produce a greater resolution, nor frame rate than the aforementioned, how will the title appear on a 65” television? Unfortunately, closer to your grandparent’s VHS tapings of Twin Peaks than Horizon Forbidden West.

Granted, the cold embrace of A.I. has empowered consumers to indulge in a decadent dalliance with demanding titles through various manners of witchcraft; DLSS can approximate 4K using a significantly lower resolution as a point of reference. The latest iteration of this function, DLSS 3, introduced a feature known as frame generation. Aside from incubating Skynet, A.I. can smoothen gameplay through producing additional, sequential frames of action, predicated upon the expected ensuing animation. Thus, means of raw rendering can take a play off, as though they were waiting for Giannis Antetokoumpo to attempt a free throw. As we etch closer to Minority Report, it is nice to know this form of predictive technology is simply being used to both render the Monkey King’s hair to the limits of the engine and provide a high rate of motion. However, when a developer explicitly recommends this function to sanction stability in their game, their optimisation team have made a grave error. In a physical regard, it is similar to buying a phone that functions sluggishly until the battery saver feature is toggled; if it does not perform satisfactorily without it, why is it optional?

Perhaps this is merely a quirk of Capcom’s proprietary RE Engine. Though Resident Evil 2 produced a crisp 1080p image, complimented by a mid-fifties frame rate on the base PS4, Dragon’s Dogma 2’s contentious launch made the engine appear as though it were running on fumes: RE’s CPU dependency made rendering the title at a stable 60fps a flight of fancy. With respect to home consoles, the dogmatic philosophy of resolution over frames eventuated in a wildly uncapped rate of motion - particularly in cities. Whenever one is dissuaded from entering a particular area due to a fear of poor performance, I receive a flurry of flashbacks to the state of Cyberpunk on launch for my valliant PS4; I would deliberately roam the vast expanses of the desert to avoid the stuttery madness of urban hubs. Indeed, the industry has come upon a decisive moment: developers must serve casual and hardcore disciplines to tantamount respect, finding a happy medium to maximise accessibility. The temptation to redefine technological boundaries is intoxicating; the allure of a expansive PS5 playerbase promises riches far beyond a luxury niche - Pro notwithstanding.

Mark Cerny, PlayStation’s lead system architect, reported 3/4s of their players prefer to enable a performance mode - should the toggle be available. Thus, Cerny claimed the PS5 Pro would reconcile the disparate concerns of fidelity and performance - in keeping the exact same CPU. Hey, why don’t you try mass producing gaming battle stations without a U.S. defense budget to support you! Granted, this system will provide cleaner images - if you slow the gameplay down and look closely. The Pro’s standing as a luxury alternative will lead Sony to spin the base model as perfectly fine, in spite of nascent discrepancies in quality between the two. However, player preference is irrelevant for major publishers. Rockstar have no incentive to raise Grand Theft Auto VI’s frame rate - audiences en masse will still indulge in their vices. They will be praised for the attention to animation, physics, and story; Grand Theft Auto V was a seventh-generation title.

A note on the Xbox Series S: I am certain is a difficult to program. As a measure of democratising advanced titles to a wider audience, I believe it to have been a worthwhile endeavour - perhaps the only canny decision Xbox have made this decade. However, compromises made to appease this little magic rectangular prism have become virtually untenable: the limited processing power delayed the Xbox debut of Baldur’s Gate 3 four months from its PlayStation bow. Concessions were made to invite the Series S into their party: most notably, split-screen was excised. Granted, if you own a Series S, you may be content with your library of casual titles - i.e. Fortnite, Warzone, Stumble Guys. You may not concern yourself with the pained consternations of connoisseurs - however, premium owners may curse your console’s rubber-banding, believing you would be happy to play Rainbow Road in black-and-white. Would a handheld alternative from Microsoft directly delineate power? Phil Spencer may be focused on turning any device into a surrogate for Xbox; streaming seems to be a desired avenue. Then, conversations on processing power shift to matters of internet capability - as an Australian, oh dear.

This debate will settle upon predications of a commercial persuasion - if sales of titles limited to 30fps regularly perform below those bearing a performance mode, perhaps scope may give way to stability. This, however, is rather unlikely. Whether the frame rate begins with a three or six matters little; so long as I can control my avatar with precision, I will march on through my haunted village, or stumble ahead with my guys.