This current 8th generation of consoles is ultimately CPU bottle-necked due to Jaguar being the only viable choice.
Despite these limitations however there has been, I feel, an uptick in push for 60fps as we can see from Metal Gear Solid 5 to Resident Evil 7 to Halo 5 & many more. There is wider recognition that games simply play better at a smoother framerate (with a likely wake-up call being the massive success of COD last gen leap-frogging its genre competitors). However there are those developers who have stuck with 30fps due to certain ambitions as there's no way you could i.e. drastically raise the level for human visuals as seen in TLoU2 while doing 60. Not with a Jaguar baseline & a mere handful of TFLOPS at least. Having reached that level however I think it's time to put the focus back on performance come next-gen and these are the reasons why:
I'm not saying a strict 60fps mandate, but just a general heavy PR & cultural push.
Surely this is good enough fidelity
Despite these limitations however there has been, I feel, an uptick in push for 60fps as we can see from Metal Gear Solid 5 to Resident Evil 7 to Halo 5 & many more. There is wider recognition that games simply play better at a smoother framerate (with a likely wake-up call being the massive success of COD last gen leap-frogging its genre competitors). However there are those developers who have stuck with 30fps due to certain ambitions as there's no way you could i.e. drastically raise the level for human visuals as seen in TLoU2 while doing 60. Not with a Jaguar baseline & a mere handful of TFLOPS at least. Having reached that level however I think it's time to put the focus back on performance come next-gen and these are the reasons why:
- Silicon-based processor technology has reached a plateau & we've seen this in the PC landscape for a handful of years now. Next-gen consoles will catch up in good fashion in 2019/2020 with a massive CPU jump thanks to Ryzen & likely the Raven Ridge APU being the new baseline that defines the 9th generation. However Moore's law has ended and there's no free-rides on the horizon following this making it crucial to do the transition!
- Since the middle of last-gen there has appeared many battle-tested software approaches in maintaining framerate such as Dynamic Resolution & more advanced LOD techniques. These have now become more common practice & more readily available.
- HDMI 2.1 arriving in 2018 will bring variable-framerate-sync to the mass market. Missing that 60fps target occasionally will no longer be a cause for concern as your display adapts accordingly with no tearing in sight. Developers can now dare to push higher instead of locking it down to 30. Input lag will also be kept to a bare minimum.
- 4K will remain good enough for a long while. At 60fps, checkerboard 4K and its temporal resolution is arguably more than good enough for a long while. Despite intervals shortening between screen-uptake in higher resolutions statistically it is however my impression that there's not much if any developer buy-in for going past 4K render target in the next decade as GPU resources are better spent elsewhere. Hollywood movies for example are still being mastered in 2K-4K.
- With a higher framerate target, having additional VR support will become drastically easier. Double up like Resident Evil 7 did by offering both a great 2D & VR game in the same package.
- Again: VR & AR and all the relevant technology pushes & innovations.
- The TV & Movie industry has been stuck in the 24hz rut for decades despite a few valiant efforts and it's hard to push out of it due to the current ecosystem. Don't let this happen to the interactive medium!
- AAA game asset-creation costs are already outrageous.
- Most importantly: Games just downright play better. If you want players to hang onto your GaaS extravaganza then this is one of your most important tickets. I also think the general uninformed public definitely DO appreciate 60fps through "this game is awesome and I want to play more" without being able to point it out directly while still spreading positive word of mouth.
I'm not saying a strict 60fps mandate, but just a general heavy PR & cultural push.
Surely this is good enough fidelity
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