Ragnarok defends Starfield running at 30 fps

Dannie Carlone, a senior artist at Sony Santa Monica who worked on God of War: Ragnarok, has come out publicly defending Bethesda’s decision to leave Starfield running at 30fps, following a claim made by YouTuber DreamcastGuy on social media that this would be a indicative that the game will be released without being ready.

“I want to clarify, this is not a sign of an unfinished game,” replied Carlone, “It’s a choice. (Run at) 60 fps at this scale would make a huge impact on visual fidelity. My guess is they want a perfect, less ‘pop-in’ look. And of course, (it is) your right not to like the choice.”

Game dev here, big fan btw. Wanted to clarify It’s not a sign of an unfinished game. It’s a choice. 60fps on this scale would be a big hit to the visual fidelity. My guess is they want to go for a seamless look and less “pop in”. And of course your right to dislike the choice

—Dannie Carlone (@Corgiboltz) June 12, 2023

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Responding to another follower who then asked him if the game needed to be at 4K resolution, Carlone responded by saying that while some games offer a Performance mode that lowers the resolution in favor of a higher frame rate, Bethesda has decided that the visual details are your top priority.

“It doesn’t have to be 4K (which is expensive),” he replied, referring to the processing power needed to render games in native 4K resolution. “It could be 1080p at 60fps or another variable resolution at 60. They want to keep it locked at 4K and 30fps and push the visuals to a high level at that scale.”

It doesn’t need to be 4k ( which is expensive) it could be 1080p at 60 or another variable resolution at 60. They want to keep it locked at 30 4k and push the visuals to a high level on this scale.

—Dannie Carlone (@Corgiboltz) June 12, 2023

After the explanations, DreamcastGuy apologized for the tweet (since deleted) and said: “I still wish the game was 60 fps on consoles, but now I understand why it isn’t, at least not yet.”

Starfield arrives September 6 for Xbox Series and PC.

Via VGC