The Starfield tech breakdown: why it runs at 30 frames per second

John Linneman and Alex Battaglia share their notes on the Starfield Direct, discuss why the game is 30fps on consoles and what 4K on Series X actually means.

[Workshyskiver]

Man these guys always give a great tech breakdown. Will be interesting to see what CPU will be needed to run this at 60fps consistently on PC.

[Sonic1881]

The PC requirements has already been leaked and confirmed on the internet and you will need a regular SSD to play it. A M.2 nvme is not required

https://www.google.com/amp/...

[dumahim]

It's interesting that the recommended specs are pretty close to what DF found to be PS5/Series X equivalents. I haven't been looking deeply into the game, so I wonder if they're skimping on some of the bigger features to make it look even better like ray tracing. If not, I'm guessing the PC master race people will be pissed that the game is being held back on PC by consoles.

[4Sh0w]

"Time will tell how well Bethesda's target frame-rate is maintained, but in general a consistent, properly frame-paced 30fps feels better than a game that runs unlocked in the 30-60fps range (as we saw in Star Wars Jedi: Survivor and the Final Fantasy 16 demo) - so the decision at least makes sense from that perspective. Beyond the frame-rate, John calls out Starfield as being the first truly beautiful game that Bethesda has ever made - and a lot of that comes down to improvements to rendering techniques, particularly the use of real-time global illumination, reflections and motion blur."

-Also if you watch their more in depth youtube video where he talks more about why Todd Howard wasn't only talking about visuals when he said fidelity and consistency -he was literally saying they didn't want to scale back other assets on console so it could run at 60fps. Maybe later down the line with some huge updates, but It's not as simple as just reducing the resolution for a performance mode, no console at the moment could run Starfield at a stable 60fps unless you scale back some game assets. It will be interesting to see if most pc's have stable 60fps. I have a ABS i7, RTX 3080 Ti with a M.2 NVMe SSD gaming pc so I'm anxious to see the difference between how it plays on my Series X vs my PC.

[IMissJimRyan]

I've got 76 down votes because I said it was 30 fps because console cpus are already struggling.

https://n4g.com/news/255495...

Now those people need to threat John, because he must be wrong and fanboys right.

[Babadook7]

If console CPUs are struggling your average PC wouldn't be able to play it at 30 FPS. Check steam stats and you will see they are well behind.

[KingKionic]

"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." -Digital Foundry

Any wise person could understand this. They are doing stuff now that devs aren't even trying to attempt on this scale.

Starfield too still manages all of that and looks very stunning.

Those environment shots man. Just WOW!

[Obscure_Observer]

"Those environment shots man. Just WOW!"

Indeed. It´s spectacular! DF definitely come out impressed by everything Bethesda showed in the Starfield Direct.

The highlight points that I love about their tech breakdown:

It goes deep in detail on why Starfield being 30fps on consoles as a preferred choice over some inconsistent and disappoint 60fps modes like showed in some upcoming games.

The fact that Starfield is much more akin to Star Citizen than No Man´s Sky.

The combat which DF were very critical about last year, is now described as *excellent* and the best combat system that Bethesda ever had for its games.

The most beautiful Bethesda game ever made.

True next gen game.

We´re in for a real treat, boys!

September can´t come soon enough.

[Tacoboto]

I finally watched the Starfield Direct in full last night - the upload from Bethesda themselves in 4K on YouTube, not IGN's 1080p video.

It looks seriously impressive actually seeing and hearing about the game in so much detail, more than just a trailer (the pirate lady and how she plays, the gundam style space ships in particular), and Magog will totally be triggered by this - my friend is a Skyrim gamer, with 400 hours of that game on her Switch Lite alone and hundreds more on her PS4. 30fps and low-res Skyrim is all she really knows, and this video excited her more than anything I've described to her about the PS5 over the years... because she really hasn't played anything except Skyrim for a long while.

[KingKionic]

Magog just triggered because all he can play is 0 FPS.

[Lightning77]

Few other details. They used Star Citizen as example. Alex was on a empty planet with little no real time simulation going (yes he even said the same with NMS) was hitting 60 just fine. The moment he went to a major city the 60 frames was jumping around like crazy it was jarring to look at.

DF confirmed the game is CPU heavy something I mentioned before. In case ppl missed it the game uses Ray Traced Global Illumination across the solar system which is also taxing on the CPU. Btw just because you leave a planet doesn't mean the world doesn't go static, stops or resets, life and simulation is still happening even you're far away from it. Each time you visit there's always something different and going on. DF also said they've never seen fog spread across vast distances like that with detail.

The only knock they has was the people and animations. How they haven't changed too much since Fall Out 4. they would of liked a more detail npc's this time around. It wasn't bad they just wanted more work on that front.

So yes SF is doing lots of different things all at once. 30 frames only makes sense here. DF approved and said this is the most impressive stuff they've seen in awhile.

[dumahim]

Do you have anything that confirms ray tracing is being used? The article says it doesn't look like it is.

"The global illumination doesn't appear to be a per-pixel solution based on ray tracing from the shots in the trailer"

[Lightning77]

@Duma you're correct. It's real time global illumination. It simulated in some ways like RT with out being true RT. If it was true RT the game would be running at 10fps on console if that was the case.

My apologies for the wrong information.

[4Sh0w]

"It's real time global illumination. It simulated in some ways like RT with out being true RT."

-Correct.

[PhillyDonJawn]

Exactly, they aiming to bring us never been done type gameplay and world and ppl raging over 30fps. If 60fps meant sacrificing gameplay elements and the amazing lighting. I'll take the 30fps any day. Then ppl comparing nms running 60fps when NMS is like a empty shell compared to what SF is doing.

[Magog]

Lots of games run AI in an open world with "multiple systems" and look better at 60fps than Starfield does at 30fps. Just another excuse from Eurogamer who are massive Xbox and Nintendo fan boys.

[Workshyskiver]

So being unbiased and not flaming on a non-playstation game is being a fanboy... Bit of a pot kettle and black story you've got going on here. Especially when they criticise aspect of Starfield and actually criticised Tears of the Kingdom, but you would have known that if you had bothered to watch the video.

[Tacoboto]

It's not just AI
It's not just item positioning and tracking
It's not just global illumination and atmospheric effects relative to the planet/environment you're in
It's not just physical interaction between potentially hundreds of items and your character hoarding them

It is everything combined together working all at once.

But since none of that matters to you - If you're so hung up on 30fps, I hope you have consistency in your opinions:
- Bloodborne cannot be a good game because it's improperly frame-paced at 30fps and Sony didn't attempt to fix it even with very public hacks showing the fix to be one line
- Sony only advertises their biggest games in their Quality modes - they should advertise 60fps because 30fps is unplayable
- Naughty Dog failed because they removed the 40fps mode from TLOU Part 1 post-launch - unoptimized!
- FFXVI fails because it does absolutely not stick to 60fps - unoptimized!
- The PS3 era of Rachet & Clank is literally unplayable because the PS2 games were 60fps
- The Last Guardian is the worst Sony game of all time for not even sticking to 30 and subsequently removing the unlocked framerate in a post-release patch that would've let the game run at 60fps on PS5
- Horizon Forbidden West should've been delayed several months because the 60fps mode was extremely fuzzy at launch, prompting them to completely redo their AA solution that only released when the PS5 got VRR support

[Magog]

30 fps 🤣

[andy85]

I wouldn't bring FFXVI into it. The final version will stick to 60.

[Tacoboto]

If you're like Magog, no it won't - Starfield is a jittery 30fps max releasing in September, so how could FFXVI ever hit a solid 60 releasing in a week? They promised no day one Patch so therefore unoptimized mess.

[andy85]

@tacoboto the demo is Ver. 1.01, it's an old build. The state of play 2 months ago was Ver. 1.03 and given it's been a couple of months I doubt that's the final one too. This demo isn't the version we get next week. They aren't gonna go gold and say no patch with a choppy framerate when they could work on it till release with a patch if it wasn't fixed.

[Othegamer5]

Your excited for starfield i just know it. haven't missed a article yet

[PhillyDonJawn]

He definitely a fan lol

[PhillyDonJawn]

You raging on this game. Stop being big mad and take it for what it is. Gotcha a PC or something

[Angyobangyo]

Cope harder, you're only coping at 30fps.

I am not even interested in Starfield, but you are on every post about the game. You mad about something you apparently don't care about.

[senorfartcushion]

Fanboyism is insanely sad.

Stop being sad. Love life properly and stop obsessing over stuff that doesn’t matter.

[Duke19]

As long as its stable, I could give a shit. For doing everything it IS doing and maintaining that level of graphical fidelity, its pretty impressive.

I just hope its fun, and not just a massive - empty space of a game (like No Mans Sky is to me)

[Shane Kim]

Same. I always play the 30 fps modes anyways. As long as it's a steady 30 fps it's no problem.

[Jin_Sakai]

Who cares how smooth the game plays and responsive the controls are. It’s all about that creative decision right? 30fps is basically a slideshow on an OLED TV.

[4Sh0w]

Like I said long, long before Redfall launched the game looked so mid and uninspiring I don't give a damm what the dev's previous reputation was, I could tell it was 'meh...and boy was I wrong it was worst than that, an absolute dumpster fire of garbage and thats before you even consider the 60fps lie. Now I said all that because #1 for so game types 60 fps is a critical due the game design (competitive/twitch shooter) where its needs to be very responsive or you die alot unfairly, #2 ALL games would be better at 60fps vs 30fps but NOT if you lose content or assets *only so it can run at 60fps.

The truth is in every game all that really matters is the EXECUTION. I will play it on both pc & my X because I'm a nerd like that but as long as it "feels" good on my X, I'm good. I'm much more concerned about all the "1,000 planets", bugs, story and what we'll actually do than the fps.

[jjb1981]

The design decision is because the Xbox can't handle 60fps due to the complexity of the game. It has to play on the Series S and really, Xbox is to blame for that. It wouldn't do 60fps on the PS5 either. For Toad Howard to sit there and act like it was designed that way, say it's five games in one and feed it to all the dude bros is hilarious. PC is the way to go and I can't wait for the comparison to the PC version from Digital Foundry.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

You obviously didn’t watch the DF breakdown.

[CrimsonWing69]

That’s what gets me. You have developers explaining this, you have subject matter experts explaining why it is, but you have crazy-ass fanboys who know literally nothing about game design crying it’s unacceptable because other games did it, so therefore any game has to, without literally taking to time to research why they chose 30fps.

It’s so annoying, but what are you going to do? And no this isn’t a fanboy war thing, if this was on PS5 and people were talking out their asses, I’d be saying the same damn thing.

[jjb1981]

They built a game on an old jank engine and for a console that is already outdated. How can PCs run the game at 60fps or more? Doesn't the "design" limit that?

[Minute Man 721]

The X and S has the same CPU....

[Eonjay]

Their CPU specs are not the same. This is easy to verify and the information has been made available for over 2 years now.

[IMissJimRyan]

PS5, Xbox Series S and X have almost the same outdated CPU.

[Lightning77]

Really? How many 30fps games are out there? Let me start you off. Redfall and Starfield.

[Lightning77]

Theirs literal experts (DF), devs themselves (as if that wasn't enough) it even took a environmental artist GoW dev who hasn't even touched the game to explain to these ppl what's going on.

The information is everywhere hell even a click away in this article. Instead of whatever information you decided to make up.

[IMissJimRyan]

The question is how many games are cpu limited? Most games are still cross gen and have that jaguar cpu as target. So the current consoles don't have any problem running them.
Games thar are gpu limited can be adjusted to exchange quality for frames.
Maybe Xbox Studios are the firsts crossing the line to reach the limits of the 5 years old cpu of ps5 and Xbox series.
When Sony released a true current gen game, with big systems, phisics, AI, simulation and persistence we will see if the game will be capable to hold 60fps. By know we only have seem linear games and cross gen.

[BriBri]

There's lots of ways to skin a cat... People can claim that GI is limiting the frame rate but you can run your GI simulation, physics, animation, AI and any system you like at any refresh rate you want to and still keep the visual rendering at 60fps. Digital Foundry know this but they're probably being kind to Starfield for whatever reason.

Updating global illumination every frame seems like a total and utter waste of resources, you could probably update it once per second and get the exact same effect.

This 30fps thing is not a creative choice, it's either an engine limitation or just a poor excuse and if it's the latter then I expect there will be a 60fps patch within 3 months of launch.

[porkChop]

All of Bethesda's games are CPU-heavy. You can't just move a couple graphics sliders and drop the resolution to get 60fps. Most games are GPU-heavy so that would normally work, but it won't work here. People need to understand that sometimes you just can't do 60fps without sacrificing the vision of the game.

[SICKINDIVIDUAL]

What about cloud power blast processing?

[Jin_Sakai]

“All of Bethesda's games are CPU-heavy.“

Then that’s a Bethesda problem. Maybe they need to do a better job with optimization.

[porkChop]

Dude. It's not about optimization. It's about all the systems constantly running in the background that makes these large games work the way they do. GTA is also CPU-heavy which is why only the remasters have been 60fps. In order for them to hit 60fps they'd have to start cutting back systems and features, which would affect the design of the game itself rather than the visuals. It's not nearly as simple as you're trying to make it seem. Not every game can be 60fps on consoles. It's fine if you don't like it or don't want to play the game, but don't act like the devs are just incompetent.

[Lightning77]

Watch the video they explain it. Devs and experts have been explaining it, you're just not willing to listen at all and just be angry for now reason.

[Jin_Sakai]

@porckChop

For all we know Bethesda could just be blaming the CPU so they can cover themselves after seeing how 30fps Redfall played out.

Todd also said that Starfield is often running above 30fps even hitting 60 at times. So why not have an unlocked mode with VRR? Why not a 40fps mode? 30fps looks like a slideshow on OLED TVs.

[YodaCracker]

A slideshow huh? I have an OLED and I always play games in quality mode. Never had an issue with 30 FPS. Playing TOTK right now on the OLED and no problems. The most noticeable thing would be the lower resolution but it’s something you get used to quickly.

[Jin_Sakai]

“A slideshow huh? I have an OLED and I always play games in quality mode. Never had an issue with 30 FPS.“

Yes and a quick google search would tell you that you’re wrong.

“The problem is just that the oled panel is so clear that you can see how much the image jumps from one frame to the next unless the game has extreme motion blur to hide it. It would be even worse with BFI, most likely because you'd lose the motion blur caused by sample and hold. 30 fps is just a stuttery mess.“

https://forum.beyond3d.com/...

[343_Guilty_Spark]

“I don’t understand how these things work so I’ll just be angry and project”

[Good-Smurf]

Their games have always been very hard on CPU or the lack of good multi-thread utilization.
Fallout 3 /New Vegas couldn't keep stable 60 fps on high end hardware especially when using mods , if I lay hundreds of mines on screen at once the frame rate tanks hard down to almost single digit fps.
I thought we're leave behind the days of using sheer CPU horsepower to bruteforce frame rate I guess Bethesda is still the ones doing it with their game engine.
Impressive but for all the wrong reasons.

[Crows90]

In other words....not a creative decision but a game design one based on limitations.

Basically what every single sensible gamer has been saying is the problem.

That said there is no reason why they can't bring down the resolution to 1080p to get a solid 60fps on the series x.

But their vision of visual fidelity doesn't allow for that.i get that and support that decision but don't use BS terms like it was a choice.

[PixelOmen]

If it's CPU limited, lowering the resolution won't do anything.

[darthv72]

resolution and texture detail are GPU related. Complex geometry, floating point calculations and physics are CPU.

[Crows90]

Yes but they're not really doing anything new CPU side that they haven't done in their other games. So that point is irrelevant since it shouldn't have taken much more power than it already has in their other games. It's already clearly explained by Todd Howard that they want high visual fidelity along with making sure that it has a stable frame rate and they can't achieve that because of limitations. If they reduced visual Fidelity in areas that are CPU taxing or bound it would likely help along with the resolution.
There are many graphical settings that affect the CPU.

[pitythefool]

If it’s able to run at 60fps on PC, then it’s because the SX can’t do it, if it was purely a design choice then PC would be limited also.

Not just this game, all the 1080p 30fps games on PS4 last gen weren’t 1080p 60fps because the console couldn’t pull it off.

[darthv72]

the CPU in the Series X was ahead of its time... 3 years ago. There are Ryzen CPUs that are much faster and more powerful now. And PC will also be limited... by a persons CPU choice.

[pitythefool]

Yeah sorry no, that’s not the same thing at all.

An individual not having a PC powerful enough is in no way, shape or form the same as devs not being able to get the game running at 60fps on a console.

One is a choice, the other is a limitation, every single dev would have all their console games at 4K 60fps if they could, put it this way, why wouldn’t they.

It makes zero sense not to.

[badz149]

A 4 core CPU like the 3300X paired with a RTX3070 will be able to run this game at 1080p60fps. See you at launch.

[dumahim]

Their PC recommended specs are pretty much console equivalent with extra RAM. Going off of what Todd says (lol, I know), it probably will run at 60fps in some spots, but probably won't be stable.

[JEECE]

Another one.

[Deathdeliverer]

They coming out the woodwork to help preserve this games image.

[Father__Merrin]

Rubbish they are clearly cheerleading Microsoft if this was a Sony only title they would have been "dussapointed"

[got_dam]

Are they still using the Frankenstein engine they have used for the last 20+ years? I wonder how much of bethesda signature jank would improve if they would just start using a modern game engine.

[Flenter]

why is this pos game getting so much attention?

[PhillyDonJawn]

Cause it's looking like game of the generation don't hate, appreciate

[rippermcrip]

So their first excuse is "well 60fps games were possible back in the 80s"... okay so what? Were TVs capable of that? Did games that benefit from such a high FPS exist?

We already knew that the "4k locked 30fps" was bull because you could see the big drops in frames. But now they've pointed out that the 4k itself dipped as low as 1296p. So, neither of those are locked.

Then they call this game truly beautiful? We all know it is nothing like that.

[Zhipp]

TVs were capable of even more than that back then. Most / all nes and SNES games ran at 60.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Can’t wait to play day 1.

No game’s narrative is DEAD.

[Jin_Sakai]

Because of one AAA hit? Avowed didn’t really impress, Fable was a mere trailer, Hellblade 2 another minuscule trailer, and Forza 8 I’ll hold judgement.

It’s looking better but I need to see a lot more before making the no game narrative is dead claim.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Because I said so

[Jin_Sakai]

At least put some effort into your reply’s. The no game’s narrative is still alive and well until you’re actually playing those games.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

@Jin_Sakai

No

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Too bad M$ paid to stop the ps5 version from being developed…. Because now we can’t know for sure that the ps5 could pull off 60 fps ;)

[PhillyDonJawn]

But the X is more powerful than ps5 so we already know the answer. Unless you think the issue isnt hardware but more on them not prioritizing optimization on Xbox but would do it for PS.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Is it though? What game on the XsX proves that?

Every multiplat game I’ve checked myself runs better on ps5…

What seems to be more significant, a 12% GPU advantage, or a 130% SSD speed advantage? Before you answer, keep in mind that the ps5 SSD has been heavily modified to be more than just a fast storage space…. It is so fast that it can help out the CPU: https://youtu.be/ph8LyNIT9s...

[PhillyDonJawn]

Hitman 3 for starters. That every multiplat running better is a pure lie and You still on that ssd myth thats been debunked? Lol look list the games 60fps on PS5 that are 30fps on series X. Any game that run better on X or better on ps5 is honestly miniscule. But if you think ps5 can double the frames of starfield. I'll just leave you to your own thoughts.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

I mean, you first?

I know they both do 60, but one seems to lock it down tighter…. And I didn’t say Starfield couldn’t do 60, I’m just implying that the ps5 could do it better (and that maybe the devs would then wanna allow it).

The devs mentioned pop in as an issue if they went 60…. Isn’t SSD speed a key bottleneck for pop-in and a character’s max speed? And look what Spider-Man 2 happens to do phenomenally: character speed and virtually ZERO pop-in with a beta build of the game.

It’ll be an interesting gen for competition, assuming Xbox is forced to make games instead of just buy them as half-to-full baked products.

[PhillyDonJawn]

Just stop woth the sad talk it's ridiculous. It's been awhile since I've seen anyone even bring it up that narrative pretty much died when a last gen ssd ran RnC when only the ps5 mythical ssd was supposed to be capable 😆. It's storage bruh not a cpu lol

[Petebloodyonion]

Actually, I love how they explain that if the load is on the CPU then changing the resolution wouldn't give a huge FPS to the game.
Real interesting explanations from ppl who clearly seems to know what they are talking about.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Can’t the PS5’s 130% faster SSD help out its CPU?

Maybe this is an Xbox limitation…

[Petebloodyonion]

How?
SSD speed is related to how the information is transferred from the Data drive to the memory ram.
Picture the memory ram as your work desk surface, the Data drive as your big metal bin, and the transfer rate as how fast and how many files you take out of the bin at once to put them on your workspace.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

“How?”: Mark Cerny, architect of the ps4 and ps5: https://youtu.be/ph8LyNIT9s...

[repsahj]

If they want to retain fidelity, why not make 8k@15fps? XD

[Petebloodyonion]

@ Midget
And how does Marc Cerny's presentation tell a different story from what I just said?
There's even a graph explaining storage versus ram https://youtu.be/ph8LyNIT9s...

@repsahj
Fidelity does not = resolution but particles and polygons on screen, it's even mentioned in the video.

[MIDGETonSTILTS17]

Did you watch it all?

Like, literally watch ONE more minute…

And at 14:00 he starts addressing bottlenecks limiting the SSD…

You responded as if you thought the ps4 charts were ps5 charts ;)

[PhillyDonJawn]

Welp there you have it Digital foundry approved

[badz149]

"paid and approved by MS"

[PhillyDonJawn]

Deny deny deny, doesn't change facts sir

[badz149]

what facts? based on what they told DF, they are aiming for a certain level of fidelity but they couldn't make it 60fps, thus they decided to lock it at 30 instead. sounds more like optimization problem than "creative decision" to me.

[shadowT]

You could use your PC, if you really need 60 FPS

[repsahj]

A developer's vision BS is an excuse now. If this so-called 30fps cap still dips below it, it's clear that X can't handle a higher frame rate. I am sure that this excuse will be used several times. XD

[Viljong]

This is same case than with redfall. Game looks absolutely horrible with ps2 era character models but apparently it has "alot of going on" and what is going on is ignorance and incompetence. If it was about the performance no pc gamer below ryzen 7 3700x/rtx 3070/amd rx6800 could play it higher than 30fps and i very much doubt such specs have to settle for 30fps. And those are the equivalent components that are in xbox and doesnt take in calculation that rendering and cpu workload is much more efficient with a console than gaming pcs. The equivalent cpu in console is about 2 extra cores faster than the same cpu in pc. Consoles pull data straight to gpu from ssd every workload and the architecture itself is much more efficient than with pcs. Then if you have a professional dev team the game can be further optimized for the characterics of the console when pc have almoust endless hardware combinations.

Who believe if even series s do 1440p and 30fps that series x cant do minium 1440p with 60fps. I dont believe for a second that 30fps starfield for series x is well coded, its redfall level. Microsoft probably play the victim becouse they cant compete in console market so they went to this get a pc route, we are not even trying to give xbox consoles the treatment what players need.

[Pedrof]

How about a unlocked framerate mode for VRR display users ?