Guerrilla Games has confirmed that Killzone: Shadow Fall’s multiplayer mode clocks in at 60fps for the most part, but will experience dips in performance when the on-screen action gets busy.
The PlayStation 4-exclusive’s online component outputs at 1080p native, and unlike the single-player campaign, which is locked at 30fps, gamers can look forward to 60fps “a lot of the time,” according to Guerrilla.
Speaking at the EuroGamer Expo this week, Eric Boltjes, Shadow Fall’s Lead Designer, shed some light on the matter: “The reason for that is tricky,” he said, in regards to the multiplayer not being permanetly locked at 60fps.
“Running 60 has become this Holy Grail. Suddenly people think if you run 60 your game is better. Technically, that’s not really true. But what it does do is it makes decisions go from input to on-screen a lot easier,” he continued.
"So, having a constant 60 is not actually better than having a ‘lot of the time’ 60. It sounds weird, but it’s actually true. Because usually in the moments where we’re going to drop framerate, either you’re already dead or it’s too late anyway."
Boltjes added that the studio didn’t want to sacrifice Shadow Fall’s visual quality by opting for a permanent 60fps. Instead, it managed to compromise.
"I think our game, graphically, especially multiplayer, looks a lot more detailed and vibrant than a lot of the other games we are in direct competition with.
"We didn’t want to make any graphical concessions. We didn’t want to say, we can run at 60 constantly if we just half the resolution and take out all the destructibility and remove all the glass, for example. We didn’t want to do that. We wanted to keep it really pretty and try to make it 60.
"It’s just we can’t go out and say we’re always 60, because that’s lying. We’re very close. And I challenge anybody to notice, without Digital Foundry looking at it, that there are large drops."
Killzone: Shadow Fall is due out on PS4 on November 15 in North American and November 29 in the U.K. and Europe.