Obsidian director Carrie Patel has offered the latest tantalizing tidbit about their upcoming game, Avowed.
In the latest episode of Defining Duke, Patel appeared to be interviewed by MrMattyPlays and Lord Cognito. Cognito asked Patel about performance and framerates, and she gave this statement:
“We always want to provide the best performant experience that we can, but that’s something that happens pretty late in development. Once we’ve got everything placed and leveled than we can go about optimizing it.
So, optimization and performance tuning, that’s all been a more recent effort for us. But yes, as you noted, we’re going to have performance mode. And we’ll also have balanced mode, which is sort of in between quality and performance, for players who also have a 120Hz TV.”
As explained in this article by HowToGeek, Balanced Mode is a popular option in current generation games, offered by both PlayStation and Xbox first party games. While most gamers were told to believe that 60 FPS and above is the true ideal, in real life scenarios, most games are more likely to maintain a stable 40 FPS than 60 FPS.
This is why Balanced Mode exists. Running games at 40 FPS brings players the best of both worlds between what we usually know as Quality Mode (4K graphics running at 30 FPS) and Performance Mode (1440p or lower graphics running at 60 FPS or higher).
The compromise between a lower resolution and a lower framerate than is maximum may arguably be the mode that actually offers no compromises. That’s because it can optimize the use of graphical effects, like ray tracing, and still provide the best gameplay experience for players.
As Patel alluded to, however, you may have to try harder to get that ideal 40 FPS experience as well. To meet the technical specifications to get the best out of a 40 FPS mode, you’ll want a monitor that specifically refreshes at 120Hz.
Now, if what you’re thinking now is you want your games running 120FPS at 120Hz, what you need is to pony up for a high-end top-of-the-line PC. But this Balanced Mode, that gives you stable 40 FPS at 120 Hz, is available in console games like Marvel’s Spider-Man, Starfield, God Of War: Ragnarok, and Microsoft Flight Simulator.
This is a far cry from when Obsidian were modestly stating that they were targeting 30 FPS last August. But as Patel explained, most game developers really work on those performance metrics last, because they rightly prioritize making their games fun to play before they look at the numbers and the graphics on the screen.
If Avowed had released last year, it’s likely it would not have launched with this Balanced Mode ready to go. Lord Cognito himself suggested this when he asked Patel, but it certainly looks like the delay was the best thing that happened to Avowed.
While the jury’s still out on whether Obsidian’s efforts to make a fun Avowed bore fruit, they were clearly able to make good use of the extra time they got to polish the game. Expectations may be a bit higher now, but Obsidian has probably also gotten enough time to meet, and maybe even exceed them.
