Starfield Performance Preview: What to Expect Based on What We’ve Seen So Far

ign.com:

Starfield is one of the most hotly anticipated games of the next few years. Coming from the team that brought us the Elder Scrolls and Fallout series, Bethesda’s space-focused RPG has built excitement since it was announced in 2018, despite very little of it being actually shown. With a 2023 release planned, the recent gameplay reveal finally gave us a look at the upcoming Xbox and PC exclusive, and a chance to understand just what the team plans to deliver.

At a headline level, the game is based on an evolved version of the Creation engine. Entitled the Creation Engine 2, it has clear similarities within its rendering output to both Fallout 76 and Skyrim, which were both built on its predecessor. Fallout 4 and later games ushered in some substantial changes to the engine, such as physically based lighting shaders and materials, a deferred tile-based rendering pipeline, enabling high dynamic light sources, volumetric lighting, and other modern techniques. But the technology delivers a great deal more than just visuals. Havok physics aids animation, for example, and AI and quest building stem from the engine’s Radiant system – much of these are what make up the core DNA of Bethesda games.

Before we go further, keep in mind this is all based on the work in progress footage shown, so some or all of these areas could change upon release.

Fallout 4 and Fallout 76 improved on building atmosphere with real world rendering and scale. From your emergence out of the shelter to the ruined wasteland sprawling out in front of you, to the depth it created with Volumetric lighting, it instantly had an imposing and grandiose feel to it. Dynamic time of day and Physics-Based Rendering materials (PBR) all aided the reality of that, with