DICE explains Battlefield framerate trade-offs

Johan Andersson, a rendering architect at EA’s famous Swedish studio DICE, has confirmed Battlefield 3 will run at 30 fps on consoles.

The PS3 and Xbox 360 edition of the game will also, like numerous console-based FPSes, display at 720p resolution.

Andersson’s upcoming game, which is pitted against Infinity Ward’s third Modern Warfare game, has wowed critics with its use of the high-end Frostbite engine.

But some in the industry are sceptical on how the game will perform on consoles.

Activision CEO Bobby Kotick, whose business is directly competing with DICE and EA, recently cast doubts over the performance of Battlefield on consoles.

However, DICE recently demonstrated a PS3 edition of the game on a US primetime TV show – a move that garnered a positive reaction from fans.

Some remain disappointed that Battlefield 3 will run at 720p maximum on consoles, however, but Andersson said on his Twitter account that “99.9% of PS3 and Xbox 360 games are 720p, and a lot of them, including Modern Warfare 2 run way lower than that”.

He claimed that Modern Warfare 2 “runs at 1024×600 on PS3 with 2x MSAA”, though the game runs at 60 frames per second.

Andersson, speaking on behalf of his studio, said “we think huge levels, lots of players, great effects, destruction, vehicles and varied gameplay is more important than 1080p”.

“We always do 30 frames per second on consoles, otherwise it wouldn’t be possible to fit in vehicles, effects, scale and all players,” he added.