Horizon Forbidden West Dev: Cross-Gen Development Isn't Limiting in Any Way - News
by William D'Angelo , posted on 03 August 2021 / 2,284 Views
Horizon Forbidden West game director Mathijs de Jonge in an interview with Hardware Zone was asked if there are noticeable differences between the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 versions of the game, as well as if cross-generation development has been limiting in anyway.
He doesn't think that developing for two different generations of consoles, the PS5 and PS4, has been limiting what they wanted to do with Horizon Forbidden West.
"I don't think the cross-generation development was limiting in any way," said de Jonge. "When we started with the concept of this game, we had so many great ideas that ended up being included - to the point that we didn't really think about hardware limitations or anything, we just wanted to design a really nice, unique experience for the player. An awesome adventure.
"That's how we also brainstormed all the quests and events the player is going to go through. I think that the big delta between these two consoles, apart from the 3D audio, quick loading and DualSense of course, is on the graphical side of things. On the PlayStation 5, we can add so much more detail graphically. We can see the tiny hairs on Aloy’s face, for example. You can also see a ton of detail from far away.
"I don't think many people notice in the demo, but you could see moss growing on the rocks. On the PlayStation 5, each individual strand of moss is rendered individually. So this machine is so powerful, and it can add so much more detail to the image. I think that's one of the biggest deltas, next to the processing power of the machine. We also use it for a specific lighting rig.
"This is a cinematic lighting rig that we normally only have time to use in cinematics. Because the PlayStation 5 is so much more powerful, we have it on all the time. During gameplay, there's a very high-quality rendering and lighting system on a lot. So there are all these extra features that make the game look even better."
Horizon Forbidden West is in development for the PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4. It is on track to release in Holiday 2021, however, that isn't 100 certain yet.
A life-long and avid gamer, William D'Angelo was first introduced to VGChartz in 2007. After years of supporting the site, he was brought on in 2010 as a junior analyst, working his way up to lead analyst in 2012. He has expanded his involvement in the gaming community by producing content on his own YouTube channel and Twitch channel dedicated to gaming Let's Plays and tutorials. You can contact the author at wdangelo@vgchartz.com or on Twitter @TrunksWD.