DICE's Johan Andersson Talks BF4, Frostbite, Mantle, The Future

[axehead15]

Who cares about Mantle and this other shenanigans when the questions that should have been asked is, "WHEN WILL YOU FIX YOUR GAME???"

Why release DLC when the game itself is still uber broken?

PRIORITIES!

 

[clonazepam]

Mantle's still in the idea phase. If they had any real evidence to how good it is, they'd be showing something, somewhere. Maybe not in this not so great interview, but somewhere.

I appreciate the interview though.

@Steveymoo - he might not have actually said those words. He might have been begging, pleading, or cussing like crazy to get answers, or something... lol... couldn't print that.

While the consoles aren't that powerful, and some feel that alone will hold back the PC side, I offer you that due to the similar architecture, the engines should be able to scale up and down more efficiently for the hardware present. Hopefully they always include a plethora of options on the PC side to really customize the quality / performance.

 

[clonazepam]

As for the silly comment about seeing BF4 on linux, get real. The guy actually mentioned the market share of Microsoft in mobile, so they are well aware of the linux share as well. Why spend a bunch of time and money to have it run on linux with no guarantee of breaking even on the investment? What company in any industry would do that when they have better options readily available?

 

[jfby]

OK, this article is clearly just advertising for the company.

How do you interview and not discuss the myriad of launch issues BF4 suffered, and is still suffering? Why does it matter that you can blow up a sky scraper if you crash every 10 minutes, or the sound cuts out on half the maps? I like the game and the direction it's taking, but this is pandering, and tomshardware readers deserve better.

 

[Christopher Shaffer]

Paracel Storm for example in BF4 when you see that the entire level becomes stormy and you see the water changing and it starts to rain. The sky is changing. Actually the lighting change is quite significant on the level, and also we added a lot of dynamic wind simulation on trees and various types of foliage.

This. The changes in this particular level actually completely change the gameplay. Your depth of field and overall line of sight is completely affected, as is your ability to move due to the wind and waves.

I'm excite to see how this will come up in future Premium levels.

This game has had its issues, but BF is still an awesome franchise and I think we'll see some pretty cool things from Frostbite and the series overall in the near future.

 

[mute20]

Only reason i looked at this was because it said mantle....

 

[jdfreire]

Fix dat game first , the bugs and netcode problems, and tell me later of graphic eyecandy and what damn platform is better.
"PC"

 

[cangelini]

Hey guys,
This interview was a conversation between Johan and I. You'll have the pardon the conversational elements. It wasn't intended to be an investigative piece into EA's issues with BF4 post-launch, which I too have encountered.

 

[toxxel]

Always thought the soldier resembled Peter Dante.

 

[gmax9000]

All that butt massaging and no mention of the incessant bugs in the game and no mention of why they failed to produce a solid product from day one or how they plan to prevent similar failings at launch for the next iteration of the franchise!

 

[Morkintash]

I wonder if an investment in a real hired beta test team is apart of their future plans...

 

[poseidon7902]

Way to ask the hard questions Tom's. I expect more out of you. I'd love to know what BF4 looks like playing consistently for more than 20 minutes at a time before getting dumped, getting put into the wrong game mode, having the game lock up, or having the game completely refuse to put me into a match. That doesn't even begin to address the fact that I can't get into any of the new maps at all. This release, like all EA releases is a disaster.

 

[TommyTanker]

I know the interview was about GPU technology and future gaming. But I am disappointed in the interview and felt Chris could have at least asked 1 or 2 questions about some of the issues BF4 users are having. After all they have paid a lot of money for their game and there are several bugs / issues.

 

[ojas]

Everyone who wants to know dice/EA's stance on BF4's bugs should probably play this:
http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/12/05/dice-halting-future-projects-until-battlefield-4-is-stable/

 

[NastyNes]

Why didn't you ask him the hard questions? Like "Why does the game crash so often, why is the netcode so bad?."

 

[marraco]

Chris: Next time ask him to add a backdoor or kill switch to disable motion blur and depth of field on any game using frostbite.

 

[Mousemonkey]

For all those who want BF4 to be fixed this might cheer you up.

http://www.kitguru.net/software/gaming/matthew-wilson/dice-is-dropping-everything-to-fix-battlefield-4/

 

[sonofhendrix]

Very good and detailed interview.. But hes my criticism of BF4 graphics. There is nowhere near enough headroom for increasing detail on high end gaming systems. Even my 2 yr old 7970 and 3570k, very easily get 60fps + with everything on ultra and 2xmsaa at 2560x1440. With mantle all i will get is even more fps, that i dont really need. To get to the point i would have loved to have seen at least double the reflection map resolution, realtime depth of field during gameplay (skyrim enbs wrok wonderfully), even higher texture resolution, higher shadow resolution, and higher polygon counts. Surely its quite easy to introduce that, so that high end rigs have something to aim for. Anyway, i know that is to come once they start focusing on just the next gen.

 

[sonofhendrix]

ULTRA settings should bring your pc to its knees. Instead a modern gaming makes mince meat of this setting.

 

[sonofhendrix]

Rendering on a console at a lower resolution than 1080p and then up-scaling, is a trick often used im many games especially in the last generation. Its not a revelation or a lack of capability of the PS4. Its just that you don't get to hear about such details normally. Its just a fine tuning to make sure its hitting 60fps targets.

 

[sonofhendrix]

Rendering on a console at a lower resolution than 1080p and then up-scaling, is a trick often used im many games especially in the last generation. Its not a revelation or a lack of capability of the PS4. Its just that you don't get to hear about such details normally. Its just a fine tuning to make sure its hitting 60fps targets.

 

[falchard]

Not much game in Battlefield anymore. They make pretty sets for a choreographed 6~8 hour shooter that has a significant amount of cut scenes. Maybe we should start talking about them as a choose your own adventure movie instead since the gameplay itself is not at all challenging.

 

[GMP100]

Don't understand why this inteview wasn't edited. Cut all of the equivalents of the interviewer saying "go on" and edit some of the "going forward"!

 

[derek2006]

Yeah sure ok, cool. Yeah cool. Right very cool? Right. Yeah, Excellent. Yeah. Excellent. Excellent, okay? Yeah. Okay, excellent right? Right. Okay, cool, okay. Sure. Mm-hmm. Yeah right, right? Very cool. Right. Yeah.


Chris, when you start a sentence, try not to use these words, just start the sentence.

 

[Djentleman]

I can't wait till this game is on Linux with proper fully baked FGLRX drivers and Mantle on Linux!

Come on AMD! Bring it already!!!! SteamMachines are around the corner!

Not happening.
You can go ahead and kill that wet dream.