Starfield's new Creation Engine took 'so long to do,' Bethesda's Todd Howard happy with results

Bethesda's Todd Howard praises Starfield's tech team for the new Creation Engine 2 upgrade, promises consistency and says the game 'feels great' to play.

[Lightning77]

Why are we just now posting this? This is old from the Kinda Funny interview.

[Flawlessmic]

i don't think the news was posted on here before unless i missed it at the time.

Either way good to hear fidelity for that engine has been improved, the hype train for me has officially begun now that i have finished the other big releases of the year and this is next on the hit list, bring it on!!!

[4Sh0w]

Yeah this says Microsoft's Advanced Technology Group has been helping Bethesda with optimization since early 2022. -I'm just glad it seems like they are really focused on making sure at least from a technical aspect that the game is going to run much better than past Bethesda games. The hype is real, I have a few coworkers who will be playing day 1 also we plan on sharing some gameplay about what we find, locations, etc. after a couple weeks.

[__SteakDeck__]

@4sh0w So why didn’t Microsoft’s Advanced Technology Group help with Redfall? 😂

[4Sh0w]

Why? Redfall was a bad game, troubled development with devs not liking the game, lack of vision with a studio working out of their comfort zone, game was forced out because there was no saving it without completely overhauling the game. From the looks of it, Redfall just wasn't worth more dev time & resources, just to still end up medicore at best.

So to summarize & answer your question ATG helps games iron out technical details for a overall more polished experience=optimization... BUT they do NOT "fix" your story, "fix" your combat, "fix" your level design, "fix" your enemy AI, "fix" weapons, etc and these were just the glaring problems with Redfall. That's why.

[__SteakDeck__]

@4Sh0w Really? Is that why Xbox made it their “one more thing” from their 2021 showcase, where Phil bragged and said “and like Starfield, this will be an Xbox exclusive”. Is that why Redfall opened their showcase last year? If they knew it was bad, why did they highlight the game, as one of their big exclusives for 2023 if they knew it was going to be bad? Remember Phil and MS thought the game would score in the 80’s Lol “Troubled development” and “lack of vision” are not excuses. Remember in the Jason Schreier report, Arkane Austin wanted MS to cancel the game, because they knew it would be a disaster and MS didn’t do that.

[4Sh0w]

"Arkane Austin wanted MS to cancel the game, because they knew it would be a disaster and MS didn’t do that."

Are you not listening? That's what I said. First of all I'm sure in the beginning and up until the game was near completion even with challenges like plenty other games of course Phil is going to believe in Arkane & of course show it off at game shows, if they didn't then people would say "oh its bad bc Phil didnt give Arkane support" blah, blah blah. Nope, their a good studio this was just a poor attempt.

Then when the game has been paid for & so close to launch hell no they shouldn't cancel it, just cut your loses, get it out, patch what you can and move on. This happens in business, you learn and move on but as your comment clearly demonstrates you dont understand the purpose of the ATG or really game development beyond "lol why does Redfall suck"

[jznrpg]

16x the detail

[seanpitt23]

No it's 32x the detail now he said it himself...

[blacktiger]

It's 64x times the details. Bill Gates said it himself

[Phoenix76]

It's still the same engine then. Buggy asf

[ClayRules2012]

Yep, sounds about right. Ugh.

[Godmars290]

Can only say wait till it out, but stop the glowing praise till its out and has earned it.

[porkChop]

It's not the same engine. It's the Creation Engine 2. We already know that they worked with id Software to build the new engine and implement some of the features from id Tech. That's likely why the visuals, movement, gunplay, etc, all looked way better than last year.

[mkis007]

Is it built on the same base as creation engine 1? Is it completely new?

[porkChop]

Of course some of the older stuff is still there. Every engine contains code and pieces from prior versions. You don't just start from scratch, especially when you have tools and systems that still work well.

For example, the quest systems have been brought over and improved since Gamebryo because they're much faster than newer engines. I watched a video where someone compared programming a quest in the Creation Engine vs Unreal. Unreal can take hours or even days depending on the quest. In the Creation Engine that same quest can be programmed in literally minutes. That's how Bethesda can populate their games with so many side quests.

As for how much of the old code is still there it's difficult to really know. Starfield is such a bigger game with so much going on. I can't imagine there's much that hasn't at least been updated if not entirely reworked or overhauled to make Starfield even possible.

[PapaBop]

It'd feel even better to play in a 60 fps mode.

[Jin_Sakai]

You can on PC. But remember, 30fps was a “creative” decision.

[343_Guilty_Spark]

And suffer screen tearing, slowdowns, and massive degradation in resolution like that one game on console that forced a performance mode??

[mkis007]

Or just scale it back like they are doing for series s

[Sonic1881]

Hey Todd, you should be supporting Nvidia as well and not just AMD for the PC version

[jznrpg]

They have to try and make money somehow. Xbox gamers aren’t going to buy it (yeah maybe a few but not many) so they need to make up for losing PS and Xbox sales. PC won’t make up for that much.

[Reaper22_]

Starfield is gonna do really well, regardless. More gamepass memberships for sure. Getting this game was a smart move for Microsoft.

[porkChop]

AMD used to be all about open tech and wanting devs to support everything. Now that AMD is finally seeing some success in the GPU market they're pulling the same scumbag shit they used to complain about.

At least we'll be getting a mod to support DLSS 3. Hopefully that includes frame generation though.

[TheColbertinator]

It just works

[anast]

And it still doesn't look that great...

[ClayRules2012]

Yeah, It doesn’t have me really all that impressed.

[raWfodog]

I’m glad that they are going back to using traits during character creation. It makes you put more thought into your build with regards to strengths and weaknesses.

[phoenixwing]

It took so long but not long enough to make a new engine?

[343_Guilty_Spark]

Going to be a beautiful game. My PC and Xbox are excited to blast off!

[SyntheticForm]

Would be nice to see Starfield release in a state of good polish. Bethesda need to free themselves of this old shackle of jank. There really isn't an excuse with Microsoft behind them.

[Futureshark]

Sixty percent of the time, it works every time.

[WolfSeed]

They always say the same garbage with every new released game, yet the engine is always a bug infestation.

[Zeref]

I wouldn't be surprised if Elder Scrolls 6 comes out earlier than expected.