Mark Cerny, the video game designer, programmer, and producer best known for being the lead architect behind Sony’s modern PlayStation consoles, including the PS4 and PS5, is not only very surprised at how many developers are implementing ray tracing in their games these days, but also how modern console gamers prefer higher frame rates instead of a 30 FPS mode where, despite delivering lower frame rates, typically makes up for that with greater visuals. “I just didn’t expect such a departure from previous generations,” Cerny told a publication last month as part of an interview about how his consoles aren’t designed to merely be low-cost PCs.
Cerny said:
- “I have been very surprised by the degree to which developers are using ray-tracing. Putting that in, that was a big decision and actually a rather late one.”
- “I thought that this is not going to get much use initially…but instead we had launch titles that were taking advantage of it. “
- “…my guess as to how things would go was totally wrong. And I am so happy to have seen the early adoption of the technology.”
- “The other thing that has been surprising is the push to 60 frames per second. Based on previous console lifecycles, I would have expected there to be a lot more games that are 30 frames per second only, just because the artwork can be so much more detailed if you have longer time to render it. Instead, the almost universal rule this time around has been the games run at 60.”
- “It’s great from a play perspective. Gamers overwhelmingly prefer games that are higher frame rates. I just didn’t expect such a departure from previous generations.”
Cerny talking about the PS5 for nearly an hour:
As for PlayStation’s PC ports, Cerny revealed:
There’s a recent development here, which is console exclusives that were created to run on bespoke PlayStation systems are now making their way to PC. That conversion has been simpler than many thought. The main consequence is that the minimum spec for the PC version of the game gets a bit higher, perhaps more CPUs or more RAM, in order to replace the missing systems.