PS4 games at 720p / 900p

[greenmedic88]

Depending upon the complexity of an individual game, developers will have to prioritize resolution, frame rate and effects.

Sound a bit like gaming on a PC? The only difference will be resource consistency (all the same) which will mean developers, not players will be deciding which to place first.

One can see where the complaints might be with such an arrangement, but it also prevents gamers from doing pointless things like running a high resource game on high resolution with all effects sliders on max at unplayable frame rates. The whole idea of having visual options (AA, resolution, effects, physics) on a console seems pointless to me anyway. I'm curious to see whether that will ever be a thing on the PS4 or the XB1 in the future.

Moving into the future, one might logically conclude that as games become more complex, requiring more computing power and processing resources, performance will decrease proportionately, but this is console development we're talking about, not PC development where there are generally two targets: minimum spec and preferred spec. Having one standard build with predetermined specs actually makes it easier to set performance targets as opposed to the "design your game for future hardware" or "design your game to sell new VGA card upgrades" mentality. Most games tend to shoot for "design your game for the broadest possible consumer base" while giving some incentive to run their game on high end builds.

So it's not unreasonable to think some games might go to 720p if they're pushing hardware limits with the visuals or the developers are prioritizing 60fps, but I seriously doubt this will be the standard.

Plus, it also needs to be pointed out that as development code libraries continue to expand and refine and if need be, console OS can be streamlined to use fewer resources and optimize performance, and developers become more proficient at optimizing hardware resources, any good developer should be able to improve performance of their games while upping the ante on visuals. And this is something I fully expect to see in the future as we have in the past.