After posting a portion of their PlanetSide 2 interview with Creative Director Matt Higby last week – where they talked about aiming for 1080p/60fps on PlayStation 4 and more – Eurogamer published the full interview today, revealing a few more interesting pieces of information about the PS4 version.
Following his confirmation that Sony Online Entertainment has a target for the release date of PlanetSide 2 on PS4, “but I don’t know the exact day,” Higby revealed the maximum numbers players they’re aiming for on PS4:
Right now we have per map limits of about 1200 players. Per server there are four continents. So you can have about 3600 to 4800 players on a single server depending on what the continent locking situation looks like on that server, since we do lock continents to focus players onto different continents.
Realistically though, Higby adds,”Our goal is to get as close as possible to doing that.” This means the maximum number of players on PS4 “might get lowered” as they work on final optimizations as launch approaches.
He continued:
The good news is, the way we lower players wouldn’t necessarily mean there are fewer total players fighting on the map at once. But it might mean your client’s awareness of all the players around you might cut down. So if you’re in a huge fight and there are 300 players around, we already have a bunch of heuristics that slice that number of players down and show you the ones that are relevant to you on a moment to moment basis. On the PS4 those constraints might need to be a little tighter.
Hopefully, if we do our jobs right, that won’t even be perceptible to you. We already have this culling we do for players in the PC game. Unless you’re in the biggest of the big fights, you don’t really notice players popping in and out as the culling algorithm regulates how many characters are being sent to your client at once.
So hopefully on the PS4, although we’ll probably have a more constrained number of players on-screen at once, the gameplay won’t have much of an impact, so you won’t even notice.
With PlanetSide 2 following the free-to-play business model, you’ll be able to unlock additional items for real money. On PS4, “you’ll purchase Marketplace Cash using your PlayStation funds. And once you’re in the game you’ll use that cash to buy your items.” If you’re worried about PlanetSide 2 being pay-to-win, Higby said, “Things that can be purchased for Station Cash are either purely cosmetic items, like camos and decals, helmets, things that just make you look cooler, or they’re side-grade play-style choices.”
As was revealed in the PS4 gameplay livestream yesterday, we’ll learn about the release date of PlanetSide 2‘s beta during PlayStation Experience.
[Source: Eurogamer]
