In a lengthy interview published by Unreal Engine, Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade developers delved into the game’s development and how they took advantage of the PlayStation 5 to make improvements.
4K support prompted Square Enix to update the skybox in a few locations, for example.
“With 4K support becoming available in Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade’s graphics mode, we noticed a significant experience disparity in resolution if we were to keep the existing skybox,” said Lead Rendering Programmer Shuichi Ikeda. “Because of this, we upgraded the skybox textures in a few locations, mainly for settings that took place during the day. Furthermore, we updated the details in the rendering asset to match those changes.”
The team was also able to reduce Intergrade‘s file size on the PS5, thanks to its compression tech.
“In the PlayStation 4 version, we had to forgo using a higher-quality format and high-resolution textures due to memory and disc capacity restrictions,” explained Lead Technical Programmer Tomohito Hano. “However, we still didn’t have enough disc capacity with Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade to include a high-quality format and high-resolution textures. And so, we integrated Oodle Texture, and by using it in combination with Oodle Kraken, we were able to achieve a smaller file size on the PS5 version, even taking the higher resolution textures into account.”
Square Enix also lauded the PS5’s SSD, noting that I/O speeds were “no longer a bottleneck.”
Final Fantasy VII Remake Intergrade released in June for the PS5 to positive reviews. It’s currently exclusive to PlayStation platforms.
[Source: Unreal Engine]
