Ken Levine discusses BioShock Infinite on PC

1/15/13 7:32pm

tl;dr

The PC version will have a serious graphical edge over its console counterpart.

In an interview with IGN today, BioShock Infinite director Ken Levine discussed the sorts of details that make the upcoming shooter unique on PC.

Levine says that for the original BioShock, the studio didn't spend enough time on the PC version to make it unique from the console versions, and that they didn't understand at the time how to make improvements for PC users. (Having played both the PC and Xbox 360 version, I can attest to that.) For Infinite, however, Irrational Studios has what Levine calls a PC "Strike Team" made up of programmer, UI specialists and artists whose sole mission is optimizing the game for PCs.

As far as graphics are concerned, playing the game on Medium settings is about as comparable as you can get to the console versions, though it will still be superior. The PC version ships on three discs, which will accommodate the higher resolution graphics in the High, Very High and Ultra settings. Levine says,

Higher-end PC settings also activate on higher-quality versions of many of our core rendering features. For example, we show more objects and particles at longer distances and greater detail. We use a higher-precision color buffer for improved scene quality. Textures stream in more quickly, and we use higher quality texture filtering. More objects cast shadows, shadows are higher-resolution and blend more smoothly into the scene.

He also recommends you use Direct X 11 to support features such as "Contact Hardening Shadows, High Definition Ambient Occlusion, and Diffusion Depth of Field." Fancy!

He also explains that in order to make a successful PC version, developers must dedicate time, passion and respect to the title. Quality PC games must be treated as unique compared to console versions, because the PC gaming community expects certain things that aren't available on consoles, such as Steam Cloud support or different UIs (Skyrim is a good example of a bad PC UI). Irrational has put a lot of care into this version, however, so PC users need not worry.

The article concludes with the interviewer asking about some extra bits not directly related to the game, so I'll leave those out. Here are the game's PC specs:

Minimum

OS: Windows Vista Service Pack 2 32-bit
Processor: Intel Core 2 DUO 2.4 GHz / AMD Athlon X2 2.7 GHZ
RAM: 2 GB
Hard Drive: 20 GB free
Video Card: DirectX10 Compatible ATI Radeon 3870 / NVIDIA 8800 GT / Intel HD 3000 Integrated Graphics
Video Card Memory: 512 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Recommended

OS: Windows 7 Service Pack 1 64-bit
Processor: Quad Core Processor
RAM: 4 GB
Hard Drive: 30 GB free
Video Card: DirectX11 Compatible, ATI Radeon 6950 / NVIDIA GeForce GTX 560
Video Card Memory: 1024 MB
Sound Card: DirectX Compatible

Are any of you PC-using g1s any more excited about BioShock Infinite? Or are you now afraid that trying to play this game on the laptop you use to write these news articles will make it burst into flames? Let us know in the comments below!

» Source: http://www.ign.com/articles/2013/01/15/bioshock-infinite-the-pc-version-difference
» Tagged In: #BioShock Infinite, #ken levine, #mouse and keyboard FTW, #my fingertips are burning just thinking about how poorly this laptop would handle the game, #PC, #Strike Team

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g1 DISCUSSIONS

Jariane_Iris

March 21, 2013 - 11:54pm

I thinks it's better with PC. If you have the specs like the one listed above, this game would be perfect. - Scott Sohr

Zetra3

January 16, 2013 - 10:18am

Awesome, i make it with a little extra wiggle room on max

Skunktrain

January 16, 2013 - 5:54am

Wow, I clear the recommended specs. Not by much, but I clear them. Not bad for a year-old rig on a tight budget.

MagnumMagnus

January 16, 2013 - 12:55am

Gimme a new PC, then maybe I'll take you up on your offer.

tricobalt

January 15, 2013 - 8:03pm

Pretty shadows and high quality blurryness aren't high on my priority list. It's nice to see *some* effort to implement DX11 but IMHO a DX11 game isn't a DX11 game if it doesn't implement tessellation. That's the single one DX11 feature that really makes a world of difference and gets totally ignored every time.