Age of Empires IV's Min Spec mode gives more players more opportunities to play
For nearly 25 years, the Age of Empires series has delighted millions of real-time strategy fans around the world. Focusing on real historical events dating back to the Stone Age, the series instructs players to determine how those events unfolded, allowing them to experience the story as it was or create a new story of their own. It clearly resonated with fans, selling millions of copies over the years.
With that in mind, the teams at developer World's Edge and Relic Entertainment knew they had great shoes to fill in developing the next. Age of Empires IV. However, they knew it wasn't enough to create a game that not only checked all the necessary real-time strategy boxes, but also offered an experience that exceeded fan expectations. The teams knew they needed to go further to get more people to play than ever.
Enter the Min Spec mode, which will allow players on older, less powerful machines to experiment Age of Empires IV. This mode is activated via a combination of game settings, which are made with the help of an automatic detection system when the game is first started and can be accessed or changed from the settings menu.
"When we were looking to bring this new game into the franchise, we knew we had to support a diverse set of PC builds," said Michael Mann, executive producer of World's Edge. "Even looking forward to the next few years, we expect 50% or more of our player base to play on machines that use the low spec renderer."
A large portion of that player base is still playing games like Age of Empires II e Age of Empires III, which were released in 1999 and 2005 respectively. Age of Empires is also a very global franchise and machine specifications vary widely around the world. Some regions that are very active in the Age franchise game also tend to have lower spec machines for a variety of reasons. Southeast Asia and Latin America are two regions that have very passionate and still thriving Age of Empires communities, and the developers wanted to make sure that people who still play Age of Empires II e Age of Empires III today can enjoy Age of Empires IV.
During their technical planning for Age of Empires IV, the team found that a significant number of the Age of Empires community still play previous Age of Empires games on older laptops or desktop PCs with discrete and integrated graphics processing units (GPUs). Since they wanted to reach the largest player base possible, that meant they had to consider both configurations and design GPUs with their own RAM, as well as those that use some of the system's RAM.
The former was much easier to design, since they had a good idea of how much RAM a given discrete GPU would have available. Integrated GPUs, on the other hand, were more difficult to design and plan, as there were more variables that had been taken into consideration to ensure that GPU usage didn't interrupt the entire system. To prevent this from happening, they created a low spec renderer.
Of course, doing it wasn't easy, at least in the beginning. Their biggest technical obstacle? "Time. Only time," said Joel Pritchett, World's Edge Technical Director. “The low spec renderer is equivalent to what we would have created for an Xbox 360. We know how to do it. We just needed time to get it right. Art, on the other hand, has had several challenges, such as building multiple sets of resources ”.
Of course, there are trade-offs for playing in Min Spec mode. As with most PC games, Age of Empires IV has a recommended specification that the Relic and World's Edge development teams suggest as the ideal way for everyone to experience the game. Examples of what you can expect while playing using a machine with these specifications include a large number of units, high-resolution models, lots of detailed explosions, and 8-player battles.
As Min Spec Mode was designed for laptops and desktops using integrated GPUs, the most important thing for developers was to ensure fans could play the campaign with lower resolution textures, less destruction, simpler lighting, less visual beautification. and 4-player battles. You won't get the added spectacle of bigger player battles or high-end picture and texture quality, but you will still get a great one without having to spend a lot of money to upgrade your gaming desktop or laptop. It's a compromise that even players with more powerful machines may want to try. “It's worth noting that some of our competitive testers preferred the low spec renderer because it's visually clearer and you get a better framerate,” Pritchett said. "So, you might want to try out different settings when playing for the first time."
Min Spec mode isn't all the team has done to make the game more accessible. "With the release of Game Pass for PC on day one, we wanted to ensure extensive hardware support for new users to enjoy Age IV. We kept existing and new players in mind during development, "Mann said." Not just in terms of being able to play on their machines, but with gameplay features like our tutorial and Art of War challenge missions. "
If this team has shown us anything, however, it is that they are never satisfied and are always looking for ways to improve player experiences. In recent years they have made dozens (if not hundreds) of tweaks and modifications to the game during the public and private betas. More importantly, they are ready to go next week when the game launches to ensure everyone has a great experience.
"We will be looking for feedback as soon as we launch on all elements of the game, so we want to learn about the gaming experiences. We also have our customer support team on standby to help every player get all the help they might need to get up and running." Mann said. "We are looking forward to the 28th and we can't wait for people to start playing Age of Empires IV. "
Reservation of Age of Empires IV
Xbox Game Studios
Pre-order Age of Empires IV now and get the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition "Dawn of the Dukes" expansion as a free bonus in August 2021 *.
One of the most beloved real-time strategy games returns to glory with Age of Empires IV, placing you at the center of epic historical battles that have shaped the world. Featuring familiar and innovative new ways to expand your empire across vast landscapes with stunning 4K visual fidelity, Age of Empires IV takes evolved real-time strategy game to a new generation.
Back to History - The past is a prologue as you are immersed in a rich historical setting of 8 different civilizations around the world, from the British to the Chinese to the Delhi Sultanate, in your quest for victory. Build cities, manage resources and lead your troops into battle by land and sea in 4 distinct campaigns with 35 missions spanning 500 years of history, from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance.
Choose your path to greatness with historical characters - Experience the adventures of Joan of Arc in her quest to defeat the British, or command powerful Mongolian troops like Genghis Khan in her conquest across Asia. The choice is yours and every decision you make will determine the outcome of the story.
Customize your game with mods: Available early 2022, play the way you want with user-generated content tools for custom games.
Challenge the World: Jump online to compete, cooperate or witness up to 7 friends in PVP and PVE multiplayer modes.
An era for all players - Age of Empires IV is an inviting experience for new players with a tutorial system that teaches the essence of real-time strategy and a Campaign Story mode designed for novice players to help to achieve easy setup and success, but it's challenging enough for veteran players with new gameplay mechanics, evolved strategies, and combat techniques.
* Expansion bonus requires Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition game, sold separately. Valid for pre-orders via Steam, Microsoft Store, and participating resellers. The content requires broadband Internet to download. Consult your dealer for details.
