Summary
- Starfield's physics in the game are impressive and realistic, as demonstrated by players using console commands to achieve physics-based feats like stacking items to create a game of dominoes.
- The decision to lock Starfield at 30 FPS was made to prioritize fidelity and consistency, as the intensive CPU process of simulating physics for each individual object could cause the frame rate to drop if pushed too far.
- The use of Havok Physics in Starfield allows for accurate and controlled calculations of object collisions, although it also increases the risk of unexpected outcomes and bugs that are familiar to Bethesda fans.
A video trending online showcases just how impressive and realistic Starfield's physics can be. Like previous Bethesda Game Studios titles, Starfield features console commands, which have been used by players to achieve wild and wacky physics-based feats.
There was a lot of speculation as to why Bethesda Game Studios decided to lock Starfield at 30 FPS. Director Todd Howard publicly stated that the team valued fidelity and consistency above all else, suggesting that while Starfield could run at a higher frame rate, allowing some space for the game to breathe would improve the overall experience. Inevitably, when launch arrived, gamers sought to push those boundaries, stacking thousands of potatoes into a ship's cockpit being a notable example. What blew the minds of many developers is that all those potatoes were individually simulating physics, an incredibly intensive CPU process that could easily cause the frame rate to plummet if pushed too far. And Starfield's physics extends much further than just potatoes.
A YouTube video uploaded by Holy Moe and titled "Starfield Rube Goldberg Machine" sees dozens of books stacked upright in a line. After picking up a sandwich, the player approaches until they knock over the first book, and the rest fall one by one like a game of dominoes. The final book in that line then causes a soccer ball to collapse a column of trays placed on some stairs, before concluding with another set of books and meal packs. It is a rather small-scale demonstration of Starfield's physics but the creator states in the description that they would like to make something more advanced.
John Linneman of Digital Foundry, a group that specializes in technical breakdowns of video games, deduced earlier this year that, like with prior Bethesda Game Studios titles, Starfield notes and remembers the location of every item. More items in proximity to the player means more computing power is required. Starfield uses Havok Physics to power and tune these calculations, and is particularly good at making sure individual items do not shoot off at hypervelocity after colliding with another object or the player. An example of this succeeding in Starfield is a hilarious video of a player wading through milk cartons in space. The freedom afforded to the player through this comes with a higher risk of unexpected outcomes and bugs, something Bethesda fans are more than familiar with.
Xbox executives claimed before launch that Starfield would be the least buggy Bethesda Game Studios project ever and that seems to have turned out to be ostensibly true. The game is not absent of the traditional and somewhat expected bugs, like floating entities and NPCs clipping through surfaces, but it is a significant improvement when compared against the prior release of Fallout 76.
Starfield is available on PC and Xbox Series X/S.