Some of the most positive things that players had to say about Battlefield 6 during its open betas back in August revolved around how well the title does environmental destruction. In an interview with PCGamer, developers have spoken about tapping into what players loved about older Battlefield games, and how current technology has helped Battlefield 6 pull off its impressive feats of environmental destruction.
Discussing the love players have for games like Battlefield 3 and 4, lead producer Nika Bender mentioned that the studios under the Battlefield Studios banner worked hard to lean into what made the two classic shooters such fan favourites.
“When we decided we wanted to do something in the near future, we looked at other Battlefields from the same era,” said Bender. “We knew that Battlefield 3 and 4 were the fan favourites, and we really are leaning into what really worked, and hope that this will continue resonating with players in Battlefield 6.”
As for how the developers were able to achieve the level of environmental destruction offered by Battlefield 6 while still making sure that the shooter doesn’t suffer from dips in the frame rate when too many things are going on, technical director Christian Buhl said that the biggest advantage came from modern hardware. Noting that there were no magic tricks behind the in-game destruction, Buhl said that the fact that the PS4 and Xbox One weren’t being targeted as release platforms helped raise the floor of what the developers could offer.
“Maybe the only magic trick is that we’re not on the PS4 or Xbox One any more,” explained Buhl. “So we’ve kind of raised the floor of what we have in terms of memory and CPU speed, and so obviously raising that floor helps with improving performance overall. Since we’re not trying to get the game to run on a PS4, for example.”
Aside from that, the fact that Battlefield Studios focused quite a bit on the rigorous testing Battlefield 6 went through during development. Ultimately, it all just came down to “just a lot of testing, a lot of iteration, a lot of work.”
“Other than [raising the floor] it’s just a lot of work,” he said. “It’s the testing, it’s testing destruction, it’s optimising different areas. We’re using the Frostbite engine, of course, and the Frostbite engine was sort of built for Battlefield. It was built for destruction. And those pieces are core parts of the engine.
“When I say we tested and fixed issues, sometimes that was the Battlefield team fixing an issue. I don’t think there was any magic bullet. It was just a lot of testing, a lot of iteration, a lot of work.”
Battlefield 6 is coming to PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S later this week on October 10. Leading up to the release, Battlefield Studios has released a launch trailer for the game showcasing some of its environmental destruction. While you’re at it, also check out why the developers are confident that Battlefield 6 won’t see many launch-day server issues.
