Layers of Fear is the first third-party game developed in Unreal Engine 5 to make it to the market. With only one week left before the launch of this remake (which also features the new The Final Note story) of the acclaimed horror games, I interviewed Anshar Studios' programmer Krzysztof Kansy and technical artist Michał Gawron.
Among various tech topics, I inquired about the console feature set, target resolution and frame rate. Here's what Gawron said:
How do the console versions compare to PC in terms of graphics settings and features like Lumen, Niagara, and ray tracing?
Michał Gawron: On consoles, we use the same graphics settings and features as on PC. There is a full Lumen implementation with Ray Tracing and Niagara support.
Can you share the target resolution and frame rates on consoles and whether multiple presets (quality, performance, etc.) are available to users in Layers of Fear?
Michał Gawron: On consoles, the player will have the choice of Quality or Performance mode. Quality is a hardware ray tracing mode with the highest graphics settings at 4K and 30 fps. Performance is 60 fps mode with dynamic resolution up to 1440p with lower graphics quality. For XSS, we offer 60 fps in Performance mode with additional optimizations.
I also asked about the freshly announced MacOS version, which will ship on the same day (June 15th) as the PC and console versions. Gawron said Anshar and Bloober worked together with Apple with 'astounding results'.
You've just announced the Apple Silicon version of Layers of Fear. Was it hard to port the game to this different combination of hardware and software?
Michał Gawron: Working closely with Apple, the process went smoothly. Apple's involvement in the process was invaluable and the results are astounding.
Are you able to support the exact same features of the PC version (Lumen, Niagara, ray tracing), etc. in this version of the game? Are there any differences in rendering or performance that players should be aware of?
Michał Gawron: Yes, Layers of Fear on Mac is the same game as the PC version with no compromises on performance! The Mac version also supports Lumen global illumination and reflections system from the Unreal 5 engine as well as MetalFX Upscaling to boost performance and quality.
Layers of Fear is one of several games heading to Mac (including Hideo Kojima's Death Stranding: Director's Cut). However, the most exciting development for Mac gaming is arguably the addition of Wine to the Game Porting Toolkit, which enabled support for many DX12 PC games.
About the author: With over two decades of experience in gaming journalism, Alessio Palumbo has led the gaming vertical at Wccftech since August 2015. He started working at a young age for Italian websites like Everyeye.it, Gamestar.it, Nextgame.it, and Multiplayer.it before kickstarting the indie English-language publication Worlds Factory as its founder and Editor in Chief. In the last decade, he has coordinated the overall output of Wccftech's gaming section, managed PR relations, assigned reviews, produced daily news coverage, edited gaming content as needed, and delivered game reviews. Arguably, his trademark content is the long series of exclusive developer interviews that have been cited by Wikipedia and by the biggest news media and gaming publications. His passion for technology also makes him knowledgeable when it comes to gaming hardware and tech. His favorite genres include RPGs, MMORPGs, and action/adventure games.
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