The new-gen version of Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order helped Respawn build Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Speaking to PLAY Magazine in a new issue out on Tuesday, February 7, Star Wars Jedi: Survivor director Stig Asmussen explained how Respawn's work on Fallen Order's upgrade has helped the new game. "[The PS5 version of Jedi: Fallen Order] was a good proving ground while we were considering how to enhance Survivor," the game director says.
"We actually considered ray-tracing for the new-gen Fallen Order because we were already building it into Survivor, but we ultimately scrapped it, because the environment art authoring between generations was pretty different," Asmussen continued. "But the process did help us define how we wanted to approach ray tracing on our modified version of the Unreal 4 engine."
Asmussen continued to explain that Respawn realized they could take advantage of the "faster processors, larger/faster memory, better loading times" on the new-gen console to result in "larger maps, with more detail, greater density, broader enemy/NPC variety, and overall fidelity."
Respawn didn't want to "break" what it had accomplished with Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order, Asmussen explained, because the original game was so well received. The developer wanted to "evolve" and "enhance" the sequel though, which is what Asmussen believes Respawn has achieved with the final version of Star Wars Jedi: Survivor.
Star Wars Jedi: Survivor was recently hit with a six-week delay, which pushed the game back from an early March launch to release on April 28, for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X/S. The last-minute delay was down to Respawn being given more time to polish the sequel, something which fans of the series are relieved at.
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