Bethesda's re-release of the 2011 smash hit The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim has managed to find its way onto the PS4 and Xbox One under the moniker of Skyrim: Special Edition. Well, the remastered version of the game runs at specific stats on Sony and Microsoft's home consoles.
According to Gamespot, there were benchmarks done for the remastered edition of Skyrim and the stats revealed that the Xbox One and PS4 run the game at native 1080p and only 30 frames per second.
The benchmark tests were carried out by the reputable Digital Foundry, who noted that the Xbox One managed to hit 1080p with ease and some room to spare. However, the lock at 30fps is due to the fact that the console could not reach 60fps. Usually designers cap frame-rates at specific intervals: 30fps, 60fps and 120fps. Movies usually run at 24fps and a lot of people really enjoy them that way, but due to control latency and timing issues in the world of interactive entertainment they need to consistently hit 30fps for a moderately enjoyable experience.
For games that exceed 30fps but cannot hit 60fps consistently, most times developers will cap it at 30 so that it offers the optimal experience for consistently smooth frame-rates. Some games may peak at around 42fps through 54fps and bounce up and down depending on what's occurring on screen, and this can sometimes result in screen tearing, drops, and an unpleasant gaming experience. For a game like Skyrim, where going from crowded town streets to the vast open wilderness, there's a lot of spikes in performance torque that requires expert optimization to try to stay above 30fps, so a hard-lock is usually used to balance that out.
For the special edition of Skyrim on the PS4 Pro, Bethesda announced previously that it would run at native 4K. Given the upscale in texture resolution, mesh details and overall post-processing and special effects, I'm a little curious how well Skyrim is going to benchmark on the PS4 Pro when Digital Foundry finally gets their hands on it.
They also noted that performance, stability and optimization were vastly improved over the original 2011 release.
While you might be considering getting the PS4 Pro edition of Skyrim: Special Edition, keep in mind that the mod support for the game is not quite up to par to its Xbox counterpart. The Xbox One allows for curated mods to appear on the console, but sadly no nude mods are allowed even though the game is rated 'M' for Mature. They do allow for third-party assets and materials, so you can create a lot of different things and share them on the Xbox One versions of Skyrim and Fallout 4.
For PS4 and PS4 Pro users, there is a rule prohibiting third-party assets in mods. So the only mods that can be made available on the PlayStation systems are those that use in-game assets. That means no new textures, no new meshes, no new weapons, no new enemies, no new locations, and no total conversion mods for the remastered edition of Skyrim.
If modding is a serious thing for you and you want to experience what the community has created, then you might have to take more into account than just the specs.
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