For nearly 25 years, the Age of Empires series has delighted millions of real-time strategy fans around the world. With a focus on real historical events that date back to the Stone Age, the series challenges players to determine the course of those events in order to experience the story as it was or create their own new story. It has clearly caught on with fans and has sold millions of copies over the years.
With that in mind, the developer teams at World’s Edge and Relic Entertainment knew they had huge footsteps to fill in next year’s development Age of Empires IV. However, they knew that it was not enough just to create a game that not only checked all the required real-time strategy boxes, but also delivered an experience that exceeded fans’ expectations. The teams knew they had to do whatever they could to get more people to play than ever before.
Enter the Min Spec mode which allows players on older and underperforming machines to get the experience Age of Empires IV. This mode is triggered by a combination of in-game settings that are made when the game is first started with the help of an automatic detection system and can be referenced or optimized via the settings menu.
“When we wanted to bring this new game into the franchise, we knew we had to support different PC configurations,” said Michael Mann, Executive Producer at World’s Edge. “Looking ahead to the next few years, we expect that 50% or more of our player base will play on machines that use the low-spec renderer.”
A large part of this player base is still playing games like Age of Empires II and Age of Empires IIIpublished in 1999 and 2005, respectively. Age of Empires is also a very global franchise, and machine specifications vary widely around the world. Some regions that play the Age franchise very actively tend to have lower spec machines for a variety of reasons. Southeast Asia and Latin America are two regions with very passionate and still thriving Age of Empires communities, and the developers wanted to make sure the people who were still playing Age of Empires II
During their engineering for Age of Empires IV, the team found that a significant portion of the Age of Empires community is still playing these earlier Age of Empires games on laptops or on older desktop PCs with discrete and integrated graphics processing units (GPUs). In order to reach the largest possible player base, they had to consider configurations and develop GPUs that have their own RAM as well as those that use part of the system’s RAM.
For the former, the design was much simpler as they had a good idea of how much RAM a given discrete GPU would have available. Integrated GPUs, on the other hand, were more difficult to design and plan because more variables had to be considered to ensure that GPU usage didn’t crash the entire system. To prevent this from happening, they developed a low-spec renderer.
That was of course not easy, at least initially. Your biggest technical hurdle? “Time. It’s time,” said Joel Pritchett, Technical Director at World’s Edge. “The low-spec renderer is what we would have developed for an Xbox 360. We know how to do it. We just needed time to getting it right. Art, on the other hand, had other challenges, such as building multiple asset sets. “
Of course, there are tradeoffs when playing the game in Min Spec mode. As with most PC games Age of Empires IV has a recommended specification that the Relic and World’s Edge development teams recommend as the ideal way for anyone to experience the game. Examples of what to expect when playing the game with a machine of these specifications are high unit counts, high resolution models, lots of detailed explosions, and 8-player battles.
Since the Min Spec Mode was designed for laptops and desktops with built-in GPUs, the most important thing for the developers was to make sure the fans were playing the campaign with textures with lower resolution, less destruction, simpler lighting, less visual boost, and 4-player battles can . You won’t get the added spectacle of battles with larger players or high-end image and texture quality, but you still get a great one without spending a lot of money on upgrading your gaming desktop or laptop. It’s a compromise that even gamers with more powerful machines want to try. “It’s worth noting that some of our competitive testers preferred the low-spec renderer because it’s visually clearer and you get a better frame rate,” said Pritchett. “You may want to try different settings the first time you play.”
Min-Spec mode isn’t all the team has done to make the game more accessible. “Since we’re going live with Game Pass for PC on the first day, we wanted to ensure widespread hardware support so new users could enjoy it Age IV. We kept an eye on existing and new players during development, ”said Mann. “Not just in terms of their ability to play on their machines, but also with game features like our tutorial and the Art of War challenge missions.”
However, if this team has shown us anything, it is that they are never satisfied and are always looking for ways to improve the gaming experience. They’ve made dozens (if not hundreds) of tweaks and changes to the game during private and public beta over the past several years. Most importantly, when the game launches next week, they’ll be ready to go to make sure everyone has a great experience.
“We’ll be looking for feedback on all elements of the game as soon as we release it, so we’d like to learn more about gaming experiences. We also have our customer support team on standby to help each player get any help they may need getting started, ”said Mann. “We can’t wait until the 28th and we can’t wait for people to start playing Age of Empires IV. “
Age of Empires IV pre-order
Xbox Game Studios
Pre-order Age of Empires IV now and receive the Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition expansion “Dawn of the Dukes” as a free bonus in August 2021 *. One of the most popular real-time strategy games returns to fame with Age of Empires IV, putting you at the center of epic historical battles that have shaped the world. Age of Empires IV offers both familiar and innovative new ways to expand your empire in vast landscapes with breathtaking 4K visual fidelity, and brings an evolved real-time strategy game to a new generation. Returning to History – The past is a prologue as you immerse yourself in a rich historical setting of 8 different civilizations around the world, from the English to the Chinese to the Sultanate of Delhi on your quest for victory. Build cities, manage resources and lead your troops into battle in 4 different campaigns with 35 missions on land and sea, spanning over 500 years of history from the Middle Ages to the Renaissance. Choose your path to greatness with historical figures – Relive the adventures of Joan of Arc on her way to defeat the English, or as Genghis Khan command powerful Mongolian troops as he conquered Asia. The choice is yours – and every decision you make will determine the outcome of the story. Customize your game with mods – Available early 2022, play how you want with user-generated content tools for custom games. Challenge the World – Jump online to compete, collaborate or watch with up to 7 of your friends in PVP and PVE multiplayer modes. An Age for All Players – Age of Empires IV is a welcoming experience for new players, with a tutorial system that teaches the essence of real-time strategy and a campaign story mode designed for first-time gamers for easy setup and success to allow challenging enough for experienced players with new game mechanics, advanced strategies and combat techniques. * The expansion bonus requires Age of Empires II: Definitive Edition, which is sold separately. Valid for pre-orders through Steam, Microsoft Store and participating retailers. Content requires broadband internet to download. Contact your dealer for details.