>>40024
I think that's sorta not true. But only sorta.
Nintendo was making fucking 3d game engines as well as games in the 90s from scratch nearly.
They just got older and lazier. You look at the n64 and how optimized it's architecture was for specific things. They knew what they were doing with it, the problem was no one else did at the time so it struggled to get games. They could code that shit precisely in C (which was new and they modified) and ASM though back then. AND make a good plot. Anyway, they worked in precise detail that I don't think is done at all by them today. That must have taken FOREVER to optimize and get right. AND they had to learn a completely new art with 3D gaming in the process.
The
switch is a miserable mess computer architecture wise.
Switch 2 is an improvement, I think they've become more switched on somehow (though it's GPU is gonna be an issue). Maybe critics are more precise with criticism nowadays and technical components, so they attenuate their shit better and better now. But it shows how much of that technical detail they had lost over a couple decades and lax mentality with optimization due to a lack of proper competition in their demand market. Things have changed, they are competing with not only PS5 and Xbox, but also the
Steam Deck. They also have very active detailed modding and fans communities nowadays that are no longer taking their crap with the Switch nowadays. Zelda/Mario/Metroid especially. So they did try to optimize the switch 2 a bit more. It's not that bad compared to the switch, but it's still not there either.
Anyway, Bethesda are almost hyper-focused on the engine shit nowadays. They need to improve
art direction more now. After
Starfield and developing a work model around programming that nightmare (which must have been
HORRENDOUS), perhaps they have more opportunity to do this because they've improved how they manage time in their company.
Then again, you also have ESO and F76 chewing up their focus too. So maybe not.
I do think that part of the reason why corps are much slower though is just due to
new workers and their lack of familiarity with in house engines and technical detail up to basic primitives like ASM. I have a feeling that this remaster is an attempt to train some new employees (Bethesda has grown a lot since Skyrim) while allowing interaction with Unreal engine. It kinda does make sense to me. You can kinda mingle them enough that employees can get familiar with CE easier.
Then there's the added
scope of art needed, things that just weren't focused upon in older games.
Ambient/Radiant/Peripheral AI for a start. Ambient programming was a large focus for Bethesda for a LONG time from memory. In fact it seems to be the core of Starfield. Now with a bit more reduced scale and scope with ES6 though, that could be really cool if implemented well in it. More AI functionality per square unit of area on the map. You look at oblivion, the AI is kinda clueless. Radiant AI wasn't up to par and AI often broke the game for ridiculous reasons (
Josh Sawyer has a good video on this
here https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B9XcGgjnObw ). Starfield had much improved shit in that regard, it was just sorta stretched really really thin because of the scale of it. Condensing the space it's utilized in allows potentially for way more optimization for this shit.
Anyway, that's probably also part of the art direction, so it's way more fucking complicated in that regard. The actual making of the landscape is kinda less of a hassle than that shit to make.