Thu, Oct 20, 2011 | 08:47 BST

DICE: BF3 360 looks “standard-def” without installed texture pack

Battlefield series producer Patrick Bach has told Gamerzines that the 360 version of Battlefield 3 will look “standard-def” without the installation of the game’s texture pack, but insisted it isn’t Frosbite 2 demanding use of the upgrade.

The texture pack was announced earlier this month.

“The thing with the 360 is that you need to be able to give consumers a game where you don’t have to install it on a hard drive, because there are 360s without a hard drive,” said Bach.

“So we need to give you the option of installing it, rather than just demanding it. You could call it a ‘standard-def’ version for the 360 if you don’t have a hard-drive.”

Bach went on to point out that DICE’s goal remained the same with Battlefield 3, regardless of platform: to push hardware boundaries.

“We’re really trying to push the limits of what we can do on the consoles and the PC. Our goal is to see how we can utilise as many of the systems that you actually have in your machine that some people haven’t utilised before,” he said.

“Some [developers] just do it like, if it doesn’t fit into memory we just make a lesser game. We don’t do that. For us, it’s about how we can give you the most game ever even though the hardware is over five years old.”

BF3 releases next week on PS3, 360 and PC.

14 comments

StolenGlory
20/10/11, 9:12 am

Presumably then, the Beta wasn’t using the high-res pack?

Iliad
20/10/11, 9:22 am

#1 It would make sense judging by the textures in the beta.

John117
20/10/11, 10:00 am

My god, did people actually think that the graphics in the beta was gonna represent exactly what we would get in the final game? There must be limits to how stupid some people can get :S It was a 30 min download on my xbox for christs sake, thats like downloading a indie game. How much can they stuff into that?!

DrDamn
20/10/11, 10:01 am

He didn’t say BF3 looks “standard-def” without the installed texture pack. He said that it’s the standard def version, where that specifically refers to the textures, not the resolution of the game itself. Two completely different things.

Fin
20/10/11, 10:05 am

1.2GB for one level is not like downloading an indie game.

loki
20/10/11, 10:27 am

bla bla bla
BF 3 still sucks

Clupula
20/10/11, 12:53 pm

Couple points about this:

1) It’s good to see a developer not allowing the limits of the 360 hardware to hold back the other versions *cough*Capcom*cough*

2) Keeping in mind that the no versions of the Wii U will have hard drives, I can already see many games either not being brought to it or will ending up suffering, overall, to accommodate it.

3) Most indie games aren’t even 500M, nevermind 1.2G.

viralshag
20/10/11, 1:26 pm

@7, Agreed. This is a clever way of delivering the content. Obviously it’s not that good for non-hard drive 360 users. But, it seems to be a smart workaround.

OrbitMonkey
20/10/11, 1:42 pm

Well if it looks as good as Killzone on my ps3, i’ll be happy

#10

manamana
20/10/11, 1:47 pm

@6 U 2

#11

daytripper
20/10/11, 2:05 pm

next generation microsoft need to put hard drives in as standard

#12

Jedi Mind Tricks
20/10/11, 3:52 pm

Does anyone have any idea how big this download is going to be…? I’ve got like 1.2 gigs left on my hard drive, any bigger than that and I’m gonna need to start deleting things :-/

#13

MisfitVoodoo
20/10/11, 4:48 pm

I’m probably gonna get insulted for saying this but, Would you only install them if you had a HDTV?

#14

DrDamn
22/10/11, 6:41 pm

@13
The confusion is caused by the way this has been reported. Standard def refers to the textures and not the screen, so you will still see an improvement on an SDTV.

@12
It’s not a download, it’s on one of the discs already. As such you’d expect it to be 4Gb or less.