Ever since their introduction on the market, both the PS5 and the Xbox Series X/S have been extremely successful due to the plethora of quality of life features that rightfully award them the title of next-gen consoles. It is not uncommon for developers to use them for their innovative graphics and loading times as a springboard to work on the port of successful games to make their performance much better, and this is indeed the case for Gunfire Games with Remnant: From the Ashes. Remnant came out in the second half of 2019, almost two years ago now, and it quickly became the go-to game for those players who wanted a dash of Dark Souls mixed with a smidge of exciting gunplay and a hint of Lovecraftian horror as well.

As a matter of fact, very recently Gunfire Games released a new free update for Remnant: From the Ashes which takes advantage of the improvements of the PS5 and Xbox Series X/S to make the game run at 4K 60 fps. This update allows Remnant players to fully enjoy the game's potential, especially considering how important timing is, combined with the fact that aiming at enemies is what makes the difference between life and death. Game Rant interviewed Colin Bonstead, Technical Director at Gunfire Games, about this new update, the challenges it entailed, how improved performance can change everything, and much more.

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When the pandemic hit, it hit hard, and developing video games became a much tougher task with the work of each person being done at home. This was also the case for Gunfire Games, and the studio had to go through the challenges of working remotely to actually deliver the update to port Remnant: From the Ashes to both PS5 and Xbox Series X/S, which is no small task. The problem is that this update wasn't actually a complete port of the game to the new consoles, meaning that it wasn't fully converted to use the next-gen tools, but rather, it was made in a way that allowed Remnant to take advantage of the machines to improve performance.

There are two ways to update a game for the new consoles. One is to stay on the previous generation consoles tools but use some new calls to detect when you’re running on the new consoles and have it unlock some of the extra CPU and GPU power and memory for you. The other is to do a full conversion to the new consoles' tools and get full access to all of the power, and new features like enhanced haptic feedback.

The decision to do a port of Remnant came when Bonstead proposed capitalizing on the newfound power of the PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X, but it wasn't feasible prior to the launch of the game because of resources. This project was postponed up until the DLCs were in the works, when Bonstead tried to push the team to get Remnant running at 60 fps and 4K on the previous consoles, but things changed with the announcement of the next-gen powerhouse.

[...]the challenge is playing through the whole game with the new settings and making sure we’re hitting the framerate and maximum resolution we’re aiming for. That involves a lot of testing and iteration.

This is when Gunfire Games used its work on the port to the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X as a stepping stone to secure the incredible performance of the new generation of consoles for Remnant. Now that the update is live, players can test it out for themselves and check out the difference between generations here. There still are some issues PS5 and PS4 Pro, specifically, for Remnant; however, Bonstead assured that the team will soon address those concerns soon in yet another free update. Even though the whole process wasn't exactly a piece of cake for Gunfire Games, the developer seems to have accomplished what it set out to do.

Remnant: From the Ashes is available now on PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.

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