To that end, we spoke to marketing and PR manager Sean Walsh, technical director Mark Williams and 3D artist Ben Exell about the Xbox One X, how it compares to modern day PCs and PS4 Pro and much more.

"The concept of the price of a game not being set but actually being dynamic, depending on how you progress and experience a game, is fairly new and may take some getting used to."

You recently completed your 10th anniversary. What does this mean for the company?

For a small indie studio to be celebrating 10 years in the games industry is quite an achievement, it’s something we’re really proud of. We’ve seen so many changes during that time, with new consoles, business models and technologies shaping and redefining our industry year after year. For us, this has brought fantastic opportunities as well as challenges and whilst we’re proud of that we’ve achieved so far, we really believe that the future has never looked brighter for the studio and industry as a whole.

Right now, how many people do you employ?

We employ 12 full-time staff at present.

What lessons did you learn from Mantis Burn Racing?

People love top-down racing! and more importantly for us, they love Mantis Burn Racing. We’ve seen a resurgence and fondness for the genre with so many people telling us they’ve been waiting for a great top-down racing game to hit modern consoles; it’s been really encouraging.

What is your take on loot boxes and the negative trend they seem to generate these days?

They’ve certainly proved to be a controversial talking point recently and something that the industry needs to address as mistakes have been made. There is a perception in some quarters that they are inherently bad, which I wouldn’t say is completely true. It really comes down to how they are used, what value they bring – if they’re implemented well they can add to the game experience and as long as they are perceived as being fair, they can be welcomed. The concept of the price of a game not being set but actually being dynamic, depending on how you progress and experience a game, is fairly new and may take some getting used to.

Are there any plans to bring the game to the Switch?

Mantis Burn Racing is out now on Nintendo Switch. It’s been incredibly well received from fans and press alike, we’re thrilled!

You are working on a number of projects. What can you tell us about them?

We can’t say too much right now, other than we are working on the development of more of our own IP. Watch this space.

"The support for Xbox One X is absolutely growing with more and more games using the full extent of its power."

Do you think the Xbox One X compares to a modern gaming PC?

In terms of price/performance The Xbox One X is a very streamlined way to play games/watch movies in 4K and HDR. To get a comparable experience with a PC you will have to spend about a couple of hundred pounds more than the Xbox One X’s retail price at this time. Which is great if you already have a 4K TV and you haven’t had chance to view any 4K content yet. If you already have a gaming PC however you can easily upgrade your GPU for the price of an Xbox One X and perhaps even surpass its power. Still, the Xbox One X definitely has defined its place in the market as an entry level system for real 4K content.

The support for Xbox One X is absolutely growing with more and more games using the full extent of its power. Although on PC there is still a much larger library of games that support high resolutions and have done for some time. So pretty much any game dating back to the early 90s can be played in 4K (sometimes using a workaround/mod). And of course PC games can be played in ultra wide and at much higher frame rates. With the introduction of HDMI 2.1 we will start seeing 4k @ 120hz+ soon. In the end it all comes down to personal preference, consoles have always had a locked ecosystem whereas PC’s are much more versatile. If you want to play games at 4K in your lounge right now, easily, the Xbox One X is a great option.

How much more powerful is the Xbox One X compared to Xbox One?

Xbox One X is a significant step up over the base Xbox One. We are pushing around 4 times as many pixels, with the same level of anti-aliasing, and geometry and texture complexity, and it isn’t breaking a sweat. It was very easy to do too. We had already done a lot of optimization on base Xbox One, as it is slightly less powerful than base PS4, but we really didn’t need to do anything to get Mantis Burn Racing running at full native 4K on Xbox One X at a solid 60fps.

How does it compare to the PS4 Pro?

On PS4 Pro, things were slightly different – the base PS4 version of MBR didn’t have quite as many hardware specific optimizations as the base XB1 version, and PS4 Pro, although substantial, still isn’t quite the same leap as XB1 X is, so we had quite a bit more work to do. PS4 Pro does offer a lot more hardware specific optimization opportunities however, and with a bit of effort we were able to exploit these to ensure we could achieve native 4K at 60fps there too.

Which GPU does the Xbox One X GPU come close to?

An AMD RX580 is probably the closest GPU in terms of real world performance to compare to the Xbox One X. It is hard to find a fair competitor, as the Xbox One X’s CPU does bottleneck its GPU somewhat so it could maybe perform better in a different use case. Also hardware pricing in the PC space does fluctuate a lot. But in terms of real world performance the RX580 is on par with the Xbox One X.

"Developers tend to build game technology that can scale well these days – it’s essential when you want to be supporting not only all the consoles, but also the largest possible range of PC hardware, and even mobile devices."

Do you think cross compatability between Xbox One and Xbox One X will hold back the latter?

I don’t believe so. Developers tend to build game technology that can scale well these days – it’s essential when you want to be supporting not only all the consoles, but also the largest possible range of PC hardware, and even mobile devices. We’re very used to building games for PC that can work well on old hardware, while at the same time allowing all the bells and whistles to be enabled to take advantage of the very latest hardware. Building games that support both XB1 and XB1 X is just an extension of that.

Did anything surprised you about the Xbox One X?

Not sure how surprising this can be, but it’s certainly the coolest bit of kit I’ve worked with. Microsoft have gone out of their way to make development as easy and efficient as possible, and the features they have built into the development hardware are amazing. I’m probably not allowed to disclose what the features actually are, but it’s evident that Microsoft didn’t want to skimp or hold back on anything.

Do you think the Xbox One X has enough power to render demanding games in native 4K?

I certainly think it does – we managed to do 4K with very little work, and I believe there is room to spare, so with a bit of time and effort I’m sure even the most graphically demanding game can be tuned to natively render at 4K. We’re even doing anti-aliasing at 4K, and there is a good argument to say that this is possibly not needed – indeed we took it out of the PS4 Pro version. Checkerboard will always have a place though, and for relatively static or slow-moving scenes, it can look imperceptible to true native 4K, while at the same time freeing up some rendering resources for additional and possibly more interesting effects.

The great thing is gamers now have the option. As 4K TV’s become more widespread more and more gamers will be playing games in ultra high-definition, which of course adds to the experience.

When the Xbox One X was first announced, Microsoft made a big deal about how “Project Scorpio” would be the next big step in gaming. It would deliver 4K gaming to the world and as projects like Forza Motorsport 7 were revealed, it seemed like native 4K (and maybe 60 FPS with it) would become a reality. Since then, we’ve had plenty of games utilize a dynamic resolution or deliver 4K but at 30 FPS.

The question has now become whether the Xbox One X is capable of natively rendering graphically demanding games at 4K. Will shortcuts like checkerboard rendering have to be used? What is the best solution? As Voofoo Studios (which developed Mantis Burn Racing) marketing and PR manager Sean Walsh, technical director Mark Williams and 3D artist Ben Exell discussed with us, there’s a place for checkerboard rendering when it’s required.

“I certainly think it does – we managed to do 4K with very little work, and I believe there is room to spare, so with a bit of time and effort I’m sure even the most graphically demanding game can be tuned to natively render at 4K.

“We’re even doing anti-aliasing at 4K, and there is a good argument to say that this is possibly not needed – indeed we took it out of the PS4 Pro version. Checkerboard will always have a place though, and for relatively static or slow-moving scenes, it can look imperceptible to true native 4K, while at the same time freeing up some rendering resources for additional and possibly more interesting effects.”

At the end of the day, optimization and performance appear to be the most ideal pursuits. As developers spend more time with the console and the Xbox One nears the end of its shelf-life, it will be interesting to see how its hardware is leveraged.

If you’ve heard one thing about the Xbox One X’s power, namely that there’s a lot of it, you’ve heard it all. Microsoft’s “most powerful console ever” was built off having six teraflops of processing power, thus allowing a large variety of games to run in 4K settings. Of course, there’s still the debate about the number of native 4K titles versus checkerboarding and dynamic resolution but there’s more to the console’s GPU story than that.

For instance, when comparing the Xbox One X to the PC, which GPU does it most resemble? How can it compete when other components like the CPU aren’t as spiffy? GamingBolt spoke to VooFoo Studios marketing and PR manager Sean Walsh, technical director Mark Williams and 3D artist Ben Exell about the same. The team had worked on Mantis Burn Racing and was experienced with the Xbox One X.

“An AMD RX580 is probably the closest GPU in terms of real world performance to compare to the Xbox One X. It is hard to find a fair competitor, as the Xbox One X’s CPU does bottleneck its GPU somewhat so it could maybe perform better in a different use case. Also hardware pricing in the PC space does fluctuate a lot. But in terms of real world performance the RX580 is on par with the Xbox One X.”

The Xbox One X is currently available for $499 and while it doesn’t topple the very best that PCs have to offer, the results are still fairly good. What are your thoughts on the matter? Let us know in the comments below.

As sales for Sony’s PlayStation 4 top 70 million worldwide, one has to wonder how the Xbox One X – which released in November this year – will be measuring up to the PS4 Pro. Granted, we don’t know how many of those PS4 consoles sold are actually Pro units but it’s difficult to ignore its presence.

After all, it’s still Sony’s 4K solution to gaming even if many of its solutions rely on dynamic resolutions and checkerboarding. With the Xbox One X now out and about for a good period of time, how are developers responding to it as compared to the PS4 Pro? How does the latter stack up in terms of optimization?

GamingBolt spoke to Voofoo Studios technical director Mark Williams, marketing manager Sean Walsh and 3D artist Ben Exell about the same. The developer is responsible for Mantis Burn Racing which is available for Xbox One, PS4, PC and Nintendo Switch.

We were told that, “On PS4 Pro, things were slightly different – the base PS4 version of Mantis Burn Racing didn’t have quite as many hardware specific optimizations as the base XB1 version, and PS4 Pro, although substantial, still isn’t quite the same leap as XB1 X is, so we had quite a bit more work to do.

“PS4 Pro does offer a lot more hardware specific optimization opportunities however, and with a bit of effort we were able to exploit these to ensure we could achieve native 4K at 60fps there too.”

What are your thoughts on the PS4 Pro, especially in light of the Xbox One X’s power? Let us know in the comments. Stay tuned for our full interview with Voofoo Studios in the coming days.

You’ve probably seen the tests and comparisons and heard all the numbers about the Xbox One X. The mid-generation upgrade (that is, if a console generation still lasts four years) to the Xbox One has been received rather favorably by most developers. Granted, the results vary depending on the games and the procedures used but all the power that the Xbox One X packs isn’t going to waste.

When speaking to Mantis Burn Racing developer Voofoo Studios, we learned just how easy it is to get their base Xbox One title running on Xbox One X at native 4K resolution and 60 FPS. Marketing manager Sean Walsh, technical director Mark Williams and 3D artist Ben Exell noted that, “Xbox One X is a significant step up over the base Xbox One. We are pushing around 4 times as many pixels, with the same level of antialiasing, and geometry and texture complexity, and it isn’t breaking a sweat.

“It was very easy to do too. We had already done a lot of optimization on base Xbox One, as it is slightly less powerful than base PS4, but we really didn’t need to do anything to get Mantis Burn Racing running at full native 4K on Xbox One X at a solid 60fps.”

It is kind of surprising that next to no effort was needed to get the game running and taking advantage of the Xbox One X. Again, this process will vary from game to game and the coming year will be the true test of the Xbox One X’s power. Until then, you can pick up the console now for $499 worldwide.

 I do need to immediately give credit to the talented VooFoo studios where it’s due. The mechanics of controlling your car and drifting it cleanly through the racing line are simply spot on. They’ve nailed the feeling of driving a car better than many games some have the gall to ask full price for *cough NASCAR cough*. It’s both intuitive and simple to start flinging yourself through the tightest of turns after the second race.

"The mechanics of controlling your car and drifting it cleanly through the racing line are simply spot on."

The presentation is also very clean, with both the visuals and the music being nothing offensive, but nothing spectacular either. Tracks look fantastic, as does the lighting on them, and each vehicle is distinct on the track even from the distant camera, with the UI being clean and easy to read.

 It’s just unfortunate that the driving mechanics are all that’s particularly memorable about the game. They offer a handful of different vehicles to unlock that all handle slightly differently in a very Mario Kart fashion, the small and mobile light vehicles, the rounded mediums and the brutish and slow to start heavy. These are further divided into classes from rookie to veteran to unlock as you progress through Career, but I’ll hold off for a moment on that.

 There are only two locations included in the game to begin with, and only four tracks to each location. You’ll be getting very familiar with the sand, mud and caves of the mountains for the first hour of gameplay before you’ll even see another environment, which then becomes the only addition to the game, for a total of eight tracks.

"Mantis Burn Racing makes driving so satisfying, I wish it wasn’t afraid to get more whimsical and include some dynamic tracks or items to layer on top."

These tracks are not bad from a technical standpoint at all. The first several times they’re exciting to race on and the AI clued me into a few shortcuts I missed. They play to the fantastic mechanics really well and reward skilled driving. Once you get to know the layouts though, there’s really nothing that mixes it up.

 The wide roads are devoid of anything besides other racers and the walls. There are no obstacles in sight and there are no other mechanics here such as items to shake up the standings or reign in a dominating player. Skillful driving such as drafting and drifting will fill up a boost the player can deploy, but even upgraded it has all the impact of a kitten fart before needing to be reloaded.

 Had the boost worked more like in Burnout, where you could use the meter you had at any point, and felt impactful to use like that title, perhaps racing would feel even a little dynamic. Mantis Burn Racing makes driving so satisfying, I wish it wasn’t afraid to get more whimsical and include some dynamic tracks or items to layer on top. The driving shows the talent is there, I’d have liked to see that extra system.

"Between the low amount of tracks and the nine available vehicles across all classes, Mantis Burn Racing would have seriously benefited from a lot more time in production."

The game attempts to vary itself a little bit by having you go reverse on the same tracks, which was a trick I caught onto by lap 2 the first time it tried. Were that just a bonus to a game with plenty of content I might have considered it cool, but here it’s simply padding. Between the low amount of tracks and the nine available vehicles across all classes, Mantis Burn Racing would have seriously benefited from a lot more time in production.

 Alongside an already abandoned online multiplayer and a local race option, the meat of the game is a career mode. Structured a bit like Sonic & All Stars Racing Transformed, players will clear events on a board to advance through a seven season league. Besides racing, each event will also ask you to hit some other goals such as drifting for so long, to earn gears and unlock further events. It’s a bare minimum unlock system that might convince you to get fancy, but I never ran into the roadblock where I couldn’t progress due to lack of gears.

"As a result of these different modes doing nothing to change your priorities and how you’ll play, every event is going to feel the same."

Within Career, the game tries to showcase all of the seven game modes within. Three are direct variations on normal racing with the one distinction being the lap count, time trial, and three others that do nothing to alter the gameplay loop of getting to first and staying there. As a result of these different modes doing nothing to change your priorities and how you’ll play, every event is going to feel the same. The dearth of courses is only going to punctuate that feeling of repetition.

 There is some fantastic execution to the most basic mechanics of Mantis Burn Racing, but almost everything else falls really short. The talent of VooFoo Studios is pretty clear, and if they gave it more time, we might have had something really special. I’ll be watching their next title, but this outing is a footnote at best.

 This game was reviewed on the PlayStation 4.

GamingBolt had a chance to speak to VooFoo’s marketing and PR manager Sean Walsh and technical director Mark Williams about the game, it’s inspiration, direction for the future (including support on the PS4 Pro) and much more.

"The races are fast, frenetic and highly competitive as you race across highly detailed, visually stunning tracks, in high-risk, high speed races where winning is everything!"

Before we begin can you please tell us a bit about yourself and the studio?

VooFoo Studios is an independent games studio based in the centre of Birmingham, in the UK. We were formed in 2007 by a small team of passionate games industry professionals who set out to make fun, commercially successful games using our own in-house proprietary game engine. We collaborated with Sony on our first project, Hustle Kings, which went on to top the PSN charts and earned us two Develop Award nominations in the process, we’re also the development team behind the million selling ‘Pure’ series of games, which includes Pure Pool and Pure Hold’em. 2016 has been our busiest year to date and has seen the studio move into publishing with the release of our first self-developed and published owned IP, Mantis Burn Racing, which is out now on PS4, Xbox One and Steam.

So what exactly is Mantis Burn Racing? Where did the idea came from?

Mantis Burn Racing is an arcade style top-down racing game that harkens back to classic top-down arcade style racing that you know and love, with impressive graphics and immersive gameplay features such as a comprehensive single-player campaign and an in-depth RPG-style vehicle upgrade system. The races are fast, frenetic and highly competitive as you race across highly detailed, visually stunning tracks, in high-risk, high speed races where winning is everything! We wanted Mantis Burn Racing to be a credible top-down racer that is really fun to play with friends, so we have highly competitive local four-player split-screen racing and multiple online modes for up to eight players. Our founder and Technical Director, Mark Williams, got his first start in the industry with the Amiga classic, Max Rally. Mantis Burn Racing is a game that we’ve wanted to make ever since,so we have a connection and history with top-down racing games.

For a studio that has developed games like Big Sky Infinity, Pure Pool and Hustle Kings, why shift to the racing genre?

Ultimately we make games that we are passionate about. We have a history with racing games and a team that are all enthusiastic about making Mantis Burn Racing the best it can be. We’re proud of our reputation for developing visually impressive, best-in-class games and whilst we aren’t in a position to compete with Forza or GT, we saw a real opportunity to apply our trademark visual quality to a modern, credible top-down racing game. In the process we also understood that we’d be showcasing our abilities in other areas, we have a really talented team and we certainly don’t want to get pigeonholed for making only one type of game.

How long has Mantis Burn Racing been in development for?

Around 18 months in total.

"We have a substantial 7-season single-player career structure that is designed to test every aspect of players’ driving ability; it’s not just about flat out racing."

How many tracks feature in the final version of the game?

The racing takes place in two main environments as players jump the sand dunes of sun-scorched Sand Town or burn rubber on the asphalt city streets of New Shangri-la. Each main environment has 4 tracks, which are reversible, making 16 in total. We’re supporting the game post-launch and will be releasing a free DLC pack that will add a completely new and different racing environment with at least 4 new (reversible) tracks.

Will the game have any sort of a customization and progression system?

One of the stand-out features of Mantis Burn Racing is the progression system. You earn XP in all areas of the game including the comprehensive 20-hour single-player career, which unlocks both visual and performance upgrades for your vehicles using a RPG-style slot system. Each vehicle has up to 18 upgrade slots available that allow you to customize your vehicles’ suspension, gear-box, engine, tyres and boost. With thousands of possible vehicle variations, the game allows you to fine tune your vehicles to your exact preference and playing style.

Is there any sort of a career for solo players to play through?

We have a substantial 7-season single-player career structure that is designed to test every aspect of players’ driving ability; it’s not just about flat out racing. There are 3 career seasons to progress through from Rookie, Pro to Veteran and each season comes with a variety of different race types to keep the racing fresh and exciting, including Knockout, Accumulator, Overtake and Time Trial. Each season has a final championship which is unlocked by obtaining a set amount of gears that you acquire through competing in the various events.

What can you tell us about the multiplayer component of the game?

Mantis Burn Racing’s fast-paced, frenetic game play lends itself perfectly to highly competitive multiplayer racing. It’s the perfect game to play with friends both locally, with 4 player local split-screen racing and online, where up to 8 players can take their finely tuned, upgraded vehicles online to compete against the rest of the world with global leader boards separating the best from the rest. All 8 game modes in the game are all playable both online and locally too, so there’s plenty of depth and variety to the racing in all areas.

"We still have to wait a year before we see the Scorpio, but it looks like it will definitely dominate in terms of performance."

Top down racers are a rarity these days and I am not sure how much market value this genre holds in these age. How are you ensuring that the game will stand out and appeal to gamers?

The best way to stand out is to have a great game. Luckily we do and that’s something that has been borne out by the positive feedback we’ve received from fans and media alike since launch. There’s been a bit of a resurgence in top-down racing games recently and whilst we’re really happy to appeal to players’ fond nostalgia for past games we wanted to help bring the genre right up to date and showcase the modern, immersive game play features of Mantis Burn Racing. High quality visual fidelity (including full native 4K support at 60fps on the PlayStation Pro), a comprehensive single player career campaign and an in-depth RPG-style upgrade system are just some of the ways the game stands out in the genre.

Will the game run at 1080p and 60fps on PS4 and Xbox One?

Yes, and at 2160p at 60fps on PS4 Pro.

I am already aware that the game runs at 4K and 60fps on PS4 Pro. What are your thoughts on the PRO GPU’s capabilities and how significant did you found the jump from the base PS4 to be?

I was actually very pleasantly surprised. Not initially – the specs on paper don’t sound great, as you are trying to fill four times as many pixels on screen with a GPU that is only just over twice as powerful, and without a particularly big increase in memory bandwidth. But when you drill down into the detail, the PS4 Pro GPU has a lot of new features packed into it too, which means you can do far more per cycle than you can with the original GPU (twice as much in fact, in some cases). You’ve still got to work very hard to utilize the extra potential power, but we were very keen to make this happen in Mantis Burn Racing.

In Mantis Burn Racing, much of the graphical complexity is in the pixel detail, which means most of our cycles are spent doing pixel shader work. Much of that is work that can be done at 16-bit rather than 32-bit precision, without any perceivable difference in the end result – and PS4 Pro can do 16 bit-floating point operations twice as fast as the 32-bit equivalent.

I am sure you must have heard about the PRO and Scorpio, How do you rate Sony’s relatively more conservative approach with the PS4 Pro versus Microsoft’s more radical overhaul with the Xbox One Scorpio? Which excites you more, from a development perspective?

We still have to wait a year before we see the Scorpio, but it looks like it will definitely dominate in terms of performance. That will certainly help devs and will undoubtedly mean far more games on Scorpio will hit true native 4K @ 60fps. It has generally been more difficult to reach 60fps on Xbox One than on PS4, so Scorpio will be a very welcome change. I’ve yet to see the functional differences in the Scorpio GPU, so it remains to be seen how much of a difference there will actually be, but Scorpio definitely has a significant advantage in terms of memory bandwidth, so we’ll definitely be seeing higher fidelity games on there.

"We have to maintain parity from a functional and gameplay point of view, but we can really go to town on ramping up the visual quality."

What is your take on Sony’s Checkerboard technique for 4K rendering versus native 4K rendering that Microsoft are espousing with the Scorpio? To the naked guy, what will the difference be? And what are the differences from a development and programming perspective?

Checkerboard rending is a neat approach to achieving 4K when you don’t have the performance to do it natively, but it requires more work from a development perspective, and it can be tricky to make it look right. It’s never going to look as good as full 4K, though on relatively static scenes it can get close. In Mantis Burn Racing where everything on screen is moving by pretty fast, you’d see much less definition in the pixel detail than at full 4K. If the screen is changing much less per frame, then you can do temporal reprojection between frames to fill in the detail that you miss with checkerboard.

The Xbox One Scorpio is being touted as the most powerful console ever made. And yet, given Microsoft’s diktat that all games have maintain parity with standard Xbox One systems, and that there can be no Scorpio exclusives, do you really think that the Scorpio’s power will be able to be put to any meaningful use?

Yes, definitely. We have to maintain parity from a functional and gameplay point of view, but we can really go to town on ramping up the visual quality. It’s like having a PC game where you get a new graphics card and now you can ramp all the graphics settings up to maximum – it’s the same game, but it looks a hell of a lot nicer.

From a development perspective, what does suddenly having two additional SKUs for game development do? Is supporting these upgraded consoles seen as being worth it, especially with all the policy constraints that are placed on game development for the Pro and Scorpio?

It’s really not an issue. We use our own proprietary engine for all of our games, which already runs cross platform, and which already scales to meet available power on PC. Pro and Scorpio are just extensions to that really. The game code doesn’t even need to be aware of Pro and Scorpio, it’s just like we’re running on a high end PC.

Are you planning to bring the game to NX, Pro and Scorpio?

We’re already out on PS4 Pro – when the system launches this month you’ll be able to play Mantis Burn Racing from day 1 in full native 4K @ 60-fps. We’ll almost certainly look to support Scorpio too. We’d love to take a look at the NX, as I reckon Mantis Burn Racing would be a great fit – it’s definitely a game that will work very well in handheld mode.

The PS4 Pro may be the most powerful console ever made at the moment, but there is no denying that the system could have been far more powerful, and could have pushed true 4K visuals and media. However, it is also indisputable that everyone who has gone hands on with the system has come away impressed. Sony’s wizardry leads to the otherwise underpowered PS4 Pro punching far above its weight. This is what Mark Williams of VooFoo, Technical Director currently working on Mantis Burn Racing, told us, when we had a chance to talk to him recently.

“I was actually very pleasantly surprised. Not initially – the specs on paper don’t sound great, as you are trying to fill four times as many pixels on screen with a GPU that is only just over twice as powerful, and without a particularly big increase in memory bandwidth,” he explained, echoing the sentiment that a lot of us seem to have, before adding, “But when you drill down into the detail, the PS4 Pro GPU has a lot of new features packed into it too, which means you can do far more per cycle than you can with the original GPU (twice as much in fact, in some cases). You’ve still got to work very hard to utilise the extra potential power, but we were very keen to make this happen in Mantis Burn Racing.

“In Mantis Burn Racing, much of the graphical complexity is in the pixel detail, which means most of our cycles are spent doing pixel shader work. Much of that is work that can be done at 16-bit rather than 32-bit precision, without any perceivable difference in the end result – and PS4 Pro can do 16 bit-floating point operations twice as fast as the 32-bit equivalent.”

Ultimately, this does come back to the point that console specs are far more nuanced than most people expect, and cannot just be broken down into one number.