Of the many advantages the PS4 and Xbox One pose to developers, creating realistic vegetation over wide-ranging landscapes is one. Look at The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt and how unique its environments managed to be despite some base similarities between each other.
It wasn’t just the power of current gen consoles but also SpeedTree, a software capable of generating realistic foliage and vegetation without any trouble. GamingBolt got in touch with business development director Kevin Meredith to ask his thoughts on the current gen consoles two years after launch.
Meredith stated that, “We’ve been very proud to be part of both consoles from day one, and to be in close to a dozen next-gen games at launch or soon after. More great SpeedTree games are on the way. And see the next answer for some technical comments on consoles.”
What does the future hold as manufacturers unlock more of the console’s power for developers to use, like the additional cores on the PS4 and Xbox One? For applications like SpeedTree, Meredith says that, “In general, every improvement to hardware over the last 15 years has meant better vegetation in three key areas: more trees and plants, more detailed trees and plants, and improved wind effects. Not only that, but doing these things has become easier because console hardware is getting more and more like a regular computer with each generation. Bottom line, technical strides on the consoles mean vegetation that’s increasingly more like what you find in the real world.”
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