Ubisoft explains that the use of Nintendo Switch 2's controversial Game Key Cards for Star Wars Outlaws is due to performance needs, as full game cartridges couldn't meet the quality targets, relying instead on disk streaming and downloads. Many third-party developers are also adopting key cards, with some like CDPR opting for physical cartridges, highlighting varied approaches to Switch 2 game releases.
In a technical interview with Digital Foundry, Ubisoft Massive's Nikolay Stefanov and Oleksandr Koshlo discuss the development of the Snowdrop engine for Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora. They explain the game's global illumination system, the use of hardware ray tracing for shadows, the placement of probes for lighting, and the scaling of graphics and performance on consoles. They also mention the use of async compute, dynamic resolution scaling, and upscaling techniques like FSR and DLSS. The interview highlights the challenges and innovations in creating a highly detailed and visually impressive game world.
