- Larian Studios is currently working on the Xbox Series S/X ports of Baldur’s Gate 3.
- Swen Vincke has shared a graph showing that the game’s VRAM requirement has been reduced by over 30% while optimizing for the Xbox Series S.
- This may result in benefits for other platforms.
Baldur’s Gate 3 has been one of the biggest releases of the year, and while the game is already over three months old, it is still averaging over 130K players on Steam daily. This popularity has also made it the leading contender for the GOTY award.
While the game has already been released on PC and PS5, Xbox Series S/X players are still waiting for this brilliant RPG expected to arrive on the platform before the end of the year.
Optimization for the Xbox Series S has been the primary reason behind this delay. However, Larian Studios appears to be nearing the finish line, with the CEO recently showcasing a massive reduction in VRAM consumption for the Xbox Series S.
Why it matters: The Xbox Series S is a budget console. Therefore, it needs a lot of work and optimization, requiring various compromises in certain areas.
Got a nice present from our engineers. Ensuring memory is well under control and having buffer for peaks was the main thing holding us back I think this will benefit all platforms too. Still some work left but very close now. pic.twitter.com/xvtUDPFebo
— Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) November 8, 2023
This news was shared by the founder of Larain Studio, Swen Vincke, who posted two graphs showing the hard work of the developers in recent weeks.
While Baldur’s Gate 3 consumed around 5.2 GB of RAM in September, the studio has been able to cut this down to just 4.7 GB. As for the VRAM, the RPG now consumes 2.3 GB compared to the 3.5 GB needed in September.
This means that Larian Studios has been able to cut the VRAM requirement down by a whopping 30%, making the game much easier to run on the budget console since it has access to 10 GB of total memory.
Of this 10 GB, around 8 GB is accessible for games, while the rest is reserved for the OS and other tasks. Nonetheless, this is a positive step toward the upcoming port for Xbox Series S|X.
Larian Studios has also confirmed these optimizations will likely help all platforms in the future, possibly reducing the system requirements for the game on PC and improving performance on other consoles.
Since the game can struggle to maintain 60FPS on PS5 in various parts, these optimizations could come in handy one way or another.
A recent leak suggested Baldur’s Gate 3 would be released for Xbox Series S|X in the first week of December. However, it has been debunked by the studio, so fans can only wait for an official announcement.
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[News Reporter]
Abiyan is on track to complete his Computer Science bachelor’s degree. His enthusiasm for writing and gaming motivates him to keep readers and gamers updated with the latest information from the industry. In his free time, Abiyan enjoys playing Dota 2 and Rocket League. Abiyan has also been cited in reputed websites such as Kitguru, Comicbook, GamingBible, Eurogamer and Gamingbolt.
