While we’re sure there are quite a number of reasons why Horizon Forbidden West wants to leave the PlayStation 4 behind for the upcoming Burning Shores expansion, now Guerrilla Games has a new game to offer. PlayStation blog post The post touches on one of the biggest reasons the PS4 won’t receive a post-launch add-on.
And because of the clouds that are part of Los Angeles, Aloy will travel through it. We’re told that the development team created and used new technologies to deliver richer, more accurate cloud systems, and the PS4 simply couldn’t handle the data needed to deliver the clouds they wanted to offer.
Andrew Schneider, Guerrilla’s lead FX artist, stated: The cloud systems we developed for Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West were fast because they didn’t store clouds as 3D objects, but rather instructions for creating 3D clouds from limited 2D information. The PlayStation 5 can handle larger datasets. So, yet when packaging Forbidden West, we’re starting to write a voxel cloud renderer prototype that can meet our standards for quality, and actually allow a player to fly through very detailed cloud formations.”
Aside from just looking better, the clouds in the Burning Shores expansion are also destined to be exploreable, as Schneider tells us: “It was important to us to make the experience fun and exhilarating in itself outside of the main game. Clouds are not just immersive landscapes, but an explorable landscape in their own right. Among the clouds, players can explore tunnels, caves and other surprises that provide the joy of flying.”
“The best part is that depending on when you experience one of these features, the experience will be different. As the day progresses, the quality and direction of the light changes, and the hiding and revealing of some of these features and the feel of each ride changes.
“And I don’t want to spoil anything—but we hope you’re not afraid of a little lightning.”
Horizon Forbidden West: Burning Shores releases April 19th on PS5.
