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Stellaris: Console Edition Development Diary #77 - Progress Update on Xbox Series X|S & PlayStation 5 version

G’day Console Edition Community,

Adam from Tantalus here, reporting in with an update on the development progress for the previously announced XBox Series X|S and Playstation 5 versions of Stellaris Console Edition.

Our team has 3.12 running natively on both the XBox Series X|S and Playstation 5. This has taken a lot of work over the last couple of months to achieve. For XBox Series X|S, we had to port all existing backend code from XDK to GDKx, as well as implementing a DirectX 12 renderer. As for PlayStation 5, we moved from the PS4 10.5 SDK to the PS5 SDK 10, and implemented a new renderer targeting the new hardware.

While we are still working towards taking advantage of the extra core count made available to us, just doubling the processor speed has shown promising results. The extra memory available should mean fewer late game crashes in larger galaxies (Always surprising to see the year 2700+ in some of the crash dumps), hence making the game more stable. We are still conducting soak testing around this to ensure this is the case. Finally, the move from mechanical to solid state storage will dramatically decrease load times on top of the optimizations we had in place to handle the older style drives from XBox One and PlayStation 4.

The new UI screens (While works in progress) have been implemented and entering a phase of internal testing. Here are the initial, non-final, Synaptic Lathe and Astral Actions views.

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"Synaptic Lathe" - Ah, finally plugged the entire population into the Synaptic Lathe. Productivity’s through the roof. Morale? Let’s not ask.

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"Astral Actions" - We opened a rift in reality and filled out the proper forms. Twice. Welcome to the Astral Actions menu.

We have continued with our paradigm of staying as true to PC as possible, but both navigable by controller, and readable from your couch.

There are still several other screens to be revealed:
  • The new Cosmogenisis Crisis - The riddle ships are wild and access to the Synaptic Lathe… for science!
  • Astral Rift story screens - Some weird decisions to make and stories to tell.
  • New crisis conversation - Negotiation is optional.
  • New empire selection features - Great new portraits with preselection for evolution / ascension variations, and new ships! Swooosh!

We still have a way to go (there's even a slight spoiler in these screenshots for the keen eyed) and we will soon be entering a compliance and certification stage as we are submitting the upcoming release as a new product to platform partners. To be clear, by "new product", we mean on the technical side - we are still looking into how it will become available. As mentioned a few weeks back in Stellaris: Console Edition Development Diary #76, there are still a couple of moving parts we need to fall in place before we can determine how game ownership and DLC entitlements will work.

That’s all for now - Adam
 
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I’m really excited for this. Thank you guys for all the hard work. Can I please request an option to reduce the UI. Not all console players play on the couch. Currently the UI is colossal. While reducing the UI size can we also have the option to close popups so we can view information behind the scenes. Far too often I can’t find information I need when making a decision regarding a particular pop up as the pop up can’t be closed and fills the entire screen. On PC this is possible. Lastly, mods would be amazing.
 
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Thank you very much for supporting the game on consoles. I love playing on a big TV :).

I have a request, is there a possibility to make the font even bigger? There is a lot of reading in the game. Maybe we can introduce an option to change the font size?
 
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Thank you very much for supporting the game on consoles. I love playing on a big TV :).

I have a request, is there a possibility to make the font even bigger? There is a lot of reading in the game. Maybe we can introduce an option to change the font size?
I agree. I’m advocating for options to change UI and font size across the board. Console gaming scopes for many different setups.
 
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Still no Console mod support?
modding isn't 100% up to them, you have to remember that


sure, they can make a tool for it, and have a website to put mods on for download, but the final nail in the coffin so to speak, is Microsoft and Sony

unless they are both on that train, console mods are a no go

and even if they both are on the train, there's no guarantee modders will want to remake their mods for console as it is a completely different beast
 
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Should i buy dlcs on ps4 will they transfer to ps5 version or should i wait ?
If you read the previous diary for consoles, they mention they intend to give the new platform version for free or heavily discounted to existing owners. No one can tell you what's best for you but read the post and see what you think. :)

I've pasted the quote for you though, see below.


Our objective is for this new version of Stellaris on Console to be a free or deeply discounted product for Console Edition for players who have already been exploring the galaxy on Console with us. There are many factors in play and since we are technically “releasing a new title”, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to provide this as a solely free upgrade, and there may be a small cost associated with transferring over existing purchases. We will share details on just how this will work as we get closer to release and when we find out - right now, we simply don’t know.
 
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I love stellaris ... and i love your ambition.
Still i never could think of playing a mouse-heavy game on a console. I really hope this will work out well for you :)
Likely there is a lot i dont see, so ignore my ignorance. Love the UI on the Screenshot.
 
There are many factors in play and since we are technically “releasing a new title”, we cannot guarantee that we will be able to provide this as a solely free upgrade, and there may be a small cost associated with transferring over existing purchases.
It's interesting to me that they can't guarantee this at this point, which means they must be asking for some kind of exception or flexibility from either Sony or Microsoft or both of them.

If there ends up being a fee I hope it's a VERY low/nominal fee. In my mind that would be something like let's say a flat $10 to transfer the base game and all "owned" DLC to current gen console. If it's much more than that and / or if they make it seem like they are nickel and diming by charging a fee for each individual transferred DLC, I feel that will not go over well.
 
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It is certainly a pleasant surprise to see that they are still working so hard on upgrading to new consoles.
It's curious that they already have the interface of the next dlc, it could be that the launch will not take too long?
 
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we had to port all existing backend code
As a fellow developer without any knowledge of console development, I'm very interested in what is backend code in this sentence. Surely it doesn't mean backend as I'm thinking about it, like the server in a network client-server model. So I'd looove to read more about this kind of code architecture or organization
 
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Actually I think it is good this new course of action of "focusing on fixes" which, possibly, will translate into "less frequent patches with more beefy changelogs". Now...I didn't like many "forced through" in the 4.0 patch, including its release in a very early rough form, but if the idea to "focus more on substance than on PR stunts" (which annoys me) I think it is right to praise such wise change in tactic...

That said, given that "holiday time" approaches, I really hope the next patch will be very beefy with bug-catching/solving...

P.S.: Oh f...k! I was too fast to praise you guys...another patch? I really hope it's not one of daily patches! But a weekly patch, given the sheer amount of bugs that 4.0 seems to have, seems reasonable ...
 
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