The games are made using a PC so why do developers still struggle to optimize their games for PC unlike on console?.
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Game developers sometimes struggle to optimize their games for PC because even though the games are made using a PC, there are many different types of PCs with different hardware and software configurations. This means that the game might run smoothly on some PCs, but it might not run as well on others.
For example, some PCs might have faster processors or more memory, which can make the game run more smoothly. Other PCs might have different types of graphics cards, which can affect how the game looks on the screen. And some PCs might have different types of software installed, which can cause conflicts or compatibility issues.
Because of all these differences, game developers have to try to make their games work well on as many different types of PCs as possible. This can be challenging, especially if the game is very complex or if it uses a lot of advanced technology.
Unlike a console, there are thousands of possible hardware combinations for any PC, and any one element could affect optimization.
You can’t just optimize for the lowest settings, because the higher settings will suffer, and you can’t just optimize for the highest settings, because then the lower-end rigs wouldn’t be able to play your game.
In the end, it’s a balancing act of trying to optimize for both ‘levels’ of hardware at once, without too many drawbacks.
This is sort of a non answer, but relevant imo.
PC gamers tend to have much, much higher standards for things like graphics and frame rate. Where consoles only recently began to standardize on 60FPS, 144FPS has been sort of the standard in PC gaming for nearly a decade (I know people will argue on the exact timelines, but the point still stands).
So we have to meet a higher bar for performance.
Then consider this. Every console is identical to the last in terms of hardware. Every Xbox One S has the same amount, brand and speed of RAM. Every Nintendo Switch has the exact same make and model of CPU. Every PlayStation 5 has the same OS. So they can easily make a product that meshes well with that exact set of hardware.
Every PC is different. Different make, model and performance CPU. Different make, model, capacity and speed of RAM etc. For a game to run well on the latest greatest PC with a 4090, I9 and 32 gigs of RAM and the latest Windows update is easy. But to get that same game, with the same set of code, to run well on a PC with a 960, I5 and only 8gigs of RAM is not easy.
To have something that runs smoothly on every possible combination of hardware would require the code to be near-perfect, *AND* the manufacturers of things in each PC, (like NVIDEA, AMD, Intel etc) would also have to have functioning driver’s to make the hardware compatible with every file and process that is required for the game to run properly.
PC games seem to me to be harder to “optimize” because the variables are vast, unknown, and the expectations are often unrealistic (partly due to AAA titles over promising and under delivering time and again)
A complicated question about optimization, but here’s the easy answer to your specific question:
The PCs game developers use are very powerful, and not all of the players have PCs as powerful as the ones they were developed on.
PCs also vary wildly in terms of hardware and capacity, unlike consoles which are all the same. It’s trying to hit one target instead of a hundred.
A console is one specific standard hardware target and therefore extremely easy to optimise for. If it runs well on the developers console, it is going to run well on every single other console.
A PC can mean anything from an 80 core monster with 512 GB of ram and twin SLI 4060’s to a burned out 386SX with a math coprocessor, and everything in between.
There are so many variables, it’s hard to even decide what range of specifications to target in the first place. Different hardware limitations will have different performance issues with different game features.
This is half the reason every PC game usually ships with a near endless menu of graphical options. If the game isn’t working well for you, you decide which features of the renderer to nerf, or how much cash to spend on upgrading, until the game does work well.
It’s just the price we have to pay for the extremely arbitrary and flexible nature of PC’s.
Well, they are made ON a PC, sure. But they are not made on YOUR PC. The challenge is the variety of systems, and their software loads.
While it is true that most video games are developed using personal computers (PCs), optimizing a game for PC can still be a challenging process for game developers. This is because there is a wide range of hardware configurations used by PC gamers, and a game that runs smoothly on one system may not necessarily perform well on another. Additionally, PC gamers often have the ability to modify their hardware and software settings, which can further complicate the process of optimizing a game for PC. As a result, game developers may struggle to ensure that their games run smoothly and efficiently on a wide range of PC systems, even though the games are developed using PCs.
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