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System Requirements Update
The official System Requirements have been updated recently. (This is a PC-centric discussion, because Mobile requirements haven't really changed much).
As mentioned some time ago, we are going to be dropping support for 32bit Windows. There's a 64bit Windows install in closed testing right now (if you want to help test, ask Luxen to the "game-tester" privilege on Discord), and eventually we'll migrate to this completely-new installer, game layout, update architecture, and binary runtime.
None of this really supersedes what was written earlier this year in the Suggestions Forum RFC on System Requirements, although I'm now trying to aim for an official bottom-target of DX10_0 hardware instead of DX11_0 hardware. The earlier RFC thread is kind of "looking ahead" and the current update doesn't reflect everything we're moving towards, it's more a statement of current expectations.
For clarification: "DX10_0" and "DX11_0" are hardware specifications, they imply specific Shader Model capabilities. Where having the "DX11 API" doesn't mean what kind of hardware you have. I know this is a bit confusing for some people, so read on for a bit more detail..
While I will try to retain compatibility with legacy DX10_0 hardware (circa 2006), my focus is really on DX11_0 or newer (circa 2010). So, generally systems from 2010 or later should be reasonable (with a modern operating system). Otherwise, computers as old as 2006 should still work, but performance might not be great.
Our actual "recommended target", longer term, will be Vulkan 1.3, which usually mandates hardware starting around 2014 or later (although with AMD, this goes back to 2012 on Linux with the RADV driver). This isn't the minimum requirement, it's the recommended target, for the moment. For PC, we do still recommend a discrete GPU, like it says in the System Requirements, but we're doing a lot of development and testing on integrated GPUs like the Radeon 680M.
We are not testing below Windows 10 at this time, that's our official support limit. I suspect we'll continue working on Windows 7 SP1 or newer, for the time being, but no guarantees. I don't think Vista is going to work much longer (if it still does).
What is the point of this change? By raising the minimum we can actually make things perform a lot better on "modern" low-end hardware (like Chromebooks and low-end Windows laptops), because we can take advantage of hardware efficiencies that didn't exist in much older low-end hardware. That's really important to everyone who has a decade-old basic laptop (which is "modern" by our target set), and that's a lot more people than those running PCs from 2004.
This is not about mandating high-end gaming hardware, it's pretty much the opposite of that. We're trying to support the low-end. No one can afford computers anymore, let alone gaming GPUs (last I heard, a 5090 was $9,000?). So we're trying to "meet people where they are" and deliver the best results we can on the hardware available.
It also lets us upgrade the fidelity of the graphics and capabilities of the engine. And it doesn't negatively impact very many people. You'll still be able to run the game on a "potato", it'll just run more efficiently on a modern-potato, and perhaps not on an ancient-potato. At some point, one has to choose potatoes.
I think I'll end it on that mildly weird analogy.
If people have any questions, post here and I'll do my best to answer.
As mentioned some time ago, we are going to be dropping support for 32bit Windows. There's a 64bit Windows install in closed testing right now (if you want to help test, ask Luxen to the "game-tester" privilege on Discord), and eventually we'll migrate to this completely-new installer, game layout, update architecture, and binary runtime.
None of this really supersedes what was written earlier this year in the Suggestions Forum RFC on System Requirements, although I'm now trying to aim for an official bottom-target of DX10_0 hardware instead of DX11_0 hardware. The earlier RFC thread is kind of "looking ahead" and the current update doesn't reflect everything we're moving towards, it's more a statement of current expectations.
For clarification: "DX10_0" and "DX11_0" are hardware specifications, they imply specific Shader Model capabilities. Where having the "DX11 API" doesn't mean what kind of hardware you have. I know this is a bit confusing for some people, so read on for a bit more detail..
While I will try to retain compatibility with legacy DX10_0 hardware (circa 2006), my focus is really on DX11_0 or newer (circa 2010). So, generally systems from 2010 or later should be reasonable (with a modern operating system). Otherwise, computers as old as 2006 should still work, but performance might not be great.
Our actual "recommended target", longer term, will be Vulkan 1.3, which usually mandates hardware starting around 2014 or later (although with AMD, this goes back to 2012 on Linux with the RADV driver). This isn't the minimum requirement, it's the recommended target, for the moment. For PC, we do still recommend a discrete GPU, like it says in the System Requirements, but we're doing a lot of development and testing on integrated GPUs like the Radeon 680M.
We are not testing below Windows 10 at this time, that's our official support limit. I suspect we'll continue working on Windows 7 SP1 or newer, for the time being, but no guarantees. I don't think Vista is going to work much longer (if it still does).
What is the point of this change? By raising the minimum we can actually make things perform a lot better on "modern" low-end hardware (like Chromebooks and low-end Windows laptops), because we can take advantage of hardware efficiencies that didn't exist in much older low-end hardware. That's really important to everyone who has a decade-old basic laptop (which is "modern" by our target set), and that's a lot more people than those running PCs from 2004.
This is not about mandating high-end gaming hardware, it's pretty much the opposite of that. We're trying to support the low-end. No one can afford computers anymore, let alone gaming GPUs (last I heard, a 5090 was $9,000?). So we're trying to "meet people where they are" and deliver the best results we can on the hardware available.
It also lets us upgrade the fidelity of the graphics and capabilities of the engine. And it doesn't negatively impact very many people. You'll still be able to run the game on a "potato", it'll just run more efficiently on a modern-potato, and perhaps not on an ancient-potato. At some point, one has to choose potatoes.
I think I'll end it on that mildly weird analogy.
If people have any questions, post here and I'll do my best to answer.