Guerrilla Games is seeking to justify why Horizon Forbidden West DLC Burning Shores has completely dropped support for PS4, instead only putting out a version on PS5. One of those justifications? Clouds. The developer has taken to the PlayStation Blog to detail how its upgraded clouds system actually introduces new content to the expansion and has evolved in the time since Forbidden West's launch.
Senior community manager Narae Lee reveals you'll be able to find tunnels, caves, and "other surprises" up in the clouds as you explore them on a mount. "The best part is that depending on when you try any of these features, the experience will be different," she said. "As the day progresses, the quality and direction of light change, hiding and revealing some of these features and changing the feel of each journey." You should probably expect to be gathering collectibles and completing side quests up in the clouds of the Burning Shores DLC as a result.
As for how the Dutch studio has worked on its cloud tech with its Atmospherics team, you can read a full breakdown over on the PlayStation Blog. Essentially, though, the extra power of the PS5 has allowed clouds to become a character of their own in the open world via the use of voxel technology and other means.
"The cloud systems that we developed for Horizon Zero Dawn and Horizon Forbidden West were fast because they didn’t store clouds as 3D objects, but rather instructions on creating 3D clouds from limited 2D information," Lee said. "The PlayStation 5 can handle larger datasets. So, after Forbidden West wrapped, we set to work writing a voxel cloud renderer prototype that could live up to our standards for quality, and actually allow the player to fly through highly detailed cloud formations." Dubbed Frankencloudscapes by principal FX artist Andrew Schneider, the team was able to create a full cloudscape through "hard work, as well as the increased power of the PlayStation 5".
You can read much more about the work that went into this feature on the PlayStation Blog. What do you expect to find up in the clouds of Horizon Forbidden West's Burning Shores DLC? Let us know in the comments below.
[source blog.playstation.com]
Comments 54
This is actually quite cool. Still got little desire to play the game, but it’s just one of those incremental improvements that show things are moving forwards. I’m sure they’ll soon be able to disperse sunlight accurately through to the ground, have accurate sunsets and such…
Question: will we see these clouds than also in the base game? Most likely yes?
Sounds good to me Haha So stoked to dive in.
Those clouds look insane, i guess we can finally fly higher now hopefully?
@WallyWest
Yeah, and faster I really hope.
Flying in HFW was cool but it was too slow. PS5 and it's super fast SSD should make that a breeze.
Looks amazing. Can't wait to jump back into that beautiful world.
Gaming is a hobby that cost money. Can't have a 10 year old system and still expect support. This looks cool though
I like how Tears of the Kingdom devs are pushing the open ended-ness of what players could do off an ancient tablet, and then you have Guerilla over here on the PS5 like CLOUDS!!!! 😹 Lame asf
Uff GT7 120fps mode and now this… Sony and it’s dev studios going crazy these days.
Oh, so the PS4 did hold the game back? Of course it did. Why would have you thought otherwise.
@Atreus97 Faster would be great, and without the blur please. They hid the slow flying speed behind go faster lines and that blur
Usually turn down the cloud settings on PC games. Always gives a bunch of FPS back, and lower setting looks great also.
Regardless, the world in the main game was stunning. Sure this will be a joy to explore also.
I can guarantee this will only be available on Fidelity mode, meaning most people won't even use it, meaning this could still run on PS4, meaning this excuse is bupkis
Should've been PS5 exclusive from the start but it would've been a stupid choice because no one owned a PS5 yet. Lose lose situation
Side note: DS2 will look even more orgasmic
@NathanKang
That's a bit of a reductive way to put it. In the article it's stated that there will be more to it than just how pretty the clouds are. In fact I'd bet there will probably be a section in the DLC where you stumble upon a secret ruined climate control station in the clouds or something considering the lore of Horizon.
Not to say what Zelda is doing isn't impressive or anything but Horizon isn't trying to be Zelda, nor should it. They both look good in different ways.
@NathanKang @theMEGAniggle You always have few around acting like little children so sad.
@NathanKang lol you're not wrong to be fair. The bottom line is Horizon FW is a 2016 game (and that's being generous) in 2023 clothes.
And by extension, I guess TOTK is a 2023 game in 2016 clothes!!
Get your head out of the clouds comment section!
Teenager: Hey mom I need $500 to play the rest of that game you bought me last year.
Mom: What? Why?
Teenager: Clouds.
Can't wait until we see the new puddles in Spiderman 2.😂
I've platinumed it, I'll pre-order the dlc and get back into it when I finish my current game.
@theMEGAniggle
Lol they literally just said on PS blog that this will work for fidelity mode and high frame rate mode
Looking more forward to this DLC than the new Legend of Zelda: Nuts and Bolts reskin.. I wonder how long it is? TL;DR
@Mince it time for ps4 to go I just understand don't how u guys keep trying to justify they need to keep making games on ps4 it holding back ps5.
Power of the Cloud.
Finally good to see Sony turn their full attention to PS5. PS4 versions of PS5 games hold PS5 back.
Cloudddddddsssssss 😁
@Mince I disagree.
They were doing right by their customers to have the base game come out on PS4. You got what you paid for. We're now in the phase of the PS4 life cycle where it's starting to be left behind. That's inevitable, not anti-consumer.
At some point, they need to start utilizing the power of the current console and not hold it back for backwards-compatibility with the old hardware. DLC seems a fine place to do that, especially after the base game got added to a tier of Plus.
Is that a pain point for PS4 owners? Sure. But it was going to be a pain point for somebody, and providing the best experience they can come up with on the current-gen hardware seems more friendly than having some customers miss out on DLC.
@NathanKang Speaking of clouds in Tears of The Kingdom, what happened to those beautifully rendered clouds in the E3 2021 teaser?
@Mince PS5's are easily got now and the PS4 is ancient so be grateful you even got the base game. I'm glad the PS4 is finally being dropped.
I'm on cloud 9 now with this info lol
Clouds 😂 I'm all for moving generations at this point but shouting at the clouds is for the old and senile.
Already pre-ordered this but I’m even more excited. This just sounds awesome
They just can’t stop copying Zelda at this point. Jokes aside, I can’t wait to play the DLC and I hope it includes a tribute for Lance Reddick, as he gave voice to my favorite character in the whole Horizon universe
Decima engine is outstanding. More PS Studios, and Sony partners should utilize it.
@Mince
The PS4 is now ten years old, its time to move on. This isn't even the first notable instance of next gen only DLC. Wolfenstein The New Order which was on PS3 and 4 had an expansion The Old Blood, which was PS4/Xbox One only. And yet nobody complained back then because it wasn't essential to the base experience. Sony had no obligation to put Forbidden West or God of War Ragnarok on PS4 to begin with but they did it anyway so thats actually more pro consumer than anything else.
@Atreus97 oh the first part of my statement was completely wrong and I can't read lmao
@Flaming_Kaiser acting like little children how pls
@Mince It's actually quite impressive they've supported the PS4 for this long. Remember the PS3 to PS4 transition? Old consoles always had a pretty clear cut-off point when the new one came around.
@theMEGAniggle Like Puddlegate everyone seems to have a issue with everything all the time it's exhausting.
@Flaming_Kaiser didn't know wanting better games meant being childish lmao. you should probably grow up yourself homie
If the biggest selling-point for me to upgrade to a PS5 is clouds, then I’ll hold off for a little while longer
I think they could have worded this whole thing a lot better. Depicting flying in open world games (especially an open world this detailed) can be extremely taxing on hardware. If you noticed in the base game you were restricted fairly low when flying due to accommodating PS4 hardware. Whereas when you are in the skies it could be a nightmare for draw distances. So I get what they were trying to say but most did not.
@Bondi_Surfer the painful wait times on the PS4 alone is enough of a reason to upgrade.
@Wheatly the ps4 is now more than 9 years old… get over it please. This has nothing to do with consumer friendliness or whatever. Technology evolves. Name one gaming or consumer technology device that is supported almost 10 years…
Really can’t get this demand here. The ps4 was a fantastic console but please stop begging that every single new game or feature should be release for the old hardware as well.
@Bondi_Surfer loading times, next gen games, most games with 60 fps modes, higher fidelity. I’m sure you won’t rely on clouds only.
@Dman10 same here. It's about time they show us what PS5 can really do. Will be getting this at some point since my backlog is so big
You can just say the PS4 couldn't handle the expansion without a severe compromise in quality, talking about clouds just makes me reminisce about the weird anger over puddles in spiderman.
I dont care what reason they use...just DITCH last gen as fast as you can so we can move forward. Haha.
So excited for this though. Looks amazing! Horizon is one of the best things to happen to Playstation in recent memory imo.
@WolfyTn I 100% agree with you. Even as a Nintendo and Zelda fanboy...TotK just doesn't look exciting in any way. Give me Horizon all day.
@invictus4000 I’d honestly much rather have a Wind Waker and TP remaster.. such a let down.. I’m still gettin a Zelda sleeve
@Flaming_Kaiser this isn't having an issue with everything you absolute weapon. I stated that this is likely a BS excuse to stop PS4 content when they should've never released it on there in the first place.
So cloud gaming really is the future after all.
LOL at all the cloud based jokes and puns in this article.
@kyleforrester87 sure zelda fanboy haha. you don't even try to hide your troll...I like that.
Wonder if the new cloud tech is something they can patch into Forbidden West's PS5 version in future.
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