Speaking following his appearance at Gamelab, Bethesda director Todd Howard addressed criticisms of Bethesda’s game engine. The studio has often faced criticism, however minor, that they can be too reliant on their engine and not improve it enough between titles. Howard rebuked such concerns, however, stating that the Fallout 76 engine was a huge improvement.

Engines of the Past

Parts of the Fallout 76 engine improvements were covered during Howard’s appearance at Bethesda’s E3 presentation. During one of the promotional videos debuted at the event, he described the significant graphical improvements which had been implemented to the engine. That, however, was apparently not enough for some fans, who seem to believe that Bethesda is using an outdated engine for their upcoming title.

Speaking to journalists following his Gamelab conference, Howard stated that Bethesda hasn’t used Gamebryo in over ten years. Gamebryo was the engine which Bethesda used for most of their games during the 2000s; including The Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind, Fallout 3, The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion. Obsidian Entertainment also used it for Fallout: New Vegas. Although Bethesda may have adapted from that original engine, their current engine is certainly not that engine of the past.

The Fallout 76 Engine

Fallout 76 is set to feature a whole suite of improvements; at E3, Howard boasted that the game would feature some sixteen times the detail. It also includes a new lighting system, vastly improved weather effects, and a whole lot more. Howard clarified that every game Bethesda produces advances their engine. He stated that Starfield and The Elder Scrolls VI will be even more advanced.

“We wanted every aspect to be better,” he explained, “From the graphics to how the controls work; the gunplay, enemy AI, overlapping quests. In Fallout 4 we tried so many new things and redid so many things we had before, we took our lessons in how you strike that balance going into Fallout 76. We improved the hit detection for Fallout 76, it feels much better but you won’t notice unless you go back to Fallout 4 and compare those two games. There are a lot of things we redid for Fallout 76 that I don’t know if the people will notice.”