PCGH: You've developed a completely new engine for TESO but started the development process with the HERO engine. Why did you chose to start working on a completely new engine? PC Games Hardware meets Matt Firor: Interview Quelle: Bethesda

Matt Firor: ESO is a hugely complex technical feat, so we needed literally years to build a stable game client and server infrastructure that was tuned to the needs of the game: tons of players on screen, very tolerant of network latency, etc. We wanted to get started on game basics while this was happening, so we licensed the Hero Engine, because it was perfect for what we needed at that time: easy to get up and running, easy to get art assets into the game and prototype how our content system would work. We then slowly swapped out Hero components with our own custom-tailored engine, starting with the server and network communications, then content creation tools, the client renderer, and the rest of the engine.

PCGH: Our first tests of the ESO Beta show that the engine does a very good job in regards to scaling up and down on high-end as well as more dated hardware. Can you describe the efforts you took to configure the engine so well that it now seems to work with many different hardware components?

Matt Firor: If you start with scalability in mind, it makes it much easier to develop a tolerant graphics engine. We do have a min spec, and the game looks very different on it than it does on a top-of-the-line rig. I love this, as I can play the game on my home or work PC at high-res, but can play when I'm on the road on my Macbook Air as well - it's a slightly different graphical game experience, but the basics are all there.

PCGH: Gamers like to compare ESO's graphics-wise with Skyrim a lot. Do you think that's fair given the fact that ESO is an MMORPG and Skyrim is a singleplayer-RPG?

Matt Firor: There's art style comparisons and there's engine comparisons. Our art style was created to be reminiscent of all the (modern) Elder Scrolls games, so players of Morrowind, Oblivion and Skyrim felt at home. That is mostly independent of engine requirements. But yes, you can tell that Skyrim was developed for the purpose of giving one player a really awesome graphical experience. With ESO, we have to be mindful that hundreds of players will have to be on screen at some point and the engine had to be built with that as a foundation, which led to the highly optimized engine we have today.

PCGH: The Elder Scrolls has always been about huge, lively and immersive fantasy worlds. How did you manage to transfer this concept to an MMORPG, after all the challenges have been much bigger here.

Matt Firor: It's always challenging to make an online game of any type, especially giant ones like ESO. Fortunately, there is a long history of great Online RPGs and MMORPGs that rely on lively and immersive fantasy worlds, so it is something that gamers instantly recognize. The fantasy world of Tamriel is a perfect setting for a game like ESO - it is familiar to a lot of gamers and it has a ton of lore and stories and interesting history.

PCGH: Mod support has always been an important and popular factor in The Elder Scrolls Online since Morrowind. Mods are difficult to implement in an MMORPG, after all the equal opportunities has to be guaranteed. Despite that, will fans maybe get the chance to mod ESO and individualize it to their needs and wishes?

Matt Firor: We allow players to modify their UI to a certain extent, but you are correct: we cannot allow the same type of modding in ESO that the other Elder Scrolls games have had, because that content would have to be shared with all players of the game. We need to guarantee a level playing field for everyone, so - for example - we don't want a modder to create an area of the game world that has easy leveling, because then everyone will feel compelled to use it to "keep up" with the fast levelers. Everyone has to be treated the same.

PCGH: Matt, thanks a lot for the interview!

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