Fallout 4 PS4 Mods Beta Delayed Without Explanation

[ffronw]

Fallout 4 PS4 Mods Beta Delayed Without Explanation

//cdn.themis-media.com/media/global/images/library/deriv/1333/1333042.jpgIt looks like mods won't make it to PS4 in July, and Bethesda isn't saying when they might arrive.

Fallout 4 mods have already made it onto Xbox One, and Bethesda was hoping to roll them out on PS4 this month. There were some snags, as we reported a couple of weeks ago [http://www.escapistmagazine.com/news/view/167738-Fallout-4-Mods-Are-Headed-to-PS4-But-There-Are-Some-Problems], including file size restriction, performance issues with PC textures, and a lack of compatible sound files.

Either Bethesda has run into more issues, or the existing ones have proven difficult to overcome, because today the company announced on Twitter that the beta for mods on PS4 was being delayed. No updated release window was mentioned, with the company saying only that it would "update everyone when we can." It stands to reason that this means the full release of mods has been delayed as well.

[tweet t=https://twitter.com/BethesdaStudios/status/748167460445118464]

While it's unfortunate that mods are running into these issues, it's worth noting that Bethesda is breaking new ground here, so it's to be expected that they'd find issues that others might not have run into. Still, it sucks if you're a PS4 player anxiously awaiting the arrival of mods on your console.

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[RaikuFA]

Sounds about right. This is Bethesda "We hate Sony" Studios.

 

[The Enquirer]

Sounds about right. This is Bethesda "We hate Sony" Studios.

To be fair Sony is using a different sound system on the ps4 because they've got special snowflake syndrome.

 

[RaikuFA]

Sounds about right. This is Bethesda "We hate Sony" Studios.

To be fair Sony is using a different sound system on the ps4 because they've got special snowflake syndrome.

If it was just this instance I'd agree but since last gen, theyve dropped the ball on Sony consoles. To me it screams lazyness.

 

[Silentpony_v1legacy]

I'm guessing Zombies.

 

[Ten Foot Bunny]

Sounds about right. This is Bethesda "We hate Sony" Studios.

To be fair Sony is using a different sound system on the ps4 because they've got special snowflake syndrome.

As an Xbox owner, I feel bad for Playstation owners getting the shaft here, and hope that Sony will exorcise their misguided devotion to frivolous proprietary crap that creates unnecessary headaches for devs. And not just devs in this case - how many independent mod makers have the ability to encode audio in Sony's special format?

Don't get me wrong... I'm not saying that proprietary technology is inherently bad. It fosters competition between companies that often results in wins for consumers. But there are some areas (like audio encoding) that benefit from the application of widely accessible universal standards that are open to creators of content who rely on the technology for the delivery of their product.

That said, this delay for PS4 mods is a terrible showing from a developer with a reputation of incompetence on Sony platforms and indifference to the people who play on them. I hope Bethesda and Sony can collectively fix this ASAP.

 

[Poetic Nova]

And another example of Bethesda not knowing how to code things properly.

 

[RebornKusabi]

Sounds about right. This is Bethesda "We hate Sony" Studios.

To be fair Sony is using a different sound system on the ps4 because they've got special snowflake syndrome.

Yeah, because Microsoft TOTALLY doesn't have their own "special snowflake" moments. Gimme a break!

And sorry but this IS Bethesda being lazy. How is it a more competent studio gets around this? How is it that as a PC dev, Bethesda can account for different computer models with different audio codec or f*** it, different sound systems entirely but can't for PS4? Sorry this goes above and beyond laziness into "we just don't give a damn" territory.

Which is sad because I love Bethesda overall.

 

[The Enquirer]

Sounds about right. This is Bethesda "We hate Sony" Studios.

To be fair Sony is using a different sound system on the ps4 because they've got special snowflake syndrome.

If it was just this instance I'd agree but since last gen, theyve dropped the ball on Sony consoles. To me it screams lazyness.

They had problems last generation as well, but the PS3 also used 6 cell architecture, which made running huge open world games extremely difficult for it and it was notoriously difficult to program for. It's part of the reason it's so difficult for them to currently port ps3 games to the ps4.

http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/video-games/columns/experienced-points/10215-Why-the-PS4-Doesn-t-Do-PS3-Games

Sounds about right. This is Bethesda "We hate Sony" Studios.

To be fair Sony is using a different sound system on the ps4 because they've got special snowflake syndrome.

Yeah, because Microsoft TOTALLY doesn't have their own "special snowflake" moments. Gimme a break!

And sorry but this IS Bethesda being lazy. How is it a more competent studio gets around this? How is it that as a PC dev, Bethesda can account for different computer models with different audio codec or f*** it, different sound systems entirely but can't for PS4? Sorry this goes above and beyond laziness into "we just don't give a damn" territory.

Which is sad because I love Bethesda overall.

No doubt Microsoft does. The entirety of the xbox one announcement being one of those. But to answer your question, you're asking a developer to deal with a tangled fucking mess of coding. Coding for things that they did not actually even write.

Let's say you're one of the developers working on the mods. You've got the game coded one way on PC. You've got it coded a different way on console. You've got player created code and items built for PC and PC alone. You need to find a way to make those items work on a completely different set of hardware, so different that you needed to code the game differently to make use of some elements such as audio at all in the base game.

In regards to how they can account for a different computer models with different sound systems entirely: device drivers. Games for the PS4, due to some of the proprietary tech, are built specifically for the PS4 then ported, or vice versa. That's part of why we saw so many horrible, horrible ports from ps3 to PC last generation, the cell architecture was notoriously difficult to code for. When you code a game for PC, (just to simplify things for this example as this post is now way longer than I thought it would be) you make one line of general code. The device drivers in your sound system then interpret the coding and make it work. When it can't, that's when you experience bugs, hence why you can be happily playing a game but your friend's computer just went out the window.

All that said and done, what I do fault them for is undertaking such a massive task, full well knowing based on their past history with even just base games, that there will be bugs, and giving such an early release date, clearly not having tested such things properly to get an idea of the challenges they were facing.

 

[Morti]

*whimper*

All I want is the console so I can summon Nick back from wherever he's wandered off to.