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Sea Of Thieves PC Features 540p, 15 FPS Lock Options

Rare's certainly making the game accessible to everyone.

61 Comments

Like a growing number of games, Rare's swashbuckling adventure Sea of Thieves will be playable in 4K on Xbox One X and PC. Even if you don't have a high-end machine, however, Rare has made it so that you'll still get the full experience out of the open-world pirate game.

Speaking to PC Gamer, Sea of Thieves executive producer Joe Neat briefly touched on the hardware requirements players will have to meet to play the game. "We're trying to go as low as possible," he said. "We have an idea of what the minimum specs are but aren't quite ready to reveal them. We've actually been inviting people below our current plan for minimum specs into the technical alpha so we can test a number things on the performance side."

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Now Playing: Sea of Thieves - Crossplay Announced - Gamescom 2017

Even without minimum specs, we do know what the low end of the spectrum will be like. According to PC design lead Ted Timmins, the developer has added a mode to support 540p. "We've also added a 15 FPS framerate lock because when we were talking to the community some people were like: I'm actually happy playing 15 frames per second," Timmins explained. "We were like: that's actually really cool, we should support that. And to go to them and say, oh, we've added that mode for you--it's below our Rare certified min spec, but if you're enjoying the game, why should we as developers knock you for that?"

Sea of Thieves releases sometime in 2018. We learned a bit more about the title at Gamescom earlier this month, where Rare revealed that the pirate game will allow cross-play between Xbox and PC. We had a chance to talk with Rare studio head Craig Duncan back at E3 2017 about the challenges of creating a new multiplayer game.

Got a news tip or want to contact us directly? Email news@gamespot.com

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Reuwsaat

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You can purchase a GT 1030 for around the price of the game and not play with complete ass-graphics/performance; If you can't afford a 1030 you basically can't afford the game itself, so are they working for pirates or something? I don't get why even bothering at that resolution.

Here's a link from amazon:
https://www.amazon.com/GIGABYTE-GeForce-GV-N1030D5-2GL-Computer-Graphics/dp/B071DY2VJR/ref=sr_1_1?s=pc&ie=UTF8&qid=1504299560&sr=1-1&keywords=gtx+1050&refinements=p_36%3A1253505011

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deactivated-6793e8ba0e8bf

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Some pretty decent troll game went into this.

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analgrin

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Most classic cartoons are shot at 15fps.

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Pelezinho777

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Excuse me?

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Myron117

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"I'm actually happy playing 15 frames per second" HAHAHHAHAHAH BULLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

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James_xeno

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540p - Fine, no great for people with older systems or an edge.

15FPS - Not so much. >_>

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G4m1ngOn

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Edited By G4m1ngOn

When a "developer" who gets paid for creating software, which actually should be delivering smooth experience, is telling about '15FPS is fine framerate to play, we'll support that" - I dream to see next news about layoffs from such firm.

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Tiwill44

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... Most big PC games in the last couple years have had this setting called "Render Resolution". If you set it to 50% on a 1080p screen, then you're effectively rendering the graphics in 540p. This is a standard feature at this point.

As for the built-in framerate setting, that's also a standard, but... I don't think it's very wise to encourage your players to experience your game at 15 fps. Not only does it make your company look desperate for scraps from poor people, but also, I imagine the artists who worked very hard to make the game look good -- just to have some people experiencing it at a pixelated 540p powerpoint presentation.

I feel like you have to put your foot down at some point. It's kinda like a web designer trying to make a website that supports Internet Explorer 6 in 2017... like, we gotta move forward yo.

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analgrin

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@Tiwill44: Dont think they're encouraging people to play in 15 fps. More like people with old laptops are encouraging the dev to allow them to play it on their device. Anyway, I've never known a game to say "Sorry your system can't render this game at a minimum of 30fps therefore you cant play" so the minimum fps shouldn't be an issue.

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jyml8582

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Edited By jyml8582

When the game releases and people are complaining it's running like crap, they can say "well we already told you."

GENIUS!

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ReadySalted

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@lonesamurai1: If that was Microsoft's end goal, then letting their games be playable on PC was a bad decision, don't you think?

Their "biased obligation" is to sell their products and services to consumers. Windows brings in more revenue than Xbox does, so it benefits them more you using PC over Xbox.

Either way, any company's goal is to get you to use their products. Apple would rather you buy an iPad to go along with your iPhone over any other tablet, for example, so why is it a problem for Microsoft to tempt you in with their other products?

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analgrin

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@lonesamurai1: I doubt Forza is limited to just 4k on PC. Some of my PC games from years ago before 4k was even a thing still play ok in 4k today. Forza on PC can look better than the console version I'm sure.

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ReadySalted

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@lonesamurai1: So 8K gaming is a thing now? What other games are you playing in 8K?

The PC version has multi-monitor support, 21:9 display support, unlocked framerate, massive peripheral support and higher available MSAA. But that's not enough as you clearly play all games on your 8K monitor.

You're being fooled if you think the PC version can't look and run better than the One X version on a much more powerful rig. If you don't engine limitations either, then do you actually have a PC?

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ReadySalted

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@lonesamurai1: "12K resolution will also be a feature if you're plush enough to have three 4K monitors that you can string together"

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/2017-02-09-project-cars-2-officially-breaks-cover-will-support-12k-and-vr

8K is the equivalent of four 4K screens, resolution wise, so isn't this just marketing speak? Forza 7 also has multi-monitor support, so what's the difference?

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ReadySalted

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@lonesamurai1: Why wouldn't Forza 7 work on 8K monitors?

There's no confirmed 12K assets, just 4K. The "12K" is called 4K Surround and the first Project Cars supported it, so it's not even new for this game.

Source: https://iq.intel.co.uk/project-cars-2-12k/

​"Does Project CARS 2 support 4K natively?"

"Yes, native 4K on PC, and up to 12K (3 times 4K screens) on PC."

Source: http://www.projectcarsgame.com/project-cars-2-faq.html?lang=en

Again, with Forza 7 also having multi-monitor support, it's just a case of verifying if it supports three 4K monitors like PC2 does. If it does, then this is a non-issue.

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connorman01

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I was about to flip shit until i saw "options" at the end

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deactivated-5c746fddbe486

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Ark live action series and now this, is it April Fools day or something

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Elranzer

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It's coming to PC? Cool. One less reason to get an Xbox One. All I need left is Sunset Overdrive.

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Myron117

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@Elranzer: Great game, was a lot of fun

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RicanV

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RicanV  Moderator

Hmmm. What about for those of us who game at 10 fps?

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Mcbrady

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I can play games around 30 fps just fine.

But if it every went down to around 15 fps, I remember not being able to do anything.

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razor_rj

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Edited By razor_rj

Features 540p, 15 FPS Lock -

So we know the potato one can run this game,good.

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Wiro_

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@razor_rj: Nah that would be for systems far weaker than the typical potato. You'd be surprised how much a potato can deliver. Usually they play at 1280x720 or 1024x768, all settings to the lowest, and still get about 25 fps average.

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DaVillain

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I think this is a great idea. It will bring the game to a wider audience and just make the player base larger. I genuinely can't think of any negatives to including this option.

Gotta give Rare & MS some credit, you can't say they're not willing to support AMD hardware.

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runstalker

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Imagine how horrific mouse control feels at 15fps. It already inherently feels terrible at 30fps. One of the (many) reasons PC gamers tend to adhere to the 60fps target.

Besides, hearing them speak at Gamescom, it sounds like a GTX 970/1060 (the most common spec across ALL Steam players, therefore a pretty good sample set) is sufficient for 1080p 60fps lock.

540p 15fps...hell, even integrated Iris Pro graphics pump out better performance than that.

You have to actually try really hard to own a banefully shoddy computer to play at those specs.

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hughesyboozy

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Yay let's go back to 1990, like what the hell, if you have to play at 540p 15fps then maybe it's time for an upgrade. Even a cheap GPU wouldn't struggle that badly. How can you enjoy something that will basically look like a slide show. I feel sorry for anyone having such a perform on their team, as they will be completely useless.

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runstalker

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@hughesyboozyEverything on console in 1990 was 60Hz :)

We had it made, back then.:

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hughesyboozy

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Edited By hughesyboozy

@runstalker: Nope there were a lot of games that ran at sub 20fps, 60hz doesn't come into it, my monitor is 60hz, it doesn't mean I always get 60fps... ; )

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Nabinator

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Haha what the hell? I have no response

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runstalker

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Edited By runstalker

"We've also added a 15 FPS framerate lock because when we were talking to the community some people were like: I'm actually happy playing 15 frames per second," Timmins explained. "We were like: that's actually really cool, we should support that."

------------------------------------

In other news, smashing your penis with a hammer is actually really cool, we should support that.

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Greyfox-101

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Really? We're moving backwards in acceptable fps?

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yukushi

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If you have a pc that can only play games in 540p at 15 frames please throw it in the garbage.

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hughesyboozy

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@yukushi: Even the garbage would reject it.

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BabeNewelll

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Preset PS4 graphic settings are always nice for when i'm not in the mood for twiddling in my .ini file :)

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catsimboy

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"I'm actually happy playing 15 frames per second" You shouldn't take advice from the mentally ill.

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Pyrosa

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Wait... what? Why? [confused]

The whole point of gaming on PC is to have reasonably high-end hardware, and to play games suited to that control scheme (particularly CPU-heavy strat titles).

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hughesyboozy

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@Pyrosa: I agree with the last bit, but not the first. Not everyone that plays on PC have good specs, there's many reasons why someone would play on PC instead of other platforms. But yea 540p 15fps is ridiculous.

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