Horizons/Odyssey Compatibility - Further Details

LittleDionysus · May 18, 2021

Riverside said:
That situation has happened before, you will be unable to play until you upgrade your hardware if it can't run the updated version of the game.

You are right, such things have happened before. It doesn't make it any less of a bummer to hear you are being pushed out of a long time favorite game. Thank you for the clarification.
At least I have the PS4 copy I started this space flight obsession with. Now, after 1500hrs+, I finally get to have the new player experience. May my PC account rest in peace until I come into new hardware in a few years.

Riverside · May 18, 2021

LittleDionysus said:
You are right, such things have happened before. It doesn't make it any less of a bummer to hear you are being pushed out of a long time favorite game. Thank you for the clarification.
At least I have the PS4 copy I started this space flight obsession with. Now, after 1500hrs+, I finally get to have the new player experience. May my PC account rest in peace until I come into new hardware in a few years.

You don't know it won't run yet, give it a try when it happens & see how it goes

Friend of mine only had 4Gb of DDR2 RAM on a 2 core, 4 thread AMD CPU a few years ago, he could no longer play after an update, I lent him an i3 3440 CPU, mobo & 8Gb of DDR3 (one of my race servers) until he could get an upgrade (IIRC the RAM was the problem). The parts I lent him weren't expensive if bought second hand but the PC market is in a stranger place now than it was then. Lots of people want to upgrade & can't, or can't justify the cost it's not only you

LittleDionysus · May 18, 2021

Riverside said:
You don't know it won't run yet, give it a try when it happens & see how it goes

Friend of mine only had 4Gb of DDR2 RAM on a 2 core, 4 thread AMD CPU a few years ago, he could no longer play after an update, I lent him an i3 3440 CPU, mobo & 8Gb of DDR3 (one of my race servers) until he could get an upgrade (IIRC the RAM was the problem). The parts I lent him weren't expensive if bought second hand but the PC market is in a stranger place now than it was then. Lots of people want to upgrade & can't, or can't justify the cost it's not only you

I appreciate the positive outlook!
I certainly will try to run it when the graphical improvements come to Horizons. Currently I only run 30fps at 720p on lowest settings (and no going into rings, too many rocks), so it isn't as if I wasn't already skating on thin ice for this game. I have come to expect graphical improvements on long-running games to be my temporary doom. I will be keeping my wallet a bit more closed and my eyes a bit more peeled for unusually cheap parts, but it will be some time. Luckily, time is something I am not short of.
For those curious:
AMD Phenom 9650 (2.3 GHz)
8Gb DDR2
AMD R7 360 (2Gb VRAM)
(No offers for upgrades at this time, Thank you.)

stormyuk · May 18, 2021

Cdr Voorheez said:
So then in essence FDev have betrayed a huge portion of the community who do not have the money to play the Odyssey expansion.
We are in worldwide recession , money is short, GPUs and Pcs are super expensive. It could be seen as elitist, no pun intended of course.

So you're actually saying FDev should work for free and give software away for free? This is not how a commercial business operates generally.

Riverside · May 18, 2021

stormyuk said:
So you're actually saying FDev should work for free and give software away for free? This is not how a commercial business operates.

Lots of software companies give their software away free, and have an alternate income model. Frontier even did that with the Epic promotion, gave away 8m PC copies. Whether that was worth it or not can't be decided on the information we have, only FDev knows but by the metrics we know it was a success.

But I do agree that 'betrayed' is hyperbole and that it isn't FDev's job to make the value judgement on whether to upgrade hardware or put food on the table, it's the customers'.

Patrick_68000 · May 18, 2021

LittleDionysus said:
I appreciate the positive outlook!
I certainly will try to run it when the graphical improvements come to Horizons. Currently I only run 30fps at 720p on lowest settings (and no going into rings, too many rocks), so it isn't as if I wasn't already skating on thin ice for this game. I have come to expect graphical improvements on long-running games to be my temporary doom. I will be keeping my wallet a bit more closed and my eyes a bit more peeled for unusually cheap parts, but it will be some time. Luckily, time is something I am not short of.
For those curious:
AMD Phenom 9650 (2.3 GHz)
8Gb DDR2
AMD R7 360 (2Gb VRAM)
(No offers for upgrades at this time, Thank you.)

Why not buy a console in September ?

It would be cheaper than a new PC and you could play Odyssey properly.

Harbinger · May 18, 2021

Riverside said:
Lots of software companies give their software away free, and have an alternate income model. Frontier even did that with the Epic promotion, gave away 8m PC copies. Whether that was worth it or not can't be decided on the information we have, only FDev knows but by the metrics we know it was a success.

But I do agree that 'betrayed' is hyperbole and that it isn't FDev's job to make the value judgement on whether to upgrade hardware or put food on the table, it's the customers'.

Due to the Epic vs Apple case we know Epic pay very little for their free game of the week deals.

The core reason they gave it away to 8m people is so that they could increase their potential market for selling this very expansion so even Frontier won't know if the gamble will ultimately pay off yet.

stormyuk · May 18, 2021

Riverside said:
Lots of software companies give their software away free, and have an alternate income model. Frontier even did that with the Epic promotion, gave away 8m PC copies. Whether that was worth it or not can't be decided on the information we have, only FDev knows but by the metrics we know it was a success.

But I do agree that 'betrayed' is hyperbole and that it isn't FDev's job to make the value judgement on whether to upgrade hardware or put food on the table, it's the customers'.

Elite Dangerous isn't a F2P model we all knew that when we bought it.

They were IMO pretty generous with Horizons and The Beyond updates. To expect Odyssey to have been free, well that is just baffling to me.

People will still be able to play Horizons and hopefully any technical issues will be resolved when they make the new planet tech etc. work on console.

I do have sympathy for people if today's hardware running Horizons turns out not able to do so after console launch but, to be honest I find this unlikely if they can get it working on base PS4 and Xbox One consoles both with equivalent specifications below the minimum currently listed for Odyssey.

Giving away the base game and Horizons for which FDev have probably already made a handsome profit on is one thing. Giving away DLC in the form of Odyssey which has clearly been a fairly substantial development activity, no I'd not expect that.

I still ultimately have concerns how this will run on console be it Horizons or Odyssey but, FDev have some time between now and the end of the year to sort that out. Time will tell.

LKx · May 18, 2021

LittleDionysus said:
After the Console Launch, will Horizons players be forced into the graphical improvements? I won't be able to run the new stuff and am concerned I won't be able to play at all if the improvements to Horizons are not optional.

If they manage to make it run on ps4/xbone you might still be able to run it. We don't know yet. FD doesn't either.

LittleDionysus · May 18, 2021

Patrick_68000 said:
Why not buy a console in September ?

It would be cheaper than a new PC and you could play Odyssey properly.

I have a PS4 with a copy of ED. I started my Elite adventure that way due to my PC not being capable of it at the time and swapped to PC after some new parts fell into my lap. I even still play with a DualShock4, and as of ~200hrs ago, I fly FA-off only with the DS4's sticks in HOSAS config. This game has been a wild ride, and I have no plans of getting off of it.

LKx said:
If they manage to make it run on ps4/xbone you might still be able to run it. We don't know yet. FD doesn't too.

I am indeed hoping that the last gen console market will drive FDev to optimize to the max and that a big success there would mean I can go back to PC. Or more likely, allow me to spend less on upgrades to the PC. FDev has surprised me many times (good and bad), so I haven't a clue what my part needs may be when Horizons gets the improvements. I do hope though!

Patrick_68000 · May 18, 2021

For anyone wondering if Odyssey will run on their current machines, Frontier has given the information.

Sakashiro · May 18, 2021

LittleDionysus said:
I won't be able to run the new stuff

How would you know? You haven't even seen the new stuff yet. What you might have seen is an alpha build that was already obsolete by the time we downloaded it.

Riverside · May 18, 2021

stormyuk said:
Elite Dangerous isn't a F2P model we all knew that when we bought it.

They were IMO pretty generous with Horizons and The Beyond updates. To expect Odyssey to have been free, well that is just baffling to me.

People will still be able to play Horizons and hopefully any technical issues will be resolved when they make the new planet tech etc. work on console.

I do have sympathy for people if today's hardware running Horizons turns out not able to do so after console launch but, to be honest I find this unlikely if they can get it working on base PS4 and Xbox One consoles both with equivalent specifications below the minimum currently listed for Odyssey.

Giving away the base game and Horizons for which FDev have probably already made a handsome profit on is one thing. Giving away DLC in the form of Odyssey which has clearly been a fairly substantial development activity, no I'd not expect that.

I still ultimately have concerns how this will run on console be it Horizons or Odyssey but, FDev have some time between now and the end of the year to sort that out. Time will tell.

They 'gave away' Beyond

Not all DLCs cost money, not all DLCs or updates are optional.

Time will indeed tell, but the 'gimme free stuff' part of Cdr Voorheez's post you picked up on wasn't the problem.

LittleDionysus · May 19, 2021

Sakashiro said:
How would you know? You haven't even seen the new stuff yet. What you might have seen is an alpha build that was already obsolete by the time we downloaded it.

Thank you for reminding me to turn off push/watch and log out of the forum! o7
Come Horizons improvements I will make an effort to post my specs and whether or not it runs and at what fps! Peace out 'till then.

Odi · May 19, 2021

Riverside said:
Lots of software companies give their software away free, and have an alternate income model. Frontier even did that with the Epic promotion, gave away 8m PC copies. Whether that was worth it or not can't be decided on the information we have, only FDev knows but by the metrics we know it was a success.

But I do agree that 'betrayed' is hyperbole and that it isn't FDev's job to make the value judgement on whether to upgrade hardware or put food on the table, it's the customers'.

I actually got the game from epic and pre ordered the basic dlc didn't mind the cost to much because I wanted to give back but I have six core xeon x5460 24gb Radeon x550 2gb ram and thought it would be good..

Riverside · May 19, 2021

Odi said:
I actually got the game from epic and pre ordered the basic dlc didn't mind the cost to much because I wanted to give back but I have six core xeon x5460 24gb Radeon x550 2gb ram and thought it would be good..

Then you're in the same boat as LittleDionysus I guess, try it & see if you can run it & if you can't you have some decisions to make as I described a few posts above.

If you want to give back without buying Odyssey you could buy some ARX from the Frontier store.

Mike Reacher · May 19, 2021

Many legitimate worries .........
But you don't know what will happen with game, software or hardware till you try to do something in game.
Good luck to everybody and hope you can continue to enjoy this game.

FryaDuck · May 19, 2021

Patrick_68000 said:
For anyone wondering if Odyssey will run on their current machines, Frontier has given the information.

View attachment 226958

Glad I'm above recommended;

i5 9600k
32GB Ram (DDR4)
Nvidia RTX 2060

BTW Graphics were glorious in Alpha...

StanleyDunkan · May 19, 2021

Winterwalker · May 19, 2021

StanleyDunkan said:
Now reading some post, it made me curiose.
Is Updating Horizon to Odyssey graphics legaly possible? Wouldn't Fdev be forced to allow refunds on both Horizon and Base game, as some players will no longer be able to play the game because of Hardware requirements changes?

A legitimate question for sure. Likely why Horizons upgrade has been delayed. I suspect they'll have run tests in house that show the new tech will theoretically run on Horizons hardware and consoles but actually including it in the game is a task and especially tricky while there are still covid restrictions in the UK, that have already delayed Odyssey by several months. (At some point the do need to recoup development money though, so Odyssey / Horizons are getting time on their own)

Riverside said:
Lots of software companies give their software away free, and have an alternate income model. Frontier even did that with the Epic promotion, gave away 8m PC copies. Whether that was worth it or not can't be decided on the information we have

I can only see upside. A bit like making a movie, writing a book, recording music .. producing the first - single - copy is the difficult bit. After that it's all about bums on seats as extra copies don't cost you anything (or cost is negligible compared to writing the book in the first place). Meanwhile what you might generate, is more fans who buy expansions, get Arx, tell their friends. Without Epic not sure Odyssey would have for to number 5 - the highest I saw - on worldwide steam chart yesterday.