Where the decision was made early on to target 60 frames-per-second. Recently we sat down with The Coalition’s Technical Art Director Colin Penty to discuss the challenges behind this decision. A technical feat that showcases the power of Xbox One X hardware alongside retaining the stunning visuals that the Gears of War franchise is known for.

“It was actually one of the first decisions we made,” Technical Art Director, Colin Penty, at The Coalition explains. “We grabbed a Gears of War 4 map, Dam, and then did a test. Try to get it running at 60, just to prove that we could do it. And, we got it running at 60.”

Doubling the frame-rate, on paper at least, one can’t help but think that in order to do so the team at The Coalition would need to make sacrifices. Resulting in a smoother but perhaps less impressive visual experience than Gears of War 4 – with fewer pieces of eye-candy littered about the screen. Subtract from one pile to add to another. A line of thought born from AAA console releases mostly targeting 30 frames-per-second.

“But, you know, 60 wasn't enough,” Colin adds. “We also wanted to also push the visual quality higher as well.” This decision led to the Xbox One X version of Gears 5 taking a priority of sorts, where the various teams met, and the new target of 60 frames-per-second was set. “We couldn't tell them, hey, we're going to do 60 and it's going to look worse to get to 60. I would have had the whole Art Team with pitchforks at my desk if we did that. Any sacrifice we would do, visually, to hit 60, it had to be invisible to the player.”

Click Here to Read Our Full Interview and Feature Covering the Making of Gears 5