Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 producer and programmer talk Blizzard, cross-play, the beta, and more (Q&A)

The side by side entry in Activision's renowned shooter franchise, Call of Duty, has been officially unveiled ahead of its scheduled release this autumn. Call of Duty: Black Ops 4 will revive the fan-favorite series, fully embracing its multiplayer success, while exploring new online modes such as "Zombies". Black Ops 4 is being developed by Treyarch with help from Raven. Beenox is helping with the PC version.

The multiplayer beta kicked off on August 3, 2022, on PlayStation 4. Information technology should exist available on Xbox 1 and PC starting August 10. In September, the Blackout battle royale experience comes to life with another beta exam.

Recently, nosotros spoke with Treyarch Senior PC Producer Jonathan Moses and Beenox Technical Lead Programmer Philippe Troie to discuss the PC beta of Black Ops 4 and what lies ahead for the game.

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An insider's view of Call of Duty: Black Ops 4

Asher Madan, Windows Central news writer: There seems to be a greater push for Phone call of Duty on PC this year. What specific optimizations has the team implemented for the PC version of Blackness Ops 4? How does it differ from past years?

Philippe Troie: For Black Ops 4, we've secured the team much earlier than previous Phone call of Duty games. In terms of optimizations, what you lot'll see in this game next weekend is how flexible it reacts to your hardware. We back up very high visual fidelity for gamers that really like an experience close to what you would meet in cinematography. Just we also support competitive setups similar loftier frame rate and very depression latency.

What are some of the frame rate options available on PC?

Troie: You can completely unlock the frame rate and have the game run equally fast as you can on your hardware.

What is the status of defended servers for the game?

Troie: For Blackness Ops 4 on PC, it will be a hundred percentage dedicated servers for the beta. Information technology's still to exist determined for launch.

Jonathan Moses: For consoles, we too have a hundred percent dedicated servers correct now.

What are the differences between the Xbox I X and PlayStation 4 Pro versions of Black Ops four? How practice they compare to the PC?

Troie: The game supports threescore FPS [frames per second] on a 4K monitor, only we also showcased a more competitive setup at E3 where we had very high frame rate monitors. Nosotros want to explore both ends of the spectrum only to get feedback from the community, but to hear what they have to say about having very high-fidelity visuals and also very depression latency, loftier frame rate. We're really focused on extracting every gigaflop from your hardware, making sure it runs as best as it tin can on any type of GPU. On consoles, yous only accept the TV on which you can play. On PC it'due south a jungle of hardware. The game has to adapt to what you lot accept.

Moses: That exact resolution differences are something we're going to get into after the beta and other tests.

How do you make sure certain PC players with weaker setups or other obscure configurations aren't at a disadvantage? Is it only well-nigh optimization?

Troie: We have a team of designers who are exploring all kinds of gameplay and UI opportunities. Information technology involves a lot of teamwork where every change is run by the team. Treyarch and Blizzard take been fantastic partners in providing this blazon of feedback. Moreover, we accept big groups of players testing various types of hardware. Activision and Blizzard meeting and giving us access to the Compatibility Lab made sure the game is running well on these types of hardware. From the developer perspective, nosotros really want to make sure the histrion will bask playing the game with their ain setups. If someone has an ultra-widescreen monitor, we accept to brand adjustments so that it's not unbalanced for him or her. Turning your head takes fourth dimension and prevents reactivity, so we added features to the game which allow you to customize HUD placement.

A lot of Activision games seem to exist releasing for PC through the Battle.net platform. Is this the new standard going forward?

Moses: For Philippe and myself, working with Battle.net and the Blizzard team has been super piece of cake and fantastic. Blizzard has been making PC games, for real, forever. Being able to tap into that experience and being able to use their Compatibility Lab to test hardware, talk to their security experts when it comes to locking down systems and comparison them to what we've done with Telephone call of Duty: Blackness Ops 3 in the by, and stability ... being able to bring all of that into Black Ops 4 has been fantastic. Features like social chat and whisper are fantastic. It'south really the behind-the-scenes – things that players won't necessarily put their hands on – that will come through when you become to encounter how this game compares to past titles.

Adulterous is a pressing business concern amongst the PC crowd when it comes to any online game. How do you plan to combat this?

Moses: Battle.net has systems in identify that we're going to exist using, merely as well Treyarch has a security team that's been built around combating cheaters and hackers from Blackness Ops 3 and earlier. The feel for the last several months has been most getting all these teams together, talking about all-time practices, sharing code, sharing methods and tools. Betwixt Blizzard, Treyarch, and Activision, this will be an ongoing combating thing. People go along to learn and try to find new ways to take advantage of systems. We'll continue to monitor and update equally needed.

Cross-play seems to be a major push in the gaming manufacture right now. Is Treyarch or Activision exploring this for future Call of Duty games?

Moses: Information technology's something we've talked almost at the studio, only we don't have any announcements at this fourth dimension. Thanks to the engineering science we've got behind the scenes, cantankerous-play could exist possible. You'd really have to have into account how that would change competitive multiplayer though. Having one platform perform meliorate than some other would cause potential problems in a competitive setting.

Thank you to the applied science we've got behind the scenes, cross-play could be possible.

Black Ops 4 forgoes a traditional single-role player campaign in order to focus on more multiplayer modes. What was the reasoning behind this conclusion?

Moses: I think game design is actually iterative, and a lot of choices are made equally we go. Every Specialist power you'll try in the beta adjacent weekend was slightly different at various points of the life bike. The Black Ops 4 campaign was always meant to be a different way of telling stories and information technology iterated over fourth dimension to be what it is now. We're telling the story a different way, and Zombies has a fantastic story. The story is told differently through multiplayer.

What are some of the inspirations behind Black Ops 4? How take contempo games shaped evolution over the past few years?

Moses: The squad at Treyarch would say that they play a lot of stuff, a lot of dissimilar games that influence the designers as they go, but really the biggest inspiration was Black Ops three. At the end of that game, we were tearing it autonomously and really looking at things that worked really well. The Specialists and team-play were something they liked a lot and were talking virtually ways to build on that to really emphasize the gameplay they wanted from Black Ops 4. This game isn't our answer to any other game as much as it is but us trying to take what nosotros have learned from Black Ops two, Black Ops 3, and bring that to what we think is the penultimate experience.

Blackness Ops 4 feels slower and more tactical than past Blackness Ops games. How did the decision to go this road come about?

Moses: The team coming out of Blackness Ops three really wanted to double-down and make the feel of the Specialists and fundamental aspects feel more like a tactical shooter, so players of various skill sets even so feel like they contribute. I suck at Black Ops. I'grand probably the worst actor here. Just, in Black Ops iv, I still feel similar I'grand able to contribute because of the unlike Specialist abilities. Information technology definitely gives every thespian the opportunity to experience like they're contributing.

Given Black Ops 4's boots-on-the-ground approach, how does level design differ? How do you maintain unpredictability?

Moses: Having played through a lot of the levels, there's still a lot of verticality to them. There are a lot of overwatch positions and players coming from different directions. Treyarch's arroyo to map design comes from understanding what the Specialists are going to be able to do and understanding how you want to break up maps into lanes so players can bulldoze gainsay into meaningful places. We give players opportunities to maneuver around. Nosotros don't have the wall-running, so we don't have to worry about building maps for that in Black Ops 4.

How do y'all balance tools similar the grappling claw? Are in that location concerns virtually how much of an advantage these can requite certain players?

Moses: This involves a lot of playtests. The beta is going to requite us a fantastic amount of data on that. It'south near agreement the Specialist abilities to make them feel well-balanced and unique, and so there'southward a few unlike ways nosotros tin balance them against the ability and how often you tin employ them. For example, while looking at the PC version, nosotros're making sure choices to accept into account the fact that players have the mouse and keyboard. For the grappling hook, we wanted to maintain a greater sense of camera movement with the mouse so that players aren't locked in like they are on a controller.

How did the determination to use syringes to let players heal themselves come about?

Moses: This was really to bulldoze that tactical gameplay to give players added choice. Do I want to endeavour and button to finish this guy off? Or practice I desire to dorsum up for a 2nd and heal? Practice you want to push and tag them while they're healing? Maybe they take a friend around the corner as well. This gives that additional depth to moment-to-moment gameplay.

Is at that place anything else yous'd like people to know about the beta feel?

Moses: The beta is a beta in every sense of the give-and-take. Information technology's probably not as finished every bit we'd similar it to be. It's withal an first-class opportunity for usa to get the game out and in front of every PC player. Boxing.cyberspace allows anyone with an account to play. Nosotros're really looking forward to getting feedback. We're looking frontwards to using that to make future releases much better.

Thanks to Jonathan and Philippe for talking to us!

Hopefully Black Ops 4 will be a polished and counterbalanced experience on all platforms when information technology releases in a few months. You can currently preorder Black Ops four, starting at $59.99. The game is scheduled to launch on Oct 12.

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