GDC: Epic wants PC-like hardware settings on iOS

The increasingly disparate range of smartphone hardware means that PC-like settings would be an elegant solution to performance scaling, a developer at Epic Games has said.

Niklas Smedberg (pictured), a senior engine programmer at the Infinity Blade company, told attendees at GDC that mobile “is the new PC” in terms of diversity of GPU, CPU and memory specs.

“On just iOS alone you still have a wide range of different devices and different performances to cover,” he said.

Because of the disparity in hardware, everything on iOS has to be built with the lowest settings in mind, Smedberg added.

“On Xbox 360 you can try and get everything out of the console, but on mobile you have to scale performance for a wide range of device. So, to be future proof, it would be nice to have PC-style settings.”

Most PC games offer customers the chance to change performance settings that best suits their device. In most cases, the user’s hardware is read by the software and recommended settings are applied.

But such settings allow the developer to deliver high-end performance without choking out mid-range devices.

“It would be nice to give the power to the user,” Smedberg added.

Epic Games has drawn in sizable acclaim and cash flow for its iOS series Infinity Blade; a high-performance game developed through Unreal Engine.