Battlefront devs comment on dynamic lighting, future support & lag

In the wake of the Death Star’s arrival to Battlefront, a couple of developers for the game have been active on Twitter.

First, the lighting lead for Battlefront, Oscar Carlan, discussed dynamic lighting.

“A dynamically changing system didn’t make sense for the short rounds in [Battlefront], shifting it between gamemodes suited the game better,” he wrote on Twitter.

He further added: “Gamemodes tend to have unique object placement that require unique lighting (as well as making it feel more distinct in my opinion).”

Some maps like Jawa Refuge or Twilight on Hoth have different lighting rules depending on the mode. However, there is no dynamic lighting in Battlefront (where a map changes from day to night—or vice versa—over the course of a match).

Personally, I don’t mind the lack of dynamic lighting. A Carlan notes, the rounds in Battlefront are short, so dynamic lighting doesn’t make too much sense. Instead, I’d rather they focus on dynamic weather, like the rolling fog on Bespin’s Administrator’s Palace map.

The upcoming Battlefield 1 has a dynamic weather system and it uses the Frostbite game engine that Battlefront does. While a system as robust as Battlefield 1’s dynamic weather may not be possible for this edition of Battlefront, hopefully next year’s version can take some cues from the World War I shooter.

Next, Battlefront producer Paul Keslin commented on additional support for this Battlefront during 2017, such as with free maps.

“We are always evaluating things so who knows,” he wrote on Twitter. “Nothing to speak of now.”

This is in no way an outright “yes”. Still, it gives hope that Battlefront won’t be forgotten after the Rogue One expansion hits in December. Hopefully, the game can at least get some support up until Battlefront 2’s release next year.

Finally, Keslin covered the server lag issues present in Battlefront since the Death Star update on Tuesday:

“We’re digging on this one,” he wrote. “It seems to be fairly isolated though.”

On the West Coast USA on Xbox One, I’ve definitely experienced more lag than usual. This especially seems to be the case when I active R2-D2 in the second phase of Battle Station. However, I haven’t had any situation yet that I would call “game-breaking”.