‘Killer Instinct’ Actually Runs At 90 FPS On Xbox One

In a video of an EVO 2015 panel captured by YouTube user evo2kvids and shared by the KI_Central Twitter account, Microsoft Creative Director for Killer Instinct, Adam Isgreen, answered a fan question about bumping up the resolution and framerate of Killer Instinct. Isgreen pointed out that the game already runs at 60 frames per second and then went on to explain what the developer Iron Galaxy Studios did to make it feel so smooth.

“I don’t know if you guys know this, [Killer Instinct] runs a lot faster than 60 right now because of the way rollback works. Our game is running really fast in order to make that netplay as smooth as it actually is. I think the game runs more at 90 fps, actually. That’s why our code is so good. That’s why multiplayer is so smooth. We will continue to make sure that multiplayer is a rock solid 60 fps; PC, Xbox, doesn’t matter.”

While the game is still outputting to monitors at 60 fps, the game’s engine renders the graphics at 90 fps and then performs a “rollback” to 60 fps. This allows Killer Instinct to read controller input at a much higher rate, which makes gameplay feel smoother whether in single-player or multiplayer. The latter is the key part, combined with the netcode to enable online play.

This is one of the improvements that Iron Galaxy Studios brought to Killer Instinct since taking over development duties from Double Helix Games after it was purchased by Amazon. The first season of the free-to-play fighter launched at 720p and 60 fps. Iron Galaxy came on for the second season and bumped the resolution up to 900p and the framerate to over 60 fps.

And yes, Killer Instinct is coming to the PC later this year too. Xbox Head Phil Spencer announced the move at the E3 PC Gaming Show. It will require Windows 10, but does support cross play with the Xbox One. Cross-buy is also supported, which means that whatever content you purchased for the game on the Xbox One will automatically be available on Windows 10.

KI panel. The 90fps talk is at 43minutes in https://t.co/6rMmnVEQnT

— KI_Central (@KI_Central) July 20, 2015

Other news from the Killer Instinct panel revealed that more characters are being added to the game’s Shadows mode. This is the AI trainer that scales the opponent up to the player’s ability.

There’s been no confirmation of a Killer Instinct: Season 3 yet. However, Iron Galaxy did state that “everything is possible” in response to a fan question.

[Images via Killer Instinct]

[H/T: Facebook follower Zee Najam.]