Baldur's Gate 3 dramatic memory optimizations on Xbox could benefit PC and other platforms

[Alfonso Maruccia]

In context: Currently available for PC, Mac, and PS5 platforms, Baldur's Gate 3 is not particularly resource-hungry. However, for the upcoming Xbox Series S port, developer Larian Studios will likely need to put in a bit more effort, and things do seem to be progressing well in that regard.

Baldur's Gate 3, the award-winning CRPG created by the role-playing specialists at Belgian developer Larian Studios, is officially being ported to Xbox Series X|S consoles. The version for the lower-powered Xbox Series S won't feature the same split-screen support available on other machines, but it will seemingly provide significant optimizations in how system and video memory are utilized.

According to a couple of screenshots provided by Larian founder Swen Vincke, the studio's engineers have found a way to significantly reduce the amount of RAM required by BG3 on Xbox Series S. The game now uses 4.7 GB of system RAM and 2.3 GB of video RAM, whereas at the beginning of September, it needed 5.2 GB and 3.5 GB, respectively.

Got a nice present from our engineers. Ensuring memory is well under control and having buffer for peaks was the main thing holding us back I think this will benefit all platforms too. Still some work left but very close now. pic.twitter.com/xvtUDPFebo

– Swen Vincke @where? (@LarAtLarian) November 8, 2023

Baldur's Gate 3 memory and VRAM requirements on Xbox Series S have been reduced by 10 percent and a massive 34 percent, as confirmed by Vincke. Ensuring that memory usage is "well under control" and having a buffer for "peak" cases was seemingly the main hurdle holding back development on the platform.

While memory utilization still needs some work, according to the Larian boss, the newly found "secret" behind recent optimizations should benefit other platforms as well. The Xbox Series X|S version appears to be very close to completion, based on Vincke's statements.

The reduced memory requirements for BG3 are unlikely to be related to lower resolution rendering or degraded texture quality. If that were the case, Larian developers would have adopted this approach much sooner. The system requirements for the game's PC version include 8 GB of RAM and a 4 GB VRAM GPU, while recommended requirements include 16 GB of RAM and an "8 GB+" VRAM GPU.

Actual tests on VRAM utilization show that Baldur's Gate 3 can go from 4 GB in 1080p at low settings to 5.6 GB at 4K Ultra. Graphically intensive occurrences are few and far between, except for the notoriously heavy Act III. Considering the work being done on the Xbox Series S port, PC gamers can rightfully expect some future performance improvements for their platform as well.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/100825-baldur-gate-3-exhibits-impressive-memory-usage-optimizations.html

 

[Neatfeatguy]

I'd just like Larian to fix the hang up on the main loading screen (after you start the game) and are waiting to get into the main menu because of the game overlay abilities of GoG Galaxy and Steam.

If you have either game overlay active for Steam or Galaxy, you can sit upwards of 6+ minutes waiting for the game to get past the initial loading screen. It'll sit there at 100% and be unresponsive. If you're lucky the wait may only be a few minutes, but if you're not so lucky it can be nearly 7 minutes (timed it before, took 6 minutes and 43 seconds once). Or if you're really unlucky, the game won't even load to the main menu, it just gets hung up and you're forced to kill and restart.

In the end, for now at least, if you're having this issue you need to disable the game overlay options for Steam and GoG Galaxy. Once the game overlays are turned of, the game loads to the main menu in about 15 seconds.

 

[yRaz]

I'd just like Larian to fix the hang up on the main loading screen (after you start the game) and are waiting to get into the main menu because of the game overlay abilities of GoG Galaxy and Steam.

If you have either game overlay active for Steam or Galaxy, you can sit upwards of 6+ minutes waiting for the game to get past the initial loading screen. It'll sit there at 100% and be unresponsive. If you're lucky the wait may only be a few minutes, but if you're not so lucky it can be nearly 7 minutes (timed it before, took 6 minutes and 43 seconds once). Or if you're really unlucky, the game won't even load to the main menu, it just gets hung up and you're forced to kill and restart.

In the end, for now at least, if you're having this issue you need to disable the game overlay options for Steam and GoG Galaxy. Once the game overlays are turned of, the game loads to the main menu in about 15 seconds.

I disable the game overlay in most games. Maybe if the steam browser was any good, but it's easier to alt-tab out of a game to look something up than to use valve's browser

 

[m4a4]

I disable the game overlay in most games. Maybe if the steam browser was any good, but it's easier to alt-tab out of a game to look something up than to use valve's browser

I have 2 monitors and set any game I can to do borderless fullscreen. But otherwise never a problem (in-overlay or not).
The new post-it notes are nice to use too.

 

[The Talking Tech]

It goes to show the Series S was never the problem but the lack of developers' dedication and commitment on getting it done properly.

 

[gamerk2]

It goes to show the Series S was never the problem but the lack of developers' dedication and commitment on getting it done properly.

Developers don't want to spend the time and effort to get their product working on what is essentially a cripple by modern standards. And since Microsoft mandates feature parity between the S and X, you have devs just deciding to skip the platform entirely.

That's the entire point of PC based consoles: You don't need to spend the extra effort to optimize for specific platforms.

 

[Burty117]

I'd just like Larian to fix the hang up on the main loading screen (after you start the game) and are waiting to get into the main menu because of the game overlay abilities of GoG Galaxy and Steam.

If you have either game overlay active for Steam or Galaxy, you can sit upwards of 6+ minutes waiting for the game to get past the initial loading screen. It'll sit there at 100% and be unresponsive. If you're lucky the wait may only be a few minutes, but if you're not so lucky it can be nearly 7 minutes (timed it before, took 6 minutes and 43 seconds once). Or if you're really unlucky, the game won't even load to the main menu, it just gets hung up and you're forced to kill and restart.

In the end, for now at least, if you're having this issue you need to disable the game overlay options for Steam and GoG Galaxy. Once the game overlays are turned of, the game loads to the main menu in about 15 seconds.

I don't have GoG Galaxy, Just Steam and my game loads instantly. Have you tried just disabling one of them to see if it helps?