IO Interactive studio revealed new details about the technical side of 007 First Light in a fresh interview for Digital Foundry. The developers elaborated on the evolution of their proprietary Glacier engine, which has been significantly modernized specifically for the new James Bond project.
According to IO Interactive, the engine received a completely redesigned lighting system. The game uses full real-time global illumination, replacing the simpler system from the Hitman series. The developers also implemented new technologies, including their own Smolder system, clustered lighting, and improved shadow management.
The studio paid special attention to character animation and behavior. Glacier now supports more advanced facial animation, full character interactions with the environment, and seamless transitions between combat and cutscenes. In addition, the engine has acquired a dynamic level “brick” loading system, which allows large game spaces to be seamlessly loaded and unloaded in real-time without traditional loading screens.
The developers emphasized that they initially created 007 First Light with 60 frames per second in mind for PlayStation 5, PlayStation 5 Pro, and Xbox Series X. On base PS5 and Series X, players will be offered two modes: “Performance” at 60 fps and “Quality” at 30 fps. PS5 Pro owners will be able to run the “Quality” visual profile at 60 fps thanks to the use of PSSR 2.0 technology, while other consoles will be limited to FSR 3.1.5.
The main exception will be the Xbox Series S. At launch, the console will only receive the “Quality” mode at 30 fps. IO explained this by the device's limitations — less RAM (10 GB versus 16 GB for older models) and insufficient GPU performance for all active Glacier systems.