Peter "Durante" Thoman is the creator of PC downsampling tool GeDoSaTo and the modder behind Dark Souls' DSfix. He has previously analyzed PC ports like Dark Souls 3, written an open letter to PC developers, and more.
Dive into a forum discussion about a new PC game, and one word will inevitably show up: optimization. Deus Ex: Mankind Divided?'I think this game is not optimized AT ALL!' writes one player on Steam. Metro: Last Light? 'In a few words optimization is this game is terrible' writes another.
Complaints about bad optimization are often shorthand for 'this game doesn’t run well on my PC.' But is that performance really the fault of the game’s programming not being written as efficiently as possible? How do you really know if a game is poorly optimized, or simply pushing your PC to its limits?
This article will try to clarify what optimization actually is, give an overview of some technical features like lighting and anti-aliasing which are inherently computationally expensive, and shed some light on how developers actually determine graphics presets and system requirements. Thanks to Croteam and QLOC for providing invaluable insight into the process of optimization.
http://www.pcgamer.com/what-optimization-really-means-in-games/
