Doom Eternal is not true 4K on Google Stadia, developer id Software has confirmed.
Rather, the blistering first-person shooter runs at 1080p and 60 frames per second on HD displays, and up-samples to 2160p from 1800p at 60 frames per second on 4K displays.
The news comes as some surprise given Doom Eternal’s position as one of the leading titles for Stadia, Google’s use of the game to demo the tech to press, and the fact id promised the game would run in “true 4K” a year ago.
When Google unveiled its streaming platform at the Game Developers Conference in 2019, id boss Marty Stratton took to the stage to say Doom Eternal would run at “true 4K” – prompting a round of applause form the audience.
Stadia GDC 2019 Gaming Announcement Watch on YouTube
“If you’re gonna prove to the world that you can stream games from the cloud, what better proof than Doom?” he said. “And if you’re gonna prove to a developer that you’re serious about building a robust platform, what better team than iD, where we push every platform to its limit?
“We couldn’t be happier to be bringing Doom Eternal to Stadia, and are thrilled to announce that the game will be capable of running at true 4K resolution, with HDR colour at an unrelenting 60 frames per second.”
As you’d expect, there is a degree of disappointment from Stadia owners to the news. Redditor EDPZ said: “On one hand 1800p upscaled to 4K is at least better than 1440p or 1080p upscaled to 4K. You get into the territory where less people are likely to notice and it still maintains 60FPS which ties Stadia with the Xbone X as the second-best place to play the game in terms of performance.