Overview
Kingmakers is a technically demanding game that renders thousands of medieval soldiers, destructible buildings, vehicles, and large-scale battlefields simultaneously. Despite this, the development team at Redemption Road Games has optimized the game to run at 60 frames per second on mid-range PC hardware. The game supports NVIDIA DLSS (Deep Learning Super Sampling), which uses AI-based upscaling to improve performance without a significant reduction in visual quality. The game is built on Unreal Engine 4.27, and the team's custom GPU shader-based animation system allows thousands of NPCs to be rendered without overwhelming the CPU.
PC Requirements
Component | Minimum | Recommended |
|---|---|---|
Operating System | Windows 10 | Windows 10 |
Processor | Intel Core i5 (10th Gen) | Intel Core i7 (10th Gen) |
Graphics Card | NVIDIA RTX 2060 | NVIDIA RTX 3070 |
RAM | 8 GB | 16 GB |
VRAM | 6 GB | 8 GB+ |
Storage | 80 GB | 80 GB |
DirectX | Version 11 | Version 11 |
DLSS Support | Yes | Yes |
Performance Notes
The minimum specifications target playable performance at lower settings, while the recommended specifications should deliver the game's target of 60 fps at higher graphical fidelity. DLSS is available on all supported NVIDIA RTX cards and is recommended for players who want to push visual quality beyond what their native resolution performance would normally allow.
The 80 GB storage requirement is notable and reflects the game's large-scale environments, detailed textures, and the sheer volume of assets needed to render both medieval and modern military elements. An SSD is not listed as a requirement but will significantly improve load times, especially when streaming in new areas of the map during battles.
Steam Deck Compatibility
Kingmakers runs on the Steam Deck with minor visual compromises. The developers have confirmed that the game is playable on Valve's handheld, though players should expect reduced graphical settings and potentially lower frame rates compared to a mid-range desktop PC. The Steam Deck's APU (which combines CPU and GPU on a single chip) handles the game's demands adequately, though the largest battles with thousands of soldiers on screen simultaneously may push the hardware to its limits.
The game also runs on Xbox Series S at 60 fps, which provides a useful reference point for expected performance on similar hardware tiers. The Series S has comparable GPU power to a mid-range laptop GPU, suggesting that Kingmakers' optimization work extends across a wide range of hardware configurations.
Supported Languages
Kingmakers supports 10 languages at launch:
Language | Code |
|---|---|
English | EN |
French | FR |
German | DE |
Spanish | ES |
Japanese | JA |
Korean | KO |
Portuguese (Brazil) | PT-BR |
Russian | RU |
Simplified Chinese | ZH-CN |
Turkish | TR |
Technical Architecture
For players interested in the technical details, Kingmakers is built entirely in C++ and HLSL (High Level Shading Language). The game uses a custom animation system that offloads NPC animation work from the CPU to the GPU. From the CPU's perspective, every soldier on the battlefield is in a static T-pose. The GPU handles all the actual animation using shader-based vertex manipulation. When soldiers are far from the camera, they use simpler vertex animations. When the camera gets close, the system switches to full skeletal animation for visual fidelity. This LOD (Level of Detail) system is what allows the game to field up to 4,000 soldiers (and potentially 8,000) without destroying frame rates.