Games Analysis |OT| Time To Argue About Pixels And Frames!

[Jorge_Alexander_Acos (Jorge Alexander Acosta Duarte)]

Haavent seen a game this broken since Batman AK.

I assume factions will have to be delayed if its was coming this year to pc.

[SpiderLink]

@BRiT

It already was delayed somewhat. They “needed” to release this while there was still some interest in the franchise because of the HBO series. Money above everything else for Sony.

It’s the same reason the last two mainline Pokemon games were so rough. Game dev is hard enough as it is and when you have to try to overlap with cross-media merchandising opportunity, it’s like forcing a square peg into a round hole. Something’s gotta give and sadly, it’s the developers who get the bad reputation and the mountain of urgent work.

[Knottian (Daniel)]

@CallMeCraig

I mean this isn’t the first time Sony deliberately manipulated reviewers. Remember how the ingame economy changed after the review period ended in Gran Turismo 7? They know exactly when they messed up.

I feel for Naughty Dog employees. They look at their scrum board and see bug fixing tasks for months and have to crunch to release patches fast. The responsible people for this mess just sipping on their champagne and chuckle at the irony of Cyberpunk beeing taken of PSN, lol.

Yet it’s still a “car lover’s paradise” or whatever phrase was regurgitated ad nauseam through the same manipulated/paid press…

Side note: it’s a pretty damning condemnation when we’ve seen other titles re-reviewed and docked points (MCC, for example, understandably so) but we never saw the same for GT - despite the very public and obvious disinformation. Now with the “see no evil” approach to TLOU’s PC reviews… I honestly don’t know how someone looks at these events and thinks it’s completely on the level.

[Staffy]

New Options for Xbox Velocity Engine

[Kals_Els]

@Staffy

Now we just need Samsung, Toshiba, Micron Technology and any other storage card makers that Microsoft can get to work with to make more and actually bring some lasting changes.

[KageMaru]

@Kals_Els

Now we just need Samsung, Toshiba, Micron Technology and any other storage card makers that Microsoft can get to work with to make more and actually bring some lasting changes.

I’d love for MS to allow adapters for us to just pick our own drives. Apparently there was one out in the market but MS killed it with a firmware update.

[BRiT]

@KageMaru

I’d love for MS to allow adapters for us to just pick our own drives. Apparently there was one out in the market but MS killed it with a firmware update.

I saw reddit discussions around them possibly having a WhiteList for the flash module. No one knows for certain, other than only one specific model working. I’m curious to see if WD has the same module id, a single new one, or multiple new ids.

I get Microsoft wanting to cut out the counterfeit market, but they should open it up like they did the USB drives on the X360. Implement a rigid benchmark test to see if the device is capable, if so then let us use it for X|S titles.

[Staffy]

The Witcher 3 Next-Gen Patch 4.02 - The Best It's Ever Been - PS5 vs Xbox Series X/S

Maybe time for me to dive into some Blood and Wine after I’m done with Guardians!

Can’t watch the video myself now, cinema time soon for me. So if anyone want to do a TLDW, it’s always welcome.

I’m also hoping they finally fixed the foliage draw distance issue on X, and shadows.

[KageMaru]

@Staffy

…

Maybe time for me to dive into some Blood and Wine after I’m done with Guardians! Can’t watch the video myself now, cinema time soon for me. So if anyone want to do a TLDW, it’s always welcome. I’m also hoping they finally fixed the foliage draw distance issue on X, and shadows.

They didn’t touch on the draw distance but basically performance is improved on all platforms. The performance mode runs slightly better on PS5 while the RT mode runs slightly better on the Series X.

[Knottian (Daniel)]

@KageMaru

They didn’t touch on the draw distance but basically performance is improved on all platforms. The performance mode runs slightly better on PS5 while the RT mode runs slightly better on the Series X.

That’s not quite accurate; in performance mode, Series X performs worse on horseback in one brief section and there’s a bit of top-screen screen tear (resolved if running VRR), but cutscenes perform better on Series X and more importantly, Novigrad runs better on Series X than it does on PS5. They even imply there’s no clear winner in performance mode given those facts… but I’d argue, given how many hours a player spends in Novigrad, that the Series X effectively locking to 60 in the city is a major deal.

[SpiderLink]

@Knottian

the Series X effectively locking to 60 in the city is a major deal.

I haven’t watched the video but damn, if this is true, it really is a big deal. It’s been a while but I think I remember that Novigrad in particular was a place where every device suffered heavily.

[Knottian (Daniel)]

@SpiderLink

I haven’t watched the video but damn, if this is true, it really is a big deal. It’s been a while but I think I remember that Novigrad in particular was a place where every device suffered heavily.

Straight from the article:

I wish I could say it’s a perfect 60 across the board now, but some areas do still consistently drop beneath the target - so yes, Novigrad City still has trouble locking to 60. On balance though, for PS5 it’s a net improvement overall, putting Novigrad aside at least.

Xbox Series X is where there’s an even bigger uptick in performance gains. In every area it’s an outright improvement: from battling to horseback riding, the new patch restores us to 60fps. But what’s especially encouraging is that Novigrad city is also clearly improved in the same breath, unlike the PS5 version.

They specify that the results are nigh identical but if you look at the actual graph being presented, Novigrad has far more, and more severe drops still on PS5 where XSX didn’t appear to drop below 53 FPS in Novigrad. Take that odd representation of the data as you will.

[Staffy]

@KageMaru

They didn’t touch on the draw distance but basically performance is improved on all platforms. The performance mode runs slightly better on PS5 while the RT mode runs slightly better on the Series X.

But is RT mode worth it at all? I will be coming from Guardians of the Galaxy which I play in RT mode and that’s in 30fps as well, so the switch won’t be jarring at all. Or does RT mode take a hit resolution wise too?

@Knottian

That’s not quite accurate; in performance mode, Series X performs worse on horseback in one brief section and there’s a bit of top-screen screen tear (resolved if running VRR), but cutscenes perform better on Series X and more importantly, Novigrad runs better on Series X than it does on PS5. They even imply there’s no clear winner in performance mode given those facts… but I’d argue, given how many hours a player spends in Novigrad, that the Series X effectively locking to 60 in the city is a major deal.

That is indeed a major deal, because like you said, lots and lots of time is spent in that city. Good stuff. Probably won’t matter for me too much since I’m diving straight into Blood and Wine, but for a second playthrough sometime maybe.

[KageMaru]

@Knottian

That’s not quite accurate; in performance mode, Series X performs worse on horseback in one brief section and there’s a bit of top-screen screen tear (resolved if running VRR), but cutscenes perform better on Series X and more importantly, Novigrad runs better on Series X than it does on PS5. They even imply there’s no clear winner in performance mode given those facts… but I’d argue, given how many hours a player spends in Novigrad, that the Series X effectively locking to 60 in the city is a major deal.

Yeah that’s, right, forgot about the cut-scenes. I thought it was novigrad that ran better on PS5 but watching it again he does say both run roughly the same in novigrad but when splitting hairs, that’s where the Series X is slightly worse on horseback.

Most important thing imo is both platforms runs at 60fps the vast majority of the time.

[Knottian (Daniel)]

@KageMaru

Yeah that’s, right, forgot about the cut-scenes. I thought it was novigrad that ran better on PS5 but watching it again he does say both run roughly the same in novigrad but when splitting hairs, that’s where the Series X is slightly worse on horseback.

Most important thing imo is both platforms runs at 60fps the vast majority of the time.

Yeah it’s easy to miss those details when they’re basically footnotes, though I still think the data shows a slight advantage in Novigrad on XSX (as mentioned above). They also mention that XSX’s Novigrad gains are larger but that’s because it ran worse initially at launch compared to PS5.

You’re definitely right about the 60fps stability, but I’ll admit to being a little selfish and hoping for a solid locked - only due to knowing what both consoles are capable of from an IPC standpoint… that said, some of the drops could entirely be down to engine issues.

Regardless, this is a fine showcase for an engine that hopefully still sees another revision in the future if they run into issues you and I have discussed with Unreal. Small rant: I’m so grateful that devs have competent middleware solutions like UE and Unity, but as we’ve seen time and time again, those same solutions often fail to meet the shoe-fits-all promise and proprietary, focused engines fill that need and often are at the forefront of long-lasting developments and solutions.

[Sparda3g]

@Mundfish #AtomicHeart

[Khalid117x]

@Sparda3g

Finally bigger subtitles

[Staffy]

@Khalid117x

Finally bigger subtitles

Hopefully that means all subtitles, especially the ones by NPCs (like right at the start) it was unreadable. I haven’t started a proper playthrough yet, so this is great.

[Staffy]

Playing A Plague Tale Requiem now in 40fps and oh yes, the difference is very noticeable and nice. I started the game up for the first time and the Xbox was still set to 60hz, so no 40fps for this game, but with 120hz enabled it is. It’s the first game I’m playing that is in 40fps and I now see why people call this a great middle ground.

I’d love it if BGS did this for Starfield. But I shall not get my hopes up too much, after all, still many devs today don’t really offer it. Why is this?

[No-1HoloLens-Fan]

@Staffy

Playing A Plague Tale Requiem now in 40fps and oh yes, the difference is very noticeable and nice. I started the game up for the first time and the Xbox was still set to 60hz, so no 40fps for this game, but with 120hz enabled it is. It’s the first game I’m playing that is in 40fps and I now see why people call this a great middle ground.

I’d love it if BGS did this for Starfield. But I shall not get my hopes up too much, after all, still many devs today don’t really offer it. Why is this?

It will be used by very few people with 120 hz display.