https://x.com/donjoewonsong/status/1701290522244010311?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ
Who said FOV only matters in shooters.
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Doesnāt every game says 4k these days? Only to be upscaled from some lower resolution.
They can definitely hide the loading screen of Cydonia behind the entry chamber lock (just like they have done with other similar doors). The elevators could really hide the loading screens when traveling between levels.
They could also hide Neonās entry point behind elevator movement. They used to hide the loading screens behind elevators in Fallout 4 (and it used to be long, but it wouldnāt last long in Starfield).
As for caves, Iām a bit surprised they still use loading screens considering they arenāt exactly as complex as the buildings they generate when you land on a planet (and those you can seamlessly enter).
Sure, if a new 4K system is on the horizon or a graphically impressive game hits native 4K, it may be mentioned but studios rarely highlight the resolution at all these days since itās usually below 4K. The industry as a whole has largely moved on from focusing on resolutions thankfully. Also, IMO thereās a difference between 4K being labeled on a box or by some marketing head and someone from the studio saying it. Especially since that studio is known for hitting native resolutions in just about every one of their releases, when they say 4K60 with RT, Iām sure many believed it.
Iām sure the game looks great in the RT mode, I was just pointing out that the figures match what weāve been suspecting all along.
Havenāt watched it yet since Iām busy with meetings but Iām sure there will be some interesting bits in this.
Edit:
Some great info. They go over rebuilding the new tracks, RT, content pipeline, materials, shaders, and other features too. They go over some PC features like supporting DLSS and FSR. Some cool dev footage too, so itās well worth a watch.
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It really seems to me that thereās no dynamic loading engine-level whatsoever. It goes from cell to cell. Unload current cell > load in new cell, thatās it, seems lile two cells canāt be loaded in at the same time even if theyāre both small and can fit simultaneously even partially. Thereās no partial loading of for example entry chamber and while youāre walking it it loads the rest in the background, that just doesnāt happen.
That said as I played longer I really started not being bothered by them at all. It got a little getting used to at first, but man it should be looked at for their next game/s.
The timing of this kind of funny considering the controversy with Unity right now but Iām sure this video has some interesting info. Havenāt had a chance to watch it all yet but itās great so far.
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Forza looks a technical marvel. Iām also really impressed with the sound design too.
Why are they saying theyāre still limited by CPU in loading, despite that itās in Directstorage? Isnāt a big part of it, thatās supposed to offload the decompression and free the CPU?
If you read between the linesā¦ He clearly mentions that direct storage will get better. It is my assumption that hardware decompression is still not matured enough in xbox consoles to be used in games right now.
Also, direct storage is an umbrella term. It include many technologies. Hardware decompression is just one part.
I also figure the parts where they are CPU bound is in the game developers code and not actually in the DirectStorage APIs. This is where the game starts processing the load data and doing things with it. This is where significant developer time needs to be spent, to work out new ways of processing the loaded data to not be cpu bound.
We saw something similiar to this in the past with a GTA game where they had to process the data. They were doing things really inefficiently so it took a long time. A community modder changed it to work faster. Though in the end it was loading a text-based file and processing it to construct other objects. Now if the devs changed their process, they could have some sort of preprocessor at build time that takes the text file and saves the binary results. This way during runtime the game can load these binary objects and skip the processing portion.
I left out several technical details which will be different for each game, but the gist is game loading can be much faster but only if devs find a way to skip several cpu intensive steps.
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Wanted to make a Series X priced PC but with nvidia gpu.
Rtx 4060 - 299
R5 3600 - 95
RAM 8GB - 15
B450 Mother board - 70
PSU 500 watt - 55
1 TB samsung 970 3.0 - 50
PC case - 40
Total: 624
This is 10-20% powerful then series X based on rasterization itself. Add DLSS and frame gen to practically increase performance by 50%. Ray Tracing performance could be north of 80-100% improvement. Frame gen is also known break out CPU bottlenecks as well.
The 624 price is sold at a profit here. Now imagine a console with nvidia tech by xbox. The 550 dollar price is not far away.
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https://x.com/colteastwood/status/1702318393700024736?s=46&t=O_AGT9SEnlptKOF_2SxtqQ Maybe the pro is coming sooner because the outcome from what was said on paper alas powerful console is kicking in.
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My best guess is that the decompression block itself isnāt enough to fully utilize the SSD or free up the CPU. Itās also important to keep in mind that streaming handled during gameplay is typically much more streamline and less demanding than the loading we typically see during a load screen. I imagine the biggest benefit to the decompression block freeing up CPU performance is mostly intended to benefit streaming during gameplay. Makes sense to be using both the decompression block and CPU in the load screen since that can increase the speed.
Also like BRiT mentioned, it does look like the efficiency in the code will make a difference to how well things like Direct Storage, decompression block, and SSD is utilized. They pretty much admit this in the interview when they say that their usage of Direct Storage will only improve as the generation goes on. Since FM will likely be the only FM we see this gen, I wonder if this means Turn 10 plan to update the game in a similar fashion that weād typically see from release to the next.
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I believe they heavily implied that if not confirmed it altogether saying theyāre always investing on improving their technology and this will be in a live game.
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DirectStorage helps with loading data faster. Decompression is only one task, decompressed data still needs processing.
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Itās by no means a deal breaker, but I kinda expected Starfield to be a bit more seamless. Absolutely perfect would have been that we fly to the planets ourselves and in real time land there too. But I have no doubt BGS had good reason not to do this, let alone it probably just isnāt possible with this engine Iām guessing?
But then on a planet and still having (albeit very brief) loading when we enter a building or like on New Atlantis where we get loading to get to the other areas, would have been great if this was one big seamless experience. Iām not a dev, but I assume this remains one of the downsides of this engine and probably TES VI too will have some loading.
From listening to Digital Foundry I think its more a question of choices. The amount of interactivity within the physics engine in Startfield trumps other games - especially the amount of independently rendered interactive objects in the game - it dwarfs everything else- and on top of that you have item persistenceā¦again most if not all similar games have nothing alikeā¦
If you were to make more of these spaces completely seamless and open you are adding massive complexity with things like radiant AI needing calculating - further pressuring the CPU.
Its just choice. You could not make a bethesda game and have all these spaces wide open. Or have some brief loading screens but have a bethesda game,
As DF says the only thing to really criticise is the lack of ādisguiseā theyāve baked in . Opening a door could be an animation - the train could have something - lifts, sitting in the cockpit etcā¦all these loading screens could have been disguised better.
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Thatās a very good point by them, because other games have this too. If you enter a train in RDR2 you get a animation of the train driving and the camera zoomed out. In Cyberpunk in one mission where you enter a big appartement complex you go into an elevator and this happens in real time, but itās still loading.
As for items persistence, I noticed to my surprise that RDR2 has this too, bodies of killed animals or people seem to stay, but to a certain extent. A pack of wolves I had killed and skinned were still there after I went from the other end of the map to back to that area.
But yeah, a cool animation when entering something in Starfield would have definitely added more. Did DF also go into why we canāt fly to planets ourselves, did they speculate on that?