Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2021]

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The map/planet with all the floating rocks in space just looks incredible, and a rather cool idea to see back in time before the planets destruction. Just some days left before i can play it :p
 
Looks great, I might pick up a disc (95 CAD is a bit much).

What's the power consumption during gameplay? Since Rift Apart features improved visual and more extensive use of the SSD, I wonder if this will set the new upper bound on PS5's power consumption.
 
RT Reflection come from 1080p to checkerboard 4k reflection, this is an impressive improvement compared to Spiderman MM.
Yup, looked quite nice in the example image.

It will be very interesting to see what kind of improvements we will see for sparse RT methods in this generation.
RT does allow to be more flexible with sample placement than rasterization hardware.
 
You have to consider other things when you're working crossgen, it's not that simple.
you have different models for different distances. This or that way, you must create low(er)-poly models if you don't want to waste performance. More or less it is easy as that, just use the lower-poly models for the base version. From that perspective this game is not really a problem. The PS4 can do more or less everything the PS5 can, just with lower res & asset quality. The bigger problem is the world-changing. But if you have lower asset-quality, you might be able to store 2 worlds inside of the memory. It is not like this hasn't been done before (at much lower quality and with tricks like the level just exists 2 times and the player just changes the camera position). The new thing is really that it can be done with a highly detailed environment.
 
The fur rendering has some immense detail for an area that you're unlikely to be spending much time looking at.
The detail on the small things is nuts, like how spent weapons cartridges are highly modelled including a rim of a reflective metal. Or the random bugs flying around. :runaway:

This, among other things, is why PlayStation 5 users aren't so happy with GT7, GOW:R and HFW being cross-generational titles. PD, SMS, and Guerrilla just can't go nuts like Insomniac at the moment.

This isn't bothering me. HZW looks fantastic.
 
you have different models for different distances. This or that way, you must create low(er)-poly models if you don't want to waste performance. More or less it is easy as that, just use the lower-poly models for the base version. From that perspective this game is not really a problem. The PS4 can do more or less everything the PS5 can, just with lower res & asset quality. The bigger problem is the world-changing. But if you have lower asset-quality, you might be able to store 2 worlds inside of the memory. It is not like this hasn't been done before (at much lower quality and with tricks like the level just exists 2 times and the player just changes the camera position). The new thing is really that it can be done with a highly detailed environment.

I doubt they can do like this at Ratchet and clank 2016 PS4 graphics level. For sure if they decide to have Ratchet and Clank PS3 graphics maybe this is ok or maybe lower something between PS3 and PS2 level of graphics. The HDD streaming constraint is huge.

And HDD in last gen consoles aren't fast, they are slow compared to PC HDD.
 
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you have different models for different distances. This or that way, you must create low(er)-poly models if you don't want to waste performance. More or less it is easy as that, just use the lower-poly models for the base version. From that perspective this game is not really a problem. The PS4 can do more or less everything the PS5 can, just with lower res & asset quality. The bigger problem is the world-changing. But if you have lower asset-quality, you might be able to store 2 worlds inside of the memory. It is not like this hasn't been done before (at much lower quality and with tricks like the level just exists 2 times and the player just changes the camera position). The new thing is really that it can be done with a highly detailed environment.
Well if you are thinking about taking a current gen game and boosting the detail then you have a point.
But it depends what you are aiming for and how you want to achieve it when you work on PS5.
I am sure that a game designed from the ground up for PS5 and trying to take advantage as much as possible its capabilities might be a bit more challenging than just importing lower LOD assets if you think of the PS4 as an afterthought.
The game might eventually end up on PS4 but with enough downgrades to make the less enjoyable.
I doubt a game like Rachert and Clank Rift Apart could be ported easilly just by reducing LOD and removing RT, even in sections that dont require changing dimensions.
There will be so many cutbacks that the looks and/or performance would be far from ideal even for PS4 standards. Or you can just cut things you were planning for PS5 and aim for easier portability.
For example CPU and bandwidth intensive workloads are going to kneel the PS4.
 
Well if you are thinking about taking a current gen game and boosting the detail then you have a point.
But it depends what you are aiming for and how you want to achieve it when you work on PS5.
I am sure that a game designed from the ground up for PS5 and trying to take advantage as much as possible its capabilities might be a bit more challenging than just importing lower LOD assets if you think of the PS4 as an afterthought.
The game might eventually end up on PS4 but with enough downgrades to make the less enjoyable.
I doubt a game like Rachert and Clank Rift Apart could be ported easilly just by reducing LOD and removing RT, even in sections that dont require changing dimensions.
There will be so many cutbacks that the looks and/or performance would be far from ideal even for PS4 standards. Or you can just cut things you were planning for PS5 and aim for easier portability.
For example CPU and bandwidth intensive workloads are going to kneel the PS4.
Button mashing event every time you open a rift. :D
 
yeah, if crossgen games can look like this i dont see a reason to complain
Yeah. The geometric density is nuts. Look at the rocks and coral riffs. This would not be possible on current gen.

Really wonder what the PS4 version is going to look like. The comparison is going to be extremly interesting.
 
Yeah. The geometric density is nuts. Look at the rocks and coral riffs. This would not be possible on current gen.

Really wonder what the PS4 version is going to look like. The comparison is going to be extremly interesting.

But that, you can downgrade and still look good like the first episode, maybe a bit better.
 
They can. Just use an extreme lod detail and don't port the higher "steps" to the old gen.
This is possible.

Think of how CP2077 performs on the PS4, it's likely streaming that's causing the framerate problem - the hardware is completely burdened by streaming and decompression. If those environments were closed, the rendering is within the expected requirements for the console.

If R&C is loading constantly in the periphery then there's literally nothing that can be done by lowering the details, unless the details are so low that they're able to be streamed at the HDD's rates, but then you're looking at PS2 levels of graphics and the GPU would be underutilised.
 
R&C is what you get with best artists, developers, engine and animators.
Rarely do you get it all, usually it's pretty easy to think looks great due to the art.

The first time I've ever thought "wonder what it would look like on pc."
 
R&C is what you get with best artists, developers, engine and animators.
Rarely do you get it all, usually it's pretty easy to think looks great due to the art.

The first time I've ever thought "wonder what it would look like on pc."

The advantage of monopolising the gaming space, I guess. Probably get to see it on PC in a couple of years.

I really do appreciate these blockbuster games.
 
Think of how CP2077 performs on the PS4, it's likely streaming that's causing the framerate problem - the hardware is completely burdened by streaming and decompression. If those environments were closed, the rendering is within the expected requirements for the console.

If R&C is loading constantly in the periphery then there's literally nothing that can be done by lowering the details, unless the details are so low that they're able to be streamed at the HDD's rates, but then you're looking at PS2 levels of graphics and the GPU would be underutilised.
nah... PS3 level should be possible ;) as those games were streamed from disc and not an HDD. The HDD was a big improvement and somehow it was possible that e.g. Tomb Raider worked on an xb360 and still looks quite good.
Also don't forget, doubling the resolution for assets quadruples the size of the data. So lowering the resolution of assets really makes data much, much smaller. The big problem I have with the last gen, is that it had more than enough memory for many things but it was most times littered with unneeded data. Sometimes it is really hard to believe that games did run with a fraction of the available memory. Did they look worse ... sure, but e.g. between PS3 & 4 there wasn't such a big visual jump.
Also the visual jump from PS4 to PS5 isn't really that big, but the needed IO bandwidth and memory grew exponentially as asset quality now reached and insane quality.
 
The advantage of monopolising the gaming space, I guess. Probably get to see it on PC in a couple of years.
I wouldn't hold your breath on that, it would have such tight requirements of hardware without introducing massive stuttering, it would be a challenge to get working.
 
I wouldn't hold your breath on that, it would have such tight requirements of hardware without introducing massive stuttering, it would be a challenge to get working.

I think people are grossly exaggerating the requirements here.

The amount of PC's 2-3 years from now, which meet the compute requirements, as well as the storage requirements, will easily be sufficient enough.

Steam Marketshare
RTX 20/30 series = ~16.5%
VRAM 8GB+ = ~29%
8core CPU = ~13%
16/32GB of RAM = ~57%

They don't state the amount with SSDs.... but I'm sure Gen3 saturation is decent. Probably most people with 20 Series GPUs also have at least a Gen3 SSD.

This is right now... in 2-3 years from now... all those percentages go up... AND we have DirectStorage which supports ALL those RTX 20/30 series GPUs, as well as AMDs RDNA GPUs.


In otherwords... the market will be there.. and the hardware is capable.
 
You have to consider other things when you're working crossgen, it's not that simple.
I think something people are overlooking when discussing Sony's cross gen games is that, even though they are releasing games across generations like Microsoft is doing, they are making 2 bespoke versions for PS4 and PS5. This is different from what Microsoft is doing with their first party titles that are cross gen. Microsoft is releasing 1 version that changes assets/setting for the hardware it is being run on. This is why Sony is charging a premium for Miles Morales on PS5, for example. I think based on the recent history of Sony's work we can have a fair amount confidence that they are going to release a PS4 version of HFW that is doing to stand up well against the original game, and deliver as much of the PS5 experience as they can given the hardware limitations.

Think of how CP2077 performs on the PS4, it's likely streaming that's causing the framerate problem - the hardware is completely burdened by streaming and decompression. If those environments were closed, the rendering is within the expected requirements for the console.
I have a variety of PCs that I've run Cyberpunk on, and I can say without much doubt that it's the CPU holding it back. My kid's laptop has a dual core i7 (yes, they make dual core i7's) with an AMD GPU that's about twice as fast as the intel onboard. He could, hit 60 FPS on that thing by running the game at 540p and 25% resolution scaling. It's not playable because you can't see anything, but the game would run that fast. His desktop is an AMD FX6300 overclocked to 4ghz, paired with an r9 390. 16GB of system memory, 8GB of VRAM, and an SSD. If you can get higher than 45fps on that thing regardless of resolution it's because you are looking at the sky. While not 100% comparable to PS4's CPU, the per thread performance of the FX chip should shred the PS4 by clock speed alone.
 
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