Current Generation Games Analysis Technical Discussion [2020-2021] [XBSX|S, PS5, PC]

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I do find it ironic reading posts like this and thinking back on all those old debates I've had about consoles being better because you didn't have to mess around with settings and the developers just chose the optimum way to play the game for you.

It's almost as if user choice is important after all!
This is something I've been thinking about for last couple weeks.

I would like for an advanced options tab, that gives you access to internal resolution, and lots of other things you get on PC.
90% of console gamers won't use it and rightly so, but would make taking advantage of your hardware (VRR, 120fps, how close you sit), much more easier.
If the configuration object is made a standard part of the SDK, could make updates to deaults easier also for future hardware support.

This Advanced options tab wouldn't be changing the benefits of what console users currently gets.
 
There is some truth to that though. When I used to build my own PCs I tended to spend more time adjusting settings than I did playing games.

Same here, that's half the fun! It seems console gamers are starting to learn that now too.

IMG20210611112933.jpg

(credit to @chris1515)

Now I don't have any time for settings and nearly no time to play games. :(

Ditto on that too. I spend more time on here talking about games than I do playing them. But now it's Friday night, my one night of the week where I might actually get a couple of hours to play. Do you have any idea how long it takes to complete Assassins Creed Odyssey on 2 hours a week? Ask me again in 6 months.
 
Same here, that's half the fun! It seems console gamers are starting to learn that now too.

IMG20210611112933.jpg

(credit to @chris1515)



Ditto on that too. I spend more time on here talking about games than I do playing them. But now it's Friday night, my one night of the week where I might actually get a couple of hours to play. Do you have any idea how long it takes to complete Assassins Creed Odyssey on 2 hours a week? Ask me again in 6 months.
The last setting missing is camera acceleration, from normal (so usually too much) to 0. I am not talking about camera sensitivity which should probably be here too. But baby steps. Probably for next-(next)-gen. :yep2:
 
Port? This is an original game..

Unless this was a nearly finished late PS3 / early PS4 game they picked up to release at the last minute, this thing just was made from the get go to look and play really bad.

Looking at Dead or Alive 6 and Nioh 1/2, it seems Team Ninja put some work on character detail never really caught up with environments. And now with the 9th-gen consoles this is coming to bite them in the ass.

Perhaps Sony will hire Bluepoint to remake this game lol.
 
Never played nioh? Team ninja intentionally put out this demo as an early alpha to gather info like their last two games. Dont expect this to be the state of the game at launch
 
https://www.4a-games.com.mt/4a-dna/...upgrade-for-playstation-5-and-xbox-series-x-s

"Then there were several months of continuous optimizations, async compute rebalancing, hunting the bugs as they always crawl out when new hardware and new software development kits (SDKs) are introduced. The SDKs were constantly changing as well, bringing in enhancements, some of which were specifically requested by us for the platform holders to implement. On the fun side, due to the specific way we utilize Ray Tracing on consoles, we are tied to exact formats for the acceleration structures in our BVH: formats that were changing with almost every SDK release. Constant reverse-engineering became an inherent part of the work-cycle. :)"
 
https://www.4a-games.com.mt/4a-dna/...upgrade-for-playstation-5-and-xbox-series-x-s

"Then there were several months of continuous optimizations, async compute rebalancing, hunting the bugs as they always crawl out when new hardware and new software development kits (SDKs) are introduced. The SDKs were constantly changing as well, bringing in enhancements, some of which were specifically requested by us for the platform holders to implement. On the fun side, due to the specific way we utilize Ray Tracing on consoles, we are tied to exact formats for the acceleration structures in our BVH: formats that were changing with almost every SDK release. Constant reverse-engineering became an inherent part of the work-cycle. :)"
yikes. lol sounds painful

As it stands then, we can say for sure that projects of this generation, across all targeted platforms, will be based off of this raytraced feature set. That is great news for the end result: it is allowing us to produce scenes with the highest level of graphical fidelity we have ever achieved and that is what the public gets to see, though these features are just as important behind the scenes.

aw yheaa

There is a reason why we have always been so vocally critical of the idea of baking assets (pre-generating the results of things like lighting calculations) and shipping them as immutable monoliths of data in the games package files, rather than generating as much as possible on the fly: everything that you pre-calculate is something that you are stuck with. Not “stuck with” in the sense that if it is wrong it can’t be fixed (everyone loves a 50GB patch after all) but “stuck” in a much more limiting sense – that any part of your game, any object in the scene that relies on baked assets will be static and unchanging. You won’t be able to change the way it is lit so you have to be overly cautious with decisions about how the player can affect dynamic lights (you won’t be able to move it, so you disable physics on as much as possible), and the player can’t interact with it in interesting ways, so you pass that problem onto UX design.

The more you have to rely on baked assets for your scenes, the more you restrict your game design options, and the more you take the risk that your environments will feel rigid and lifeless. Perhaps, the biggest advantage that Ray Tracing brings is that it gives game developers a huge boost in the direction of worlds that are truly, fully dynamic, with no dependencies on pre-computed assets whatsoever. There are still similar examples where such problems need to be solved, but lighting was one of the biggest and most all-encompassing examples of the lot and Ray Tracing solves it.

yeaaaaaaaaa. Next Gen here we goooo!

It doesn’t just come down to what you end up shipping either. Game development is by its very nature an iterative process. You need to have some plan for where you want to take a project from the start, or course, but once you begin working on assets and developing features you always test them as part of the larger context of the game, and more often than not this leads to tweaks, refinements, and balancing. Even that might not be the end of it, other features can come along changing the experience and myriad different ways leading to yet more alterations and adjustments. For this process to work developers need an environment to work in that is intuitive, responsive, and as close a representation of the main game as possible. Our editor has always run basically the same simulation as the final game, but technological advancements seen in this generation streamlined the process significantly. Testing environments are quicker to set up with fewer dependencies on assets or on the work of other departments. Changes in visual design are visible (in their final form) immediately. The physical simulation on the whole feels more like a sandbox in which ideas can be tested and iterated upon. This makes for a more comfortable and fluent development experience, more conducive to creativity and experimentation.

The true effects of all this will take longer to be realized. The boundaries of what you can (and can’t) do in a video game have been shifted and design practices will take a while to feel them out and to fill them. But ultimately, what we see is the promise of more dynamic and engaging game worlds, with fewer limitations, which can be developed in faster and more intuitive ways. On the player side, all that translates to hopefully more content without the usual associated spiraling development cost, and to richer, more believable game experiences.
 
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4a is always good about sharing info, I do like that.
I just bought the Ps5 version and will give it a romp this weekend.

Interestingly, often when I see some stuff, I do not really see how one things is "better" than an other. And many times the best version of some graphics etc does not look better to me. I guess it comes down to taste, but these RT video comparisons I do think the RT ones look better or at least I like them more.

//EDIT
Question, does the game use the better I/O on the new consoles or at least see an effect of them in loading times for instance?
 
4a is always good about sharing info, I do like that.
I just bought the Ps5 version and will give it a romp this weekend.

Interestingly, often when I see some stuff, I do not really see how one things is "better" than an other. And many times the best version of some graphics etc does not look better to me. I guess it comes down to taste, but these RT video comparisons I do think the RT ones look better or at least I like them more.

//EDIT
Question, does the game use the better I/O on the new consoles or at least see an effect of them in loading times for instance?
They re-lit the game using RT. They didn't design a game from the ground up with RT in mind. If the latter, the game would take full advantage of dynamic lighting in play. It would be a very different game; but game and level design also have to mature in the minds of developers to do it.
 
Apparently the PS5 also now allows 120hz backwards compatibility?

Only if you disable HDR.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...call-of-duty-warzone-running-at-120fps-on-ps5
I had a chat with Rich from Digital Foundry and he verified this is the case. Disabling HDR is the only way to get Warzone working at 120fps on PS5.
It's worth noting Warzone must be booted with HDR off to get 120fps to work. This is probably obvious, but you can't boot the game, then turn HDR off if you want to play in 120fps.
 
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