Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2021]

Status
Not open for further replies.
Which falls under the priced higher than scalper prices for consoles I mentioned.

I assume the budget power logging market isn't big enough to warrant anybody developing a cheap solution. This type of equipment is aimed at people designing and selling equipment that needs to be power efficient, rather than people with a vague interest in testing the power consumption of devices.

This is why these devices are self-contained units with inbuilt computers that log the data and present the data, for later transfer as opposed to a devices that monitor usage and output the data to another device - requiring external software to interpret it.

That's likely the issue. It's not a complex problem but there is no market for it. The smaller the market, the bigger the price to develop the solution. ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

You can get cheap data loggers, there's this one from Supco that isn't too much and can log current, voltage, and watts. I've used a Supco temperature and RH data logger and you could set the frequency for how often it takes a reading, I had it set to every 5 minutes and would dump the data into an excel file at the end of every month (this was for a temperature controlled accredited lab). I assume the one linked is similar.
 
You can get cheap data loggers, there's this one from Supco that isn't too much and can log current, voltage, and watts.
How much is it? I can only see that's it's out of stock. Kind impressed with the little LCD screen - this is not even the bargain basement option. :LOL:
 



00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:43 Ray traced emissive lighting details
00:04:41 SSD and streaming tests
00:08:36 PS5 and Xbox Series X resolution counts
00:11:08 PS5 vs PC high resolution press shots
00:12:36 Xbox Series S vs Series X Visuals
00:15:14 Matrix Awakens Demo vs 4K Blu-ray

Interesting observations around the image quality in that the higher resolution shots can actually make the image look worse/less real. This is something I've thought for decades ever since the first off screen shots of Half Life 2 were leaked but it's always gone against the general narrative of the industry that higher resolution is always better.

To be clear, in modern graphics I do prefer higher resolution and a sharper image usually, but a softer image isn't always worse IMO. That said, I think high resolution and/or high quality AA is always better for image stability and detail, but it may be that you then want to apply some kind of filter over the top to get back to something more akin to what Alex shows on the PS5 / XSX in that video, but with a much more stable image. I guess film grain does that in a way.
 
How much is it? I can only see that's it's out of stock. Kind impressed with the little LCD screen - this is not even the bargain basement option. :LOL:

Around $220. Has enough on device memory to record Current and Voltage for 6 hours even when set to every second, or 12 hours if set for only one (Current or Voltage). Connects via USB.

This is definitely better than the other devices I had looked at. They were around this price but didn't really have a display.

This looks promising.
 
I have noticed a visual difference between both versions of the Matrix Awakens demo. In "gameplay" scenes, notably the one I am using here, there seems to be more artefacts (from reconstruction?) on XSX version. Is this what they call the "denoising" difference? I thought denoising was about RT stuff? Because it looks like reconstruction artefacts to me.

This is the last screen of the second comparison tool. It's one of the only 2 (fullscreen) pics that are from the playable part. You need a native screen to better see the difference. For me it was very easy to notice it.

uHslvjv.png

TN373wy.png

uygZkOh.png
 
I have noticed a visual difference between both versions of the Matrix Awakens demo. In "gameplay" scenes, notably the one I am using here, there seems to be more artefacts (from reconstruction?) on XSX version. Is this what they call the "denoising" difference? I thought denoising was about RT stuff? Because it looks like reconstruction artefacts to me.

This is the last screen of the second comparison tool. It's one of the only 2 (fullscreen) pics that are from the playable part. You need a native screen to better see the difference. For me it was very easy to notice it.

uHslvjv.png

TN373wy.png

uygZkOh.png
Might just be a problem with the screenshot. If it isn't the exact same frame with temporal scaling ... well it is temporal.
Also the engine has its quirks so far. E.g. loading of stuff even in the same cutscenes doesn't always show the same thing.
 
This is the last screen of the second comparison tool. It's one of the only 2 (fullscreen) pics that are from the playable part. You need a native screen to better see the difference. For me it was very easy to notice it.
I'm sure I'm not imagining this but to me, when looking at the first pictures of the tall building, the text on all of the roadsigns looks marginally better defined on Xbox.
 
Is this what they call the "denoising" difference? I thought denoising was about RT stuff?
Denoising can be applied to anything. It's applied to RT because we can't afford to trace enough rays to get a clear signal, so we have a noisy signal, and 'average it out' through denoising to approximate what more rays would give us.

Outside of RT, denoising could be used for sampling AA and reconstructing less fuzzy results.

Allandor's point about temporal AA is possibly on the money. On the XB screenshots with the noise, there also isn't the blur that comes with denoising. Seems like the noise reduction step hasn't kicked in, which could be a temporal AA thing.
 
They didn't. One of the most visually striking games in existence, full of spectacular ray tracing left and right, and somehow it got glossed over. That damn E3 presentation really hurt the game. John even said he was surprised by the game's quality. And how this engine went from having poor facial rendering in Mankind Divided to one of the very best in this one. But thats about it. I was also completely blindsided by this game. Payed no attention because the initial reveal wasnt grabing people, wasnt good. Then i watched the nvidia trailer for this game right before launch and i was just floored by the graphics they showed there. Just, holly shit. Where did this come from ?

I think i clocked almost 2000 screenshots playing this game. You just go from one amazing scene to another. The Drax character in particular is so phenomenally detailed in every aspect that it'll make playing God of War in january feel completely dated and mundane as far as kratos's details go.

I think the team just thought this game wont be anything to write home about and dedicated the launch time to other games, like Horizon 5
 
DF written article @ https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...-upgrade-adds-extra-shine-to-a-brilliant-game

Guardians of the Galaxy's RT upgrade adds extra shine to a brilliant game
An impressive addition for PS5 and Series X owners.

Guardians of the Galaxy surprised many this year - myself included - for capturing the essence of its characters - for taking the humour, the eclectic worlds and creatures of the comics, the films, and projecting it back out in video game form. Just ahead of Christmas, I'm glad to say developer Eidos Montreal has fine-tuned its work. Patch 1.05 adds new features alongside bug fixes, with ray tracing as the principal enhancement, substantially improving reflections over the standard quality mode. But what do these RT reflections actually deliver and is there any knock-on impact to the rest of the game? After all, hardware accelerated ray tracing is still a computationally expensive effect. Does something else have to give?

The ray tracing option on PS5 and Series X joins the two existing modes in the graphics menu. There's still the 4K resolution quality mode for visual purists, running at 30 frames per second. There's also the 1080p60 performance mode, which still has some trouble locking to 60 frames per second, as bizarre as that sounds. The new RT mode is what could be described as a replacement for the quality option: it's still pegged at 30fps and it still tops out at full 2160p, but the inclusion of RT sees the dynamic resolution scaling window expand - so you can expect to see 1620p resolution, for example, in rich battle scenes.

...
 
I have noticed a visual difference between both versions of the Matrix Awakens demo. In "gameplay" scenes, notably the one I am using here, there seems to be more artefacts (from reconstruction?) on XSX version. Is this what they call the "denoising" difference? I thought denoising was about RT stuff? Because it looks like reconstruction artefacts to me.

This is the last screen of the second comparison tool. It's one of the only 2 (fullscreen) pics that are from the playable part. You need a native screen to better see the difference. For me it was very easy to notice it.

uHslvjv.png

TN373wy.png

uygZkOh.png
You should write some tools to automate this comparison process for you, it's too time consuming if you have to do it for every game.
 
You should write some tools to automate this comparison process for you, it's too time consuming if you have to do it for every game.
@iroboto is actually doing something similar. The main problem is the lack of content showing like for like scenes as here I haven't searched for long to notice the difference. That could still be due to some dynamic aspect of TAA or TSA as we know the engine has plenty of dynamical features.

Maybe PS5 would show the same strong artefacts in others scenes but we'll need plenty more like for like scenes in playable part (with much less post process effect) to confirm or deny. PS5 has actually them but they seem to be cleaned or reduced somehow, XSS on the other hand has the same artefacts as XSX at much lower resolution.
 
Interesting observations around the image quality in that the higher resolution shots can actually make the image look worse/less real. This is something I've thought for decades ever since the first off screen shots of Half Life 2 were leaked but it's always gone against the general narrative of the industry that higher resolution is always better.

To be clear, in modern graphics I do prefer higher resolution and a sharper image usually, but a softer image isn't always worse IMO. That said, I think high resolution and/or high quality AA is always better for image stability and detail, but it may be that you then want to apply some kind of filter over the top to get back to something more akin to what Alex shows on the PS5 / XSX in that video, but with a much more stable image. I guess film grain does that in a way.

Kind of like how practical effects with models and puppets in movies look amazing on VHS, but can look pretty bad on UHD. Or how movies shot at 60fps can look ultra clear which can reveal that sets and costumes are not organic.
 
What I don't lijlje about guardians of galaxy is how your character slides around when running. It looks sloppy and distracting. Am I the only one problem with it??
 
Kind of like how practical effects with models and puppets in movies look amazing on VHS, but can look pretty bad on UHD. Or how movies shot at 60fps can look ultra clear which can reveal that sets and costumes are not organic.

Yes precisely. In fact I came across this tonight as I've finally started up Horizon Zero Dawn and ended up using the built in "basic" upscaler over FSR as FSR looks too sharp and makes the image noisier. I realise that's because of the built in sharpening but ultimately the slightly softer image looks better to me.

Very good game for the record and very nice looking too, even by today's standards.
 
Interesting observations around the image quality in that the higher resolution shots can actually make the image look worse/less real. This is something I've thought for decades ever since the first off screen shots of Half Life 2 were leaked but it's always gone against the general narrative of the industry that higher resolution is always better.

To be clear, in modern graphics I do prefer higher resolution and a sharper image usually, but a softer image isn't always worse IMO. That said, I think high resolution and/or high quality AA is always better for image stability and detail, but it may be that you then want to apply some kind of filter over the top to get back to something more akin to what Alex shows on the PS5 / XSX in that video, but with a much more stable image. I guess film grain does that in a way.

A thousand times YES. I'm all for some TASTEFUL and SUBTLE softness over game graphics and CGI. Sure, make your algos be as precise as possible internally, but its ok to not show every perfect pixel your engine rendered with perfect clarity. Let go. The objective is to sell an illusion, not pixels. Leave some holes for my imagination to fill in.
 
A thousand times YES. I'm all for some TASTEFUL and SUBTLE softness over game graphics and CGI. Sure, make your algos be as precise as possible internally, but its ok to not show every perfect pixel your engine rendered with perfect clarity. Let go. The objective is to sell an illusion, not pixels. Leave some holes for my imagination to fill in.
#BringBackVaseline
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top