Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2015]

[Deleted member 11852]

Digital Foundry: The making of Gears of War: Ultimate Edition

Digital Foundry talks in depth with The Coalition on the ambitious remake and what to expect from the DX12 PC version.

Digital Foundry: The jump from PowerPC to AMD's x86 Jaguar has proven to be less then trivial in some cases, particularly in light of some of the performance issues seen in the Master Chief Collection where there are (or rather, were) clear CPU bottlenecks. Does this in part explain the reason to lock to 30fps in the campaign?

Mike Rayner: We decided 30fps for campaign and 60fps for multiplayer very early on as a design decision and not a technical limitation. The original was a visual showcase for Xbox 360 and we wanted to continue that on Xbox One by significantly updating the campaign visuals at 1080p while also keeping a more consistent 30fps frame-rate than the original. Running the campaign at 60fps is doable, it just doesn't look nearly as good as the 30fps version.​

 

[AlNom]

Glad they decided to answer at least some of my questions.

 

[nightshade]

No mention of the Krylls or the disappointing (even if more complex) rain effects in the remake in the interview itself even though it's mentioned in the screenshot comparison.

 

[Starx]

Depth and colour targets on Xbox One can be compressed and we noticed in some cases splitting that planes between DRAM/ESRAM can also be a win as it frees up ESRAM memory for other more important resources.

Is that color compression method AMD calling “lossless delta color compression”?

 

[AlNom]

No mention of the Krylls or the disappointing (even if more complex) rain effects in the remake in the interview itself even though it's mentioned in the screenshot comparison.

Always depends on what the PR or dev wants to discuss.

 

[sebbbi]

Is that color compression method AMD calling “lossless delta color compression”?

Tonga (GCN 1.2 or GCN Gen 3) introduced delta color compression (late last year) to AMD GPUs: http://www.anandtech.com/show/8460/amd-radeon-r9-285-review/3

Lossless MSAA color compression has existed for many generations already. Same is true for lossless depth buffer compression. All DX10 AMD GPUs already had both.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Can the new Apple TV succeed as a games machine?
Digital Foundry dissects the hardware make-up of Apple's debut micro-console - and the gaming opportunities it offers.

I think DF are overblowing the relevance of games on the new AppleTV. This is a platform that has been out for 8 years and this is the fourth version of the hardware. Games are what Apple spent the least amount of time discussing and supporting some games is really a consequence of the main push: apps. All games are apps but not all apps are games. The type of games that Apple are interesting in supporting are the type of games that bring them, Apple, the most money from their 30% and these are not the type of games that need fast hardware.

 

[helvetica bold]

We used the 32-bit RGB101111 format instead of FP16x4. What does this mean regarding in the HDR used in the gears remake. Is it internally rendering at 32 bit?

 

[steveOrino]

I think DF are overblowing the relevance of games on the new AppleTV. This is a platform that has been out for 8 years and this is the fourth version of the hardware. Games are what Apple spent the least amount of time discussing and supporting some games is really a consequence of the main push: apps. All games are apps but not all apps are games. The type of games that Apple are interesting in supporting are the type of games that bring them, Apple, the most money from their 30% and these are not the type of games that need fast hardware.

I think its just something to write about cause everyone is doing it and it gets clicks.

Its the same issues as an Ouya. No one wants to play cellphone games on a TV, thats nothing shocking but again its Apple so people are going to give it some attention.

Along with the lack of local storage, the maximum size of an Apple TV app is limited to 200MB. Anything beyond this size needs to be packaged and loaded using on-demand resources. Knowing how and when to load new assets while keeping your users engaged is critical to creating a successful app.

A joke in my eyes, but again this platforms primary purpose isn't gaming, it just a "feature".

In regards to the video media abilities of the system.
I still don't understand why they want to keep this thing on life support and even with this new iteration I don't feel that Apple believes much in it, especially with that laughable product presentation ( 3D-ish title art as a feature.... really?). There is way too much competition in this space and bringing lackluster efforts no matter how good Apple thinks its brand is will ultimately be a waste of time. I predict it will be as successful as the previous versions of the product.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I think its just something to write about cause everyone is doing it and it gets clicks.

Oh, you cynic!!!

Its the same issues as an Ouya. No one wants to play cellphone games on a TV, thats nothing shocking but again its Apple so people are going to give it some attention.

Thinking of the games I play and played a lot of, I can think of just a few iOS games that would be better on a big screen but not a huge amount: XCOM (naturally), Galaxy on Fire 2, Angry Birds (works everywhere) and Real Racing 2. These types of games are really few and far between on the App Store, though.

 

[temesgen]

Nintendo has the advantage of owning some of the most important IPs in gaming and has struggled in part BC of weak hardware.

Apple will get some of the pie but not what they could get with decent hardware.

 

[bgroovy]

No one wants to play iPhone games on their TV. People play iPhone games while they watch TV.

 

[djskribbles]

DF Tests the new PS4 model

 

[DrJay24]

But what of games that constantly stream from disc - adding to the noise output?

Wha...? No game on the PS4 uses the disc for anything other than install or validation. Come on DF...

 

[function]

Lots of games continue to stream from the disk after the initial startup sections are installed, meaning you can play while the game is continuing to stream from optical to the HDD.

This is a fact.

Facts are, unfortunately, not always popular.

 

[Shortbread]

Lots of games continue to stream from the disk after the initial startup sections are installed, meaning you can play while the game is continuing to stream from optical to the HDD.

That would be quite weird if developers created two different ways of streaming/loading additional texture data during gameplay for this generation of gaming.

Why would a physical copy be subjected to disc streaming assets after a full install... it shouldn't be no different from a digital install? The only thing that's needed (disc wise) is to verify that the medium is a legit copy.

 

[DrJay24]

Lots of games continue to stream from the disk after the initial startup sections are installed, meaning you can play while the game is continuing to stream from optical to the HDD.

This is a fact.

Facts are, unfortunately, not always popular.

That is still installing, not streaming. They do that during the install period and never again. See his words, constantly streaming? Ya, the PS4 doesn't do that, that's a fact.

 

[function]

Installing while playing is streaming ffs.

Do you have contradictory evidence of the acoustic characteristics of these different models of the PS4, or is this just another bullshit DF witch-hunt from the usual suspects?

 

[Shortbread]

Installing while playing is streaming ffs.

Do you have contradictory evidence of the acoustic characteristics of these different models of the PS4, or is this just another bullshit DF witch-hunt from the usual suspects?

We're talking after a full install (no disc needed, other than DRM verify). Not pre-gameplay during the installation period. And I'm pretty sure DF doesn't review/analyze games during the installation period (that would be quite stupid).

 

[DrJay24]

Installing while playing is streaming ffs.

Do you have contradictory evidence of the acoustic characteristics of these different models of the PS4, or is this just another bullshit DF witch-hunt from the usual suspects?

They said something incorrect, stop defending them unless you have some evidence that any PS4 game will constantly stream. No? Stop replying just to be contrary.