Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2017]

[Scott_Arm]

Average of what? A full play through? Select scenes? The most taxing scenes? I think it was nxgamer that Global linked some stats for frame percentile, and that was pretty nice, but scene selection will still play a big part in the end results. Not to mention it's very hard to play a scene in exactly the same way on each console to make sure the results are comparable.

Ultimately, I don't really understand what there is to even argue about. Both consoles turn in good results and one happens to have 50% more ALU and more bandwidth. If the PS4 Pro ran locked at 1440p, you'd expect the Xbox One X to run at something like 1620p, assuming the game is ALU bottlenecked. Looks like it met or exceeded those expectations.

 

[Johnglen]

The resolutions the pro pumps out in this holiday’s games is closer to the vanilla PS4 than it is to the x. Checkerboarding seems to has been abandoned by everyone not named Sony.(I think cod uses it too ?)

 

[function]

It's very odd though that those dynamic resolution engines are less effective on the XBX hardware.

"Less effective"?

They're scaling over an even greater resolution range, with the balance of frame rate vs resolution chosen by the developer. They're doing exactly what they're supposed to.

Halo 5 shows just how incredibly consistent scaling engines can be - though you lose some additional performance with larger safety margins.

 

[function]

The article says the 4Pro is blurry while the OneX isn't. That's what people would notice, the blurriness of the 4Pro instead of the sharper higher quality image of the OneX. As for resolutions comparisons, it's more of a 1400p vs 2160p as that's the upper resolutions where as its 1296p vs 1800p on lowest resolutions.

Very minor differences in fps are only perceptible when one is smooth, at a constant vsynced rate (eg 30 or 60 Hz) and the other is deviating from this. It's the deviation from a constant rate rate that stands out. It's particularly bad when the deviation occurs at regular intervals. 59 Hz Mario Kart is a poster boy for this. Once you see it, you can't unsee it...

When both platforms are swinging around wildly in the 20s to the 50s you can't see fleeting differences of 1 or 2 fps.

If you were talking about a constant, say, 5 fps at low frame rate e.g 22 vs 27 fps, or 30 vs 25 (the old ntsc vs pal rates) it is noticeable though. If X1X was seeing differences like this, it'd be a sign of developers getting pixel fever I reckon.

 

[BRiT]

Very minor differences in fps are only perceptible when one is smooth, at a constant vsynced rate (eg 30 or 60 Hz) and the other is deviating from this. It's the deviation from a constant rate rate that stands out.

From the DF analysis, both of them have the little hitches of 1-2 fps, just one happens slightly less.

 

[dten]

XBox One X BC. The 720 to 4K upgrade really makes a difference, especially in small geometry that were a blur in the 360. 4K also produces some side effects such as Gears of War DOF looking sharper.

 

[AlNom]

Maybe they had a fixed blur kernel size for the gears dof at the time instead of a percentage of the view size, hence higher res = less blur over the scene.

Wonder if they are particularly GPU bound to not offer other SSAA multipliers for the sub 720p 360 games just to get them closer to the 4K target or some other reason.

E.g. Halo 3
1152 * 3.375 = 3888
640* 3.375 = 2160

Then again...
Oblivion
1024 * 3.6 = 3686.4
600 * 3.6 = 2160

Although some of the games might internally scale to 720p originally I think, so that needs to be overridden too?

It is understandable for UI/FOV reasons why they don’t muck about with anamorphic multipliers though.

 

[iroboto]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2017-hitman-on-xbox-one-x-piles-on-the-upgrades

Comparisons with Pro are interesting - the Sony console only has one quality mode, which is broadly equivalent to Xbox One X's performance set-up. There's one subtle change though - Microsoft's console pushes out detail further into the distance on both modes. Meanwhile, all of the quality-based enhancements - resolution, shadows and filtering - aren't available on the Sony system.
So why offer two modes on Xbox One X then? Well, it's all about frame-rate stability. With the high quality mode, you can toggle between a capped or uncapped frame-rate. By using the 30fps cap here, Hitman offers a mostly stable experience at native 4K, dropping under the threshold just a touch in the most packed environments such as the Marrakesh stage. Performance mode's drop to 1440p and lower quality settings allows the game to mostly run at 60fps - though depending on how dense the scene is, it can vary from 50-60fps. Tellingly, comparing Xbox One X's performance mode to the unlocked PS4 Pro game, the Microsoft console hands in a 20fps advantage in virtually all scenarios, the differential only limited by the 60fps cap. And remember, the X is pushing out its LODs too.

 

[scently]

This games looks amazing. Very rich in detail and the effects and textures are fantastic. I just don't know if its the kind of game I would enjoy playing.

 

[Globalisateur]

Overall not a significant improvement from the Pro game in the 1440p mode. Only around 25 to 50% more frames with more half-rate animations.

Apparently the Pro game could have a much better framerate if animations rates were set like in the XBX game.

 

[scently]

Overall not a significant improvement from the Pro game in the 1440p mode. Only around 25 to 50% more frames with more half-rate animations.

Apparently the Pro game could have a much better framerate if animations rates were set like in the XBX game.

I'd wager that if the X1X framerate is not capped at 60fps the advantage would be greater in gpu bound scenarios.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Overall not a significant improvement from the Pro game in the 1440p mode. Only around 25 to 50% more frames with more half-rate animations.

Apparently the Pro game could have a much better framerate if animations rates were set like in the XBX game.

Agreed, just like the PS4 was not a significant improvement over the XBO version. Although at least with regards to PS4-P and XBO-X, the XBO-X offers increased performance and a longer viewing distance before LOD kicks in.

Regards,
SB

 

[mpg1]

Sony should issue a recall on all PS4 Pro's and discontinue it after this comparison...

 

[BRiT]

Ah, the more things change the more they stay the same. The motto of "not a significant upgrade" has always been found to be said on the side with the less capable implementation ever since the days of Atari and C64.

 

[dten]

Having a 4K/60 fps option means this game will be well positioned for future Xboxes and could pair well with freesync if the tech works. These are the kinds of easy to understand graphic options for consoles that I hope all devs take note of in the BC world we live in. And by a supposed struggling dev too.

 

[function]

Comparisons with Pro are interesting - the Sony console only has one quality mode, which is broadly equivalent to Xbox One X's performance set-up. There's one subtle change though - Microsoft's console pushes out detail further into the distance on both modes. Meanwhile, all of the quality-based enhancements - resolution, shadows and filtering - aren't available on the Sony system.

Tellingly, comparing Xbox One X's performance mode to the unlocked PS4 Pro game, the Microsoft console hands in a 20fps advantage in virtually all scenarios, the differential only limited by the 60fps cap. And remember, the X is pushing out its LODs too.

Overall not a significant improvement from the Pro game in the 1440p mode.

The meaning of "significant" can be incredibly flexible.

 

[Tkumpathenurpahl]

Resolution, draw distance etc are nice bonuses for those with the X1X, but not something too noticeable. The framerate difference, however, matters IMO.

I really hope this kind of thing sets a precedent and makes it clear that people do want 60fps, at least as an option.

 

[Jay]

Overall not a significant improvement from the Pro game in the 1440p mode. Only around 25 to 50% more frames with more half-rate animations.

Apparently the Pro game could have a much better framerate if animations rates were set like in the XBX game.

more half rate animation in specific cpu loaded settings.
so outside of that its still not close enough 60 to make the framerate smooth enough for me personally. If it had VRR then that would be a nice way to play it.

would the framerates also be higher with the same graphical settings as the 1X also?

i thought VRR was supposed to get rarified this month?

 

[Globalisateur]

more half rate animation in specific cpu loaded settings.
so outside of that its still not close enough 60 to make the framerate smooth enough for me personally. If it had VRR then that would be a nice way to play it.

would the framerates also be higher with the same graphical settings as the 1X also?

i thought VRR was supposed to get rarified this month?

Maybe. But in the 1440p mode improved LOD seems very minor (impacting only a few objects in an otherwise very detailed scene) and only seen on specific levels. Others levels use the exact same LOD. Not sure it makes a big difference of adding a hundred polygons on a window...

But yes I agree that the biggest difference would come from VRR, particularly with the 4K unlocked mode.

 

[iroboto]

i thought VRR was supposed to get rarified this month?

oh so it's not available already? huh. interesting to note.
I guess that explains why DF hasn't reported on it's functionality yet.