Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2024]

It’s not a port :)
That would imply a pure console release and a revision/rewrite of that code to operate on PC.

This is a multiplatform release, it’s PC native.

“it’s Unreal!”
No, it’s not actually.
Aren't most games multiplatform releases these days?
 
Impressive release. No stutters, scalable ray tracing options, great settings menu and polished performance.

What's that? A great PC version and (from what I have seen) a great console version at the same time? Impossible.

That selective ray tracing in some scenes is also a great idea for consoles. Not all scenes get the same impact from ray tracing, and those base consoles struggle with it.
 
Modified(?) FSR2 seems to do a good job at very low resolutions in Veilguard.. Is that Frostbite doing something special to help? But Performance mode looks pretty soft to me... wonder if PSSR will resolve more detail.

 
Modified(?) FSR2 seems to do a good job at very low resolutions in Veilguard.. Is that Frostbite doing something special to help? But Performance mode looks pretty soft to me... wonder if PSSR will resolve more detail.

That hair.

wow. that's some next gen hair. great choice there to showcase.

Man DF does a much better job marketing a game than the publishers themselves. Not to mention the codec quality just seems so much higher.
 
That hair.

wow. that's some next gen hair. great choice there to showcase.

Man DF does a much better job marketing a game than the publishers themselves. Not to mention the codec quality just seems so much higher.

Yeah. When some people talk about how "game graphics is already hitting the ceiling" I find it laughable because there are so many aspects need vast improvements. Hair is one example, and clothes too. Many games still have clothes intersect with body parts or other environmental objects. Some people might not care but I personally find them distracting, leading to loss of immersion. Many games still don't have accurate physics for things like weapons hitting each other, deformable weapons and armors, etc. These are just a few examples.
 
What?? Regardless of the great performance of FSR, this game is 720p and 430p native on console?? All of this is not welcome, it's a shame for the developers that they let the image quality drop to this point. It is enough to look at the game New World Aeternum on console, which runs with a MUCH better resolution at 60 FPS even in quality mode and looks good.

The engine running under Dragon Age Veilquard is again a technically overpowered engine not adapted well to current consoles.
 
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What?? Regardless of the great performance of FSR, this game is 720p and 430p native on console?? All of this is not welcome, it's a shame for the developers that they let the image quality drop to this point. It is enough to look at the game New World Aeternum on console, which runs with a MUCH better resolution at 60 FPS even in quality mode and looks good.

The engine running under Dragon Edge Veilquard is again a technically overpowered engine not adapted well to current consoles.

If you are pushing anything non baked console level GPUs will be pretty much ~1440p performance mode for 60fps..
 
If you are pushing anything non baked console level GPUs will be pretty much ~1440p performance mode for 60fps..
I have an XSX and I will not play with a game that does not achieve at least 1440p good image quality with 60FPS, maybe I can accept the 40 FPS mode, but I will not compromise on the image quality. It's good that there are several game examples recently that show that these consoles are capable of high resolution with 60 FPS. So, I buy the games that meet this basic requirement
 
I actually think the Series S version looks kinda bad. That's not a knock on the devs, but I definitely disagree with Oli that Fidelity mode on Series S is comparable to native 1080p. It's absolutely not. Very clearly softer and worse, there's just so much artifacting everywhere as a result. I'll forgive him here as I'm guessing the folks at DF probably haven't actually used or played on a native 1080p display in a very long time. lol

FSR here is ok for the higher resolutions of PS5/XSX, but it's not capable of saving the XSS in my opinion. And Performance mode with all the FSR issues makes it look like you're watching some low res and low bit rate Youtube video. lol

I'd be really curious to see the game running at similar settings and resolution on PC, but with DLSS instead.
 
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I would also question whether the FSR in 720p/60FPS mode is so good that we get a 1440p image, I don't think even DLSS3 can do that. But, if this FSR implementation is really that good, I would like to see it. However, it is still unacceptable that some studios render graphics at such a low resolution on these consoles...
 
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We're going back, back to the PS360 era... 720p with drops to 504p? Series S at 480P? With all of that, the title on the video references "Impressive Visuals".... I'm not going to delve into how suspect the review coverage of this game has been with many outlets using the same rhetoric, "return to form"... What I will say though is that does DF think we have no eyes? Dragon Age is not a bad looking game but "impressive visuals"? On what earth is that even true? Even as an opinion, it's highly controversial bordering on wrong. After watching the video, looking at the performance, and reviewing the image quality, the positive sentiment is so off putting. It leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Ok, I'm not saying you pan the game because it performs alright but to say it has "impressive visuals" is completely and utterly ridiculous.

It's using the same hair tech as fifa but other than that, nothing about it's visuals are impressive. Horrible image quality that even on youtube, you can see how badly FSR is performing. Inconsistent performance in performance mode. Last gen geometry and average texture work. Really really average animations on top of all that.... Completely ridiculous.
 
That hair.

wow. that's some next gen hair. great choice there to showcase.
Physics need to be toned down just a bit, though: it looks like black, cooked, slippery, heavy ramen: no friction, it looks way heavier than normal hair, etc. Still, it looks great with animations, as it gives a realistic look to them (even though the purposedly exaggerated head movements/turns to show off the hair movements are way too comical, IMHO).

Oh, and the female dwarf is really into the male dwarf at 5:18.
 
We're going back, back to the PS360 era... 720p with drops to 504p? Series S at 480P? With all of that, the title on the video references "Impressive Visuals".... I'm not going to delve into how suspect the review coverage of this game has been with many outlets using the same rhetoric, "return to form"... What I will say though is that does DF think we have no eyes? Dragon Age is not a bad looking game but "impressive visuals"? On what earth is that even true? Even as an opinion, it's highly controversial bordering on wrong. After watching the video, looking at the performance, and reviewing the image quality, the positive sentiment is so off putting. It leaves a very bitter taste in my mouth. Ok, I'm not saying you pan the game because it performs alright but to say it has "impressive visuals" is completely and utterly ridiculous.
Different people have different values. To some, they are happy to sacrifice fidelity in order to other graphical features at a higher level such as lighting, shadowing, animation, and/or framerate stability.

I refer you to Post 1 on this thread and point out that framing your posts the way you have here will lead you to lose posting rights in this thread. Discuss technically or not at all.
 
720p internal with drops res to 540p without any rt on ps5/xsx sounds like not funny joke, whats with new game devs generation and their performance optimization skills ?
 
Different people have different values. To some, they are happy to sacrifice fidelity in order to other graphical features at a higher level such as lighting, shadowing, animation, and/or framerate stability.
This is a reasonable argument, would it be... But if we look at the comparison of high-resolution vs. more complex graphics for games on previous generation consoles, we find that there was not nearly as much of a difference in image quality then as it is now.

On X360/PS3 it was 720p for higher resolution, and more complex graphics it was about 600p. That's a 50% pixel difference between the two extremes looking at the grand average. We played here on an average of 32-inch TVs.

On XBO/PS4, the higher resolution was 900/1080p and, the more complex graphics were around 720p. This is a 100% pixel difference between the two extremes, but I remember many people were confused even then because of only 720p... We played here on an average of 40-inch TVs.

Now. For XSX/PS5, typically 1440p/4K native is the usual higher resolution and 720p (or less!!) is in principle the more complex graphics. I can't even describe the percentage difference, colossal even with FSR! We play here on an average of 65-inch TVs.

Perceptible?
 
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Different people have different values. To some, they are happy to sacrifice fidelity in order to other graphical features at a higher level such as lighting, shadowing, animation, and/or framerate stability.

I refer you to Post 1 on this thread and point out that framing your posts the way you have here will lead you to lose posting rights in this thread. Discuss technically or not at all.
Fair, I'll stick to discussing the technical aspects of this game. The games image quality is poor. You can see it on youtube and FSR is not doing a good job at all. It's very visible. Personally speaking, 1080p is the lowest acceptable base resolution for DLSS in my eyes and DLSS is the best image upscaler. Even at 1080p input resolution for DLSS, it's still mostly average and it's flaws can clearly be seen. So how's a modified FSR with an input resolution of 720p with drops to 504p going to be good? I don't think this is a case of sacrificing fidelity and other graphical features. It might be valid in games that look significantly better and are then stripped of features to become more performant. I don't think the base optimization for this game is very good based on the raster visuals. Many UE5 games received a lot of flak for their performance and lower base input resolutions but, we could visibly see massive improvements. Many of them look a clear generation ahead of Dragon Age yet deliver performance in the same ball park as Dragon Age. Dragon age delivers a game with questionable image quality and performance that is not locked during gameplay. The geometry and assets have their roots in last gen and there are lots of ps4 games with better animation.
 
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