Current Generation Games Analysis Technical Discussion [2024] [XBSX|S, PS5, PC]

[Frenetic Pony]

Yeah, not knocking what some developers did using checkerboarding but compared to FSR it's slow. FSR might not always look pretty but consoles can and do use it at 2x2 scaling level (performance on PC) or greater.

2160p CBR is reconstructed from half res so it's lalways going to cost you > 50% of native. 2160p FSR2 performance from 1/4 res is only going to cost you > 25%, and you can scale from any native resolution you chose.

FSR can use multiple previous frames, can be used for AA, frame interpolation, and doesn't use or reject pixels based on an arbitrary coverage pattern. FSR2 quality with 1.3x scaling on each axis is probably the closest thing to CBR performance wise and I think any type of CBR would have a tough time matching it in most circumstances.

Same is true for DLSS, except DLSS is even better.

FSR 3.1 looks guide good in motion (finally), so it's weird that anyone would be using checkerboard, actually it's already weird. The only anyone still using it is Capcom, and they have an odd internal development process, it's kind of all live builds all the time as soon as something is commited to master (there's no major "this is compatible and works and if it's not we tag it such" like with UE .X builds). They push a new feature to master and it's just there for everyone, and they keep backwards compatibility for all RE Engine stuff as much as possible all the way back.

So I'm guessing they're only shipping it for assumed compatibility reasons and internal reasons; where there's the RE Engine team and "user" teams making games, and there's some sort of communication issue there where checkerboard "just works" and is the default option, and game teams need to go through separately to say, swap the console builds to FSR.

Err, to sum up, Dragon's Dogma 2 team seems to have pushed the game out real fast and there's no reason FSR2.2 couldn't have been used on consoles given a bit of time and knowledge. They also didn't have a framerate cap, have their entire physics and AI calculations for random NPCs in cities where it's not needed (no combat there right?), etc. Another month or so would've given some polish time there easily.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Some surprising results from Gaming Bolt looking at Forbidden West. Even at highest settings, Aloy in the PC version seems to suffer from reduced texture and hair detail. LOD problems?

I also noticed something a little 'off' about Aloy's hair when playing. As well, the video notes that waterfall effects look a little odd too in comparison, which I also picked up on but just assumed it was due to CBR vs. the low DLSS I was using, which I'm not sure is still the case here. Probably LOD issues but who knows, I've never seen Aloy's hair come in with the same quality as PS5.

Edit: Did my own comparison. A very obvious downgrade in hair quality.

PS5 Quality:




PC 4K TAA Maxxed:

 

[Remij]

Clearly a bug, and not a downgrade. Let's use the right terminology, lol.

@Flappy Pannus do you mind if I use these images and send a ticket?

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Clearly a bug, and not a downgrade. Let's use the right terminology, lol.

I'm describing the resulting image as it appears, at this point. As for the reasons:

Probably LOD issues

The GamingBolt video author also says it's probably not intentional.

@Flappy Pannus do you mind if I use these images and send a ticket?

Sure.

 

[Remij]

I'm describing the resulting image as it appears, at this point. As for the reasons:



The GamingBolt video author also says it's probably not intentional.



Sure.

Yea true, my bad haha.

kk thnx

 

[davis.anthony]

It's caused by DLAA as it's not the first game DLAA/DLSS causes these kinds of issues where it nukes in surface details.

Alan Wake 2 also has the same problem as does TLOU Part 1.

Moving to FSR2 fixed the issues but at the cost if having more IQ issues in other areas.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

It's caused by DLAA

I'm using TAA in my screenshot. The reduction in texture quality is not a result of DLAA, it looks to be far more that the higher res mips are not being loaded.

Here's a 3 way shootout between DLSS Quality, DLAA, and TAA. The differences are practically imperceptible.

 

[Remij]

Well, I believe I've figured it out regarding Horizon FW and the hair issue.. @Flappy Pannus I already posted about it in the Steam forums.

I started the game with all setting maxed out.. and had the hair issue..

Then I decided to quit the game, and restart it with the "Translucency Quality" set to Default and not "High Res"... and the hair issue was fixed.

You have to restart the game and set the translucency to default BEFORE starting the game, in the launcher.

Just to be sure I tried it again, with the translucency setting to "high res" and it had the hair issue again.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

lol that's you! No wonder a ray of sanity poked through in that thread.

 

[Remij]

lol that's you! No wonder a ray of sanity poked through in that thread.

Yeah lol. Some of those people are just ridiculous. That's the type of **** we constantly have to deal with when reporting issues with PC games.. unfortunately.

But on the topic of my finding.. I dunno, seems like it works sometimes and not others. It's not 100% reproducible all the time... so I guess it's just a standard LOD/texture bug they need to fix.

Sucks because I thought I was on to something there.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Is there a translucent 'low' quality? Can you compare low/default/high?

 

[Remij]

Is there a translucent 'low' quality? Can you compare low/default/high?

Nope, just "Default" and "High Res".

 

[snc]

 

[pjbliverpool]

The reduced quality hair thing seems to be a bug as discussed above. It is indeed disappointing thoughbthat some slightly improved effects with better image quality and frame rate is all that the PC version offers.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Yeah lol. Some of those people are just ridiculous. That's the type of **** we constantly have to deal with when reporting issues with PC games.. unfortunately.

But on the topic of my finding.. I dunno, seems like it works sometimes and not others. It's not 100% reproducible all the time... so I guess it's just a standard LOD/texture bug they need to fix.

Sucks because I thought I was on to something there.

While I can never get rid of it in Photomode, I can't replicate the issue in cutscenes at least. Here's a bunch of comparative shots.

 

[Remij]

While I can never get rid of it in Photomode, I can't replicate the issue in cutscenes at least. Here's a bunch of comparative shots.

So perhaps a bug with photomode then? Maybe something gets messed up with the character LOD when it switches to freecam and it doesn't load the highest res hair textures?

 

[Flappy Pannus]

So perhaps a bug with photomode then? Maybe something gets messed up with the character LOD when it switches to freecam and it doesn't load the highest res hair textures?

Perhaps. Added a bunch more cutscene shots beyond the intro. There's a few that may show difference that I've labelled (the second to last one where Aloy is in front of Hades looks to be a clear case of lower detail hair on the PC), otherwise though they're identical. So there is a possibility that a mip may not fully transition, but seems extremely rare.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Soooo....tried the Outcast remake demo.

Ah uh...jesus christ.

 

[Remij]

Soooo....tried the Outcast remake demo.

Ah uh...jesus christ.

Yea, this is the type of trash you just can't believe makes it out the door.

This is what I mean when I say "does anyone even test this game?"..

 

[Dampf]

So I am now running my first Nixxes Next Gen Port (Ratchet and Clank) on my old 2060 laptop and I'm pretty impressed how well it handles its video memory management.

It seems like instead of completely destroying fps when textures spill into RAM like other games it handles it more gracefully by intelligently using RAM to offload specific textures. And thus, there is a fixed but small frame rate cost across the settings if you don't have enough.

I like this approach much more than the usual "oh you're on spot X or playing for 2 hours and the VRAM is overflowing, lets completely destroy performance and ruin your optimization, forcing you to restart the game!

Nixxes approach will make sure I get consistent results even when playing longer. Though, I've only played 2 levels so far. But I also tried completely maxing settings out and check if it goes back to normal performance levels when setting it back to realistic settings without restarting, and it does, so that's definately a good sign.

And of course, the real time menu is really cool. My only disappointment would be that I can't get consistent 60 FPS in PS5 performance RT settings. I feel like I should at 1080p with DLSS Performance (540p) since PS5 bottoms out at 1080p. But that might be a combination of the lack of VRAM and my overheated system (I badly need a repaste lol). Techniques like Sampler Feedback could help here I feel to reduce the size of textures. But yeah, their VRAM overflowing system is pretty nice.