Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2019]
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DF Article: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2019-metro-exodus-tech-analysis
Metro Exodus: a vision for the future of graphics technology
Impressive on consoles, but PC is a genuine game-changer.
What we're dealing with in Metro Exodus is a PC version that clearly stands apart from its console counterparts, both in terms of performance and the visual feature set, but that's not to say that the Sony and Microsoft boxes don't deliver a decent experience - though quality varies according to the capabilities of the hardware. Xbox One X is the pick of the crop, delivering native 4K visuals, and broadly speaking, looking similar PC version running at high settings with HairWorks, PhysX, DXR and tessellation disabled. PlayStation 4 Pro is visually similar, but resolution drops down to 1440p, and suffers from lower frame-rates in stress scenes. Both versions cap at 30fps and exhibit screen-tear when they don't hit their performance targets - something that PS4 Pro does more often.
4A has made some interesting technical decisions on the base consoles, seemingly locking to 1080p resolution on PlayStation 4, with some big performance issues in some areas, paired with intrusive screen-tearing. For the base Xbox One though, frame-rate is far more consistent. In fact, it's the smoothest performer of all four console versions. 4A deploys several techniques to keep performance closer to target here, including dynamic resolution scaling along with lower resolution alpha buffers. The approach clearly pays dividends and I wonder what might be gained by offering these features as selectable options on the other platforms. Other differences in terms of LODs,
Metro Exodus: a vision for the future of graphics technology
Impressive on consoles, but PC is a genuine game-changer.
What we're dealing with in Metro Exodus is a PC version that clearly stands apart from its console counterparts, both in terms of performance and the visual feature set, but that's not to say that the Sony and Microsoft boxes don't deliver a decent experience - though quality varies according to the capabilities of the hardware. Xbox One X is the pick of the crop, delivering native 4K visuals, and broadly speaking, looking similar PC version running at high settings with HairWorks, PhysX, DXR and tessellation disabled. PlayStation 4 Pro is visually similar, but resolution drops down to 1440p, and suffers from lower frame-rates in stress scenes. Both versions cap at 30fps and exhibit screen-tear when they don't hit their performance targets - something that PS4 Pro does more often.
4A has made some interesting technical decisions on the base consoles, seemingly locking to 1080p resolution on PlayStation 4, with some big performance issues in some areas, paired with intrusive screen-tearing. For the base Xbox One though, frame-rate is far more consistent. In fact, it's the smoothest performer of all four console versions. 4A deploys several techniques to keep performance closer to target here, including dynamic resolution scaling along with lower resolution alpha buffers. The approach clearly pays dividends and I wonder what might be gained by offering these features as selectable options on the other platforms. Other differences in terms of LODs,
D
Deleted member 11852
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I feel this should come with an asterisked clarification:
*does not change the game.
At least in your eyes, its an opinion of yours. DF seems neutral.
I do think it changes the experience, HairWorks, PhysX, DXR and Tessellation are added, with a 60fps non-screen tearing problem. All at a higher resolution, with only DXR changing the experience already, i see where their coming from.
D
Deleted member 11852
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It literally does not change the game.
They obviously mean its a experience changer, its still Metro the same game, its not that Metro turns into Battlefield.
They mean it's a 'game changer' regards to how devs create engines, and what the target should be for lighting in future titles.
Silent_Buddha
Legend
Variable resolution with fixed framerate always the best option, IMO.
Interesting to see that they went different routes with that on the base PS4 and XBO. Resolution on PS4 and consistent performance on XBO.
Regards,
SB
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Deleted member 11852
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Tech Interview: Metro Exodus, ray tracing and the 4A Engine's open world upgrades
Tomorrow's technology today.
Digital Foundry had a lot of questions about the directions 4A has taken with its latest project, how its engine has been enhanced and upgraded since we last saw it in the Metro Redux titles and of course, how it has delivered and optimised one of the most beautiful real-time ray tracing implementations we've seen.
Answering our questions in depth are 4A rendering programmer Ben Archard and the developer's CTO, Oles Shishkovstov.
Tomorrow's technology today.
Digital Foundry had a lot of questions about the directions 4A has taken with its latest project, how its engine has been enhanced and upgraded since we last saw it in the Metro Redux titles and of course, how it has delivered and optimised one of the most beautiful real-time ray tracing implementations we've seen.
Answering our questions in depth are 4A rendering programmer Ben Archard and the developer's CTO, Oles Shishkovstov.
Tkumpathenurple
Veteran
Given that it has fewer than half a base PS4's number of CU's, I really hope not.
hm... so clustered + what sounds like LPV (light propagation volumes).
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Maybe the cpu with a better gpu?
Tkumpathenurple
Veteran
A quick Google shows that we may soon be in for some news pertaining to AMD's 7nm APU's, so we'll be better positioned to make some assumptions.
Right now though, if we take the 12nm Ryzen 7 3750H as a baseline, and assume a pessimistic 40CU's, we have the following:
- under 140 watts
- a 2.3 GHz CPU (albeit only 4 cores)
- peak GPU performance (1400MHz) of just over 7.1TF (I can't find its base frequency, but I'm not looking that hard)
That's a worst case scenario, based on an APU slightly better than the 2200G, and scaling up the GPU to just beyond the CU count of the PS4Pro/X1X. Consider node improvements from 12nm to 7nm, architectural improvements from Zen+ to Zen 2, and architectural improvements from Vega to Zen, and we can pretty casually look forward to next-gen blowing our cocks off.
Especially given how well that 2200G performs.
No thank you.
Jumps are that huge anymore from console to console gen, being blown away is harder. In special if we see whats avaible now.
Tkumpathenurple
Veteran
Sissy.
I don't know how true that is. We don't see the same increase in raw performance any more - and therefore, the leaps from widespread 2D to widespread 3D, or shitty 3D to actually being able to see expressive faces (MGS1 to MGS2) - but Uncharted 4, God of War, and Red Dead Redemption 2 are all mind blowing and impossible on the last generation. I understand the same to be true for Quantum Break and Gears of War 4 too, and there'll be a bunch more that escape me ATM.
Not every developer can afford to create games like those, of course, but it does still happen. And if the raw performance is there to allow smaller studios to reach RDR2 levels of fidelity, I think we'll all be pretty happy.
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