Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2020]

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I'd like for a nice Xbox Arcade release of all the games from that general era that I spent so much time playing in the PC lab with classmates -- Hexen, Heretic, RotT, NOLF, SHOGO:MAD, etc.
 
BRiT said:
Microsoft is absolutely killing it with their games and support of other gaming systems. It's amazing what can be done with game scaling across even vastly different hardware even if it needs some finely tuned approaches.

Here's the intro portion from the Digital Foundry Article @ https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...of-the-wisps-switch-inside-an-impossible-port

Ori And The Will of the Wisps Switch Analysis: Inside An 'Impossible' Port
A stunning game runs at 60fps on a handheld - but how?

Moon Studios' Ori and the Will of the Wisps received critical acclaim when it released earlier this year and for good reason - its tight platforming action, gorgeous environments and evocative musical score serve as the foundation for one of the best 2D action games of the generation. It's a phenomenal follow-up to an already tremendous original game, and now, remarkably, that experience has transferred seamlessly to Nintendo Switch with few visual compromises. You can stack the game up against Xbox One X and it still looks great - and unlike many of these Switch miracle ports, it still runs at its original 60 frames per second.

Quite how developers are able to extract so much from Nintendo's hybrid has always been a matter of mystery and wonder for us, but this time we're able to offer an insight into how this technological achievement was delivered. I had the chance to speak extensively with Gennadiy Korol - the game's lead engineer and studio co-founder - who shared insights into the creation of Ori and the Will of the Wisps along with the techniques used to deliver what is surely one of Switch's greatest ports.

When first looking at Ori, you might be forgiven for thinking it's a simple 2D game - one that would run with ease on any modern platform - but this couldn't be further from the truth. The fact is, modern graphics engines are typically designed to accelerate 3D graphics. Z-buffering, early occlusion, order independent transparency, draw call batching and more are all tools developers can use to improve performance in modern 3D games. With a 2D game like Ori, most of this isn't applicable.

Dozens of high-quality layers scroll in every direction delivering a convincing parallax effect, the speed of the game and size of the levels means constantly streaming assets in and out of memory as you play while physics, post-processing and special effects tax the GPU. At its core, Will of the Wisps is built on Unity... to a certain extent. With full access to the source code for the engine, the team has essentially crafted their own highly tuned fork nicknamed 'Moonity' which offers the performance and features necessary to built a game like this.

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Oh man, thank goodness for DF.

I found this absolutely fascinating and it just drives home how talented this dev. studio is.

They could have done the cheap lazy thing like most developers and just hired another studio to port the title for them. Instead, they ported the game themselves. Just amazing not only how they crafted the visuals of the game on Xbox and PC, but how everything was adapted to work on the Switch with almost unnoticeable changes.

If someone had told me that it would arrive on NSW with virtually identical visuals to XBO and PC...AND...still run at 60 FPS? A dream that wouldn't come true. But it's come true and it's certainly dreamy.

I hope the title sells well on NSW, Moon Studios definitely deserves it. They're obviously far more talented than most so called AAA studios.

Regards,
SB
 
PSman1700 said:
Its the reason we need advanced upscaling tech. The XSS is aimed at 1080p display owners i guess, or people that don't care so much for beyond 1080p gaming. I'm certainly not one of those as a pc gamer, but i can imagine that a rather large market still isn't up to higher resolutions just yet, in special those that don't want or cant spend more then 299 on a new console.
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So I confess to a somewhat beer induced drive by there.

However my thinking which failed to materialize was

This is a next gen exclusive, big budget and being developed by a very talented team.

If "performance" mode is 1440p 60 then the sales pitch of the Series S of 120fps upto 1440p is somewhat of a pipe dream.

Nothing is free but if from the outset just getting to 60 on next gen is dropping games so low, Series S is going to struggle to meet its mandate of 1080p to 1440p at 60fps and what sacrifice is required for 120?

It should have all the modes of X and just be a lower resolution. For that to work I assume X needs to be pushing higher than that dynamic or not.

The argument S would hinder the heights reaches by X were probably incorrectly described, it to me looked like X will be forced to go high to give the S headroom. This could cost other performance sapping graphical settings or features may be skipped on Xbox if there is a requirement to keep the games largely in step for all but resolution.

In short it just made my think about what options may be off the table for Xbox releases and how much change is allowed between S and X versions. The Dirt interview eludes to some setting changes allowed, would that extend to performance mode only on X?

Edit: means S not X for some parts here
 
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DSoup said:
So no b/c frame rates above 60fps or leveraging VRR. This has surprised me just a little.

I also cannot believe how naff GTA IV looks now! :runaway:
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I do wonder what display they are using to test on. It may be that their display lacks support for refresh rates higher than 60 Hz and lacks VRR.

Considering the games that have unlocked framerate modes are hitting the 60 Hz cap, it leads me to believe they are testing on a TV or monitor without a 120 Hz mode...or the mode isn't enabled...or there's a bug with the XBSX display out.

[edit] Also, if it's always locked to 60 Hz for unlocked games when DF tested...erm, how are we to know whether VRR is enabled or not? :) The only way to tell would be screen tearing when framerates drop (no V-sync). Or alternatively if V-sync is enabled and only double buffered (do these exist on console) rather than triple buffered and you have discrete framerate "steps".[/edit]

Regards,
SB
 
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Silent_Buddha said:
I do wonder what display they are using to test on. It may be that their display lacks support for refresh rates higher than 60 Hz and lacks VRR.

Considering the games that have unlocked framerate modes are hitting the 60 Hz cap, it leads me to believe they are testing on a TV or monitor without a 120 Hz mode...or the mode isn't enabled...or there's a bug with the XBSX display out.
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It would be a bit weird if DF kept promoting the 120hz LG OLEDs and their "best TVs" yet used something else, incapable of 120hz/VRR.
 
DSoup said:
It would be a bit weird if DF kept promoting the 120hz LG OLEDs and their "best TVs" yet used something else, incapable of 120hz/VRR.
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Well, it's a team of people at DF, right? So, it might be that the person testing doesn't have that TV at their house. Hopefully we'll get some clarification.

What I was hoping to see in one of the tests is MS's claims that a some titles with locked 30 Hz or 60 Hz rendering would be able to be played at 60 Hz and 120 Hz respectively in BC mode, however I didn't see that mentioned in any of the titles that DF tested.

I wonder if that is something that is still in testing or DF just happened to test titles where that mode wasn't supported?

Regards,
SB
 
Surely it has to be locking to 60hz, otherwise you'd be getting torn frames all over the place if trying to display more and unlocked.
 
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