Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2021]

[Silent_Buddha]

They have downgraded the graphics to an insane degree.

After playing for a bit, I'd have to disagree. After playing for a bit, the world feels more alive to me than AOE 3 due to the grass and grain not just being a ground texture but animated objects in the world. The look is cleaner and less cluttered which certainly helps with quicker and easier unit identification which leads to quicker ability to prioritize what to do and which units to attack.

Yes, in some ways the graphics are simpler, but simpler doesn't always equate to worse. In other ways the graphics are more advanced. I personally like the compromises they chose. Most especially in how the game feels.

AOE 3 at launch felt clunky and sluggish. But it did look quite good when it originally came out. It was also a huge disappointment at the time compared to previous AOE games in terms of gameplay, responsiveness, and feel.

AOE 4 right now feels really good and fluid. I don't feel like the game is getting in the way of the gameplay like I did with AOE 3. I still enjoyed AOE 3, but I have a feeling I'm going to enjoy AOE 4 a whole lot more. But that's just my preliminary impression after only an hour or two of playing. So far, however, it's left a significantly better first impression on me than AOE 3 did when I first played it. Only after more play will I get a feel for whether the RTS aspects were downgraded compared to previous AOE games like what happened with AOE 3.

Regards,
SB

 

[snc]

new df member

 

[Shortbread]

new df member

Hum, interesting results. My memory is slightly foggy, but didn't Alex do an earlier analysis review of this game on next-gen systems?

 

[Jay]

I've just taken a look at project wingman on XS.
Is this one of the most comprehensive video options on console?
Could do with @Dictator optimized settings for a performance, quality and balanced mode
I'm assuming they've just left the PC menu in as it has 144 fps cap when console actually does 120. Could do with with fps counter also.

Nice but screen should be behind advanced tab, with performance and quality modes in top menu.
What I've been wanting from console games.

 

[iroboto]

Hum, interesting results. My memory is slightly foggy, but didn't Alex do an earlier analysis review of this game on next-gen systems?

I think on PC only.

 

[trinibwoy]

Is DF doing a guardians of the galaxy tech analysis?

 

[iroboto]

Is DF doing a guardians of the galaxy tech analysis?

Yes. Tom will handle that one

 

[Remij]

Nice to see DF add another member to the team! That was a good initial analysis video

 

[SmooTh]

 

[BRiT]

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/...y-an-excellent-game-but-60fps-comes-at-a-cost

Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy: an excellent game - but 60fps comes at a cost
PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles tested.

Developer Eidos Montreal's take on Marvel's Guardians of the Galaxy brings us one of the very best story-driven games of 2021 - and it's great to see Square-Enix pivot back firmly to a single-player action game. There's no multiplayer, no online, not even co-op - and refreshingly, there's not the slightest hint of the 'games as a service' concept that sat so uneasily with Marvel's Avengers. It's all about you, playing as Peter Quill aka Star-Lord, haphazardly adventuring through a well-scripted story, chapter by chapter. Based on the Dawn Engine, as used in Deus Ex Mankind Divided, Guardians of the Galaxy is a genuine treat, but how does it play out on the new wave of consoles?

First off, I really want to stress that Guardians of the Galaxy is a genuine surprise, an exceptional game and a visual tour-de-force. It often looks stunning - and that starts with the locations. The Quarantine Zone, a planet of derelict machinery fused with a pink crystalline gel, is a perfect backdrop for the Guardians' first mission. Materials come out beautifully in the midday sun. Light shafts seep from behind pillars of dense scrapyard tech, giving the world a rich, opulent look. Lighting also brings out the sharp, specular layer on the pink rubble, a lot of which is destructible. All round, there's a heavy art-driven approach to each area and every set-piece. Later planets have wildly different biomes, of course. The second mission puts us under rainy, scorched skies, for example, while wind physics affect foliage. It's a battle against the elements as we hop between moss-covered islands - where again, material work is stand-out.

...

 

[BRiT]

So the choice comes down to 4K@30 or 1080p@60. That's a large divide.

Unfortunately they only provide 1080p@30 for the Series S and both PS5 and SeriesX drops to the high 40s and low 50s with 1080p@60.

 

[snc]

huge difference, not only 4x more pixels in quality mode, higher graphics settings and more stable fps, quite weird but 4k30 mode for me

 

[Karamazov]

wonder how will the RT mode be.
Anyway, once i'm done with far cry 6 i might buy this one.

 

[Globalisateur]

huge difference, not only 4x more pixels in quality mode, higher graphics settings and more stable fps, quite weird but 4k30 mode for me

I don't know. I am surprised they seemingly don't use a reconstruction mode at 4K. I am saying this notably using the XSS / XSX divide. Supposedly the XSX is pushing 4x more pixels while using higher settings. We have never seen such a gap, even in exclusives games. Usually XSX is pushing 2.5x more pixels than XSS at comparable performance so something is very odd here.

I am waiting for others analysis.

 

[iroboto]

I don't know. I am surprised they seemingly don't use a reconstruction mode at 4K. I am saying this notably using the XSS / XSX divide. Supposedly the XSX is pushing 4x more pixels while using higher settings. We have never seen such a gap, even in exclusives games. Usually XSX is pushing 2.5x more pixels than XSS at comparable performance so something is very odd here.

I am waiting for others analysis.

Thinking out loud, 30fps is a massive boost for wider gpus. The front end of frame is setup say 10ms, you have 23ms left for pure compute processing. Whereas with 60fps you have 6ms left afterwards to get in everything else that makes a game look good.

 

[London Geezer]

Strange. Not saying DF is wrong here but the 60fps mode deffo doesn’t look like 1080p to me on my screen.

 

[Jupiter]

What strikes me most in the video is that the gameplay looks primitive and dull with this lock on target system. One just has to press a button and you automatically aim at the opponent. Then press the other button to shoot.

Not surprisingly. You could also forget about the Avenger game from last year. These developers made much more interesting games before. Pity about the wasted resources.

 

[Riddlewire]

What strikes me most in the video is that the gameplay looks primitive and dull with this lock on target system. One just has to press a button and you automatically aim at the opponent. Then press the other button to shoot.

I haven't played it, so I can't speak with any authority on the matter, but I agree that it looks dull. I watched a twitch streamer fight a boss for what seemed like ten minutes. The basic gunplay looks a lot like ReCore (without the core extraction mechanic).

 

[Shifty Geezer]

What strikes me most in the video is that the gameplay looks primitive and dull with this lock on target system. One just has to press a button and you automatically aim at the opponent. Then press the other button to shoot.

Not surprisingly. You could also forget about the Avenger game from last year. These developers made much more interesting games before. Pity about the wasted resources.

Reminder this is a technical thread for technical discussion. Gameplay discussion should be conducted in games thread.

(Is that's still a thing? Am I totally old-school in my moderating now? I feel like I'm oppressing free speech!)

 

[cwjs]

To me it sounds like this game/engine was never intended the run at 60 and performance mode was "slapped on" at the end. If you look amazing at 30 but cant even lock 60 at quarter resolution on a deferred (?) renderer its hard to blame the consoles.