Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2021]

[Shortbread]

It seems when there is a lot of alpha/particle effects, XBSX framerate drops slightly in comparable areas. But other than that, both versions are great.

Edit: Wish Tom and Alex would have mentioned more about SSD speeds (load, restart, etc.).

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It seems when there is a lot of alpha/particle effects, XBSX framerate drops slightly in comparable areas. But other than that, both versions are great.

Edit: Wish Tom and Alex would have mentioned more about SSD speeds (load, restart, etc.).

Loading for Destiny 2 wouldn't be comparable, IMO. For loading into areas, it's tied to your network performance as well as how many players are playing the game. Even when loading into single player missions, Destiny 2 goes through the matchmaking module. So while no actual matchmaking happens, it has to ping back and forth between the local game and the Destiny 2 matchmaking servers. If those servers are experiencing a heavy player load, it will still affect loading into a single player instance.

Basically testing loading and restarts in Destiny 2 is testing the network performance and local storage performance modified by the number of players playing the game. IE - it wouldn't be tell us anything about PS5 IO system compared to XBS IO system.

That said, it could potentially give some insight into PS5 IO versus PS4 IO. Or alternatively between XBS IO versus XBO IO.

Regards,
SB

 

[mr magoo]

„The games are effectively identical - with PS5 showing only a slightly higher frequency of resolution drops under 4K. In fact, evidence does seem to point towards the Microsoft machine not using DRS much, if at all. 60fps performance is generally excellent on Series X too, but it does have some minor frame-rate drops from the target 60fps, while PlayStation 5 is slightly more consistent in this area.„

Looks like a solid next gen upgrade. I played a bit on XSX and it’s day and night when I compare it to ps4 version.

 

[Shortbread]

Loading for Destiny 2 wouldn't be comparable, IMO. For loading into areas, it's tied to your network performance as well as how many players are playing the game. Even when loading into single player missions, Destiny 2 goes through the matchmaking module. So while no actual matchmaking happens, it has to ping back and forth between the local game and the Destiny 2 matchmaking servers. If those servers are experiencing a heavy player load, it will still affect loading into a single player instance.

Basically testing loading and restarts in Destiny 2 is testing the network performance and local storage performance modified by the number of players playing the game. IE - it wouldn't be tell us anything about PS5 IO system compared to XBS IO system.

That said, it could potentially give some insight into PS5 IO versus PS4 IO. Or alternatively between XBS IO versus XBO IO.

Regards,
SB

So, Destiny 2 requires an [always] online connection even for single player content or story mode/missions?

FYI, I never played Destiny.

 

[Shortbread]

„The games are effectively identical - with PS5 showing only a slightly higher frequency of resolution drops under 4K. In fact, evidence does seem to point towards the Microsoft machine not using DRS much, if at all. 60fps performance is generally excellent on Series X too, but it does have some minor frame-rate drops from the target 60fps, while PlayStation 5 is slightly more consistent in this area.„

Looks like a solid next gen upgrade. I played a bit on XSX and it’s day and night when I compare it to ps4 version.

Where was this mentioned? Also, @3:07 Tom mentions both PS5/XBSX resolutions stay mostly at 4K, however, he does mention areas where XBSX does drop under 4K.

 

[BRiT]

So, Destiny 2 requires an [always] online connection even for single player content or story mode/missions?

FYI, I never played Destiny.

Yes. You're connected to their MMO Servers at all times and moving through there just with a party of 1 instead of 3 (or 6 for specials).

 

[mr magoo]

Where was this mentioned? Also, @3:07 Tom mentions both PS5/XBSX resolutions stay mostly at 4K, however, he does mention areas where XBSX does drop under 4K.

It’s further down in eurogamer article under the YouTube video

 

[Shortbread]

It’s further down in eurogamer article under the YouTube video

I see. So, DRS is enabled on PS5 on keeping a higher framerate. Maybe offer a DRS on/off setting for both consoles (quality or performance).

The games are effectively identical - with PS5 showing only a slightly higher frequency of resolution drops under 4K. In fact, evidence does seem to point towards the Microsoft machine not using DRS much, if at all. 60fps performance is generally excellent on Series X too, but it does have some minor frame-rate drops from the target 60fps, while PlayStation 5 is slightly more consistent in this area. In short: a touch more clarity on Xbox, but a very occasionally smoother ride on the Sony machine.

 

[zed]

So, Destiny 2 requires an [always] online connection even for single player content or story mode/missions?

FYI, I never played Destiny.

maybe we should change the thread title
https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/godfall-always-online-required-pc-ps5-lte.61505/

 

[Shortbread]

maybe we should change the thread title
https://forum.beyond3d.com/threads/godfall-always-online-required-pc-ps5-lte.61505/

Are these games even playable after game-services / servers go offline permanently? Anthem was/is like this as well?

 

[Silent_Buddha]

Are these games even playable after game-services / servers go offline permanently? Anthem was/is like this as well?

Depends on whether the company releases a patch to the game to remove the need of a matchmaking server (IE - remove multiplayer and patch single play instances). Alternatively they can release a local matchmaking server for players to run alongside the game (some games in the past have done this). Or finally, they can allow 3rd parties to release their own matchmaking servers (some games have done this).

I guess one other option is a 3rd party releases an "unofficial" matchmaking server that anyone could run. One famous instance of this is a fan made WoW server which Blizzard took down with cease and desist letters. Then they eventually released Classic WoW.

Of course, the server options are only applicable to PC players. It's unlikely that either Sony or MS would allow a player to run a local matchmaking server or to allow the game to connect to 3rd party matchmaking servers.

Regards,
SB

 

[mr magoo]

Shouldnt be. When destinys servers are off for maintenance game is unplayable. Also I watched the vid kinda weird that XSX drop frames at the beginning of the beyond light campaign when you are alone on Europa no enemies nothing just empty space. Weird

 

[see colon]

To hit 100 you must make sure other components in the path is up to the task to. Not just your broadband. HDD, Wifi / Ethernet etc etc

100Mb/s for Wifi was possible with draft-n equipment starting in 06 or 07. Ethernet was in the 90s. Hard drives? ATA-2 was 16 MB/s, so 128Mb/s, and that was 1996. I would hope your equipment could transfer 100 Mb/s in 2021.

 

[JPT]

100Mb/s for Wifi was possible with draft-n equipment starting in 06 or 07. Ethernet was in the 90s. Hard drives? ATA-2 was 16 MB/s, so 128Mb/s, and that was 1996. I would hope your equipment could transfer 100 Mb/s in 2021.

The point is, do you have all those components up to spec and clean enough spectrun to support the wifi requirements and are you placed correctly vs your router placement are all your devices ? There are multiple items that needs to line up to achieve it.

 

[Allandor]

Shouldnt be. When destinys servers are off for maintenance game is unplayable. Also I watched the vid kinda weird that XSX drop frames at the beginning of the beyond light campaign when you are alone on Europa no enemies nothing just empty space. Weird

yeah, it really seem to be bugs that hit the framerate. Framerate hickups are way to consistent. Getting stable 60 with a common PC is not really hard in this game, even at 4k. So I really guess there are some bugs in the console version. Also dynamic resolution should have prevented those framedrops which did not kick in, so definitely produced by bugs.

 

[mr magoo]

yeah, it really seem to be bugs that hit the framerate. Framerate hickups are way to consistent. Getting stable 60 with a common PC is not really hard in this game, even at 4k. So I really guess there are some bugs in the console version. Also dynamic resolution should have prevented those framedrops which did not kick in, so definitely produced by bugs.

Seems like it, also Alex mentioned in vid that he was surprised how often hiccups occurred keeping in mind this game is quite old. Maybe they will fix it but at the same time looking at how quickly bungie fixes bugs i wouldnt count on it

 

[Globalisateur]

I see. So, DRS is enabled on PS5 on keeping a higher framerate. Maybe offer a DRS on/off setting for both consoles (quality or performance).

DRS is on all systems, including Xbox Series X. They have updated their video description.

UPDATE: We've now confirmed horizontal DRS on all systems, including Xbox Series X.

Xbox could be bottlenecked by something else than the GPU so DRS could be less useful to reduce drops.

 

[mr magoo]

Good to know that drs is working. FPS drops like this are odd I wonder what is going on here.
https://ibb.co/37VKMGn

 

[Shortbread]

Good to know that drs is working. FPS drops like this are odd I wonder what is going on here.
https://ibb.co/37VKMGn

I know having a greater FOV can have an impact overall performance because more geometry/textures/assets are being rendered on screen at higher FOV settings. And this can impact DRS as well (meaning, the greater increase in FOV and rendered assets, the greater chance DRS will drop from the upper-bound resolution setting, in this case 2160p).

So, my question is to Alex or Tom, what FOV settings were used in the analysis? Hopefully the defaults...

Edit: And if increased FOV settings does affect Destiny 2 performance on PS5/XBSX, it might be a great tool on comparing performance at various settings.

 

[mr magoo]

This reminds me of initial patch for gears 5 for xsx. There was also a lot of odd frame drops, this is getting mentioned in this vid (starts at 12:30)

In this case the problem was “bug introduced with interaction between streaming system and low latency optimization “ with was fixed later with hive busters dlc upgrade. I wonder if this is something similar