Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2021]

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You can get cheap data loggers, there's this one from Supco that isn't too much and can log current, voltage, and watts. I've used a Supco temperature and RH data logger and you could set the frequency for how often it takes a reading, I had it set to every 5 minutes and would dump the data into an excel file at the end of every month (this was for a temperature controlled accredited lab). I assume the one linked is similar.

 

How much is it? I can only see that's it's out of stock. Kind impressed with the little LCD screen - this is not even the bargain basement option.

 

Interesting observations around the image quality in that the higher resolution shots can actually make the image look worse/less real. This is something I've thought for decades ever since the first off screen shots of Half Life 2 were leaked but it's always gone against the general narrative of the industry that higher resolution is always better.

To be clear, in modern graphics I do prefer higher resolution and a sharper image usually, but a softer image isn't always worse IMO. That said, I think high resolution and/or high quality AA is always better for image stability and detail, but it may be that you then want to apply some kind of filter over the top to get back to something more akin to what Alex shows on the PS5 / XSX in that video, but with a much more stable image. I guess film grain does that in a way.

 

I have noticed a visual difference between both versions of the Matrix Awakens demo. In "gameplay" scenes, notably the one I am using here, there seems to be more artefacts (from reconstruction?) on XSX version. Is this what they call the "denoising" difference? I thought denoising was about RT stuff? Because it looks like reconstruction artefacts to me.

This is the last screen of the second comparison tool. It's one of the only 2 (fullscreen) pics that are from the playable part. You need a native screen to better see the difference. For me it was very easy to notice it.

 

Might just be a problem with the screenshot. If it isn't the exact same frame with temporal scaling ... well it is temporal.
Also the engine has its quirks so far. E.g. loading of stuff even in the same cutscenes doesn't always show the same thing.

 

I'm sure I'm not imagining this but to me, when looking at the first pictures of the tall building, the text on all of the roadsigns looks marginally better defined on Xbox.

 

Denoising can be applied to anything. It's applied to RT because we can't afford to trace enough rays to get a clear signal, so we have a noisy signal, and 'average it out' through denoising to approximate what more rays would give us.

Outside of RT, denoising could be used for sampling AA and reconstructing less fuzzy results.

Allandor's point about temporal AA is possibly on the money. On the XB screenshots with the noise, there also isn't the blur that comes with denoising. Seems like the noise reduction step hasn't kicked in, which could be a temporal AA thing.

 

Alex should make the best use of his vacation time and do a video for the PC version of this game Im having this as my number 1 best graphics for 2021

 

Didn't DF already cover the PC version?

 

They didn't. One of the most visually striking games in existence, full of spectacular ray tracing left and right, and somehow it got glossed over. That damn E3 presentation really hurt the game. John even said he was surprised by the game's quality. And how this engine went from having poor facial rendering in Mankind Divided to one of the very best in this one. But thats about it. I was also completely blindsided by this game. Payed no attention because the initial reveal wasnt grabing people, wasnt good. Then i watched the nvidia trailer for this game right before launch and i was just floored by the graphics they showed there. Just, holly shit. Where did this come from ?

I think i clocked almost 2000 screenshots playing this game. You just go from one amazing scene to another. The Drax character in particular is so phenomenally detailed in every aspect that it'll make playing God of War in january feel completely dated and mundane as far as kratos's details go.

I think the team just thought this game wont be anything to write home about and dedicated the launch time to other games, like Horizon 5

 

You should write some tools to automate this comparison process for you, it's too time consuming if you have to do it for every game.

 

@iroboto is actually doing something similar. The main problem is the lack of content showing like for like scenes as here I haven't searched for long to notice the difference. That could still be due to some dynamic aspect of TAA or TSA as we know the engine has plenty of dynamical features.

Maybe PS5 would show the same strong artefacts in others scenes but we'll need plenty more like for like scenes in playable part (with much less post process effect) to confirm or deny. PS5 has actually them but they seem to be cleaned or reduced somehow, XSS on the other hand has the same artefacts as XSX at much lower resolution.

 

Kind of like how practical effects with models and puppets in movies look amazing on VHS, but can look pretty bad on UHD. Or how movies shot at 60fps can look ultra clear which can reveal that sets and costumes are not organic.

 

What I don't lijlje about guardians of galaxy is how your character slides around when running. It looks sloppy and distracting. Am I the only one problem with it??

 

Yes precisely. In fact I came across this tonight as I've finally started up Horizon Zero Dawn and ended up using the built in "basic" upscaler over FSR as FSR looks too sharp and makes the image noisier. I realise that's because of the built in sharpening but ultimately the slightly softer image looks better to me.

Very good game for the record and very nice looking too, even by today's standards.

 

A thousand times YES. I'm all for some TASTEFUL and SUBTLE softness over game graphics and CGI. Sure, make your algos be as precise as possible internally, but its ok to not show every perfect pixel your engine rendered with perfect clarity. Let go. The objective is to sell an illusion, not pixels. Leave some holes for my imagination to fill in.

 

#BringBackVaseline