Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion [2023]

[Globalisateur]

Fallout 4 had a similar problem on PS4/XB1 at launch I believe. At some point, you're just taxing the memory system too much and it buckles. It's not just that those sections are so CPU/GPU demanding that the framerate tanks so hard.

It's also probably somewhat telling that the problem seems to mainly exist on Xbox consoles. Seems like they probably optimized more around PS5's I/O capabilities, or at the least, the PS5's I/O is simply above the bar to where this issue is experienced. I imagine it's something that will get fixed eventually.

Maybe, but I think we are seeing 2 different problems on Xbox. One is traversal stutters (those >90ms frame-time spikes) and the other is those big (and rare) pauses (>300ms). The first is likely caused by I/O (here the much faster PS5 I/O could be a good reason for them not occuring as often on Sony hardware) and the second is typically caused by lack of memory / memory leak (and also those are solved by a reboot of the system so...).

I remember a developer (Immortals of Aveum) saying they actually had memory problems on UE5 even on XSX so that could likely be the same reason here. This problem could and probably will be patched as soon as they can.

 

[davis.anthony]

Seems like they probably optimized more around PS5's I/O capabilities, or at the least, the PS5's I/O is simply above the bar to where this issue is experienced.

That's a joke right? There's noting in this game that screams 'I need fast I/O capabilities'

 

[iroboto]

Maybe, but I think we are seeing 2 different problems on Xbox. One is traversal stutters (those >90ms frame-time spikes) and the other is those big (and rare) pauses (>300ms). The first is likely caused by I/O (here the much faster PS5 I/O could be a good reason for them not occuring as often on Sony hardware) and the second is typically caused by lack of memory / memory leak (and also those are solved by a reboot of the system so...).

I remember a developer (Immortals of Aveum) saying they actually had memory problems on UE5 even on XSX so that could likely be the same reason here. This problem could and probably will be patched as soon as they can.

API issues and you can get a GPU stall. IO issues typically should not result in a stall, it just won’t have a texture.

 

[function]

The very long hitches and 0fps sections on Series S, that get worse with play time, might indicate memory management issues. With e.g. garbage collection or memory fragmentation.

You hit a point where you need to load stuff in, but you don't have the memory, so you have to start looking for objects to release or start running memory defragmentation and crunch, the game goes into a deep hitch.

It could be quite telling that the system with least memory is hit the worst.

 

[Seanspeed]

Maybe, but I think we are seeing 2 different problems on Xbox. One is traversal stutters (those >90ms frame-time spikes) and the other is those big (and rare) pauses (>300ms). The first is likely caused by I/O (here the much faster PS5 I/O could be a good reason for them not occuring as often on Sony hardware) and the second is typically caused by lack of memory / memory leak (and also those are solved by a reboot of the system so...).

I remember a developer (Immortals of Aveum) saying they actually had memory problems on UE5 even on XSX so that could likely be the same reason here. This problem could and probably will be patched as soon as they can.

Traversal stutters are often memory or I/O issues of their own, just more minor and more quickly recoverable. The massive, prolonged hitches are just when the whole memory system is brought to its knees.

Hard to say for sure, though. Memory issues do not always manifest the same in every game.

That's a joke right? There's noting in this game that screams 'I need fast I/O capabilities'

No, it's not a joke. I dont know how you've been on this forum for so long and haven't learn that demands on specific aspects of hardware aren't always very obvious and observable factors. Especially when it comes to memory management stuff that's always running in the background.

 

[davis.anthony]

No, it's not a joke. I dont know how you've been on this forum for so long and haven't learn that demands on specific aspects of hardware aren't always very obvious and observable factors. Especially when it comes to memory management stuff that's always running in the background.

Or maybe I have the game and have seen that HWMonitor shows it demands next to nothing from storage and I/O.

Do you have the game to test and check things for yourself?

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Or maybe I have the game and have seen that HWMonitor shows it demands next to nothing from storage and I/O.

Do you have the game to test and check things for yourself?

If your point was technical and not ad hoc observation, it'd have been beneficial for you to raise your monitoring results. As expressed, your conclusions sound like they are just coming from eye-balling the game. eg.

Viewing IO in HWMonitor, there's noting in this game that screams 'I need fast I/O capabilities'. It never peaks above x GB/s or y IOPS

Then we have a data based discussion where we can look at IO at the dodgy sections and see what impact IO is having by comparing like for like.

 

[arandomguy]

Something with these monitoring tools though is how granular is the data from HWiNFO? What I mean is a single frame burst request could saturate the hardware, but if it's supposed to happen in something like 16ms-50ms is the tool granular enough to capture that properly (or at relevantly)? I haven't used HWiNFO for this purpose which is why I'm asking.

 

[GhostofWar]

Looks like John finally tried wireless vr on pc and now gets it, now he just needs to get a quest 3 and ada card and be even more impressed.

 

[Shortbread]

A massive, cosmic-sized DF Direct Weekly sees John, Rich and Alex react to the surprise reveal of the Steam Deck OLED, while tackling a bunch of questions about Rockstar's GTA 6 reveal. Meanwhile, media has started to tear down the new PS5 'Slim', answering our final questions about the make-up of the revised console revision. Beyond that, Nintendo denies everything about Switch 2 and Alex shares his experiences with his brand new Ryzen 7 7800X3D CPU upgrade.

0:00:00 Introduction
0:00:50 News 01: Steam Deck OLED revealed and reviewed!
0:26:44 News 02: Rockstar announces GTA 6 announcement trailer
0:41:02 News 03: New PS5 model disassembled
0:49:06 News 04: Alex upgrades to a 7800X3D!
1:10:33 News 05: Nintendo denies Switch 2 briefings
1:14:50 News 06: RTX 40 Series “Super” cards specs leaked
1:25:18 News 07: John’s experiments with in-home VR streaming
1:35:44 Supporter Q1: If the EGS launcher were good, would EGS be profitable?
1:42:10 Supporter Q2: Can we expect a true PS5 Slim console in the future?
1:47:29 Supporter Q3: What’s the difference between ray tracing and path tracing?
1:51:02 Supporter Q4: How long will it take for the retro game market to truly settle down?
1:58:47 Supporter Q5: Why hasn’t Red Dead Redemption 2 been updated for Series X and PS5?
2:03:07 Supporter Q6: Why aren’t there more gaming technology outlets like Digital Foundry?

 

[Karamazov]

 

[pjbliverpool]

Looks like John finally tried wireless vr on pc and now gets it, now he just needs to get a quest 3 and ada card and be even more impressed.

Cool, I'll have to get Virtual Desktop. I've been quite unimpressed with air link tbh.

 

[iroboto]

great job Ollie!

This release is definitely encouraging to see.

More baking still required, hopefully they release a patch that resolves performance issues here.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Any word on what UE version Robocop uses? 5.2? 5.3?

 

[Below2D]

No option for hardware-accelerated ray-traced reflections? They look like ass.

 

[Jupiter]

I would also prefer hardware RT.

Maybe I will buy it for Christmas.

Any word on what UE version Robocop uses? 5.2? 5.3?

PCGH said 5.2. They also say that Nanite is only used in one section.

Unreal Engine 5 mit hohen Bildraten? Ego-Shooter Robocop Rogue City schafft es

Wenn ein Spiel die Bezeichnung "Überraschungs-Hit" verdient hat, dann Robocop: Rogue City. PCGH prüft, welche CPUs und GPUs flüssiges Ballern erlauben.

www.pcgameshardware.de

 

[Shortbread]

great job Ollie!

This release is definitely encouraging to see.

More baking still required, hopefully they release a patch that resolves performance issues here.

The PC edition is great. To really enjoy this game, you would need to love the movies on getting pass the jankyness with character/NPC dialogue, speech animations, and other limitations of a small development house.

 

[davis.anthony]

Robocop is great on PC and there's even an extreme quality mod that gets rid of all the fizzle shown in the videos.

It's the first UE5 game I can run at 60fps+ at native 1440p, max settings with ease and no shader compilation stutter or traversal stutter.

It really is a polished released compared to other UE5 games.

 

[cheapchips]

It really is a polished released compared to other UE5 games

along with Fortnite and Jusant

 

[Dictator]

Robocop is great on PC and there's even an extreme quality mod that gets rid of all the fizzle shown in the videos.

It's the first UE5 game I can run at 60fps+ at native 1440p, max settings with ease and no shader compilation stutter or traversal stutter.

It really is a polished released compared to other UE5 games.

No traversal stutter and no shader compilation stutter? That would be impressive.

Oliver showed that in the video the PS5, XSX, and XSS have traversal stutter and he showed an obvious one going up the stairs in the police station. You manage to reproduce that one on PC?