Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2014]

[Shifty Geezer]

That should be an easy Kinect win. It's RGB camera has far superior resolution to either of the PS Eye's.

Both are going to provide enough detail for a decent face, unless you want extreme closeups in game (if your head only fills 1/4 the height of a 1080p screen, you won't need a 1024x1024 texture or 1080p capture for it). The one that captures the best image would be the one I'd prefer. eg. Better lens quality, resolving power, contrast, colour accuracy and range, and low light performance - just as I prefer in my digital cameras over pure megapixel count!

Kinect should be able to do an awesome 3D recreation though, so it captures your head shape. PS4 would have to do a lot more work for that and I'd guess wouldn't be as fast or accurate. the Kinect 2 avatar stuff was very cool, and I presume MS make available some SDK stuff for that, supplying biometrics that games can use.

 

[Arwin]

That should be an easy Kinect win. It's RGB camera has far superior resolution to either of the PS Eye's.

That's if it's even using a texture. Looks like it might not be. Either way I anticipate a Kinect win.

If it is using a texture, the texture could be better quality on Kinect, because as you say, I think it shoots better stills. However, its depth camera is actually lower resolution, and with decent light, the twin PS Camera lenses can gather depth like a human being can from two slightly different positions at once, and so it does this at a slightly higher resolution than the Kinect.

So in the end the texture should be better on the Kinect, and the mesh may actually end up better on the PS Camera (given good light conditions).

 

[liolio]

Last entry:
http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-nvidia-geforce-gtx-980-review

Nvidia is achieving impressive things, I'm eargerly waiting to see how their Denvers CPUs are doing.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

This really annoys me. If I get a new GPU before too long (which I may do, may not do), I want a Maxwell for performance and efficiency (750 Ti, which is lost in nVidia's crazy ass naming), but I want something from AMD for TrueAudio. Why's there no option for both?! Competition, that's why. So if something's got to give, it'll be the audio. I won't get a TrueAudio capable device, and devs will have one less reason to target it, and it won't progress as it should and expand PC audio as PC graphics are being progressed.

 

[Rangers]

A lil OT maybe but I can see these new GPU's being a good foundation already for future consoles. They really focus on low power usage. On 22nm, Maxwell would be quite svelte and you could easily see the GTX 980 fitting in a console. Of course (hopefully) we'll get much better, as we'll have several generations and at least maybe 14nm by then.

Even if somebody had waited to launch until this fall, they could have put the monster 5 teraflops 980 in a console It's really not that big or power hungry. Ok I'm just dreaming,

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Price may be an issue though.

 

[liolio]

A lil OT maybe but I can see these new GPU's being a good foundation already for future consoles. They really focus on low power usage. On 22nm, Maxwell would be quite svelte and you could easily see the GTX 980 fitting in a console. Of course (hopefully) we'll get much better, as we'll have several generations and at least maybe 14nm by then.

Even if somebody had waited to launch until this fall, they could have put the monster 5 teraflops 980 in a console It's really not that big or power hungry. Ok I'm just dreaming,

Indeed Nvidia has been fighting with its hardware since Fermi, but it seems now that they are ripping the benefits and it shows.

If Nvidia was given the task to match or up the xb1 performance now I think the hardware they could come with would impress.
I believe they have the IP do it with less "everything", less silicon, less bandwidth, lesser bus, less power, etc.

 

[Scott_Arm]

A lil OT maybe but I can see these new GPU's being a good foundation already for future consoles. They really focus on low power usage. On 22nm, Maxwell would be quite svelte and you could easily see the GTX 980 fitting in a console. Of course (hopefully) we'll get much better, as we'll have several generations and at least maybe 14nm by then.

Even if somebody had waited to launch until this fall, they could have put the monster 5 teraflops 980 in a console It's really not that big or power hungry. Ok I'm just dreaming,

Super Wii U!

 

[liolio]

Super Wii U!

Super Wii U 64 at the very least

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That'd be against Nintendo's new naming policy. It ought to be something like Wii Nuu, or Wii U Tuu. Tuu 4 Tii?

 

[liolio]

That'd be against Nintendo's new naming policy. It ought to be something like Wii Nuu, or Wii U Tuu. Tuu 4 Tii?

They missed a great opportunity with their last product to create a Apple/Nintendo naming policy "Frankenstein", how about a "nuu" 3DS

And their next home console should be named: Wii U "Heir"

 

[joker454]

Even if somebody had waited to launch until this fall, they could have put the monster 5 teraflops 980 in a console It's really not that big or power hungry. Ok I'm just dreaming,

Nah, 5tf is already dated. I'm gonna get 8tf wtih twin 970s for about the same price as a launch ps3. Good times, I wonder where power levels will be next year with 22nm. Now if only Sony Vegas Pro would support the damn cards for encoding and cut down my 16 hour render times so that I could use that 8tf for more than just games

 

[Shortbread]

The evolution of Destiny

What Bungie added - and took away - from the game's E3 2013 debut.

Nevertheless, the main thrust of Destiny's technical evolution is clear, beginning with an update to textures in the PS4 final build - the most far-reaching change following Destiny's E3 2013 reveal. Normal maps see an update for the positive, with the Cosmodrome entrance itself given a rusted, peeling exterior that replaces the simpler, grime-splattered surface of the original demo. Out go the dust floor textures too, where now we have more defined bump mapping for underfoot cracked soil. Elsewhere, we have textures that are simply a worthy alternative; neither truly better or worse than what came before. One side-effect, however, of exaggerating the area's state of ruin is a toning down of reflections across vehicles. In this case, what might be viewed as a technical downgrade is nothing more than a revision of material properties - rusty vehicles in a post-apocalyptic world probably aren't going to be bright and shiny.

But there is indeed some evidence of a technical downgrade as we compare the final game to its E3 showing. Parallax occlusion mapping (POM) is cut from the final build, as used around the E3 build's Archon Slayer boss fight. It's a computationally costly feature that adds depth to certain surfaces, such as bumps and divots across walls and rubble build-up around puddles. Alas, there's no trace of the effect on PS4 or Xbox One's retail releases, nor any obvious attempt to replace it. Instead we have regular texture maps for debris planted around the same area.

Likewise, shadow quality takes a slight hit during the intervening year of development for PS4 and Xbox One. While up-close outlines hold a solid, unwavering form, distant shadows suffer from more aliasing and temporal flicker as we move past. This is especially noticeable on the Cosmodrome wall supports while outdoors, where gradients of the shadow are rendered as obvious bands rather than a seamless blend of shade tones seen in the E3 build. Shadow rendering is another GPU-intensive task and what's clear from Destiny's final performance profile is a clear determination to sustain the target 30fps.

When we looked at Watch Dogs' debut showing and compared it to the final release, it was all about the downgrades, but in the case of Destiny, there are a slew of pluses for the final PS4 and Xbox One builds. Chief among them is the addition of extra geometry around the world. Including bus stops, power generators, and giant supply crates, each new block not only adds to the density of detail for each area, but also brings out more cover opportunities during shoot-outs. The changes here aren't just about the aesthetics - Bungie retooled and improved its levels in the final year of development, with gameplay firmly in mind.

 

[pjbliverpool]

This really annoys me. If I get a new GPU before too long (which I may do, may not do), I want a Maxwell for performance and efficiency (750 Ti, which is lost in nVidia's crazy ass naming), but I want something from AMD for TrueAudio. Why's there no option for both?! Competition, that's why. So if something's got to give, it'll be the audio. I won't get a TrueAudio capable device, and devs will have one less reason to target it, and it won't progress as it should and expand PC audio as PC graphics are being progressed.

You could always get a new Broadwell CPU to go with it, I understand they will include a TrueAudio style audio DSP (although I've no idea how comparable they are). Youre overall system would also have the added benefit of being ultra low power.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

That's a sissy processor. I've an i7 4770 which is important for productivity. I just need a nice GPU for gaming, and the 750 Ti seems perfect price/performance/heat for my needs. I've lived without proper audio for plenty enough time that it won't be a huge loss, but I was a huge advocate of binaural audio when we were discussing the consoles audio potential. Seems like that's not really an area for progress. Or rather, one has to choose nVidia graphics or AMD audio. That said, I'm sure the i7 could run any fancy audio in a game that's targeting a lower CPU level - just needs people to actually use the thing!

 

[DuckThor Evil]

That's a sissy processor. I've an i7 4770 which is important for productivity.

Broadwell is a large family of 14nm processors succeeding the current Haswell 1150-socket processors, the higher powered desktop versions are supposed to hit the market in Q1 2015. Not really suggesting you should make the change, just that they aren't all sissy

 

[Lalaland]

Broadwell is a large family of 14nm processors succeeding the current Haswell 1150-socket processors, the higher powered desktop versions are supposed to hit the market in Q1 2015. Not really suggesting you should make the change, just that they aren't all sissy

I'm so OT but

Spoiler

Not holding out much hope for Broadwell tbh, it's a part of the trend from Intel to put power consumption as design goal #1 rather than peak performance. Older Intel architectures were always designed to go faster over a designs life cycle but the new order is that should consume less energy to preserve battery life over that same period. As the old tactic of just shrinking desktop cpus for mobile has come under threat from ultra low power ARM designs in tablets Intel decided to shift to a mobile first design paradigm. Frankly between this and BGA we may all wind up with desktops that are not that differentiated from consoles in terms of the variety of cpu speeds and options (BGA will be the end of a lot of mobo manufacturers).

 

[mrcorbo]

That's a sissy processor. I've an i7 4770 which is important for productivity. I just need a nice GPU for gaming, and the 750 Ti seems perfect price/performance/heat for my needs. I've lived without proper audio for plenty enough time that it won't be a huge loss, but I was a huge advocate of binaural audio when we were discussing the consoles audio potential. Seems like that's not really an area for progress. Or rather, one has to choose nVidia graphics or AMD audio. That said, I'm sure the i7 could run any fancy audio in a game that's targeting a lower CPU level - just needs people to actually use the thing!

I thought of this yesterday while looking at some of the Occulus coverage. They are including positional audio that's optimized for the unit's built-in headphones as part of the SDK.

Edit: Apparently it's provided by RealSpace3D

 

[-tkf-]

This really annoys me. If I get a new GPU before too long (which I may do, may not do), I want a Maxwell for performance and efficiency (750 Ti, which is lost in nVidia's crazy ass naming), but I want something from AMD for TrueAudio. Why's there no option for both?! Competition, that's why. So if something's got to give, it'll be the audio. I won't get a TrueAudio capable device, and devs will have one less reason to target it, and it won't progress as it should and expand PC audio as PC graphics are being progressed.

Could you clue me in on what it is you want from true audio, or just audio..

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Binaural 3D spacial audio accurately modelling the game environment in audio. I assume that's made better by TrueAudio, otherwise what's the point of TA?