Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2014]

[Goodtwin]

On what evidence is this based?

There are still many multiplatform engines being carried forward from last gen and modified for the new consoles. Many of them with deferred renderers, because that was the best fit to primarily accommodate PS3 architecture. Deferred rendering does not suit the X1's architecture well but seems to pose no problems on PS4.

Just as last gen it took a shift toward deferred rendering for the PS3 to reach it's potential, it will take a similar engine shift for the X1 to reach it's potential. Meanwhile, just as last gen, the console with the more straightforward setup reaches close to it's potential a lot quicker in the hardware cycle.

Forza Horizon shows that forward+ seems to be a very good fit right now, but who knows what is around the corner?

Why would deferred rendering be bad for the X1? The 32MB of esram should be able to hold all the buffers, perhaps not in 1080p, but something like 900p seems like it should work. Shin'en is doing Fast Racing Neo for Wii U using deferred rendering, so I don't see why X1 wouldn't handle it just fine. Seeing as how deferred rendering is a bandwidth hog, should that be a good setup to maximize the esrams bandwidth capabilities? I know the majority of developers are using hybrids with some forward rendering and some deferred, but it just seems like deferred would be a good way to maximize the esram.

 

[iroboto]

Why would deferred rendering be bad for the X1? The 32MB of esram should be able to hold all the buffers, perhaps not in 1080p, but something like 900p seems like it should work. Shin'en is doing Fast Racing Neo for Wii U using deferred rendering, so I don't see why X1 wouldn't handle it just fine. Seeing as how deferred rendering is a bandwidth hog, should that be a good setup to maximize the esrams bandwidth capabilities? I know the majority of developers are using hybrids with some forward rendering and some deferred, but it just seems like deferred would be a good way to maximize the esram.

Depends on how many targets/buffers you are doing in deferred and what type of buffers/targets they are. Deferred can be a footprint/space hog, not necessarily a bandwidth hog.

 

[Cyan]

I'm not sure why something like Defense Grid 2 would need a DF article though.

It's a demanding game on PC, but while I agree with you, something I don't get from Digital Foundry is why they don't make a little mention to non AAA games, where they confirm the resolution and the framerate of those games. A full-fledged analysis of those games might be a different story, but recognising that they somewhat exist would be fine in my book. Especially considering that they would just need to play them for a few minutes to confirm the resolution and the framerate.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

Digital Foundry: The making of Forza Horizon 2

Eurogamer have a DF interview with Forza Horizon 2's developer, Playground Games.

More of these please DF!

 

[jlippo]

I recall that the first deferred shaders on consoles came out of Sony studios. Killzone 2 was the poster boy for it, and deferred lighting/shading was used on a great many Sony 1st party games.

Shrek on xbox1 was the first using deferred rendering.
https://sites.google.com/site/richgel99/home

 

[arijoytunir]

does type of forward or deffered rendering affects the resolution ? also playground devs utilized esram efficiently .

 

[Shortbread]

Face-Off: Alien: Isolation

First impressions of Alien: Isolation suggested parity between the PS4 and Xbox One versions, with both sporting native 1080p visuals while sharing an extensive range of assets and graphical effects. Performance is an issue though, with PS4 commanding a distinct advantage thanks to a more consistent frame-rate and a complete lack of screen tear.

Generally speaking, texture quality, modelling and lighting are a match between consoles and PC running at ultra settings. Texture filtering also appears to be identical. with all three versions operating using 16x anisotropic filtering, although there are a few discrepancies where some surfaces are filtered more cleanly on one system than another.

The PC does benefit when it comes to shadows and ambient occlusion though. The use of contact-hardening soft shadows creates smooth-looking diffused edges, which appear more natural thanks to hard-edged shadows with dithered filtering. Meanwhile, HDAO appears to be present across all three formats, although the effect is a little more buggy on PC. Some surfaces seem to lack coverage in certain scenes, while the effect is visibly present elsewhere. [UPDATE 12/10/14 09:36: Creative Assembly has confirmed that HDAO isn't implemented on console].

Creative Assembly wanted parity between PS4 and Xbox One and on the basis of image quality, detail and effects work it has managed it, but while native 1080p sharpness may please Xbox One owners, it has come at a cost, because while the Xbox One version delivers the core Alien experience mostly intact, overall immersion is compromised by frequent drops in fluidity. Performance is obviously the deciding factor here and it's clear PS4 has a distinct advantage. As such the PS4 game gets our recommendation for console owners, even though we're left with the nagging feeling that 60fps should have been possible on Sony's hardware based on the game's PC showing.

In a nutshell, Creative Assembly wanted parity between the consoles... XB1 suffering from performance issues because of it, and PS4 possibly missing out on HBAO and higher framerates. Yup, PC gamers we are safe as usual...

Anyhow, this is why 1st party and internal teams are needed... no need to worry about another platform. Just pure maximizing...

 

[Billy Idol]

Hm, this parity really start to hurt consoles imo.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

New rules on parity discussion

 

[Alucardx23]

New rules on parity discussion

Roger that.

 

[shredenvain]

New rules on parity discussion

+1 on new rule.

 

[arijoytunir]

digital foundry should do a podcast .

 

[Deleted member 11852]

digital foundry should do a podcast .

A video one you mean? I think that's a good idea. So it probably won't happen!

 

[Arwin]

They likely wouldn't have the time, but I'd be on it if they'd let me. First though I want to focus on finishing that website that can meaningfully hold their results.

 

[steveOrino]

Sleeping Dogs article is up.

On balance, United Front Games succeeds in creating the ultimate edition of its open-world crime drama, giving PS4 and Xbox One owners the most eye-catching console release so far. The only snag is that, in aspiring to the PC's top-end visual standard, the struggling 20-30fps performance is a high price to pay for this luxury. And with visible tearing creeping in too, the current-gen console experience doesn't feel quite as definitive as we'd hoped.​

 

[zed]

the PC remastered looks worse than the PC original due to the fog applied, haha I woke up to thick fog this morning when I look out the window, it'll burn off in an hour though but normally even in asia you don't have haze at less than 100m. The AA in the PC remake is a bit better though

 

[tuna]

Maybe its smog?

 

[HMBR]

the PC remastered looks worse than the PC original due to the fog applied, haha I woke up to thick fog this morning when I look out the window, it'll burn off in an hour though but normally even in asia you don't have haze at less than 100m. The AA in the PC remake is a bit better though

I have to agree, the original version simply looked better on the video comparison, and it runs at 40% higher framerate... looks like they made some poor choices, but nothing as bad as wanting people to pay for this patch...
I guess not all companies can be as nice to their customers as CD Projekt Red is...

also I find a little sad that an old gen port needs to have slowdowns to 22/25fps on the new consoles, as much as the visuals are improved... but I guess it also happened with some PS2 ports to the PS3 (like mgs3?)

 

[TheWretched]

But MGS3 on PS3 at least tried 60hz, iirc. It had MASSIVE slowdowns when there was a lot of overdraw (Volgins lightnings). But other than that, the game itself ran alright. I can't really remember any spots that produced sub 30Hz for prolonged periods of time (same for MGS2).

I can't wait for GTA5 myself. I just hope they won't release a game that performs as badly as SD does here (well, I've been burnt by SE in this regard, since the censored german version on Steam didn't get any updates and thus simply crashes if you install the HD textures... and has no DLC support, either)

 

[DrJay24]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-the-evil-within-performance-analysis

Resolution is the first order of business: the developer opts for an extra-wide aspect ratio, presumably in order to reduce the games' rendering load - though HUD elements are displayed in this region. Based on what's rendered inside the letterbox, however, we're left with a 1920x768 resolution on PlayStation 4 and a meagre 1600x640 on Xbox One. In effect, it's the now-familiar 1080p vs 900p set-up here, but the intrusive borders serve to cut-down actual rendering resolution significantly. Only 71 per cent of the screen's real estate is actually used for gameplay - and the aspect ratio utilised is actually a higher 2.5:1 rather than the 'cinematic' 2.35:1.

What's worse, on Xbox One, it almost feels as if the renderer is out of sync with the game simulation. These particular issues don't appear in the performance metrics yet the issue is very much present. As a result, even when the game is rendering out 30fps, it sometimes feels worse than it should.