Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2014]

[Shortbread]

Performance Analysis: The Evil Within

How did this game get through Sony/MS certs? Performance sounds terrible...

As it stands the results aren't looking great for either console but the PS4 version takes the lead for the moment with its higher resolution and smoother update when running at 30fps. It is odd that certain scenes do operate with a slight advantage on Xbox One, however, and we'll have to play further to see how the game trends in later sections. Anyone sensitive to frame-rate issues is going to have an issue playing this game and should probably go for the PC version provided one has the specs to handle it.

Edit: DrJay beat me...

 

[dobwal]

Maybe its smog?

Hong Kong is considered the second darkest city in the world due to its air polution.

 

[pjbliverpool]

And so much for the 4GB requirement for PC. What is it with devs quoting outlandish and completely incorrect PC requirements these days?

 

[Malo]

And so much for the 4GB requirement for PC. What is it with devs quoting outlandish and completely incorrect PC requirements these days?

Less QA costs with varying systems and less support needed for consumers with low end systems. Much easier to state that they don't meet requirements.

 

[Gitaroo]

reading the performance thread on gaf, looks like the game uses OpenGL, Idtech5 but also use DirectX for something else at the same time? Is it using it as a inject for post processing effect that doesn't support in idtech5?

 

[iroboto]

Hong Kong is considered the second darkest city in the world due to its air polution.

Really? Lol damn HK was easy to breathe having flown there from Shanghai. I was really dying in Shanghai.

Sounds like they would have liked more time to develop the game further.

 

[TomRL]

Another game better off on PC. Even a GTX 750 TI will run the game on max at 1080p 30. Can't say the same for consoles. This has happened twice in the last month, with Alien. Consoles with similar GPU's should perform better than the PC counterpart. That's kind of the point.

CPU's really that bad? Will the situation get better?

 

[BRiT]

CPU's really that bad? Will the situation get better?

Yes. Only if you believe in cloud computing; otherwise no.

 

[Globalisateur]

digitalfoundry-2014-the-evil-within-performance-analysis

Apparently the game on XB1 never runs without judder, even when it's at 30fps.

I just watched the 2 small clips (PS4 vs XB1), where we see the character just turn around himself in front of a wall, normally capped at 30fps, and indeed, it's very obvious that the XB1 clip stutters constanly even at a locked 30fps.

It's like they run internally the game at 20fps (or 25fps) capped but cheat by displaying a 30fps output. DF writer isn't really happy about it. I have never seen him criticizing that much the XB1 version, notably in his screenshots comments.

 

[HMBR]

CPU's really that bad? Will the situation get better?

this game seems to be using resources very poorly on all platforms,

game is optimized for 2 cores on the PC (compare i3s to i5s), I wonder how well is it using the multiple cores from the consoles?

also this is by far the biggest difference going from sandy bridge to haswell CPUs I have ever seen in a game

 

[pjbliverpool]

this game seems to be using resources very poorly on all platforms,

game is optimized for 2 cores on the PC (compare i3s to i5s), I wonder how well is it using the multiple cores from the consoles?

also this is by far the biggest difference going from sandy bridge to haswell CPUs I have ever seen in a game

The results don't make a lot of sense. While there seems to be little gain from additional cores, the game seems to be able to spread itself out across additional cores with no problem. However when doing this it doesn't seem to use all of the CPU's potential.

Just look at the utilisation of the i3 2100 vs the i7 2600 in this chart which compliments the chart above. Why the hell is the performance on the i3 not higher considering no core is more than 61% loaded? And then the i7 seems to be loading up mostly everything on the first core. Bizarre!

Incidentally, these images are taken from the following - very awesome review:

http://gamegpu.ru/action-/-fps-/-tps/the-evil-within-test-gpu.html

One thing seems clear, the game is very easy on GPU's and it's the CPU that's causing the bottleneck here which is probably the cause of the consoles woe's as well.

 

[HMBR]

from my experience checking task manager with an i3, games that normally show around 50-60% usage around all threads are normally scaling very little with HT, while games that scale massively will show CPU usage around 80-90% on all threads (like BF4), but it varies

 

[Cyan]

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

Typical case of a developer favouring the "local" console, I think.

Not because the PS4 shouldn't be better, but the Xbox One can render the same things as the PS4 at the same quality maybe save the resolution and that's not the case with this game.

I've seen what the Xbox One can do, and it's certainly better than that.

 

[Starx]

I find these pics on "Face-Off: Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition" article:

There are curious detracting points for the Definitive Edition - otherwise an improvement overall - such as the dialing back of bloom across neon signs. Here we also see the lowering of reflection map quality in one instance, in this rare case absent on Xbox One.

PS4:
http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/ar.../9/PS4_008.bmp.jpg/EG11/quality/90/format/jpg
XO:
http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles//a/1/7/1/3/2/7/9/XO_008.bmp.jpg/EG11/quality/90/format/jpg


But on Gamersyde videos (The chase) both of thems are identical in term of reflections!!
PS4:
http://www.gamersyde.com/pop_images_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition-26637-11.html

Video
http://www.gamersyde.com/hqstream_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition_the_chase-33289_en.html

XO:
http://www.gamersyde.com/pop_images_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition-26623-10.html

Video:
http://www.gamersyde.com/hqstream_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition_the_chase-33275_en.html

 

[Betanumerical]

Typical case of a developer favouring the "local" console, I think.

Not because the PS4 shouldn't be better, but the Xbox One can render the same things as the PS4 at the same quality maybe save the resolution and that's not the case with this game.

I've seen what the Xbox One can do, and it's certainly better than that.

I think its more likely a case of a developer not having a great deal of time, and working there best on both versions. Because we already know that the XB1 is harder to develop for and also weaker (it should be kept in mind that the XB1 has less CU's and that CU's contain more then just ALU's).

 

[Globalisateur]

I find these pics on "Face-Off: Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition" article:


But on Gamersyde videos (The chase) both of thems are identical in term of reflections!!

I think I found the cause of this discrepancy.

It's just that those seem to be the reflections (quite buggy in fact) of the flashing neons in the background so it should explain why those reflections could be absent in some pics.

 

[shredenvain]

I think its more likely a case of a developer not having a great deal of time, and working there best on both versions. Because we already know that the XB1 is harder to develop for and also weaker (it should be kept in mind that the XB1 has less CU's and that CU's contain more then just ALU's).

The game's original release date was 2 weeks or more later.
They decided a month or so ago to put it out early. So they had time.
The game performs poorly on both systems. It only hits 30fps in tunnels and other small enclosed levels. Infact DF says that the X1 version actually runs smoother in some places than the ps4, but the X1 version had a timing issue between simulation and graphics.
I am not happy with the situation period. I know idtech5 is not the best choice for real time lighting, but how in the hell does a dev take an engine known for being designed to hit 60 fps
and ignore all it's built in features that would help with performance.
Since they are using dynamic lighting it is understandable to shoot for 30 fps, but why in the hell would they use letterbox to save on performance when the engine is built for dynamic resolution. I was really looking forward to The evil within but after reading the DF article I am holding off to see if they even bother fixing the framerate and simulation bugs before I buy this title. Also the resolution/letterbox thing doesnt bother me, but they put out a press release a month ago saying both current gen consoles would run at native 1080p. I really hope they fix the mess that is The Evil Within.

 

[Starx]

I find these pics on "Face-Off: Sleeping Dogs: Definitive Edition" article:



PS4:
http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/ar.../9/PS4_008.bmp.jpg/EG11/quality/90/format/jpg
XO:
http://images.eurogamer.net/2013/articles//a/1/7/1/3/2/7/9/XO_008.bmp.jpg/EG11/quality/90/format/jpg


But on Gamersyde videos (The chase) both of thems are identical in term of reflections!!
PS4:
http://www.gamersyde.com/pop_images_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition-26637-11.html

Video
http://www.gamersyde.com/hqstream_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition_the_chase-33289_en.html

XO:
http://www.gamersyde.com/pop_images_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition-26623-10.html

Video:
http://www.gamersyde.com/hqstream_sleeping_dogs_definitive_edition_the_chase-33275_en.html

The article was updated by:

Update 16/10/14 4:42pm: after re-testing this scene once again on both Xbox One and PS4, we can confirm reflection quality is a match between Xbox One and PS4 too - though scenes such as this vary in appearance, based on the game's weather systems

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-sleeping-dogs-definitive-edition-face-off

 

[DrJay24]

Wow @ the black crush.

 

[nightshade]

Hong Kong is considered the second darkest city in the world due to its air polution.

I am in Hong Kong right now and I don't see it. Beijing, Guangzhou, Mumbai, Mexico City are easily much worse.