Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2014]

[zupallinere]

How?

Cache's being mungled or interrupts from the OS or the like. I am making a big assumption that the seemingly more restrictive nature of the virtual environment on the XB1 may reduce odd issues than may occur in other non-virtual environments. Not saying that there isn't plenty of restrictions on the PS4 but we don't really know exactly what there is compared to the XB1. On the XB1 you have some fairly well known uses of the hypervisor as a fer instance.

I'll be happy to be proven wrong since I learn something either way

 

[DJ12]

Let's all just mention the elephant in the room. Microsoft presumably paid big money for their deal with ubi for assassin's creed, so does it not make sense that they spent the last few moment's fixing and optimising for that platform?

Pc and ps4 share bugs and issues while these do not exists to anything like the same degree on the Xbox one.

All hands to the Xbox one version to at least get that version in a reasonable state.

 

[iroboto]

Let's all just mention the elephant in the room. Microsoft presumably paid big money for their deal with ubi for assassin's creed, so does it not make sense that they spent the last few moment's fixing and optimising for that platform?

Pc and ps4 share bugs and issues while these do not exists to anything like the same degree on the Xbox one.

All hands to the Xbox one version to at least get that version in a reasonable state.

Correlation isn't causation however. Once again we can look to other titles and see that MS has sent in engineers to ensure that their product is working for their platform. It's a practice that they've been leveraging to mitigate or downplay the power gap comparison.

Adding headcount shouldn't necessarily take away resources from other platforms.

 

[Globalisateur]

What are they waiting for with the games released yesterday? since no real face-off?

They did release a real face-off performance video of Unity 3 days before the release of the game. But now one day after the release of GTA5, FC4 and Dragon Age still no real face-off? Only a ridiculous grass face-off?

I sometimes find their choice of when they publish an article (and which game they choose) really odd to say the least...

They never done any NBA2K14 or NBA2K15 face-off for instance, why? Those games sold much better than some other face-off they've done like Thief. I think NBA2K14 may have sold at least twice more what Thief sold.

Also where is the Minecraft face-off? Very, very suspicious.

 

[London Geezer]

Well there's an awful lot of games to go through, all released in the same bloody week. Not DF's fault, if anything it's the fault of the publishers leaving us dry for months, only to release some of the most anticipated games of the year in the same few days. I don't think DF has a room full of santa's little helpers to test games and write articles for us.

 

[DJ12]

Correlation isn't causation however. Once again we can look to other titles and see that MS has sent in engineers to ensure that their product is working for their platform. It's a practice that they've been leveraging to mitigate or downplay the power gap comparison.

Adding headcount shouldn't necessarily take away resources from other platforms.

I'm in no way suggesting anything underhand here toward ms or ubi. But two versions are bugged and the concensus seems to be they were released too early. While the X box version seems pretty bug free in comparison. With the similarities between all three platforms this doesn't really make sense unless on version had more hands at work fixing the bugs during crunch time.

I seriously doubt if ms sent engineers they would be bug fixing maybe resolving performance issues but not actual bugs.

 

[function]

XB1 version is bugged too. LOD pop, mass fps dips requiring a game restart to fix, etc.

Xbox One version is only bug free if you ignore documented reality.

 

[function]

Well there's an awful lot of games to go through, all released in the same bloody week. Not DF's fault, if anything it's the fault of the publishers leaving us dry for months, only to release some of the most anticipated games of the year in the same few days. I don't think DF has a room full of santa's little helpers to test games and write articles for us.

There is a certain amount of time required to test scores or hundreds of hours of game per platform, then compare them all frame by frame.

Indeed, several high profile games being released in the same week makes instantaneously releasing full face offs for these games difficult for a small number of people to manage.

Due to reality.

 

[Rangers]

What are they waiting for with the games released yesterday? since no real face-off?

They did release a real face-off performance video of Unity 3 days before the release of the game. But now one day after the release of GTA5, FC4 and Dragon Age still no real face-off? Only a ridiculous grass face-off?

I sometimes find their choice of when they publish an article (and which game they choose) really odd to say the least...

They never done any NBA2K14 or NBA2K15 face-off for instance, why? Those games sold much better than some other face-off they've done like Thief. I think NBA2K14 may have sold at least twice more what Thief sold.

Also where is the Minecraft face-off? Very, very suspicious.

Really? Minecraft? Hardly a technical marvel. To face off that game they'd probably just be getting into a features battle which isn't the point of DF.

I'd love them to pump out more content too, but it's been covered why they dont. What do they have, 3 editors?

They did an NBA 2K14 face off IIRC?

It may also depend on when they get code. For example they put up some analysis of FC4 on PS4, and noted they got that early, but are going to have to buy an X1 version like everybody else.

I do find their editorial decisions bout coverage a bit odd sometimes, they covered MCC seemingly a massive amount for example relative to other games. But that's kind of judgement calls and you cant really complain. I certainly never thought "why haven't they covered Minecraft" so obviously different people can criticize their coverage decisions in opposite ways.

Speaking of FC4, it's the last remaining big fall release we have yet to get an X1 resolution on, so I await DF's word on that.

 

[Rangers]

And I'll put this in a separate post, and I get that it's time related, but I miss DF's large comparison galleries they used to do.

Now they just do a video and those 5-6 pics with the magnifying glass thing. Which is great for giving an overall feel, and probably saves them a lot of time, but it would be nice to have a large gallery of just images to compare full size as well, like the old days of DF.

 

[Billy Idol]

I am waiting for a DA face off...come on DF, help meeeeee!!!

 

[DJ12]

XB1 version is bugged too. LOD pop, mass fps dips requiring a game restart to fix, etc.

Xbox One version is only bug free if you ignore documented reality.

I didn't say it was bug free, I said bugs that affect both PC and PS4 seem to be absent from the xbox version or not affect it to the same degree as the other two platforms.

 

[temesgen]

What are they waiting for with the games released yesterday? since no real face-off?

They did release a real face-off performance video of Unity 3 days before the release of the game. But now one day after the release of GTA5, FC4 and Dragon Age still no real face-off? Only a ridiculous grass face-off?

I sometimes find their choice of when they publish an article (and which game they choose) really odd to say the least...

They never done any NBA2K14 or NBA2K15 face-off for instance, why? Those games sold much better than some other face-off they've done like Thief. I think NBA2K14 may have sold at least twice more what Thief sold.

Also where is the Minecraft face-off? Very, very suspicious.

since the PS3 and 360 essentially reached parity with third party games they don't do those comparisons anymore, instead we get PS3 to PS4 for example...

 

[AlNom]

Due to reality.

They need to go to... Ludicrous Speed.

 

[Shortbread]

Update

Travelling at speed through city junctions - such as Strawberry Avenue - turns out to be a particular Achilles Heel on PS4, with sustained drops to around the 24-26fps range at their worst. It's a situation that also applies to Xbox One, but to a consistently lesser degree when testing under the precise same conditions (and borne out in repeated tests). Put simply, in areas where junctions are stacked up one after the other, the Sony platform suffers more prolonged frame-rate drops when burning through traffic with your foot jammed to the floor. It's an interesting, recurring scenario that points to a CPU bottleneck, where Xbox One's increased clock-speed has an advantage when racing around these busy sections.

However, while Xbox One enjoys an advantage during high-speed races in packed junction areas, it's clear the platform faces its own particular challenges. It drops a few frames during downtown driving outside of the problem junction areas, whereas PS4 remains solid. On top of that, we've already seen that Rockstar has made some visual cutbacks to its complex outdoor rendering, presumably to accommodate Xbox One's less capable graphics hardware, but in certain areas where cuts haven't been made, performance can dip.

Complex effects work, usually involving transparency effects (explosions etc) can also cause visible, sustained hitches in performance. Explosive missions with Trevor in Los Santos' outskirts show the biggest pitfall on Xbox One - with 24fps held at length during one shoot-out. Meanwhile, the PS4 has no issue with these segments, sparing one or two dropped frames just as alpha effects appear on-screen.

It's an interesting result overall, leaving us with different performance profiles on each platform. It's an unmistakable advantage for Sony's platform when it comes to shoot-outs, but on the other hand, the Xbox One typically avoids the heavy mid-20s frame-rates that can kick in during high-speed chases.

 

[function]

They need to go to... Ludicrous Speed.

(ms paint sry)

 

[Scott_Arm]

Pretty interesting performance differences between the two platforms.

 

[iroboto]

And more importantly how developers intend to maneuver around these CPU bottlenecks going forward.

 

[function]

And more importantly how developers intend to maneuver around these CPU bottlenecks going forward.

30 fps (or 'uncapped' 40 fps) and limiting some aspects of simulation complexity, probably.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I'd like DF to retest both versions with DoF disabled (Settings -> Display). DoF has been driving me nuts with it the focussing being off so I turned it off this morning and have noticed reduced 'hitches'.