Digital Foundry Article Technical Discussion Archive [2014]

[chris1515]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-the-witcher-3-tech-analysis

Digital Foundry and The Witcher 3. Very interesting, closed door demo at E3 of PC version and frame rate analysis of Xbox One demo at E3... 900p and 30 fps for Xbox One now but they will try 1080p and 1080p 30 fps on PS4. SMAA on console, great choice. High settings for consoles versions and Ultra for PC with better effect(fur shading and so on...), framerate, AA...

 

[idsn6]

"The stuff we're using that's really cool for next-gen is dynamic IDL," he continues, referring to an interface description language used to allow all parts of the engine, including middleware solutions, to work in concert. "We're using PBR (physically-based rendering), and water simulation's really interesting. It basically reacts to the weather conditions so you'll get choppier waves in wind."

Did the writer mishear "IBL" and just run with it?

 

[Laa-Yosh]

Interface Description Language, very next words in the article...

 

[idsn6]

A dynamic IDL makes no sense, particularly in context as a next gen highlight.

 

[Jedi2016]

In regards to the FOV measurement above, Tupelov is right, that's what I was referring to. I was also counting on DF having the ability to do a much more precise job of such measurements than I'd be able to do just sitting at my keyboard looking at BF4 or whatever game.

As for the TW3 article... that's not much of a tech analysis as it is a tech-talk with the devs. I still haven't decided which version of that game I'm going to get.

 

[Globalisateur]

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-the-witcher-3-tech-analysis

Digital Foundry and The Witcher 3. Very interesting, closed door demo at E3 of PC version and frame rate analysis of Xbox One demo at E3... 900p and 30 fps for Xbox One now but they will try 1080p and 1080p 30 fps on PS4. SMAA on console, great choice. High settings for consoles versions and Ultra for PC with better effect(fur shading and so on...), framerate, AA...

They talked only about post AA + temporal AA. We can assume it would (should) be SMAA but it could also be FXAA + TAA like with Killzone SF. Except if they previously said it was SMAA? I dunno.

The engine really suffers during combats with ~20fps level (with a low at 18fps) in the first combat with 3 NPCs.

Will The Withcher 3 be CPU bottlenecked on consoles? Apparently, yes. But there still ample time to improve the framerates drops during combat as they should because low input lag as seen here mainly during combat is not ideal.

Anyway the open world engine looks well done with great lighting and effects.

 

[DieH@rd]

This is not from DF, but DSOG managed to post very interesting tech interview with Kevin Floyer-Lea, Head of Programming at Rebellion.
http://www.dsogaming.com/interviews...dx12-multicore-cpus-obscurance-fields-shader/

They talked a lot about Sniper Elite V3, its engine, multicore CPU processing, APIs, obscurance fields, silhouette tesselation and more.

 

[Cyan]

Personally, I'm not that excited about anything yet this gen, but that's more to do with me as a person, becoming tired of gaming in general.

Well, I always keep going. Gotta say that I have LOTS of games on the platforms I own (PC, Xbox One, X360), many of them masterpieces, plus I love the past of gaming, and the retro channels like "With a single credit" make me fall in love with those games again.

Those games of the past were less predictable, designers were a bit more free to make choices and didn't just create game thinking on the potential million units they could sell.

Things like the super original design and gameplay choices that sometimes makes you think "if they designed a game like this nowadays it could sell like hotcakes with those ideas"...

Plus the limitations of the hardware playing the most awesome and fun tricks.

Like a guy wearing an eyepatch and when he faces left or right the eyepatch magically appears on the eye which wasn't covered by it before... So fun to see.

A fighting game which has a fighter who turns out to be a tamer, he is Russian but speaks Spanish with a Russian accent, and say the most cool things.

Arcade cabinets that used two or three 4:3 (typical back then) screens to create a panoramic screen...

Another arcade game where a girl is kidnapped and she is shut up in some kind of jail. You confront the baddy, the final boss, save her from being behind the bars, and when she is in front of you she gives you a punch.

Then just afterwards she becomes the final boss. lulz

That and playing my classic GoG games with the Xbox One gamepad, plus arcade games via MAME, etc, keeps my interest all the time.

Additionally, I am into music and gaming music is so beautiful sometimes.

There are so many examples of that -Space Harrier main theme, Turbo Outrun "Shake the Street", Afterburner main theme, Lineage "Create an Elf" theme, etc etc etc etc etc etc.

 

[chris1515]

This is not from DF, but DSOG managed to post very interesting tech interview with Kevin Floyer-Lea, Head of Programming at Rebellion.
http://www.dsogaming.com/interviews...dx12-multicore-cpus-obscurance-fields-shader/

They talked a lot about Sniper Elite V3, its engine, multicore CPU processing, APIs, obscurance fields, silhouette tesselation and more.

Very interesting and maybe first compute shading ambient occlusion???

 

[hesido]

This is not from DF, but DSOG managed to post very interesting tech interview with Kevin Floyer-Lea, Head of Programming at Rebellion.
http://www.dsogaming.com/interviews...dx12-multicore-cpus-obscurance-fields-shader/

They talked a lot about Sniper Elite V3, its engine, multicore CPU processing, APIs, obscurance fields, silhouette tesselation and more.

Wow, I did read some tidbits about obscurance fields but I totally missed how it works, or maybe I have read about a wrong technique! (first and foremost, this is no longer screenspace). Very good to know, and the sample on the page looks very good too.

 

[jlippo]

Wow, I did read some tidbits about obscurance fields but I totally missed how it works, or maybe I have read about a wrong technique! (first and foremost, this is no longer screenspace). Very good to know, and the sample on the page looks very good too.

It seems to be very close to what was used in TLoU.
http://miciwan.com/SIGGRAPH2013/Lighting Technology of The Last Of Us.pdf (page 18..)

 

[hesido]

It seems to be very close to what was used in TLoU.
http://miciwan.com/SIGGRAPH2013/Lighting Technology of The Last Of Us.pdf (page 18..)

Thanks for pointing out. TLoU's "contact" shadow implementation is stunning indeed. I think it was used for characters, as the rest of the scene is baked?

 

[taisui]

[strike]I think Rebellion did a non screen space AO and what's presented in the Naughty Dogs slide is for realistic looking shadow. They are not in the same problem scope.[/strike]

Nevermind, I read the Rebellion article again what they did is essentially the same technique for the characters. I thought that Rebellion did a full scene type of AO.

 

[chris1515]

I think Rebellion did a non screen space AO and what's presented in the Naughty Dogs slide is for realistic looking shadow. They are not in the same problem scope.

Yes it is this non screen espace AO with compute shading and totally different of shadow in ND paper! On page 28 they do occlusion in screen space for Last of US.

 

[Boxercide]

So they really couldn't hit 60, only locked 30 (and the likely usual unlocked "up to" 60 thingy). Looks like Xbox isn't the only machine struggling with what should be considered super easy last gen ports (H2A part of MCC not necessarily being 1080P)



Hah yes, the minds eye. My total-non gamer Dad still, thought the original Castle Wolfenstein on PC looked just like modern 3D FPS. Because that's how he remembered it.

What are you trying to say?

 

[Rangers]

Which part?

 

[djskribbles]

@gavinuk86 Not at all. We included it at the request of the purists who wanted the experience as close to the original (PS3) as possible.

"we included it as an option for purists who want the ps3 experience"

"and those who prefer 30fps in the 30fps vs 60fps debate. choices."

@Angel_DvA I always play TLOU final build without lock option with no dips.You can see for yourself so soon.We worked hard to shave many ms.

“@yosp: @Neil_Druckmann Can I dream of 60fps?” Solidly.

@WillHype We have worked hard to remove drops so that the experience should be at a constant 60 fps.

https://twitter.com/Neil_Druckmann/status/489492701482848257
https://twitter.com/evan_wells/status/489466672885948417
https://twitter.com/Corrinne/status/489418484212711424
http://www.gamepur.com/news/15461-t...rop-30-fps-those-who-prefer-it-first-ps4.html
https://twitter.com/cgyrling/statuses/484003562351886336

I expect some drops under certain situations, but I expect it to at least be much better than Tomb Raider PS4 or Titanfall XB1. We'll see I guess.

 

[-tkf-]

What are you trying to say?

He is trying to say something negative without remembering the past.

The original PS3 version did not have a rock steady framerate either even though it was a 30fps game

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-the-last-of-us-tech-analysis

So it's very likely that the PS4 version will have to occasional drop out of 60 as well, except that it's twice the basic frame rate at a much higher resolution with bells and whistles that makes the game looks extra ordinary good. It's the nature of games based on 3D graphics, it´s very hard to predict the toll on the engine in every scenario, so you either budget extremely low so you are certain you keep the framerate or you accept frame drops.

Personally i prefer the Killzone MP or Wipeout solution, reduce the quality up and down so fast it´s hard to notice but keep the framerate.

 

[HTupolev]

Personally i prefer the Killzone MP or Wipeout solution, reduce the quality up and down so fast it´s hard to notice but keep the framerate.

Unless they changed something in a patch in the last few months, that's not what KZSF MP does. KZSF MP just plain uses less spatial sampling than the SP. Incidentally, this does not save it from experiencing significant framerate spikes, especially in big-team games.

 

[Davros]

What are you trying to say?

what game is that ?
and what are the expanded audio options ?