Fortnite

[Silent_Buddha]

So, this was announced way back in 2011, and it might finally be seeing the light of day soon-ish.

Looks interesting. It's basically Horde mode with base building, crafting and a small touch of Orcs Must Die style traps.

It's going to be F2P, so I wouldn't jump in on the Founder's Pack for early access to the game. Always try it free before deciding if you want to spend money on it or play it more casually free only or just not your type of game.

Coming to PS4, XBO, PC, and somewhat surprisingly Mac.

Considering it's all co-op, it'd be nice if there was crossplay. But that's probably wishful thinking.

Regards,
SB

 

[djskribbles]

How is there no discussion of this game?!

It's free and it's fun as hell (Battle Royale).

After weeks of hearing people praise it, I finally downloaded it and got my buddy to try it as well. We played 5-6 matches finishing higher and higher and finally got a win after 3 top 8 finishes in a row.

 

[BRiT]

Kind of pissed they stole the idea from PUBG and opted to include microtransactions.

At this point I'd rather support PUBG developers instead of Epic, just like I supported original Infinity Ward developers West, Zampella, and Others when Activision did them harm by no longer buying COD titles.

 

[JPT]

How is there no discussion of this game?!

It's free and it's fun as hell (Battle Royale).

After weeks of hearing people praise it, I finally downloaded it and got my buddy to try it as well. We played 5-6 matches finishing higher and higher and finally got a win after 3 top 8 finishes in a row.

Since you say its fun, I will try it out.

 

[JPT]

Kind of pissed they stole the idea from PUBG and opted to include microtransactions.

At this point I'd rather support PUBG developers instead of Epic, just like I supported original Infinity Ward developers West, Zampella, and Others when Activision did them harm by no longer buying COD titles.

PUBG is not available on PS4 right?

 

[djskribbles]

Kind of pissed they stole the idea from PUBG and opted to include microtransactions.

At this point I'd rather support PUBG developers instead of Epic, just like I supported original Infinity Ward developers West, Zampella, and Others when Activision did them harm by no longer buying COD titles.

It shares a lot of similarities for sure, but H1Z1/PUBG sort of started a new genre. It's different enough IMO.

It differentiates itself by not taking itself so seriously. The visuals are cartoony. There are things like launch pads, portable bushes to hide in, breaking things down for materials to build etc. And the loot system is far more simplified so it's more about action than it is looting.

It is a free to play game, and you absolutely don't have to buy anything, so I don't mind that microtransactions are in the game. Plus the developers are transparent and update the game frequently.

Also this:

PUBG is not available on PS4 right?

PUBG is not on PS4, where me and my buddies play, so there's no way for me to even support them. At least not yet.

Also I'm not even sure how PUBG is going to translate to console/controller. The game's loot/armor/weapon system is far more complicated than Fortnite.

Since you say its fun, I will try it out.

I will say that the controls are pretty tough to get used to, but maybe that's just because I played mostly the same game for 4 years (Destiny).

Building is a key component to the game, and doing it effectively takes some experience and getting used to. The game also doesn't help much with how to do things. But once you get the hang of it (which I still haven't fully, not even close) it is a blast to play, especially with friends. I don't see myself playing solo often tbh.

But yeah, winning our first game in duos was very rewarding and fun.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

I tried the demo/beta before the Battle Royale mode and it was pretty weak, and the reviews explained it was very much a soulless grindfest, so I removed it. The new mode apparently gives it identity and makes it fun so I'll take another look some day.

 

[DrJay24]

My son and all of his friends are all addicted to this game. It seems like this years version of Minecraft, it went viral. We had a lan party at my house when five boy cousins (ages 7-13) showed up with a PS4. We put it on the Wi-Fi with my two PS4s and three kids would play in a group. The six boys would rotate turns.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Fortnite battle royale has lead to rapid and massive improvements to UE 4. They fixed their input lag issues, recently implemented level streaming and now this month they'll be targetting 60fps on console including the base Xbox One. I'm assuming this is related to their super-sampling temporal AA and dynamic resolution that's coming with UE 4.19. PUBG is falling behind fast in terms of tech and performance.

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/fortnite-battle-royale-state-of-development-v4

60 FPS on Console

Later this month we plan to add an optional 60 FPS mode for Battle Royale on consoles (PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One, Xbox One X). This 60 FPS mode is tuned for each console to maximize frame rate while minimizing loss of visual quality.

 

[Scott_Arm]

The 60 fps update is live on all platforms. Looking forward to testing it out. Assuming it's dynamic resolution plus some other changes.

https://www.epicgames.com/fortnite/en-US/news/v3-0-0-patch-notes

60 FPS on Console (Battle Royale)
Experience Fortnite like never before. PS4, PS4 Pro, Xbox One and Xbox One X now support 60 FPS mode, hand-tuned for each console to provide an extra-smooth gaming experience while maintaining visual fidelity.

...

60 FPS mode added for PS4, Xbox One, PS4 Pro and Xbox One X.

• Battle Royale now defaults to 60 FPS, but you can switch back to 30 FPS in Settings if you prefer higher quality visuals.
• This replaces the Uncapped mode.

They also dded some cool stuff for colour blindness. It has test patterns with the blotches, and you can select type and strength.

Added Color Blind Option

• This can be found in the new “Accessibility” tab in the game's options.
• There's a strength indicator so that you can find a level that works best for you.
• This feature is still in development. We'd love to hear your feedback, especially if you're unable to find a level that makes the colors better for you.

 

[Karamazov]

i finally downloaded this game this week end now that a have a decent internet connexion.
And it's pretty fun, i like this concept of battle royal. But man i suck at killing people, they seem to always win our face offs, they are all jumpin in the air while shooting, i hate that.

 

[zed]

they are all jumpin in the air while shooting, i hate that.

yes I remember that from the quake 3 days, surely the fix is to make it just like real life, when you're jumping in the air your aim goes to absolute shit

 

[djskribbles]

But this isn't PUBG, it is more of an arcade shooter.

Most people that jump fire are people using shotguns, so to counter that, try to get some distance from them, crouch and fire at them with an assault rifle or something. Firing while crouched gives you better accuracy.

Also, you need to learn basic building if you want to win games on consistent basis... you won't be able to rely on gun skill alone.

If you're running around and you're getting shot somewhere, the red/blue damage indicators will tell you where you're getting shot from. It's good to instantly turn, build some walls and stairs behind them so they're protected by the wall. Then you can 'head glitch' by edging up on the stairs so they enemies can barely see you but you're able to shoot them. Or at least build a wall to protect you so that you can recover and prepare yourself to fight or simply run away.

Lastly, and probably pretty obvious, but audio is pretty important in these BR games. Playing with headphones is ideal to hear where footsteps are and where people are coming from.

Anyway, the update went out today and 60fps, even on base PS4 is butter smooth. I didn't really notice much of a drop in graphics. The removal of DoF is clear though and it's preferable for this type of game.. it's much easier to see in the distance now.

 

[djskribbles]

VG Tech did an analysis of the base consoles. Runs at a pretty solid 60fps.

I did notice after playing for quite a few hours on PS4 that I started getting frame stutters once in a while, and it seemed to get worse the longer I played. The framerate wouldn't dip before stuttering, it would just happen randomly: ie it would be running silky smooth then I'd get an odd stutter when turning. It would happen during battles too, so it was very annoying.

I reset the game and it seemed to be much better after that. And I played for a few hours tonight and it was fine. Wonder if there's a bit of a memory leak or something. Could possibly be my aging HDD (launch unit).

As for resolution:
1056x594 - 1520x810 with upsampling up to 900p on XB1
1360x756 - 1920x1080 on PS4. PS4 uses upsampling when the resolution drops below 1080p.


When the res drops below the target res, he thinks it uses temporary upsampling to bring it up to 900p/1080p for XB1/PS4 respectively.

I'm sure he'll do a Pro/X analysis, too. Hopefully they've increased the resolution on Pro. Pro support before this patch was pretty lackluster.

 

[Karamazov]

apart from the removal of DoF, i did not notice any "downgrade" on pro graphically.
Framerate is very solid.
Very fun game BTW with friends.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Unreal engine has a new temporal aa solution that's compatible with dynamic resolution and temporal supersampling. The supersampling probably hides resolution changes well.

 

[djskribbles]

This game is really blowing up and getting into the mainstream. Even celebrities and athletes are tweeting about it.

On twitch, Fortnite and PUBG would trade blows, but lately Fortnite is dominating during peak NA hours. Some streamers are really benefiting from the popularity, with one guy getting 80k+ viewers a day, when he would only get ~5000k just a few months ago (which is still quite good).

For myself, since the game I used to play is getting really stale (Destiny 2) me and some of my buddies are playing this quite a bit now. I'm starting to get the hang of it and we're getting more wins as a result (have 17 or 18 in squads, and a few in duals).

I just played a game last night with randoms with the 'Fill' option selected, where two of our teammates died off the start, and two of us won in squads. Managed to get 9 kills which is the highest I've gotten in any mode. Other guy had around 4 or 5.

I'm putting in some good hours into the game, and it's so polished and well supported that I went ahead and put some money towards the Battle Pass to support Epic; makes the game more fun, too. They are setting the bar high with the level of support they're giving the game... they deserve all of the success they're getting right now.

 

[Recop]

As for resolution:
1520x810 - 1600x900 on XB1
1360x756 - 1920x1080 on PS4

It's 1056x594 to 1520x810 on Xbox One...

These numbers are interesting because we can compare them to the 30fps mode :

Xbox One 900p vs PS4 1080p = 44%

In the 60fps mode, there is a 64% pixel count difference for the lowest resolutions and a 68% one for the highest resolutions.

This proves that developers ususally don't push the PS4 a lot more once they reached their 1080p target...

It's the contrary between the Pro/X version : they are closer in the 60fps mode regarding the resolution.

 

[BRiT]

Well does the PS4 support 1440p output? Cause its not like there's a reasonable target to aim for after 1080p on the base models.

 

[djskribbles]

It's 1056x594 to 1520x810 on Xbox One...

Yeah I read the details before bed and mis-read them. Fixed.

VGTech also posted the Pro/X analysis.
1524x856 - 1920x1080 with temporary upsampling when it drops below 1080p on PS4 Pro
1850x1040 - 2742x1550 with temporary upsampling up to 3072x1728

PS4 Pro has motion blur and longer grass draw distance compared to X.

Interesting that they don't use their upsampling tech to increase the resolution beyond 1080p on Pro, but they do on X. They only use it on PS4 platforms if the resolution drops below 1080p. Maybe they used the same settings from the base systems and the Pro is limited to 1080p like the base PS4, whereas they use it to upsample up to 900p/1728p on XB1/XB1X respectively. I'm guessing Pro runs at 1080p most of the time.