Ratchet & Clank technical analysis *spawn

[Dictator]

Ok, the mip issue seems pretty big, as it balloons in-use vram usage by ~800mb-1GB when you 'fix' it by swapping DLSS levels. It doesn't matter what DLSS level you have it set to when you boot up the game, you have to temporarily change it to any other level to fix - and yes, that even includes DLAA. It's extremely minor with DLAA, but I can notice a difference when you start with DLAA, switch to TAA, then back. But certainly far more prominent with any DLSS level. This also affects FSR.

This means that potentially any benchmark that was run after game load and didn't have any settings change could be flawed, as it's running at a lower LOD than what it should - this then includes all my DirectStorage on/off captures of course. You're 'gaining' performance by reloading the game because it's using almost a gig less of vram and drawing in less detailed models.

Also playing for a while after I 'fix' the mip levels, running 4k DLSS performance with a mix of high/medium settings and max textures, it looks even better than before - but I also get the odd vram thrashing in spots. So...yikes. I'll have to test with DS on/off again to see if that affects this, albeit could need to reboot as well so can't say 12GB is actually restrictive at this point, need more testing. Would not be good though to be vram limited without even using RT on a 12GB card.

But at the very least, in the interim everyone should change swap their dlss/fsr setting after booting up the game, otherwise you're getting a noticeably degraded image.

Computerbase's review says that if you have semi limited vram, to always restart after changing a setting. They said changing settings always caused issues on their end no matter what in terms of performance.

 

[Below2D]

Ok, the mip issue seems pretty big, as it balloons in-use vram usage by ~800mb-1GB when you 'fix' it by swapping DLSS levels. It doesn't matter what DLSS level you have it set to when you boot up the game, you have to temporarily change it to any other level to fix - and yes, that even includes DLAA. It's extremely minor with DLAA, but I can notice a difference when you start with DLAA, switch to TAA, then back. But certainly far more prominent with any DLSS level. This also affects FSR.

This means that potentially any benchmark that was run after game load and didn't have any settings change could be flawed, as it's running at a lower LOD than what it should - this then includes all my DirectStorage on/off captures of course. You're 'gaining' performance by reloading the game because it's using almost a gig less of vram and drawing in less detailed models.

Also playing for a while after I 'fix' the mip levels, running 4k DLSS performance with a mix of high/medium settings and max textures, it looks even better than before - but I also get the odd vram thrashing in spots. So...yikes. I'll have to test with DS on/off again to see if that affects this, albeit could need to reboot as well so can't say 12GB is actually restrictive at this point, need more testing. Would not be good though to be vram limited without even using RT on a 12GB card.

But at the very least, in the interim everyone should change swap their dlss/fsr setting after booting up the game, otherwise you're getting a noticeably degraded image.

I ran a couple of tests myself and turned DLSS and AA off. The performance with DirectStorage off is still noticeably higher.

Enabling Reflex/Boost also slightly drops performance but not to the extent that DirectStorage does.

Running a 13900K/4090/32GB 6000MT/2TB Samsung Evo nvme.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Computerbase's review says that if you have semi limited vram, to always restart after changing a setting. They said changing settings always caused issues on their end no matter what in terms of performance.

Yes, I've said the same before. But the issue I discovered is that at least when using reconstruction, afer a reboot of the game you're getting an incorrect mip level set. Changing DLSS/FSR settings resets it to what it should be. You may be getting better performance after a reboot precisely because you're saving vram by the bugged mip level being set.

At least a part of the "issues" Computerbase may be seeing is that they may indeed by running over their semi-limited vram when the game is actually rendering as it should - that 'semi limited' may in fact, be wholly limited. The reboot is 'solving' the issue by rendering less. Whether the increased vram is part of the bug of course, I have no idea. But there is a visual difference.

See the link here:

Edit: Yep, it's a mipmap issue. Nothing to do with sharpening.

Pay attention to the trees and grass.

 

[Cyan]

Ok, the mip issue seems pretty big, as it balloons in-use vram usage by ~800mb-1GB when you 'fix' it by swapping DLSS levels. It doesn't matter what DLSS level you have it set to when you boot up the game, you have to temporarily change it to any other level to fix - and yes, that even includes DLAA. It's extremely minor with DLAA, but I can notice a difference when you start with DLAA, switch to TAA, then back. But certainly far more prominent with any DLSS level. This also affects FSR.

This means that potentially any benchmark that was run after game load and didn't have any settings change could be flawed, as it's running at a lower LOD than what it should - this then includes all my DirectStorage on/off captures of course. You're 'gaining' performance by reloading the game because it's using almost a gig less of vram and drawing in less detailed models.

Also playing for a while after I 'fix' the mip levels, running 4k DLSS performance with a mix of high/medium settings and max textures, it looks even better than before - but I also get the odd vram thrashing in spots. So...yikes. I'll have to test with DS on/off again to see if that affects this, albeit could need to reboot as well so can't say 12GB is actually restrictive at this point, need more testing. Would not be good though to be vram limited without even using RT on a 12GB card.

But at the very least, in the interim everyone should change swap their dlss/fsr setting after booting up the game, otherwise you're getting a noticeably degraded image.

do this also affects XeSS? Just curious.....

@Below2D it's not surprising that the game runs better with DS off taking into account the CPU you have. I wonder how the game would fare with a Jaguar level CPU using DS on and off.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

do this also affects XeSS? Just curious.....

All. DLSS/FSR/XESS/XGTI.

@Below2D it's not surprising that the game runs better with DS off taking into account the CPU you have. I wonder how the game would fare with a Jaguar level CPU using DS on and off.

It's been tested down to a 3600, and DS still showed no benefit.

 

[davis.anthony]

I wonder if swapping the DLSS .dll would fix the problem?

 

[Cyan]

It's been tested down to a 3600, and DS still showed no benefit.

seen that, and wanted to comment that a 3600 isn't a low spec CPU by any means. The 3600 tests showed almost no difference with DS off and DS on. On a 13900K the difference is huge in favour of CPU decompression, but what about a Ryzen 1500X/1600 or an i5 2500 or even a Jaguar?

 

[Flappy Pannus]

seen that, and wanted to comment that a 3600 isn't a low spec CPU by any means.

For.modern games, yes it is. You will be CPU limited in many games with a 3600, even on midrange GPU's.

The 3600 tests showed almost no difference with DS off and DS on. On a 13900K the difference is huge in favour of CPU decompression, but what about a Ryzen 1500X/1600 or an i5 2500 or even a Jaguar?

PC gamers don't use Jaguar CPU's. Nixxes is not architecting a game based around a hypothetical PC PS4, if the only benefit from GPU decompression is realized on either ancient CPU's or CPU's so inadequately powered that they're hypothetical, then the question still remains - what benefit does DS bring for the actual target market of this game?

You could say "but steam deck"...which doesn't use direcstorage.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

I wonder if swapping the DLSS .dll would fix the problem?

Likely not:

All. DLSS/FSR/XESS/XGTI.

 

[dobwal]

At this stage I can't help but feel the implementation is just broken. The increased load on the CPU of turning off DS it pretty small (say 10-15% at Very High Textures) which means the decompression load must be pretty light. That's further supported by the data read info that Holysmoke provided which is nothing extraordinary. It doesn't make sense that the GPU impact of that during normal gameplay would be so high, especially not on something like a 4090.

We really need to understand if AMD are using DS at all as if they are, and are not seeing performance degradation then it's potentially an implementation issue specific to Nvidia and Intel.

https://devblogs.microsoft.com/directx/directstorage-1-1-coming-soon/

“DirectStorage 1.1 with GPU decompression will enable developers to unleash their creativity, delivering more detailed and visually stunning worlds,” said Scott Herkelman, senior vice president and general manager, Graphics Business Unit at AMD. “We have worked closely with Microsoft to ensure the best possible experience on AMD devices and platforms.”

Its hard to believe that AMD would make such a statement and yet have no GPU decompression scheme for DS.

And apparently DS doesn't require RTX IO or any other IHV solution to function. Its has an optimized DirectCompute option as a fallback if IHV supplied drivers aren't detected. I wonder if AMD's solution is the fall back option on non-AMD GPUs as it would make sense that AMD's solution is hardware agnostic.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Ok, portal sequence rested in light of this mipmap bug. Installed to a secondary drive this time with max read of 5GB/sec so not directly comparable to my first tests. Just this so far as it's easier to replicate, as witnessed last night I definitely saw more stutters during extended gameplay sequences with the DLSS reset 'fix', due to the short length of this test it won't necessarily reflect that.

Settings: High Preset, but with textures at Very High - NO RT
3060 12GB, i5 12400f, 32GB DDR4 3200
4K, DLSS Performance Mode

PC rebooted after each test.

#1: With DirectStorage dll's, no settings changed after game load (so mipmap bug in effect, game uses around 9.7GB of vram at these settings):



#2: With DirectStorage dll's, but DLSS reset after game load (so mipmap bug is then resolved, game uses 10.7 GB vram at this setting):




#3: Without DirectStorage dll's, no settings changed after game load (so mipmap bug in effect, game uses around 9.7GB of vram at these settings):



#4: Without DirectStorage dll's, but DLSS reset after game load (so mipmap bug in effect, game uses around 9.7GB of vram at these settings):

 

[techuse]

Computerbase tests are up as a work in progress. Article is still in the process of being completed. The game has general stuttering and frame delivery issues but it's exacerbated on Nvidia.

 

[davis.anthony]

Graph number 2 clear winner for me.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

Computerbase tests are up as a work in progress. Article is still in the process of being completed. The game has general stuttering and frame delivery issues but it's exacerbated on Nvidia.

Even with 12GB of vram, no RT, performance DLSS, a mix of medium/high settings, the game will show a performance increase with every step down the texture resolution ladder you go which is new for me. Just standing still in an area I can gain ~5+ fps with every lowered texture detail setting.

Using DF's optimized settings (stuff like medium draw distance, medium shadows, medium hair) with DLSS Performance, 4K, and high textures - so I shouldn't be vram limited - this DLSS mipmap bugfix also cuts performance by ~5fps, so my 3060 can be under 60fps fairly often. So this bug is actually masking the issue further.

I feel if Nixxes fixes this bug and doesn't increase performance in other ways, you're going to have a number of people complaining in the Steam forums "wtf?! This patch lowered my performance!", when it was just revealing the performance they should have been getting from the outset.

 

[techuse]

Even with 12GB of vram, no RT, performance DLSS, a mix of medium/high settings, the game will show a performance increase with every step down the texture resolution ladder you go which is new for me. Just standing still in an area I can gain ~5+ fps with every lowered texture detail setting.

Using DF's optimized settings (stuff like medium draw distance, medium shadows, medium hair) with DLSS Performance, 4K, and high textures - so I shouldn't be vram limited - this DLSS mipmap bugfix also cuts performance by ~5fps, so my 3060 can be under 60fps fairly often. So this bug is actually masking the issue further.

I feel if Nixxes fixes this bug and doesn't increase performance in other ways, you're going to have a number of people complaining in the Steam forums "wtf?! This patch lowered my performance!", when it was just revealing the performance they should have been getting from the outset.

I wonder what this game is doing with its texture system that performance is impacted.

 

[Karamazov]

What's the texture preset equivalent on PS5 ?
Did you set AF to 4x like on PS5 ? Should save some BW ?

 

[techuse]

What's the texture preset equivalent on PS5 ?
Did you set AF to 4x like on PS5 ? Should save some BW ?

PS5 uses max texture setting.

 

[pjbliverpool]

I'm not sure if you guys are aware but there is a log file that refreshes after each run in documents\Ratchet & Clank which seems to tell you whether you have run out of VRAM after each setting change. It's a little difficult to understand as it doesn't always display the working set info after each change, but it's pretty interesting nevertheless.

Here's a few outputs from my system...

First I loaded up the game from fresh with my standard settings of max everything at 3840x1600 DLSS B. The only difference is I've disabled frame generation to make things easier to understand. To get the log to register the working set details below I went into settings and changed Chromatic Aberration from on to off (which seemed to have no impact on performance), and then to back on again, the second of which you see below:

Spoiler: Baseline

10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] New display settings are:
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [**************************************************Display + Graphics Settings**************************************************]
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] DirectX Version: 12
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Window mode: Fullscreen
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Fullscreen display mode:
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Displaying on monitor: 0
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Resolution: 3840x1600
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] HDR: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] HDR max luminance :900.323059 nits
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] HDR paper white :296.020874 nits
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] OS reported Refresh rate: 120
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] VSync: Off
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Reflex: Low Latency with Boost
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] DLSSG: False
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Resolution modifier 1.000000
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Dynamic resolution FPS target: 0
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Anti aliasing: TAA

10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Upscale method: DLSS

10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Upscale quality: Balanced

10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Upscale sharpen value: 0.500000

10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Graphics Options:
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] RT Reflections: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] RT Reflection Resolution: Very High
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] RT Object Scale: 1.000000
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] RT Shadows: Very High
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] RT Ambient Occlusion: Very High
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Texture Quality: Ultra
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Texture Filtering: Anisotropic16x
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Shadow Quality: Ultra
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Depth of Field: High
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Level of Detail: VeryHigh
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Vehicle Detail: VeryHigh
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Hair Quality:
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Screen Space Reflections: Normal
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Particle Lighting: Very High

10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Bloom: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Vignette: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Chromatic Aberration: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Motion Blur: 1.000000
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] FOV Correction: 1.090000
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Film Grain Strength: 0.001000
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Sharpness: 1.000000
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Lens Flares: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Screen Effects: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Screen Shake: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] Phantom Dash Effect: On
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [**************************************************Display + Graphics Settings**************************************************]
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [Settings] End of settings.
10:55:21:874 (00002052) > [NxApp (Render Thread)] Finished enforcing display settings
10:55:21:875 (00018140) > [NxApp] Finished enforcing display settings
10:55:22:374 (00022788) > [Render] Working set: 8747MB Page file: 21365MB Video Budget: 10876MB Video Usage: 10325MB Sys Budget: 15576MB Sys Usage: 1966MB Tex Usage: 2123MB Tex Budget: 3410MB BVH heaps: 100MB BVH size: 59MB Demoted: 775MB fps: 76.416672
10:55:23:058 (00018140) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
10:55:23:082 (00016228) > [NxSwapChainImpl] Swapchain native backbuffer (windows) resolution: 3840x1600

Note with my default settings I get no out of VRAM warning and the working set above looks fine.

Next on a fresh reload of the game, so I'm still at my baseline settings. This time I reload the same save point and then change settings from DLSS B to DLSS P:

Spoiler: DLSS changed from Balanced to Performance

11:28:20:467 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:28:20:467 (00021640) > [NxReflex] DLSSG support result:Result::eOk
11:28:28:811 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:28:28:811 (00021640) > [NxReflex] DLSSG support result:Result::eOk
11:28:30:096 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:28:30:115 (00001564) > [NxSwapChainImpl] Swapchain native backbuffer (windows) resolution: 3840x1600
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [NxReflex] DLSSG support result:Result::eOk
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] New display settings are:
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [**************************************************Display + Graphics Settings**************************************************]
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] DirectX Version: 12
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Window mode: Fullscreen
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Fullscreen display mode:
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Displaying on monitor: 0
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Resolution: 3840x1600
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] HDR: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] HDR max luminance :900.323059 nits
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] HDR paper white :296.020874 nits
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] OS reported Refresh rate: 120
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] VSync: Off
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Reflex: Low Latency with Boost
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] DLSSG: False
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Resolution modifier 1.000000
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Dynamic resolution FPS target: 0
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Anti aliasing: TAA

11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Upscale method: DLSS

11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Upscale quality: Performance

11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Upscale sharpen value: 0.500000

11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Graphics Options:
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Reflections: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Reflection Resolution: Very High
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Object Scale: 1.000000
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Shadows: Very High
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Ambient Occlusion: Very High
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Texture Quality: Ultra
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Texture Filtering: Anisotropic16x
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Shadow Quality: Ultra
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Depth of Field: High
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Level of Detail: VeryHigh
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Vehicle Detail: VeryHigh
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Hair Quality:
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Screen Space Reflections: Normal
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Particle Lighting: Very High

11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Bloom: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Vignette: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Chromatic Aberration: Off
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Motion Blur: 1.000000
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] FOV Correction: 1.090000
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Film Grain Strength: 0.001000
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Sharpness: 1.000000
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Lens Flares: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Screen Effects: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Screen Shake: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] Phantom Dash Effect: On
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [**************************************************Display + Graphics Settings**************************************************]
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [Settings] End of settings.
11:28:30:115 (00006188) > [NxApp (Render Thread)] Finished enforcing display settings
11:28:30:116 (00021640) > [NxApp] Finished enforcing display settings
11:28:30:679 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:28:30:680 (00021640) > [NxReflex] DLSSG support result:Result::eOk
11:28:30:804 (00021640) > [DLSSG] Not set. Result:Unknown
11:28:30:816 (00006188) > [NxUpscaler] DLSS out of VRAM warning
11:28:30:818 (00021640) > [DLSSG] Not set. Result:Unknown
11:28:30:863 (00021640) > [DLSSG] Not set. Result:Unknown
11:28:30:910 (00021640) > [DLSSG] Not set. Result:Unknown
11:28:30:978 (00021640) > [DLSSG] Not set. Result:Unknown
11:28:40:527 (00024432) > [Render] Working set: 10381MB Page file: 22157MB Video Budget: 10992MB Video Usage: 10547MB Sys Budget: 15576MB Sys Usage: 2371MB Tex Usage: 2123MB Tex Budget: 3410MB BVH heaps: 80MB BVH size: 50MB Demoted: 1180MB fps: 72.316673
11:29:07:713 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:29:07:713 (00021640) > [NxReflex] DLSSG support result:Result::eOk
11:29:12:911 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:29:12:911 (00021640) > [NxReflex] DLSSG support result:Result::eOk
11:29:16:482 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:29:16:499 (00001564) > [NxSwapChainImpl] Swapchain native backbuffer (windows) resolution: 3840x1600

Uh Oh! Check out that VRAM warning. And the working set has also gone up (although strangely still sits a little lower than video budget). Frame rate is marginally lower than the last test despite being at DLSS P rather than DLSS B. Here's where it gets more weird... I go back into settings and put DLSS back to it's original balanced mode:

Spoiler: DLSS back to Balanced mode

11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] New display settings are:
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [**************************************************Display + Graphics Settings**************************************************]
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] DirectX Version: 12
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Window mode: Fullscreen
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Fullscreen display mode:
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Displaying on monitor: 0
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Resolution: 3840x1600
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] HDR: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] HDR max luminance :900.323059 nits
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] HDR paper white :296.020874 nits
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] OS reported Refresh rate: 120
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] VSync: Off
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Reflex: Low Latency with Boost
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] DLSSG: False
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Resolution modifier 1.000000
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Dynamic resolution FPS target: 0
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Anti aliasing: TAA

11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Upscale method: DLSS

11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Upscale quality: Balanced

11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Upscale sharpen value: 0.500000

11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Graphics Options:
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Reflections: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Reflection Resolution: Very High
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Object Scale: 1.000000
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Shadows: Very High
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] RT Ambient Occlusion: Very High
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Texture Quality: Ultra
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Texture Filtering: Anisotropic16x
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Shadow Quality: Ultra
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Depth of Field: High
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Level of Detail: VeryHigh
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Vehicle Detail: VeryHigh
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Hair Quality:
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Ambient Occlusion: HBAO+
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Screen Space Reflections: Normal
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Particle Lighting: Very High

11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Bloom: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Vignette: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Chromatic Aberration: Off
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Motion Blur: 1.000000
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] FOV Correction: 1.090000
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Film Grain Strength: 0.001000
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Sharpness: 1.000000
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Lens Flares: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Screen Effects: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Screen Shake: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] Phantom Dash Effect: On
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [**************************************************Display + Graphics Settings**************************************************]
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [Settings] End of settings.
11:29:16:499 (00006188) > [NxApp (Render Thread)] Finished enforcing display settings
11:29:16:500 (00021640) > [NxApp] Finished enforcing display settings
11:29:17:288 (00021640) > [NxReflex] Reflex support result:Result::eOk
11:29:17:289 (00021640) > [NxReflex] DLSSG support result:Result::eOk
11:29:40:525 (00024432) > [Render] Working set: 11045MB Page file: 22321MB Video Budget: 10973MB Video Usage: 10492MB Sys Budget: 15576MB Sys Usage: 2498MB Tex Usage: 2123MB Tex Budget: 3410MB BVH heaps: 80MB BVH size: 59MB Demoted: 1305MB fps: 74.733337

Frame rate goes back UP, no VRAM warning, but the working set also goes up.

I did some more tests but the results just got more confusing tbh. Certainly it's running out of VRAM a lot, but I'm not convinced this is specifically down to heavier settings or just an issue with how the game handles setting changes.

 

[Cyan]

You could say "but steam deck"...which doesn't use direcstorage.

the only option to test DS on the Deck would be switching to Windows.

 

[Flappy Pannus]

I'm not sure if you guys are aware but there is a log file that refreshes after each run in documents\Ratchet & Clank which seems to tell you whether you have run out of VRAM after each setting change. It's a little difficult to understand as it doesn't always display the working set info after each change, but it's pretty interesting nevertheless.

Thanks, interesting. I'll play around with it a bit.

I did some more tests but the results just got more confusing tbh. Certainly it's running out of VRAM a lot, but I'm not convinced this is specifically down to heavier settings or just an issue with how the game handles setting changes.

It is perhaps both, meaning that there is a higher load, but it maybe shouldn't be affecting it this much - I gotta figure (hope) that the game being rendered properly with very high textures is not intended to swamp a 12gb card without RT, but that's what it does when I do this fix - my 3060 will eventually choke at 4K dlss peformance after playing for a while, and that's just very high textures but with a mix of high and medium settings.

Did you notice the LOD change then switching DLSS modes after boot though? There are definitely more objects being drawn/higher quality when you switch DLSS modes, and when comparing to the PS5, that is actually how it should look - switching DLSS modes just makes it render the world properly.

This is what I see, zooming into a section when booting up the game with DLSS performance, then switching to another DLSS mode, then back to performance. The video just swaps back and forth between the original and the 'corrected' version, exact same settings:

The vram cost to this is always around 1 extra GB, which basically makes very high textures (eventually) unplayable on my 12GB 3060 with 4K DLSS performance. Whether that's due to a streaming system bug or not who knows at this point, but my suspicion is that at least some of these benchmarks are basically being run with lower than console settings in a rather significant aspect.

The GPU load from this change, aside from vram, is highly variable too. In enclosed areas, it's maybe 1-2 fps. But in areas like this, I can get a 7+ fps hit as it's simply drawing far more in the distance. Albeit this game's performance is highly tied to vram usage even if you're not technically 'at your limit' so who knows what it's doing with this extra detail, it could just start spilling over into main memory already.

DLSS Performance at boot, compared to switching to DLSS Ultra Performance. Despite rendering internallly at 720p compared to 1080p, DLSS Ultra Performance resolves more near/mid-term detail, simply due to the switch being performed and resetting the LOD. Even with DLSS Ultra, vram usage shoots up ~800mb.