Digital Foundry: Destiny Beta XB1 analysis and PS4 comparison

Actually I'm fine with waiting for Destiny 2.

It will undoubtably be a bigger, more refined game, and won't be restrained by previous gen.
 
But again why would it cause a shitstorm? These things are quantifiable. For example if the ESRAM is faster by some quantifiable measure and that's pointed out, nobody is going to balk except for crazy people who wouldn't have cared about the facts anyway.

The only time I've seen a shitstorm is when people like Panello came here, obviously lied, doubled down, and then disappeared. That's understandable that people would be peeved. Nobody likes an egotist lying to them.

Actually, Albert comes back on occasion. Yesterday for instance.
 
True, and that may be the case. But the fact remains that, if they could get to a certain point on the X1 version, they can go farther on the PS4. If they choose not to, that's fine. Bungie is free to do as they want, it's their game. I'm just expressing my own stance on the matter. That's all I'm saying. If they do end up going for parity, I simply won't buy it day 1, no biggie. I'll buy it when I find it cheap during BF or something.

I agree. I see it the same way. I only reward devs who try to make the best possible version for each available platform. If they don`t do that - for whatever reasons - i just don`t support those guys with my money.

Thats the way it is.
 
Its too bad the visuals have to fight against that heavy FXAA filter. Bungies FXAA solution really detracts the visuals.

Yup. It sucks in general that this is a cross-gen game.

I do enjoy these threads where people act like the X1 just magically caught up in hardware when it's up the developers in the end. We had many PS2 and Xbox games that looked the same, but Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory had a huge difference between the two versions with the Xbox version coming closer to the PC release. It's all about whether the devs feel like pushing each console. If Ubisoft didn't push the Xbox version, people would have bee upset. Instead, PS2 players were upset when it was just due to the Xbox being more powerful with a newer shader model. As long as the gameplay is the same, who cares since you knew ahead of time which was more powerful?

I still like Destiny obviously, but I get why some might be upset. If anything, it should be easier to reach parity in this game since it's a cross-gen game that isn't really mindblowing in any way on next-gen consoles. I really place blame on cross-gen development holding back games.

When developers fully move on from last-gen consoles and focus solely on next-gen consoles, the differences should be apparent if they actually WANT to push the consoles, especially when it comes to games with advanced physics that would benefit greatly from the PS4's GPU features.

I don't know why people get so heated in these topics. Plenty of people dealt with this last-gen and the gen before that! You know the X1 is weaker from a hardware perspective and magical tools won't change that. It's whether or not the devs strive for parity or not and when it comes to cross-gen games, it's a lot easier to reach that parity.
 
HcVfz2Z.jpg

Wrong context.
 
I took those photos for comparison this morning, and one thing I noticed was that those light lamps on the building can be seen from any distance on the PS4, but at the Xbox One version you can only see them as you approach and they "pop-in", lamp by lamp, on the build. It makes me wonder if the Xone version will have more problems with draw distance or something like it, specially knowing they plan to upgrade it to 1080p.

 
SICK BURN ON ME OUT OF NOWHERE

I didn't intend for that to be disparaging. If it came off that way I'm sorry. The other poster said you were a community manager, not a programmer. I assume most community managers wouldn't be commenting on the nitty gritty with respect to hardware specs and the details of what programming methods were used to squeeze out the maximum performance.

I was just acknowledging this: "He wasn't going to go into nitty gritty technical details about developing on each system because he is a community manager." Which is what Orayn said. Was that a sick burn?

To be fair I wouldn't expect programmers to talk much about community managing either. I guess that's a sick burn on those guys.
 
I took those photos for comparison this morning, and one thing I noticed was that those light lamps on the building can be seen from any distance on the PS4, but at the Xbox One version you can only see them as you approach and they "pop-in", lamp by lamp, on the build. It makes me wonder if the Xone version will have more problems with draw distance or something like it, specially knowing they plan to upgrade it to 1080p.

1080p on XB1 at all costs.
 
I took those photos for comparison this morning, and one thing I noticed was that those light lamps on the building can be seen from any distance on the PS4, but at the Xbox One version you can only see them as you approach and they "pop-in", lamp by lamp, on the build. It makes me wonder if the Xone version will have more problems with draw distance or something like it, specially knowing they plan to upgrade it to 1080p.

That wouldn't surprise me at all similar to how some PC games give you the option of how many lights are rendered on screen at once, etc. There's plenty of other things to cut back on if developers insist on 1080p due to the outrage. For a PC gamer, I will turn down everything else just to maintain native resolution on my monitor and shadows are another big thing that costs a lot of performance.

If there isn't enough headroom for 1080p alone with the extra performance, they'll probably need to cut something else back.

Nothing too bad at least. It seems like that will be the more probable scenario now in the future but I'm sure we'll still see resolution differences in other games.
 
I took those photos for comparison this morning, and one thing I noticed was that those light lamps on the building can be seen from any distance on the PS4, but at the Xbox One version you can only see them as you approach and they "pop-in", lamp by lamp, on the build. It makes me wonder if the Xone version will have more problems with draw distance or something like it, specially knowing they plan to upgrade it to 1080p.

this news may make me cancel my pre order. can anyone else confirm the lamp pop in?
 
That wouldn't surprise me at all similar to how some PC games give you the option of how many lights are rendered on screen at once, etc. There's plenty of other things to cut back on if developers insist on 1080p due to the outrage. For a PC gamer, I will turn down everything else just to maintain native resolution on my monitor and shadows are another big thing that costs a lot of performance.

If there isn't enough headroom for 1080p alone with the extra performance, they'll probably need to cut something else back.

Nothing too bad at least. It seems like that will be the more probable scenario now in the future but I'm sure we'll still see resolution differences in other games.

Well, i just hope that they will be able to upgrade to 1080p and do not cut anything else. I was thinking on buying the Xone version even knowing the PS4 is the superior one because my Live friends are more communicative, but I'm starting to think that I may chose the PS4 version this way.

this news may make me cancel my pre order. can anyone else confirm the lamp pop in?

Well, I havent notice pop-in problems at the beta with anything else tbh. I wont say that this is reason enough for not buying the game. It still looks good and plays good!
 
My platform of choice will all come down to friends and preference in controller.

With Halo MCC coming, I managed to convince a lot of my Halo gaming group to move from last gen. They also seem to be excited for Destiny (before PvE type games were unacceptable) since the pedigree is similar. So I will probably get it on my XBO.

Would definitely love to play it on my PS4 for the better visuals, but can't really spare the time to play both versions.
 
My platform of choice will all come down to friends and preference in controller.

With Halo MCC coming, I managed to convince a lot of my Halo gaming group to move from last gen. They also seem to be excited for Destiny (before PvE type games were unacceptable) since the pedigree is similar. So I will probably get it on my XBO.

Would definitely love to play it on my PS4 for the better visuals, but can't really spare the time to play both versions.

Did you read the OP? The visuals are identical in the beta, minus the resolution difference which will be the same by release...
 
I took those photos for comparison this morning, and one thing I noticed was that those light lamps on the building can be seen from any distance on the PS4, but at the Xbox One version you can only see them as you approach and they "pop-in", lamp by lamp, on the build. It makes me wonder if the Xone version will have more problems with draw distance or something like it, specially knowing they plan to upgrade it to 1080p.


its a bug .. you can stand the furthest away you can get on the blue over hangs and they come back.
 
its a bug .. you can stand the furthest away you can get on the blue over hangs and they come back.

Thankyou!! Thats right! I just jumped off the build to the skies while looking at that building and it really showed up again even at a longer distance!

Well, thats good to know then. By what I'm experiencing I guess that if they can upgrade it to 1080p maintaining things as they are right now, it will be almost the same as the PS4 version. The only difference I'm noticing between the 2 versios is the resolution, what makes the Xone version slightly blurrier.
 
I still like Destiny obviously, but I get why some might be upset. If anything, it should be easier to reach parity in this game since it's a cross-gen game that isn't really mindblowing in any way on next-gen consoles. I really place blame on cross-gen development holding back games.

When developers fully move on from last-gen consoles and focus solely on next-gen consoles, the differences should be apparent if they actually WANT to push the consoles, especially when it comes to games with advanced physics that would benefit greatly from the PS4's GPU features.

Yup. It's Destiny 2 that will most likely show a quality gulf between X1 and PS4. Unless it's also cross gen. Hopefully it's not.
 
I seriously think that parity-bitching needs to go the way of port-begging or thread-whining, for several reasons:

1. Parity-bitching is no different from port-begging. What parity-bitchers are essentially doing is "begging" developers to add A,B,C features to Y console's version of the game so they can feel like they have the more powerful console...despite the fact that there is plenty of objective evidence available that they indeed do (see almost every multiplatform comparison released to date, specs, reality). If you do not like certain features not being in a game, that's ok. Don't buy it. Similarly if you want an exclusive, buy the console. It's very simple, and if it's enough of an issue the developer will take notice.

2. There is almost always no meaningful discussion that comes from parity-bitching because there is no objective way to prove it. Just because two games run equally does not mean that a developer wants parity. It could be that the developer's vision for the game simply meshes well with both consoles. Pong running at 1080p on both machines does not mean the PS4 version was gimped. The most we ever really get from parity-bitching is something like "if x game on y console isn't better than it is on z console, then I won't buy it." There is pretty much nothing else to be said without tin-foil-hating, unless we have objective evidence that a developer indeed has a parity clause (leaked memos, audio, a report, documents, developer statements, etc which would then probably be entire threads themselves).

3. Several games have already shown that "parity" is almost a myth. Just because Destiny runs at about the same pace on both consoles doesn't mean a developer wants parity. What about the many other developers who have their games running at higher resolutions or have better textures/framerates/lighting on PS4? Last gen, there were TONS of games that ran like shit on PS3 and ran much better on 360. Few (if any at all) developers would want to purposefully gimp one version of their game over the other. One thing people often forget is that games are expensive and people need to get paid. Adding "OMG 4D GRAFIX" to make you more secure about your purchase is nice, but it is not the developer's responsibility (especially if it costs money to do so). Developers have to strike a fine balance between making a great game and not spending stupid amounts of money that will eventually bankrupt them.

Again, the best thing one can do about "parity" if it really was a thing is to simply not buy the game in question; the developer will take note.

Destiny looks fucking fantastic. Congratulations on making a fun game Bungie. I can't wait.

Cheers to playing video games.
 
First of all how is using a different post-AA implementation to the already employed post-AA implementation in any way unreasonable that it needs to be called "OMG 4D GRAFIX"?
Using such language and misrepresenting what quite a few people said could just as easily be used to hold up a mirror to the alleged insecurity of others.

"Don't discuss this, just don't buy it" is not something that is encouraged. Discussion is encouraged on the Neo Gaming Age Forum Discussion board.

This is a thread about a comparison between two versions of the same game running on different platforms. The thread title reveals that this is a comparison, so there will be comparisons.
If you don't like comparisons, don't click on threads that have the word "comparisons" in them. Or petition the moderating staff that Digital Foundry comparisons on unreleased games should be banned. I'd back you on that.
 
First of all how is using a different post-AA implementation to the already employed post-AA implementation in any way unreasonable that it needs to be called "OMG 4D GRAFIX"?
Using such language and misrepresenting what quite a few people said could just as easily be used to hold up a mirror to the alleged insecurity of others.

"Don't discuss this, just don't buy it" is not something that is encouraged. Discussion is encouraged on the Neo Gaming Age Forum Discussion board.

This is a thread about a comparison between two versions of the same game running on different platforms. The thread title is a comparison, so there will be comparisons. If you don't like comparisons, don't click on threads that have the word "comparisons" in them.

That wasn't aimed at you, or people discussing different AA implementation...which is something that can certainly be discussed on a technical level. That was aimed at people complaining about a "parity clause." It seems to me like you completely misunderstood what I was even talking about. I mean, it says "parity" in it several times...how did you even...what?
 
Sàmban;122691682 said:
That wasn't aimed at you, or people discussing different AA implementation...which is something that can certainly be discussed on a technical level. That was aimed at people complaining about a "parity clause." It seems to me like you completely misunderstood what I was even talking about. I mean, it says "parity" in it several times...how did you even...wat?
I mostly responded to you plea that this discussion should be banned.

I might disagree with those posters, but that doesn't mean I agree with you that this topic shouldn't be allowed to be discussed when appropriate.

Because this pertains to graphics it seems like this thread is adequate to discuss this. We even had a mod in here while this was ongoing so it can't be that bad.

Edit:
Sàmban;122691682 said:
As far as GAF being a discussion board, there are certain things that simply cannot be discussed by virtue of being un-discussable. For example, port-begging. "Please bring X to Y console." What should we discuss? It's not on your console. There is nothing to discuss. I am making the argument that "parity clause, I won't buy" is on the same level. Great, you won't buy it. So what?
Those are more low effort low content posts and there are hundreds of those in various forms about any topic. There are people that have discussed the parity concept with more effort.
I agree that the former posts are shit. "Pre-order canceled" without an explanation or "lol so bad lol" are just two kind of posts you see all over GAF, so I don't see what's so special about this specific version of low content garbage.
 
I mostly responded to you plea that this discussion should be banned.

I might disagree with those posters, but that doesn't mean I agree with you that this topic shouldn't be allowed to be discussed when appropriate.

Because this pertains to graphics it seems like this thread is adequate to discuss this. We even had a mod in here while this was ongoing so it can't be that bad.

Woah, slow down. I didn't state that this discussion (as in this thread if that's what you mean) should be banned. I am specifically referring to "parity-clause" whining. As far as GAF being a discussion board, there are certain things that simply cannot be discussed by virtue of being un-discussable. For example, port-begging. "Please bring X to Y console." What should we discuss? It's not on your console. There is nothing to discuss. I am making the argument that "parity clause, I won't buy" is on the same level. Great, you won't buy it. So what?
 
Sàmban;122692585 said:
Woah, slow down. I didn't state that this discussion (as in this thread if that's what you mean) should be banned. I am specifically referring to "parity-clause" whining. As far as GAF being a discussion board, there are certain things that simply cannot be discussed by virtue of being un-discussable. For example, port-begging. "Please bring X to Y console." What should we discuss? It's not on your console. There is nothing to discuss. I am making the argument that "parity clause, I won't buy" is on the same level. Great, you won't buy it. So what?

People don't buy a lot of things for a lot of reasons.

But if people are upset about parity (alleged parity, final game will reveal if both versions are identical), we can discuss why parity is bullshit.

sKQYAnz.jpg
 
So basically, every version of the game is roughly the same.

I think we'll be seeing more third parties scale back on PS4 versions to achieve parity.
Tinfoil hat on? They arent scaling back but would rather make one build of the game that can run on both. Destiny has all the PS exclusive stuff but you think they scaled it back to look the same as MS?

Why bother wasting more time on each version to be custom tailered to each platforms hardware? Waste of time and money.
 
That is a meaningless sentence.
How so? It seems realistic for a dev to make one version of the game to modify on each console than make them at different frame rates and resolutions for both platforms. It would be the easiest way.

It's not like they built Destiny to run at 60fps on PS4 then decided they needed to scale back.
 
People don't buy a lot of things for a lot of reasons.

But if people are upset about parity (alleged parity, final game will reveal if both versions are identical), we can discuss why parity is bullshit.

sKQYAnz.jpg

I don't get this. Are you sarcastically trying to explain to me what a "lazy shit dev" is with pictures? I know what they are; I just disagree with you that they are being lazy. What you see as the capability on PS4 being reduced is really just the way the game was designed. No dev would have their game running at 60 fps on PS4 and then go "oh yeah, let's cut it to 30 fps CUS CONSOLE WARZ."

Bungie's game is running at it's best on both; it's just that it wasn't designed as a 60 fps/ 1080p game to begin with
 
I wonder why the curved HUD is on no platforms other than PS4.

My guess is the PS4 version is just a tad bit further along in development than the other versions, as I assume it's the lead SKU for Destiny.

Either that, or subtle immersion details are exclusive to the PS4 version.
/s
 
How so? It seems realistic for a dev to make one version of the game to modify on each console than make them at different frame rates and resolutions for both platforms. It would be the easiest way.

It's not like they built Destiny to run at 60fps on PS4 then decided they needed to scale back.

You are still not making sense. They have shared engines (abstracted from the hardware), shared assets, etc. Then they optimize for performance, there is no single build for two different consoles. They are obviously spending more time getting the XB1 to 1080P, something the PS4 probably did no sweat. So with finite resources they spend a disproportionate amount of time on the smaller of two platforms to achieve parity. If they spent equal man-hours on both, the PS4 would perform better. Has the PS4 version even changed from alpha to release? I guess it was so easy they just shit it out and left it.
 
You are still not making sense. They have shared engines (abstracted from the hardware), shared assets, etc. Then they optimize for performance, there is no single build for two different consoles. They are obviously spending more time getting the XB1 to 1080P, something the PS4 probably did no sweat. So with finite resources they spend a disproportionate amount of time on the smaller of two platforms to achieve parity. If they spent equal man-hours on both, the PS4 would perform better. Has the PS4 version even changed from alpha to release? I guess it was so easy they just shit it out and left it.

Frame stutter was fixed.
 
Played tonight after not playing for a couple days. Really glad to see the frame stutter is gone. The game feels so much better now.
 
Just like with a lot of this analysis' it comes down really to which system you prefer. Still interesting to read either way. Just happy to be playing the game on new hardware.
 
Well, call me whatever you people want but I see nothing wrong with parity, since this is about a multiplatform game, and since the Xone is weaker then the PS4 but nothing so distant. Even on last gen the multiplatform games tried to look as much as possible the same on the PS3 and X360, there's nothing about "scale back" with it in my opinion. They have a visual and performance goal for the game, and then they just try to make both platforms reach that goal... thats great, specially when the game looks great on both platforms! Destiny may not be the most impressive game visually this gen, but it does looks good, even for PS4 standards.

I would agree that parity may be no good if we were talking about a more discrepant hardware difference there, like the WiiU hardware. But thats not the case... not at all.
 
I dont know whats going on.
Bungie seems to have a knack for making people go crazy.

Child of Light looks exactly the same on both the ps4 and the xboxone, how could they? why isnt it supersampled on ps4?!? (you can insert at least 10 other games in this sentence)

Holy cow...
 
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