DigitalFoundry: Hands-on with PS4 1080p 30fps...!!

Killzone

When it comes to the tricky issue of control and response, Killzone: Shadow Fall currently delivers a largely 25-30FPS experience with v-sync engaged, where a long overview of the forest tests the hardware most. A strong trace of input lag is felt when turning the analogue sticks - a quirk that hangs over from the Killzone 2 days. It's a delay in response that is impossible to ignore after playing snappier low-latency shooters, and at the default 50 per cent sensitivity for the X and Y axis proved tricky to adapt to. Migrating to the new and more shooter-friendly Dual Shock 4 controller isn't the cause here, as this is the only game we test with such problems. Rather, the issue is likely to be the result of latency being built up over the course of a long and complex rendering pipeline.

DriveClub

When questioned, Evolution Studios confirms that it's pushed for a full-fat 1080p presentation, falling in line with all Sony's other leading PS4 titles. Unfortunately, this higher resolution only amplifies the low quality, blurry, flat-looking textures used across this level, which would easily look at home on current-gen hardware. It's also a shame that, while the scenery draw distance is broad, there's an incredible amount of pop-in for trees and waving NPCs as we approach at high speeds...With regards to performance, we're surprised to find DriveClub is running at 30fps with permanent v-sync - an unusual step for any modern-day racer putting heavy emphasis on shaving seconds from lap times. It is noted that 60fps is something the team strives for, but no promises can be made; in the interest of providing a smooth E3 experience it remains decidedly locked at 30fps for now. Alas, even this number isn't held convincingly during our play-testing, and the game dips noticeably below this point - a feeling of 20fps being achieved during doughnut-turns, where lots of tyre friction smoke is produced. Bearing in mind the PS4's next-gen tech (not to mention its 32 ROPs), we're somewhat surprised to see alpha transparency effects still having such an obvious impact on performance.

Knack

That's the next-gen hook, but little else is in place to enthrall. The Pixar aesthetic is let down by some muddy image quality, and heavily dithered shadows. We're promised 1080p native resolution here, but Knack doesn't look as crystal clear as we'd expect from such a pixel count - perhaps in part owing to the HDTV settings being used at the exhibition. It's a real disappointment on the grounds of image quality, and while the transparency effect on Knack and the big, beautiful ocean view during the first stage are visual treats, there isn't a whole lot to the rest of stages shown. Certainly, the physics are impressive and technically taxing. All the bits and pieces that whip around Knack indeed feel like individual objects, taking advantage of the game's per-object motion blur. The only problem here is that, despite being a 30fps game in target, we see dramatic frame-rate drops when too many of these pieces go zooming across the screen to form a shell around Knack. To achieve this bullet-point trick, the performance has to take a noticeable hit in the current build. Excluding this effect, the frame-rate isn't smooth for the current built in general, and it stutters even as Knack trots through empty streets unengaged. There's no evidence of tearing, but this choppy motion is surprising given its overtly simplistic visual style. Fortunately it evens out during the later interior stages based around the mansion and cave, but some optimisation is still clearly needed on the game before the PS4's launch.

Thief

When it comes to performance, the game is v-synced, but very jittery in the frame-rate stakes for transitions into new areas, and throughout an entire sequence where a bridge burns to cinders. It also appears to run at native 1080p, though there's little being achieved here visually which we haven't already seen before, likely showing its prior development history on weaker platforms. That is, with the exception of its impeccable lighting - a striking feature as lamp-light streams through the city's fogged archways, and one which feeds into a gameplay design predicated on hiding in shadows. A curious trend among other next-gen game we've seen - such as Killer Instinct - is the decision to ramp up the particle count to dazzling degrees for explosions. That's true here, where lighting on particles is truly striking as flaming debris crumbles down from a bridge during one later segment. It's only a shame that surrounding texture-work and alpha effects appear so mismatched with these more "next-gen" elements in this current build, and we hope to see everything ramped up to an even level for the final release.

Conclusion

We leave Sony's E3 booth undoubtedly impressed, with two key takeaways in light of the Xbox One's rivalling offerings. Firstly, though almost all launch titles on show appear to be running directly from PS4 hardware, it's a touch disappointing to discover the likes of Thief and Assassin's Creed IV: Black Flag are only currently being demonstrated by proxy of an on-hand developer. This was a very closely guarded event indeed, suggesting a lack of confidence in the progress of development for some of these titles. Even so, Knack, DriveClub and Warframe do give us absolute, no-holds barred freedom to toy with the most current builds as long as we please...When it comes to the state of software development on PS4, the situation as it stands is surprising. On the one hand, freely playable first-party titles such as Knack and DriveClub suffer from noticeable frame-rate stutters down from 30fps, while on the other, "hands off" demos for the new Infamous and Assassin's Creed games appear to run without a perceptible hitch. This is in stark contrast to the playable software confirmed to be running direct from Xbox One hardware, such as Forza Motorsport 5 and Killer Instinct, which benefit to no end for targeting the 1080p60 gold standard, and largely succeed in doing so.

Such a disparity in performance is far from the outcome we had expected going in to E3, but Sony's agenda with this initial wave of games is clearly hinging on visual fireworks rather than maximising frame-rates to the full 60Hz refresh.
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:(

edit: Collected all the negatives together so as to better enjoy those GAF tears :P
 
So the conclusion reached was they're trying to target better visuals at the expense of framerate?

Whatevs tbh.
 
A strong trace of input lag is felt when turning the analogue sticks - a quirk that hangs over from the Killzone 2 days. It's a delay in response that is impossible to ignore after playing snappier low-latency shooters, and at the default 50 per cent sensitivity for the X and Y axis proved tricky to adapt to.
Click to expand...

As good as dead to me.
 
Funny how infamous supposedly looks most impressive and runs better than the rest, and is going to miss launch. I am sure KZ will be spectacular. THe forest level doesn't look as impressive as the city stage, but considering the city is still rendered in there, it is pretty damn impressive. Not good about Knack's IQ, because I think it has an attrative visual style. I thought AC looked pretty sweet, so no surprise there.

DC seems like a bit of a travisty at this stage.
 
Good that they kept the controls for Killzone, if I want to play a twitch shooter I would play a twitch shooter. This is coming from someone who had no problems with the controls in Killzone 2.

I do love this part:

Once we zip-line down to an outpost with all guns a-blazing, we get a taster of how AI behavior has been improved for the series' first PS4 entry. The guards in this forest area take up shotguns, and to intimidating effect, and tend to focus on working as a team to catch us unawares at short range - not firing once until they have us totally surrounded.
Click to expand...
 
PS4 - 1080p, 30 FPS
Wii U - 1080p, 60 FPS

I'm just saying, that's either terrible coding, terrible design choices, or both. Turn down the graphics from a 10 to an 8 and double that framerate!
 
Didn't they mention that Killzone is only using something like 3 gigs of ram? I think the difference between 30 and 60 fps this gen is simply going to be laziness.
 
I've just read the part about Killzone and the input lag. Fuck that shit, to be honest. There's nothing worse than input lag. Add 25-30 fps to it and: NOPE.
 
Not having a steady framerate with that amount of power inside the PS4? Either the version they showed was from an unfinished dev-kit or they are completely incompetent in creating a mix between good graphics and good framerate.
 
Rather harsh article but it's definitely the most in depth tech analysis we've gotten of PS4 exclusives. It also seems like the article is framed to say XBO can do 60fps but PS4 can't, which is odd. Still it's a very good analysis. I hope the KZSF issues are cleaned up by launch. Final dev kits should help a lot too, whenever they go out.
 
granabanana said:
wait so are they saying ps4 can only go up to 30fps at 1080p?
Click to expand...

They are saying most games are targetting that.

They mention Forza 5 and KI are targetting 60 on Xbone. While it was a lock for Forza and that looks pretty impressive, KI doesn't look very next gen at all to me, apart from some nice effects. Ryse, which seems to be the most visually impressive launch title revealed on Xbone is still 30 fps (stable?).
 
Soka said:
PS4 - 1080p, 30 FPS
Wii U - 1080p, 60 FPS

I'm just saying, that's either terrible coding, terrible design choices, or both. Turn down the graphics from a 10 to an 8 and double that framerate!
Click to expand...

iudrAHikYud3D.gif
 
Soka said:
PS4 - 1080p, 30 FPS
Wii U - 1080p, 60 FPS

I'm just saying, that's either terrible coding, terrible design choices, or both. Turn down the graphics from a 10 to an 8 and double that framerate!
Click to expand...

What Wii U game?
Mario Kart is 720.
 
Wow, overally that article gave me a slightly negative impression. Lots of noticable sub-30 drops, criticism of texture quality etc. Seems like Infamous 2 comes off best (or least bad) so far. It definitely makes me very suspicious of the most visually impressive titles they've shown, such as The Division.
 
Soka said:
PS4 - 1080p, 30 FPS
Wii U - 1080p, 60 FPS

I'm just saying, that's either terrible coding, terrible design choices, or both. Turn down the graphics from a 10 to an 8 and double that framerate!
Click to expand...

I hope you do know about launch wii u games ?
 
nelsonroyale said:
They are saying most games are targetting that.

They mention Forza 5 and KI are targetting 60 on Xbone. While it was a lock for Forza and that looks pretty impressive, KI doesn't look very next gen at all to me, apart from some nice effects.
Click to expand...

thanks for the explanation. I rather they tone down on visuals (still make it look nice) but a more stable framerate. WiiU seems to be doing this which someone mentioned above.
 
Quote:
A strong trace of input lag is felt when turning the analogue sticks - a quirk that hangs over from the Killzone 2 days. It's a delay in response that is impossible to ignore after playing snappier low-latency shooters, and at the default 50 per cent sensitivity for the X and Y axis proved tricky to adapt to. Migrating to the new and more shooter-friendly Dual Shock 4 controller isn't the cause here, as this is the only game we test with such problems. Rather, the issue is likely to be the result of latency being built up over the course of a long and complex rendering pipeline.
Click to expand...

The bane of Guerilla's graphics engine
 
Hasney said:
Ctrl+F. 30. Too many results.

DriveClub is dead to me.
Click to expand...
DriveClub is aiming for 60


The input lag claims for KZ are odd to me too, considering that KZ3 was pretty responsive. I was hoping they would bring back the momentum from 2 and the responsiveness of 3.
 
Soka said:
PS4 - 1080p, 30 FPS
Wii U - 1080p, 60 FPS

I'm just saying, that's either terrible coding, terrible design choices, or both. Turn down the graphics from a 10 to an 8 and double that framerate!
Click to expand...
Dude, what are you going on about? PS4, just like the Xbone, Wii U, PS3 and X360 could do 1080p 120FPS if they wanted, it's just that there need to be sacrifices between framerate and graphics quality.
 
granabanana said:
thanks for the explanation. I rather they tone down on visuals (still make it look nice) but a more stable framerate. WiiU seems to be doing this which someone mentioned above.
Click to expand...

Yeah, they should achieve a stable framerate. But nothing shown up for launch on either system impresses me to the extent that I think they should be trully taxing the system. They seem to say Infamous is the best of the bunch and that is running smoothly, so the devs need to get on with their optimization.

To be honest, while the language may seem more critical here, they weren't any more enthusiastic with the Xbone hands on. Forza got the nod their, Infamous gets the nod here.
 
Rivyn said:
Not having a steady framerate with that amount of power inside the PS4? Either the version they showed was from an unfinished dev-kit or they are completely incompetent in creating a mix between good graphics and good framerate.
Click to expand...

You're in for a world of disappointment if you're expecting every piece of unfinished software to run at 30 FPS just cause its on PS4
 
I think some Devs may still be running on a PS3 framework and engines have to be built from the ground up on x86 hardware.

This transition is looking painful as I would fully expect DriveClub to be 60fps at E3, easily.
 
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