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[adamsapple]

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Yes, Sandfall Interactive's beautiful RPG really is as good as everyone says it is. Clair Obscur: Expedition 33 delivers a remarkable experience and does so with an accomplished use of Unreal Engine 5 and all of its cutting-edge features. Oliver delivers the verdict on each and every console version of the game and while there are some noticeable cutbacks on Series S, the game looks and runs very well on every other system.



00:00 Overview
00:38 Visual features
05:07 PS5 Pro mode comparison
07:39 PS5
08:24 Series X
09:05 Series S
10:56 Analysis and conclusion

 

[adamsapple]

- Based on Unreal Engine 5
- Lumen, Nanite and Virtual Shadow Maps all in play here.
- Smaller scale detail is not resolved properly, however.
- Reflections and Lighting are covered by Lumen
- Nanite means very little to no pop-in.
- VSM's mean proper depth and lighting on shadows.
- Also uses Unreal's ray traced shadow technique on PS5 Pro but only in selective areas.

- Cut-scenes use higher quality effects though facial animations are not up to par.
- Some cut-scenes are also low quality FMV, not real time.
- 'One of the most graphically pleasing experiences of the gen'
- DF doubt this game could have been developed with this quality by a smaller team on any other engine than UE5

- The game seems to use Unreal's TSR on all consoles

- PS5 Pro:
- Performance mode cuts Lumen GI, Quality and VSM quality and removes ray traced shadows in all areas
- IQ has worse aliasing, shimmer and softer resolve.
- Perf: 1080p, Quality: 1440p. Both use DSR.
- Film grain and CA can make image look softer, DF had them off.
- Perf mode shows fairly steady 60fps with occasional single dips in battles, Quality is generally locked at 30.
- Cut-scenes in both modes run with unstable 30 with a broken 30fps cap and can show drops
- DF preferred playing it in Performance mode due to input response in battles.

- Base PS5
- Closely resembles Pro with small Lumen GI differences
- PS5 Perf drops to 860p and Quality to 1224p in DF's testing
- Perf is generally good 60 with some drops and Quality 30 with a slightly unstable 30 in cut-scenes.

- Series X:
- More or less the same as PS5. Some areas show difference in Lumen GI coverage to PS5 but most areas are identical.
- Performance is identical to PS5 with same caveats in cut-scenes.

- Series S:
- Single 30fps mode, cuts off Lumen in favor of SSR for reflections
- GI is also simplified which reduces game's visual impact
- Glitch noted in testing with shadows which restarting fixed
- DF noted 900p but IQ is softer due to lower native upscale
- Performance is mostly solid with some drops in cut-scenes like the other consoles
- DF would have liked a Performance mode here for combat

- The game does not have native HDR support on any platform
- Series S cuts are a little more severe than other multi-plat games in DF's observation
- Otherwise it comes highly recommended on all platforms.

 

[near]

"DF preferred playing it in Performance mode due to input response in battles."

Do they expand on this? I can't watch the video right now, but if there is input lag in quality mode I might just switch to performance mode. There I was thinking my inability to time parries was a skill issue.

 

[Zathalus]

"DF preferred playing it in Performance mode due to input response in battles."

Do they expand on this? I can't watch the video right now, but if there is input lag in quality mode I might just switch to performance mode. There I was thinking my inability to time parries was a skill issue.

Latency is simply higher in the 30fps mode, so 60fps will give you faster input for your timings.

 

[Black_Stride]

"DF preferred playing it in Performance mode due to input response in battles."

Do they expand on this? I can't watch the video right now, but if there is input lag in quality mode I might just switch to performance mode. There I was thinking my inability to time parries was a skill issue.

Well the dodges and parries are timing based.
And are actually pretty tight.
So yes the higher frame rate will make dodging and parrying easier.

The game is using a fairly stock UE5 so unlike say No Rest For The Wicked which detaches framerate from the inputs/underlying engine speed, the frame rate is linked.

 

[Steve Holt]

Did a pretty good implementation for the PS5 Pro considering the resources they had available.

I imagine the performance is going to improve going forward for all consoles too.

 

[Draugoth]

Unreal Engine 5 and Optimized

I didn't think this was possible

 

[TintoConCasera]

I like the game but the ammount of volumetric fog in some areas is ugly as hell.

Also, for what it is, I think it should run better than it does. But that's UE5 for you, at least it's not a stutter fest so props to them for that.

 

[GHG]

- Series S:
- Single 30fps mode, cuts off Lumen in favor of SSR for reflections
- GI is also simplified which reduces game's visual impact
- Glitch noted in testing with shadows which restarting fixed
- DF noted 900p but IQ is softer due to lower native upscale
- Performance is mostly solid with some drops in cut-scenes like the other consoles
- DF would have liked a Performance mode here for combat


- Series S cuts are a little more severe than other multi-plat games in DF's observation

Shout out to my man Jason Ronald.

 

[Flabagast]

Performance mode on Pro seems slighlty disappointing imho

 

[Thief1987]

Absolute lol. Game looks like an early ps4 game, with horrible image quality and everything covered in haze 5 meters ahead of your character

 

[GHG]

Performance mode on Pro seems slighlty disappointing imho

What does anyone realistically expect?

I'm mostly playing on my 4080 rig and still experience drops below 60 at 4k with everything maxed out while using DLSS quality.

People wanted all the UE5 buzzwords to be deployed across games, this is what you end up with.

 

[LordOcidax]

Game runs well on PC, even with a 1070 in Ultra Performance runs just fine… The devs did a good job.

 

[Black_Stride]

Unreal Engine 5 and Optimized

I didn't think this was possible

I believe this is the first "mass market" UE 5.4 game.
And UE5.4 brought a lot of stupid proof features.

UE5.4.4 to be exact.

 

[Horseganador]

For a development team of about 30 people, it's pretty well optimized. It could use some polish, but the 60fps in UE5 are pretty stable, and that's commendable.

 

[Fbh]

I've been playing it on performance mode on base Ps5.
It definitely looks a bit soft and with notorious shimmering, but overall I still think it looks great. I switched to quality mode a few times during the opening hours and didn't think the improvement was worth the massive loss of smoothness and responsiveness.

Somehow it still looks sharper than Rebirth in performance mode too...despite the fact it's apparently running at a lower resolution. I still don't get what Square did with Rebirth to make it so damn blurry on base PS5.

 

[viveks86]

Unreal Engine 5 and Optimized

I didn't think this was possible

Wish there was a way to see which version they were running. Perhaps on PC via commands?

 

[Xyphie]

Wish there was a way to see which version they were running. Perhaps on PC via commands?

If you right-click the .exe file, go properties and details you can see the UE version, it's 5.4.4.0.

 

[Black_Stride]

Wish there was a way to see which version they were running. Perhaps on PC via commands?

UE5.4.4

The one that introduced all the stupid proof features so devs dont have to work so hard.

 

[Stuart360]

To be honest i'm not very impressed with the PC version. It looks very asset flippy (Steam users will probably know what i mean), and also early UE3 look with all the bloom everywhere.
It also has the trademark shit image quality of UE5, with fuzzy grainy graphics.

It runs ok for me, 1080p/60 max settings on my 3070, but yeah just a little dissapointed with how it looks after all the praise on here.

 

[QLQ]

No separate PS5 Pro video? No milky tittties on Clair Obscur?

 

[viveks86]

If you right-click the .exe file, go properties and details you can see the UE version, it's 5.4.4.0.

UE5.4.4

The one that introduced all the stupid proof features so devs dont have to work so hard.

Thanks. That explains A LOT!

Yet to see any major game on 5.5+, where ray tracing performance is a lot better as well. But given the version, the decent performance makes sense.

 

[Fess]

I need to try this, everybody is praising it. Maybe someday when I'm not addicted to Oblivion.
How is it on PC? The usual UE5 stutter? Avowed is the only UE5 game that's been fully stable so far for me. The engine is great for visuals and screenshots but consistent smoothness throughout is rare like a unicorn.

 

[BennyBlanco]

What does anyone realistically expect?

I'm mostly playing on my 4080 rig and still experience drops below 60 at 4k with everything maxed out while using DLSS quality.

People wanted all the UE5 buzzwords to be deployed across games, this is what you end up with.

Same on my 4090. And the game itself recommended me DLAA. I switched to DLSS quality and it still hits like 59 fps sometimes in combat. But there are no stutters. It's not perfect but I'm not mad at it either. Oblivion running at 100+ fps and getting stutters is way more aggravating.

 

[TintoConCasera]

Techbros, a question for you: do volumetric fog effects offer some kind of occlusion culling? Like not rendering what's totally occluded by the fog, or at least lowering the LOD of what you can barely see.

I think my GPU is working on lots of polygons that I can't even see and that shit is retarded.

 

[Topher]

"- Film grain and CA can make image look softer, DF had them off."

This made a big difference for me on PS5 Pro. Plays fine. Good performance. Do not see a massive difference on PC with my 9070 XT as far as image quality is concerned.

 

[Black_Stride]

To be honest i'm not very impressed with the PC version. It looks very asset flippy (Steam users will probably know what i mean), and also early UE3 look with all the bloom everywhere.
It also has the trademark shit image quality of UE5, with fuzzy grainy graphics.

It runs ok for me, 1080p/60 max settings on my 3070, but yeah just a little dissapointed with how it looks after all the praise on here.

They are a small studio so naturally they would Quixel and MetaHumans as much as possible.
Their hero assets stand out.
I gets what you mean though.
But that being said its the art direction really pushing the game, not so much that its the pinnacle of Unreal Engine looking games.


You are playing on PC and complaining about IQ, you can remove almost all post processing or tone it down to a level you like.
Dont remove the haze completely, youll realize how much better the game actually looks with some haze vs none.


As for looking like early UE3, maybe you forgot what early UE3 looked like......every game either looked like plastic or looked like everything was wet.
You literally couldnt tell what material a thing was made out of, logic is what filled in the blanks for you, otherwise metal and rocks looked the same.

 

[Stuart360]

Techbros, a question for you: do volumetric fog effects offer some kind of occlusion culling? Like not rendering what's totally occluded by the fog, or at least lowering the LOD of what you can barely see.

I think my GPU is working on lots of polygons that I can't even see and that shit is retarded.

Its possible but i'm not sure. By UE5 standards, the game is decently optimized. Oblivion is way harder to run, although thats open world obviously.

 

[TintoConCasera]

How is it on PC? The usual UE5 stutter?

No stutters at all, but the game could look and run better.

 

[Thief1987]

As for looking like early UE3, maybe you forgot what early UE3 looked like......every game either looked like plastic or looked like everything was wet.

Excessive bloom around objects definitely resembles UE3 games because it was one of its trademarks

 

[Topher]

No stutters at all, but the game could look and run better.

That's my thing. Visually, I feel like the entire game could be crisper and not so muddied. At times, I have a hard time seeing a path I need to take because it blends together a bit too much.

 

[GHG]

Techbros, a question for you: do volumetric fog effects offer some kind of occlusion culling? Like not rendering what's totally occluded by the fog, or at least lowering the LOD of what you can barely see.

I think my GPU is working on lots of polygons that I can't even see and that shit is retarded.

What's your hardware?

If you're looking to max the game out on hardware that you shouldn't be then the first port of call will be to drop some settings in a demanding area to see what is having the biggest performance impact.

If you still can't solve it that way then there's also this:

Optimized Tweaks COE33 - Reduced Stutter Improved Performance Lower Latency Better Frametimes

A proper solution to mitigate stuttering and performance issues. It optimizes CPU and GPU efficiency, reduces latency, and improves streaming and memory management - all without sacrificing the game's

www.nexusmods.com

And this:

Optimization Config FPS Boost

This configuration file was created based on my own experience optimizing for a system with a GTX 970, Ryzen 5 2600, and 16GB RAM.Since other available mods didn’t fully meet my performance ex

www.nexusmods.com

 

[Stuart360]

Excessive bloom around objects definitely very resembles UE3 games because it was one of its trademarks

Yeah thanks. I was talking about the bloom mainly, which littered early UE3 titles, and looked pretty awful most of the time.

 

[GHG]

To be honest i'm not very impressed with the PC version. It looks very asset flippy (Steam users will probably know what i mean), and also early UE3 look with all the bloom everywhere.
It also has the trademark shit image quality of UE5, with fuzzy grainy graphics.

It runs ok for me, 1080p/60 max settings on my 3070, but yeah just a little dissapointed with how it looks after all the praise on here.

A lot of these higher end UE5 features don't resolve well at lower resolutions, and that's only compounded if you're using DLSS below it's quality setting. You also need to be using hardware lumen, not software.

Areas like the stone wave cliffs are stunning if you're able to max everything out at 4k while using DLSS quality or DLAA.

 

[FUBARx89]

No separate PS5 Pro video? No milky tittties on Clair Obscur?

No. The milky teets are reserved for Oblivion.

 

[TintoConCasera]

What's your hardware?

If you're looking to max the game out on hardware that you shouldn't be then the first port of call will be to drop some settings in a demanding area to see what is having the biggest performance impact.

Mid PC, 5080X and 4070 Super with 32GB of RAM.

I'm not trying to max out the game. I'm running it at 4K with performance DLSS and most settings at High with only GI at Epic (seems to make a big difference in IQ). Get constant 60FPS but the heavy DLSS upscaling sometimes make the hair looks like shitte, even if I'm using DLSS4. But I guess that's normal, must be hard to properly render those slim strands of hair at such a low res.

I'll check out the mods you pointed me to. Thanks for that! Although my problem isn't really the graphics or performance but how they use some effects. Too much fog, too much bloom. It's fine most of the time but some places like the overworld or the Gestral Arena in Act 1 look really bad art wise imo. But when that shit isn't on screen the game looks great, that's for sure.

 

[Stuart360]

A lot of these higher end UE5 features don't resolve well at lower resolutions, and that's only compounded if you're using DLSS below it's quality setting. You also need to be using hardware lumen, not software.

Areas like the stone wave cliffs are stunning if you're able to max everything out at 4k while using DLSS quality or DLAA.

Well i'm on a 3070 so cant 4k it. Might be able to push 1440p as there was quite a bit of headroom on the gpu, in some areas anyway.

I have seen other people complain about the image quality at even 4k though.

I know what you mean though. I did some INI editing with Oblivion, removing film grain, CA and a few other things, and it transformed the image qaulity to a very clean and sharp looking game. I always find it crazy how devs seem to always prefer overloading games with these effects at the expense of good image quality.

 

[DanielG165]

I honestly wouldn't have known that Performance mode dropped to 860p on Series X and PS5, as it looks pretty damn comparable to Quality mode to my eyes whenever I swap back and forth.

The game looks drop dead gorgeous, in any case, and I find myself sticking to Quality mode whenever I'm either just exploring, or fighting basic enemies. Performance mode for bosses and higher level stuff, though definitely. The lumen is very apparent in the lighting, and I haven't noticed much in the way of pop-in either, only a tad bit in the over-world.

Sandfall did a wonderful job with performance and optimization here, with the Performance mode feeling incredibly stable, and Quality not faltering either despite the boost in everything. The game pushes some heat out of my Series X though, that's for damn sure lol.

 

[Black_Stride]

Excessive bloom around objects definitely resembles UE3 games because it was one of its trademarks

Are you talking about lights and emissives scattering/diffusing through the fog?
Not the actual "bloom" effect........

 

[Thief1987]

Sandfall did a wonderful job with performance and optimization here, with the Performance mode feeling incredibly stable

Just at 64% of lastgen's 1080p standard resolution, but other than that amazing "optimisation" yeah

 

[Loboxxx]

PSSR

 

[adamsapple]

Looks like the Italians aren't big fans of this French RPG.

 

[TheDarkPhantom]

Like I said very early in the OT:

A few things you want to immediately do on PS5 Pro, thank me later:

1. Performance Mode (obviously)
2. Turn off motion blur, film grain, vignette and chromatic aberration

The game is jaw-dropping at times though you do see some of the rough edges whether it's the lip-sync, pop-in in the overworld map, other minor stuff. Overall the art and environmental design sing with some gorgeous lighting, bloom and particle effects, it can be quite stunning.

 

[mckmas8808]

Unreal Engine 5 and Optimized

I didn't think this was possible

33 DEVELOPERS!!!!!!!! Amazing!

 

[squidilix]

No separate PS5 Pro video? No milky tittties on Clair Obscur?

They don't have time. They need to make another Oblivion Remastered video...

 

[DanielG165]

Just at 64% of lastgen's 1080p standard resolution, but other than that amazing "optimisation" yeah

Were last gen games running with current generation techniques, pushing fidelity to new levels, rendering higher quality assets and character models, and outputting significantly more of those assets onscreen at once? No? Then your point is a null one, unfortunately. Had this game somehow released on last gen hardware (which is genuinely impossible), then you wouldn't have seen said machines running it at the "standard" 1080p resolution; it'd be significantly and hilariously lower than even 720p.

Expedition 33 runs at a mostly locked 60 fps in performance mode across the more powerful consoles, with minimal and infrequent drops. It runs at a locked 30 fps in quality mode, despite said machines having to utilize nanite, lumen, and high quality shadow maps. So indeed, the optimization is quite good.

Glad we both agree!

 

[adamsapple]

Excessive bloom around objects definitely resembles UE3 games because it was one of its trademarks

I somewhat agree.

The bloom is definitely strong in this one. Many areas are even more 'bloom'-ey than this.

 

[Thief1987]

Were last gen games running with current generation techniques, pushing fidelity to new levels, rendering higher quality assets and character models, and outputting significantly more of those assets onscreen at once? No?

So like any previous gen-to-gen difference? And only this gen we are seeing degradation in resolution and image quality. Thanks to amazing engines and "optimisations"

It runs at a locked 30 fps in quality mode, despite said machines having to utilize nanite, lumen, and high quality shadow maps.

These buzzwords don't mean shit if the game looks and performs like garbage. Well, at least for me. As for you, they trained you pretty good it seems

 

[T4keD0wN]

Techbros, a question for you: do volumetric fog effects offer some kind of occlusion culling? Like not rendering what's totally occluded by the fog, or at least lowering the LOD of what you can barely see.

I think my GPU is working on lots of polygons that I can't even see and that shit is retarded.

You can disable the fog with standard commands youself and see if you want since its ue5, ive disabled many effects myself to make it look better.

But theres an easier solution, you can use this preconfigured shader toggler mod and toggle in real-time to see the difference it makes by pressing enter and up, which do the exact thing youve asked for.
https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/2

 

[TintoConCasera]

You can disable the fog with standard commands youself and see if you want since its ue5, ive disabled many effects myself to make it look better.

But theres an easier solution, you can use this preconfigured shader toggler mod and toggle in real-time to see the difference it makes by pressing enter and up, which do the exact thing youve asked for.
https://www.nexusmods.com/clairobscurexpedition33/mods/2

Had no clue about this, many thanks!