Digital Foundry: Destiny Beta XB1 analysis and PS4 comparison

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nynt9

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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-vs-destiny-xbox-one-beta

Of course, the difference between the current 1600x900 throughput on Xbox One and the full 1920x1080 on PS4 is perceptible, even through the heavy FXAA post-process anti-aliasing in effect on both.
[...] Put side-by-side, the Xbox One produces slightly fuzzier detailing on these elements, though the actual quality of textures - and filtering - is a complete match between the two.
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But before we go on, there's one very important question we need to address. Is any comparison from the beta relevant at all when Bungie has already stated its intention to run the final Xbox One release of Destiny at full 1080p, matching its PlayStation 4 counterpart? Will that increase in resolution come at the detriment of anything else? While the additional 10 per cent of rendering resources afforded by the recent Kinect-unbundling XDK update are welcome, it does not offer up enough GPU horsepower to bridge the gap between 900p and 1080p rendering.
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But even in the Xbox One's improved 1080p build, one nit-pick stands out between the next-gen consoles; a change to the HUD. On PS4 we see a three-dimensional curved display for ammo and health gauges, backed by a chromatic aberration after-effect. The Xbox One, meanwhile, adopts the flat designs also laid across the last-gen versions' screens, delivered without the extra visual twist. This is obviously a minuscule detail in the grand scheme of what the game achieves, and largely comes down to personal preference.
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For the campaign side, the Xbox One stutters only fleetingly during an early shoot-out in the Restoration mission. But in line with the PS4, it's otherwise a smooth, fully v-synced 30fps game during every other battle. The only other nit-pick is a brief stutter during fast travel with the Sparrow. In our synchronized test we see a level streaming hiccup occurring between the Steppes and Mothyards areas, curiously affecting the PS3 and PS4 versions in the exact same spot.
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All in all, it's a very encouraging scenario. Both next-gen consoles run at the same levels of world detail in this early build, with Xbox One also a match for the PS4's stable frame-rate. The only bug-bear is the 900p versus 1080p differential, where the PS4 benefits from a clearer image. However, based on footage released of the 1080p Xbox One build so far, this is to be corrected with no apparent sacrifices to visuals elsewhere. Where performance is concerned, we'll have to see nearer release whether this 1080p playback is achieved with no impact to the game's smooth, consistent frame-rate.
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The HUD difference is really weird, one has to wonder why.

Downscale me to 900p if old.

Edit:

Tom Penny said:
So Xbone is catching up?
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Physical hardware difference can't change, so it has to be:

SolsticeZero said:
Things we won't know until release, unfortunately. We do have to remember, this is still beta code. But one of these will be true:

1) They're exactly the same. In this case, they did hold back some extra bits on the PS4 in the name of parity. The console has more raw power, so the fact that it can be done is pretty undeniable.

2) The PS4 version is superior, thanks to its extra power. In this case, they pushed the limit on both consoles and used all they were given.

Frankly, I don't care either way. So what if they went for parity. So what if the PS4 version doesn't have any extra filtering or anything. Destiny is fucking awesome, and I'm going to play the shit out of it no matter what.
Click to expand...
 
Has DF updated their impressions of the PS4 framerate after the latest patch fixed the stutter bug? The game seems to run at an unwavering 30fps for me now.
 
JB1981 said:
Has DF updated their impressions of the PS4 framerate after the latest patch fixed the stutter bug? The game seems to run at an unwavering 30fps for me now.
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They mention in the article that this is based on the post-patch PS4 version.
You'd know that if you read the article before posting.
 
nynt9 said:
They mention in the article that this is based on the post-patch PS4 version.
You'd know that if you read the article before posting.
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I would like to but i can't as Eurogamer is blocked at work. Thanks for clarifying though :)
 
Of course, the difference between the current 1600x900 throughput on Xbox One and the full 1920x1080 on PS4 is perceptible
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OK, this got to be a dig at MS guy, Harvey Eagle.
 
Wow the gap still growing.

About time DF seen the difference from big gap resolution as they was able to see last gen with much smaller.
 
Surprised they both use the same strength FXAA. I downloaded it on the bone last night and thought for sure it was weaker. I guess it was just the lower resolution that gave it that appearance.
 
Tom Penny said:
So Xbone is catching up?
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To be honest, even though there are vast optimisations ahead, I think the PS4 will have more to give at every point of this generation. I'm more inclined to believe that if there is a 'parity' game its because the PS4 hasn't been pushed harder. Hardly a controversial opinion, PS4 hardware is significantly more powerful than Xbox One hardware, especially the GPU.

Case in point, The Order: 1886 and Uncharted 4: A thief's end. Unreleased I know, but those two games look leaps and bounds ahead of everything else announced so far, visually.
 
Tom Penny said:
So Xbone is catching up?
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I'd say it sounds more like the extra resources were put into a HUD overlay rather than anything of any notable difference. I don't really see how a console can 'catch up' short of sending out engineers to refit new and better parts into every system in the world, there will always be a gap. It's up to the devs to use those resources where they feel they would like to though and it seems Bungie chose the HUD. Can't say whether or not that's a good choice since I don't know how much power they had to spare, but it's certainly not a choice that most will even notice.
 
As DF said, that 10% GPU shouldn't be enough to go from 900p to 1080p. So either Bungie had a bit of headroom (other than the 10% kinect reserve) in xbone but choose not to use it for anything until now, or there will be some cutbacks to visual effects in release build.
 
iceatcs said:
Wow the gap still growing.

About time DF seen the difference from big gap resolution as they was able to see last gen with much smaller.
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Huh?

Did you read anything from the article? Seriously. Did you read any of it?

As for the beta, all I can say is that it looks pretty great on the X1. Noticeably a cross gen game though.
 
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.
 
It's a crossgen game so it's not surprising it's not getting everything out of the PS4.

Maybe with Destiny 2 they'll go the extra mile.
 
Chobel said:
As DF said, that 10% GPU shouldn't be enough to go from 900p to 1080p. So either Bungie had a bit of headroom in xbone but choose not to use it for anything until now, or there will be some cutbacks to visual effects in release build.
Click to expand...

Yeah. This is why I don't get why some were going crazy in that thread about 1080p on XB1. There are other things going besides resolution.
 
Chobel said:
As DF said, that 10% GPU shouldn't be enough to go from 900p to 1080p. So either Bungie had a bit of headroom (other than the 10% kinect reserve) in xbone but choose not to use it for anything until now, or there will be some cutbacks to visual effects in release build.
Click to expand...

Things we won't know until release, unfortunately. We do have to remember, this is still beta code. But one of these will be true:

1) They're exactly the same. In this case, they did hold back some extra bits on the PS4 in the name of parity. The console has more raw power, so the fact that it can be done is pretty undeniable.

2) The PS4 version is superior, thanks to its extra power. In this case, they pushed the limit on both consoles and used all they were given.

Frankly, I don't care either way. So what if they went for parity. So what if the PS4 version doesn't have any extra filtering or anything. Destiny is fucking awesome, and I'm going to play the shit out of it no matter what.
 
Whoever at Bungie thought having CA on the HUD was a good idea deserves to be fired.

edit: and the people around them that let it happen.
 
Birgitte2004 said:
More like Bungie has decided to intentionally make the PS4 version subpar.
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Seeing how the X360 and PS3 stack up, and how the project has been in the oven so long, I would say it's the project itself that's not exactly THAT ambitious, tech wise. Luckily design is gorgeous and helps it a lot in terms of overall impact.
 
On Demand said:
Yeah. This is why I don't get why some were going crazy in that thread about 1080p on XB1. There are other things going besides resolution.
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Gamers on the Internet have put high value on the resolution of games, Bungie has made the decision to pander to them at the potential cost of other graphical effects.
 
Gonna be honest

I would be ok if the final game would end up being 900p with better AA



Game looks great on both PS4 and X1 but you can see some rough aliasing wether 900p or 1080p
 
I think the game looks very nice on PS4. There are some aesthetic choices that I don't agree with (lighting, chromatic abberation) but the overall image is pretty pleasing and the framerate is dialed in a 30fps. The art direction is pretty spectacular too. Just a game that oozes class from top to bottom.
 
Parity... :(

Sad to see that they don't use the much stronger GPU for better AA or other stuff.

Especially because the graphics from Destiny shine more through artwork than technical stuff.
 
Tom Penny said:
So Xbone is catching up?
Click to expand...

I think Microsoft had some pretty unfinished tools for devs and there were some problems with the ESRAM in the beginning.
These things are getting fixed now so XboxOne is catching up.
I'm actually pretty sure that the resolution differences we saw so far had very little to do with the fact that Ps4 had more teraflops, I think that was mainly because of bad SDKs.

Microsoft is doing some work on that front so that gap is shrinking, but the specs won't change so Ps4 will stay siginificantly more powerful and I actually think that we will see an increasing gap in terms visual quality of exclusives.
3rd party devs might not use everything thats under the Ps4s hood and go for parity or maybe add some little things here and there, but nothing spectacular, but 1st party will go all out and there are quite some nifty things in that hardware developers will start to use of the coming months and years.
I don't see that much future potential in the XboxOne.
 
Tom Penny said:
So Xbone is catching up?
Click to expand...

It really can never catch up because PS4's hardware is just more powerful. Devs can do more with it. Also destiny isn't really a good indication given the differences between last-gen and current-gen. Wait for games that are next-gen only coming out later this year for a better indication or that will have been using the reserve already/not more differences between last-gen and current-gen

OT - Thought as much give how last-gen versions are. Good to see it's solid on all platforms. The X360 version can be here and there once in a while though but otherwise quite solid.

Would be interesting to see if the XB1 takes a performance hit when 1080p is added later on.
 
DoctorWho said:
Gamers on the Internet have put high value on the resolution of games, Bungie has made the decision to pander to them at the potential cost of other graphical effects.
Click to expand...

I'd rather have lower quality assets at a higher resolution than the other way around.
 
Tom Penny said:
So Xbone is catching up?
Click to expand...

More like PS4 is getting held back. It's a no win situation for everyone by Sony if they give PS4 all the bells and whistles and then the XBone looks like shit; Developer takes shit, Publisher sells poor, MS get a lot of flak. In everyone's mutual interest games are being made for the lowest denominator, and the PS4 is being cheated.
 
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