- Moved to Unreal Engine 4 instead of the franchise's regular EGO Engine.
- Engine change raises ' big questions', with official response being that UE4 allows 'larger circuits'.
- No push to UE5 tech despite being a new-gen only game. The visual upgrade isn't always evident over previous games.
- No 120 fps option on consoles, only 60 FPS.
- The previous game Dirt Rally 2.0 ran at 4K locked 60 FPS on Series X, neither of which is the case with this latest game.
Visuals:
- New game has screen tearing, camera judder and DRS which can drop as low as 1080p on PS5/SX.
- Uneven camera movement judder even when frame rate shows locked 60 FPS
- Consoles don't have multiple modes, only single 2160p DRS on both PS5/SX.
- Series S targets 1440p with DRS lowest 720p
- All console versions target PC's "high" preset with Series S betweem Medium/Low.
- PS5 has sharper shadows on grounds, otherwise identical to Series X.
- Series S's lower settings are notable in side by side comparison. More image breakup, lower LoD, lower AO and reflections across car body.
- PC Max offers a decent number of upgrades over consoles. True native 4K, higher LoD, shadow resolution, superior AO and reflections with support for true 120hz.
Performance:
- Even with DRS, PS5/SX can drop to 50s with tearing with more consistent drops in town areas with crowds
- Series S holds the best performance of the three, with the least amount of drops (even though it's not locked 60 either)
- Dirt Rally 2.0 (2019) was more smoother and visually sharper by comparison.
- PC performance has been improved since launch with patches but shader comp stutter and drops are still present.
- Can see big drops when hitting a new shader for the first time.
- 4080 can run the game at native 4K/60 most of the time, DLSS can help fix any drops.
- Camera judder issue mentioned above is the most obvious on PC.
- The shader comp. stutters can cause loss in control and the cases are worse than any drops on console.