The reddit thread being posted has the dev telling customers who wants refunds to refer to them directly providing a link, and wishing that PSN had a refund feature like Steam.
Firewatch's PS4 performance is terrible
- Thread starter Diprosalic
- Start date
Rapture only stutters when using the hastily added, Santa Monica mandated run button. Another win for ps4.
GinoFelino
Member
Hmm, that's interesting. Especially since I haven't noticed any difference between this and the launch ps4 prior to this game.
Oh shit. That is very far removed from my own experience indeed. In that case, performance varies way more than I thought.
Refunds really are steams killer feature for digital only games. I wouldnt care about this stuff if I could try it out for myself first to see if I was OK with it on ps4. But the 'no refunds except where required by law' isn't very friendly. Good to hear devs feel the same.
TAJ
Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that.
I have an SSHD in my PS4 if that makes any difference. Maybe the game stutters when it loads dialog audio.
SRTtoZ
Member
I did just now using their chat system.
GinoFelino
Member
Apparently, in this case it does! I guess the streaming in this game must be more taxing than most other games, so better hard drives have more of an advantage than usual...
Neuromancer
Member
Love the game so far but the PS4 performance is shockingly bad. Slide show frame rates at times.
Hmm interesting, I'm going to install it on my SSD on my PC to see how it performs then since people are reporting the same issues on all versions of the game.
Devilinthiscity
Member
Bought it while I was at work. Such a bummer about the performance issues on PS4. Hopefully it doesn't take me out of the experience. I've been looking forward to this for so long.
Norwegian_Imposter
Member
What's it like on PC. I have a Gtx 980m on my rog laptop. Will this run it?
paperspace
Member
Can you choose 720p as output in order to achieve a playable framerate?
Or was that just a PS3 thing.
Or was that just a PS3 thing.
I don't think the Ps4 will change the game's native resolution like it does on PC, so you'll just be stuck playing a 1080p rendered game being downscaled by your ps4. So itll just look like poo while still performing like poo
Diprosalic
Banned
cool. i hope this works in my region too.
UnrealEck
Member
I'm sure a 980m is faster than a PS4's graphics processor, so I'd be very surprised if it didn't run it.
I usually don't notice or care about those hiccups, but there certainly are a lot of them (or am I just noticing more becausr I was forewarned).
Still, it's not a dealbreaker for me, I can tolerate it. I mean, I'm just walking around anyway, not like a quick response is necessary.
Still, it's not a dealbreaker for me, I can tolerate it. I mean, I'm just walking around anyway, not like a quick response is necessary.
Yeah but its completely unplayable at the pitiful walk speed in that game so it stutters all the time.
MegaSackman
Member
Game finished on PS4, lots of stuttering, two crashes and nothing else.
Other than that, quite a good game.
Other than that, quite a good game.
Ninja Scooter
Member
That sucks to hear. I was about to buy it. Hopefully they get a patch that fixes things.
D
Deleted member 30609
Unconfirmed Member
I ask this with an open heart: has there been a reasonably complex 3D game in Unity that hasn't been plagued with performance issues on consoles?
So what is the general consensus then? Is this more hyperbole or is there a genuine problem with the game? Really want to buy it but I want to know whether I should wait.
EDIT: From the developer's themselves. They think its exaggerated but will attempt to get a fix soon. Might hold off until then.
EDIT: From the developer's themselves. They think its exaggerated but will attempt to get a fix soon. Might hold off until then.
http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showpost.php?p=194741816&postcount=263
In short: Yes but many have problems.
If this however is all the engines fault or on the developers side we don't know
SRTtoZ
Member
Its bad but the game is still completely playable. Not only is it playable but its a great game so far and the visuals are great, it just sucks having fluctuating framerates and microstutter. One second you're looking at the ground getting 60 fps, then you're looking around and its all over the place. Luckily this game doesn't rely on any sort of quick reactions so the framerate comes down to can you visually tolerate it. Plus its less than $20, about a trip to Taco Bell
This is one of the reasons I never pre order or go in Day 1 except for a select few developers that are tried and true in my book. I'm going to buy the game because I love the work Olly Moss does and games of this style but I'm of the opinion of releasing things in a stable state with only minor bugs and technical issues. I'll pick it up down the road when the inevitable patch or few are released.
I do think people let this stuff slide a bit too easily and Im saying lazy devs or the game is unplayable or any nonsense like that but with so many interesting games constantly releasing every little bit counts. I'll pass a game by for another if its got serious tecumseh technical issues even if it's good in other categories.
I do think people let this stuff slide a bit too easily and Im saying lazy devs or the game is unplayable or any nonsense like that but with so many interesting games constantly releasing every little bit counts. I'll pass a game by for another if its got serious tecumseh technical issues even if it's good in other categories.
best post in this thread lmao
Its bad but the game is still completely playable. Not only is it playable but its a great game so far and the visuals are great, it just sucks having fluctuating framerates and microstutter. One second you're looking at the ground getting 60 fps, then you're looking around and its all over the place. Luckily this game doesn't rely on any sort of quick reactions so the framerate comes down to can you visually tolerate it. Plus its less than $20, about a trip to Taco Bell
Thanks, thats the kind of honest and grounded answer I needed. Gunna buy it now and Unravel too.
Diprosalic
Banned
some people can stomach more and others are more sensitive to those issues.
if you are fine with a couple of crashes (including those you have to pull the plug on the PS4) and a framerate that constantly fluctuates from 20 to 50 fps and some weirdly wonky controls coupled with some other glitches, go ahead.
it's definitely 'playable' in the sense that you can get from start to finish but for me it's very far from anything enjoyable, worst performing game I've played on the PS4 yet.
Don't worry, you will be reminded when the Gotys come around.
finalflame
Banned
From Sean's comment over on Reddit, I am taking a guess that the issue has to do with background asset streaming in Unity5 (he mentioned specifically that they could have made a game with loading screens instead, which presumably (this part is inferred by me) could've prevented these issues). This wouldn't be the first time a game suffers from stutters and hiccups due to large, open-world asset streaming (see: Watch_Dogs on PC).
I'm guessing Unity is a bad platform on which to build large "open" games. I can imagine their asset delivery pipeline just isn't optimized enough on PS4 to be able to keep up performance and stream assets to the screen on the fly. Another notable game on a different engine that had these issues was Witcher 3 at launch. Of course, in that scenario, CDPR had total control over the engine and was able to iron out the issues over time (Witcher 3's engine only renders what you are currently looking at on the screen to save on memory, and streams the rest of the assets on the fly as you pan the camera).
Clinton514
Member
This sounds about right.
It doesn't have to be either or, combination of decisions by a small dev team including what they wanted their game to be, what they wanted it to play, look, feel like, and what they had to settle with to keep their vision using this engine.
paperspace
Member
I have a feeling no one will remember this game 10 months from now.
Frag Waffles
Member
Too bad, I was looking forward to playing this on ps4. The impressions sound shockingly bad. I just don't have any tolerance for poor optimization so hopefully things are patched soon.
Agreed.
Diprosalic
Banned
yeah a short indie game in february is not gonna light the world on fire 10 months from now.
no matter the quality. The Witness will take the token indie slot.
well i'm happy for you guys. enjoy the game.
People who actually play it will.
I only played the first 20 minutes and it already made am incredible impression.
SRTtoZ
Member
Yep. Game is legit awesome.
Danlord
Member
They are using SECTR in Firewatch, which includes a scene streaming solution as well as dynamic occlusion culling. They are provided source-code too so surely they could have optimised for PS4 themselves.
http://www.firewatchgame.com/about/
Splash Wave
Member
The performance is a little wonky, admittedly, but I don't think anyone who's eager to play it needs to wait. I'm utterly blown away by this game so far.
From their list of games:
Campo Santo's Firewatch was patient zero for SECTR. Many of the core authoring tools and streaming technologies were developed to help them implement their vision of an immerse, seamless national forest. SECTR not only powers their world streaming but also serves as an authoring solution that allows everyone on the team to easily edit different parts of the world.
So yeah, middleware isn't perfect, especially in a situation where new systems had to be developed and modified into the engine.
finalflame
Banned
Thanks, interesting info, wasn't aware this was the middleware they were using. I suppose the onus of optimization might have fallen on them in this scenario, or working more closely with the middleware devs to iron out issues with its use on a game of this scale.
Here is actually some discussion over at the Unity3D forums about SECTR SSS and potential stutter issues:
http://forum.unity3d.com/threads/released-sectr-stream-seamless-scene-streaming.229907/
Seems they wouldn't be the only ones having issues with SECTR's scene streaming and stuttering, at least.