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DF - Final Fantasy 7 Remake PC Tech Review: A Disappointing, Barebones Port

Image calling that turd the best way to experience the game lol
I'm a MASSIVE PC fanboy, and I don't ever plan on buying any more consoles... but I'm not going to lie to myself... This port is trash.. and I knew it was going to be within the first 3 minutes of the game when it transitioned from the cinematic to the real-time cutscene with a MASSIVE hitch...

I just shook my head and laughed. Typical Unreal Engine hitching and stuttering...

Ultimately it's on SquareEnix to fix their issues because they are the ones that are selling this product... but Unreal Engine on PC has a serious Shader compilation/asset loading issues which developers aren't bothering to correct before they release them. There's only a handful of UE games which don't really exhibit these issues, and coincidentally they are from developers which have built customized versions of the engine to suit their needs... The Coalition, and Sony Bend, with Gears and Days Gone respectively. Psychonauts 2 had this issue, but DoubleFine received many complains about the stuttering, and have since released a patch which has fixed the issue, so MAJOR kudos to them for putting in the effort to fix their product!

Most indie games have these issues, and it's quite obvious the default behavior of the Unreal Engine is having issues performing properly, and it's understandable that small devs might not have the resources or know-how to customize the engine to work properly... so perhaps Epic needs a wake-up call to figure out a way to improve this situation for small and mid-sized developers...

..which to the point doesn't excuse SquareEnix... who are a AAA game publisher, and have vast resources and technical know-how.. So this is just simply UNACCEPTABLE.

The entire PC industry needs a damn wakeup call regarding this hitching and stuttering shit, because there are people out there who are spending thousands of $$$ to fix issues that simply can't be fixed by brute force.. They know these issues exist too, and they get through it because people are all too quick to settle for garbage ports by making excuses blaming their hardware, or some other configuration issue.. looking for "fixes" which don't do a single damn thing. If a "fix" works to fix stuttering for you... it's likely because the game has already cached those shaders.. and nothing was actually fixed.

It's maddening.. People NEED to start holding these developers accountable. We're spending WAY TOO MUCH money on this stuff these days to have to settle for garbage like this. I'm tired of it.
 

ethomaz

Banned
I'm a MASSIVE PC fanboy, and I don't ever plan on buying any more consoles... but I'm not going to lie to myself... This port is trash.. and I knew it was going to be within the first 3 minutes of the game when it transitioned from the cinematic to the real-time cutscene with a MASSIVE hitch...

I just shook my head and laughed. Typical Unreal Engine hitching and stuttering...

Ultimately it's on SquareEnix to fix their issues because they are the ones that are selling this product... but Unreal Engine on PC has a serious Shader compilation/asset loading issues which developers aren't bothering to correct before they release them. There's only a handful of UE games which don't really exhibit these issues, and coincidentally they are from developers which have built customized versions of the engine to suit their needs... The Coalition, and Sony Bend, with Gears and Days Gone respectively. Psychonauts 2 had this issue, but DoubleFine received many complains about the stuttering, and have since released a patch which has fixed the issue, so MAJOR kudos to them for putting in the effort to fix their product!

Most indie games have these issues, and it's quite obvious the default behavior of the Unreal Engine is having issues performing properly, and it's understandable that small devs might not have the resources or know-how to customize the engine to work properly... so perhaps Epic needs a wake-up call to figure out a way to improve this situation for small and mid-sized developers...

..which to the point doesn't excuse SquareEnix... who are a AAA game publisher, and have vast resources and technical know-how.. So this is just simply UNACCEPTABLE.

The entire PC industry needs a damn wakeup call regarding this hitching and stuttering shit, because there are people out there who are spending thousands of $$$ to fix issues that simply can't be fixed by brute force.. They know these issues exist too, and they get through it because people are all too quick to settle for garbage ports by making excuses blaming their hardware, or some other configuration issue.. looking for "fixes" which don't do a single damn thing. If a "fix" works to fix stuttering for you... it's likely because the game has already cached those shaders.. and nothing was actually fixed.

It's maddening.. People NEED to start holding these developers accountable. We're spending WAY TOO MUCH money on this stuff these days to have to settle for garbage like this. I'm tired of it.
Exactly.

PC can do way more than just PS5 settings plus all the others elementary issues.
It is a bad port.

And I agree for a hobby so expensive accepting that type of "release unfinished games and patch later" mentality is driving me crazy.
 
This version doesn't do this if you take a minute to switch to DX11 mode. I can get behind being mad that it isn't the default but you can play without stuttering, and still has higher res and framerate than on PS5. What is the drawback to make it worse?
Yes it does. It absolutely still hitches and stutters in DX11 mode. There may be less during traversing the game areas, but there are still hitches in cutscenes and when doing new actions which spawn new effects which require the engine to recompile shaders.

The drawback... is that in a game which was built so specifically to smoothly transition from scene to scene in the most cinematic way possible... you're completely taken out of the experience by terrible hitching.

I don't know where it ever became acceptable for a game to literally stall when you perform actions during the first times... or when a cutscene kicks in... or when you're just turning the camera....

It's unacceptable. Demand better from these developers is all I can say!
 

ethomaz

Banned
In what way? what is the drawback of using DX11? The only side effect I see mentioned is that it turns off vsync but you can turn it back on.

So again, this is the PS5 version, but with the option for higher resolution and framerate. what about that isn't the best way to play?
First it doesn't fix the framerate hitching... it decreases it... it still happens in DX11 mode even in RTX 3090.
Second the DX11 mode has concessions in image quality.

And yes at that state PS5 is the best version to play.
 
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Lethal01

Member
First it doesn't fix the framerate hitching... it decreases it... it still happens in DX11 mode even in RTX 3090.
Second the DX11 mode has concessions in image quality.

And yes at that state PS5 is the best version to play.

Okay, for me it decreased it to the point of being unnoticeable but there are tons of hardware configurations so I will agree that PS5 better due to being 100% locked. that said I don't think it's crazy to say that 120fps 4k with a small drops every couple of minutes can be a better experience for many.

What visual concessions are made in the DX11 modes image quality?
 
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Mister Wolf

Member
Okay, for me it decreased it to the point of being unnoticeable but there are tons of hardware configurations so I will agree that PS5 better due to being 100% locked. that said I don't think it's crazy to say that 120fps 4k with a small drops every couple of minutes can be a better experience for many.

What visual concessions are made in the DX11 modes image quality?

Lose access to HDR.
 

SF Kosmo

Al Jazeera Special Reporter
How the fuck did square give us this when some of their recent pc ports have been pretty darn good. Even 15 on PC is significantly better than this.
Rushed for holiday deadline would be the obvious hypothesis. It doesn't seem like this one is hopeless, and in fact a simple command line option fixes the worst problems, which says to me they just gave them a hard deadline and shoved this out the door.
 

ReBurn

Gold Member
anyone got a summary so i don't need to give them views?
Iron Man Reaction GIF
 

ethomaz

Banned
For these interested there is a Mod (a DX11 to Vulkan wrapper) that does a better job in fixing the issues than just changing to DX11.


In any case shifting to DX11 loses HDR because the game has no full screen option.
 
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MoreJRPG

Suffers from extreme PDS
How the fuck did square give us this when some of their recent pc ports have been pretty darn good. Even 15 on PC is significantly better than this.
Epic paid them a boat load of money to not release it on Steam for a year, after Sony paid them a boatload of money not to release it anywhere else for a year.

Square are leeches at this point. They’ve already made all their money off these exclusivity deals. The sales mean nothing so the port is barebones. Why put effort in it for diminishing returns?
 

Lethal01

Member
For these interested there is a Mod (a DX11 to Vulkan wrapper) that does a better job in fixing the issues than just changing to DX11.


In any case shifting to DX11 loses HDR because the game has no full screen option.

Is the lack of HDR the only thing you were referring to as a drawback of DX11? I agree either way, I totally forgot about that, I'm at a hotel with a tv from 2012 this week so hadn't had a chance to use it.

I also used that mod btw, it causes issues for me at certain resolutions so i took it off and realised It was already running near perfectly for me.
 
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The filler sidequests are some of the worst I've ever seen in a AAA game but from a technical point of view even the base PS4 version looked absolutely beautiful and ran well considering how weak a PS4 is so it's a shame that this port is seemingly so low effort.
 

ClosBSAS

Member
That just confirm what I said before in this board.
Even Square Enix using PC tools a game developed to PS5 is not easy to be ported to PC.
It is not just flip the switch like some believe.

Of course the dev should put more time before finish the port... it is basically an unfinished port.

BTW the PS5 version hold the PC port version like all consoles do since ever to PC (the most underutilized platform).
Lol what? It's not like they haven't done good ports. But let's get this straight. SE third party studios do great, it is when SE does it themselves that they lack. They are just bad. It's not as hard as you put it to be.

This is a port that was rushed cause epic gave them money. It's def not a bad port, it just has some issues but it's a 1 to 1 to ps5 like dark souls was 1 to 1 to consoles when it first came out. A bad port is something like saints row 1 on PC.
 

JoduanER2

Member
Is DX12 much better at handling the CPU resources in this game?

Maybe it will run bad if i change it to DX11 to reduce the stuttering, i have a i5 9400f.
 

S0ULZB0URNE

Member
It's the best way to play

Switch it to DX11 mode and it runs great otherwise there is stuttering. The game is essentially the PS5 version with the option for higher resolution and framerate. Other than texture and shadow resolution there really aren't any graphical options.

Video says it perfectly, it's barebones. But it's a great way to experience the game. That's what matter most to me.

I'd say it's 10x better than deathloop or halo infinite, more graphical options mean nothing when the game runs badly no mattter what. If this is a "profound dissapointment" then those games need to be taken off the store.
So you didn't watch the video?
 

TGO

Hype Train conductor. Works harder than it steams.
Disappointing isn't the word they use when it's an other platform.
But delusions of grandeur and all that.
At least it can be fixed.
 

Captn

Member
I'm still in dx12 since I'm using a custom ini unlocking my 3090 potential to its max.

I'm at the reactor 5 boss and vram usage is 18gb lolll and ram usage is at 12gb

Playing 4k120 with added control panel settings on the exe for more image quality.

Everything runs great as of now.. Will update once I reach the market.

Slum city was fine with barely no iccups running around everywhere.
 
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I feel bad for those who waited over a year for the PC version, when the PS4/PS5 versions were superior all along.

This seems to be the case for most games that go from PS4 to PC so far.
 
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Captn

Member
What about the loading times?

Heres an example I made at 4k60 since I can't record 4k120. Done with shadow play.

The hitching you see is caused by the video recording and not live gameplay which is way better at 4k120.

Was with dx11 shortcut only and dynamic resolution disabling mod, until I found the console hook mod and ini files settings which brought me back to dx12 only.

 
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Lethal01

Member
So you didn't watch the video?

I rewatched it one more time just for you. in addition to playing it myself.

They just repeated what I posted, When you use DX 11 you get the PS5 version of the game with the ability to go beyond 60fps while also brings the res higher than the PS5 version. There is the added hassle of taking 2 minutes to switch to DX11 but otherwise, it's superior.
 
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Dr.D00p

Member
I like the irony of an exclusive Epic store release showing up just how utterly broken their Unreal Engine can be, on PC, when it comes to streaming in assets & compiling shaders.
 
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