• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Digital Foundry: Stray PS5 vs PS4/PC: A Superb 4K 60FPS Rendition on PS5 - But What’s Up With PC?

Draugoth

Gold Member


The full tech breakdown of BlueTwelve Studio's beautiful adventure - tested on PS5 and last-gen PS4 systems, plus PC. The advantage for Sony's next-gen system boils down to a boost to a native 4K and 60FPS. But does the end result stack up to a PC at max settings - and how well does each hold to their frame-rate targets?

TLDR;
  • PS4: 1920x1080 @30fps
  • PS4 Pro: 1920x1080 @30fps
  • PS5: 3360x1890- 3840x2160 60fps (Dynamic Resolution)
  • Best platform to play on PS5
--------
  • 7GB on PS5 vs 13GB on PS4
  • made for PS4
  • ps4 - 1080p/30, no seen DRS
  • pro - 1080p/30
  • ps5 - 1890p to 2160p / 60fps
  • ps5 uses a high grade bokeh
  • everything else is the same
    • mesh quality and draw distances are improved
  • 3060Ti - max settings at 4K is doable at 60fps, very similar to PS5
    • max shadows is higher than PS5
  • 30fps cap is stable 99% of the time
    • some loading/save hitches
    • fewer 120ms hitches
  • pro slightly minimizes hitching
  • some pre-rendered movies at 30fps
  • ps5 has practically no save hitching, or at worse, greatly minimized
  • the 120ms scene still hitches, just drops less
  • pc
    • suffers from shader compilation issues
    • infrequent but noticable
    • every new thing causes a spike
    • *note* Ars Technica spoke to devs and they said they are looking into a fix
  • ps5 is the best system to play on
  • ps4 is a really good platform to play
  • ps4 pro has practically no improvements
 
Last edited:

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
200w.gif
 

nikos

Member
shader compilation stutter on PC
ps5 version it is then

Not sure when the stuttering starts, as I haven’t watched the video yet, but I hadn’t experienced any stuttering in my 35 minutes of gameplay.

EDIT: Thought I'd add the gameplay I was talking about. I guess it did stutter once at 31:38, which I remember while playing. Other than that, it was smooth. I still haven't played since.

 
Last edited:

Guilty_AI

Member
Is this a Batman PC vs Playstation case?
nah, just small stutters here and there due to UE shader compilation.

Why are game devs so scared of compiling shaders at the start of the game. Monster Hunter Rise does it every once in a while and it works fine.
Always wondered the same thing. My guess is that in the head of some devs, having to wait a bit one time at the start is somehow worse than having these micro-stutters in the game.
 
Last edited:

Pagusas

Elden Member
yea its baffling how they keep ignoring this , even the base ps4 lacks this issue while a high-end PC suffers from it.
my fear is they can't do anything about it so they are all ignoring it. I hate how things like direct storage and Gsync/Freesync, and all those features are talked about, yet something that affects all the hardware, diminishes performance for every card, is completely ignored.
 

Pagusas

Elden Member
Why stutters are so frequent in games on PC but not on consoles? Like FF VII Remake

Is it due to the I/O stuff being better on consoles?
On consoles the hardware is fixed so things like shaders are pre-compiled and work 100% for every PS5/Xbox Series X/Series S, you get the idea. For the PC, driver version, GPU type and so on can all be different, and shaders have to be complied for every variable. Instead of doing that, most devs have the game compile on the fly, which caused a sudden stutter. Steam Deck has shown they can get around this as they have a static hardware set, so steam pre-loads the compiled shaders meant for that hardware. Result? No stuttering.

Its a massive problem, with no fix in sight on the desktop PC side, and all the stake holders are being completely quiet and ignoring the issue. You'd think this would be a top priority as it feels like every single new major release suffers from it.
 
Last edited:

hlm666

Member
How has MS, nvidia, AMD, Epic or anyone addressed this shader compilation issue. Its a huge issue and only getting worse.
Microsoft compiles them before playing in forza horizon, Metro Exodus does it before playing aswell. There's other examples but they are the ones that come to my mind recently. The fix isn't rocket science, they could just have an option in the graphics menu "compile shaders now" and then people who care can wait a few minutes before playing and everyone else can just hit start and put up with them.
 

Skifi28

Member
Its a massive problem, with no fix in sight on the desktop PC side, and all the stake holders are being completely quiet and ignoring the issue. You'd think this would be a top priority as it feels like every single new major release suffers from it.

I guess that's the issue an open platform faces, it's not up to one company/organization to take action and solve it. Solutions already exist, but it's up the developers on how they want to do things.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Its a massive problem, with no fix in sight on the desktop PC side, and all the stake holders are being completely quiet and ignoring the issue. You'd think this would be a top priority as it feels like every single new major release suffers from it.
The fix is very simple and many games adopt it already. Just pre-compile shaders after installation. Its a one time loading screen that only happens the first time you launch the game and after driver updates.

The issue here is some devs simply aren't doing it, most likely they either don't think much of it or believe run-time compilation with some stutters is preferable to that one-time compilation screen. There could also be a problem with third-party engines like UE, where they either don't have the feature available or don't make it easy to be implemented.
 
Last edited:

Shifty

Member
Why are game devs so scared of compiling shaders at the start of the game. Monster Hunter Rise does it every once in a while and it works fine.
Being scared of it would imply the devs at these UE4-using studios A. actually realise it's a problem and B. have the technical know-how to reach into the engine and fix it.

I'm not convinced that either of those is the case given how widespread the issue has become.
 

Riky

$MSFT
Does the PS4 Pro actually have a version or is it just playing the PS4 code, how would they know the difference?

I played an hour on Pro and it's fine but surely it could do either 1080p@60fps or 1440p@30fps.
 

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
PS4 Pro being 1080p same as base PS4 is a disappointment, especially with no feature enhancement either.

Pro can probably easily handle this at 1440p like Kena.
Does the PS4 Pro actually have a version or is it just playing the PS4 code, how would they know the difference?

I played an hour on Pro and it's fine but surely it could do either 1080p@60fps or 1440p@30fps.
Found your alt script account. 🤭
 
Not really the point of the video but hard disagree on the platforming as it is one button auto jumping at set places like Persona 5 or something - I think this is purposeful so the platforming doesn't get in the way of the experience but saying this game has any kind of platforming mechanics is at best very generous and at worst completely disingenuous.

Also really disagree on the adaptive triggers adding anything as they are complete shit in this game to be blunt.

Still a nice experience and looks really really pretty despite some obvious low quality assets.
 

Caio

Member
The PS5 version has a 84 on Meta, which is a very good score, and got a 10/10 from Guardian :D
It's a lovely Game, and I love cats !!! A must for me. But I need a PS5 first...
 

Filben

Member
  • suffers from shader compilation issues

Man what the fuck. What is this level of incompetence lately on PC? Why not using a different API or get someone to help you with that shit?
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
PC gamers need to hit this game in the user reviews then. It’s the only way shit gets done.

Edit: User reviews are glowing, so guess that’s not happening.

Wonder if there’s stutters on Steam Deck?
 
Last edited:

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
nah, just small stutters here and there due to UE shader compilation.


Always wondered the same thing. My guess is that in the head of some devs, having to wait a bit one time at the start is somehow worse than having these micro-stutters in the game.
Played Forza Horizon 5 last night and every time I changed a setting, it made me restart the game and then the loading took forever because they were optimizing the game. I am guessing they were compiling shaders.

Its ridiculous to have to wait 2 minutes when I have a lightning fast SSD every time i boot the game. This aint GTA3.
 

Guilty_AI

Member
Played Forza Horizon 5 last night and every time I changed a setting, it made me restart the game and then the loading took forever because they were optimizing the game. I am guessing they were compiling shaders.

Its ridiculous to have to wait 2 minutes when I have a lightning fast SSD every time i boot the game. This aint GTA3.
? Not sure if it was just shader compilation in that. Many games require restart for certain settings, generally textures.
When i played FH4 those "optimizing" moments would vary quite wildly on how long they'd take, so they're probably doing other stuff.
 
Last edited:

yamaci17

Member
Played Forza Horizon 5 last night and every time I changed a setting, it made me restart the game and then the loading took forever because they were optimizing the game. I am guessing they were compiling shaders.

Its ridiculous to have to wait 2 minutes when I have a lightning fast SSD every time i boot the game. This aint GTA3.
people like you are the reason we don't get pre compile shader option in most games, grats, enjoy being able to change settings on the fly with the trade off being game breaking stutters each time a new stuff happens on screen

what, do you do rocket science or something? just find a plausible setting for yourself and play with it. i haven't changed my forza 5 settings since 6 months. there are tons of guides, videos on the net to show you what setting does what, how much performance change they incur and so on. if you fiddle with settings that much, you're already killing the experience. you're the reason most console users think every one of us pc folks fiddle around settings for hours, not being able to find a happy middleground or something. i know that you actually have decent hardware, just use xbox sx settings provided by df as a baseline, increase a setting or two, and move on. hell, df has a 30 min long video explaning with visuals and performance counters that what every setting does.
 
Last edited:

DeepEnigma

Gold Member
people like you are the reason we don't get pre compile shader option in most games, grats, enjoy being able to change settings on the fly with the trade off being game breaking stutters each time a new stuff happens on screen

what, do you do rocket science or something? just find a plausible setting for yourself and play with it. i haven't changed my forza 5 settings since 6 months. there are tons of guides, videos on the net to show you what setting does what, how much performance change they incur and so on. if you fiddle with settings that much, you're already killing the experience. you're the reason most console users think every one of us pc folks fiddle around settings for hours, not being able to find a happy middleground or something. i know that you actually have decent hardware, just use xbox sx settings provided by df as a baseline, increase a setting or two, and move on. hell, df has a 30 min long video explaning with visuals and performance counters that what every setting does.
He will never be happy. I think he's just a meme now.
 

GametimeUK

Member
Damn I've been looking forward to upgrading my PC for what seems like forever now. I have a 2080 so I'm still doing good, but with this shader compilation stutter plaguing recent PC games I think it may be easier to stick with console for new releases this gen and keep my PC as it is for my current library and the odd purchase that runs well on it with DLSS.

There's no way in hell I'm spending a bunch of money to get a stuttering experience. Fanboy wars aside we should all want our machines and the machines other people choose to purchase to run well at max potential regardless.
 
Top Bottom