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[DF] The Medium PS5: Big Changes vs Xbox Series X + PC Comparisons

Rea

Member
Interesting, the resolution difference is massive. Maybe devs think that higher resolution gives more pleasing visual than having slightly higher effects with significant downgrade in resolution. And for fuck sake, fix the Goddamn frame pacing.
 
Digital Foundry drives me nuts because I’ve been watching them since day one and I always did because I owned every console and wanted the result of which version to get.

They have become so neutral now I just use other channels with the raw data and that’s it. They are usually faster anyways too.

DF has become slow, unfocused and missing major content.

We get a video on The Medium THREE TIMES but not one for Psychonauts 2?

Insanity.

John has directly confirmed via twitter that Psychonauts 2 will not be happening. He isn't doing it because he doesn't have time. I find that difficult to believe, but that's what he says. So there will be no Psychonauts 2 analysis at all from Digital Foundry.
 

assurdum

Banned
Difference shadows casting between the two console. Sometimes are missed on ps5, sometimes on XSX as there
medium-3.png
 

Zathalus

Member
The thing that probably contributes most to the resolution difference is the use of RTAO on the Series version. Using SSAO in Unreal over RTAO can improve FPS by 50%. Yeah, it is that heavy.
 

assurdum

Banned
The thing that probably contributes most to the resolution difference is the use of RTAO on the Series version. Using SSAO in Unreal over RTAO can improve FPS by 50%. Yeah, it is that heavy.
I don't think is even true only XSX uses RTAO imo. Anyway rethinking again, doesn't ps5 used RTAO in the Arkhane game in 4k mode?
Another shot about the shadow difference.
medium-4.png
 
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onQ123

Member
A game made to XBSX specs directly ported to PS5 would be bottlenecked by compute , a game made to PS5 specs directly ported to XBSX would be bottlenecked by fillrate & triangle rate . If devs have time in between the ports the best thing to do is make changes that fit the console they are porting to.
 

cormack12

Gold Member
Does the pop in on the collectible screens also happen on PS5. Always suspected it was an engine problem, just interested to know.

John has directly confirmed via twitter that Psychonauts 2 will not be happening. He isn't doing it because he doesn't have time. I find that difficult to believe, but that's what he says. So there will be no Psychonauts 2 analysis at all from Digital Foundry.

I think he made a follow up tweet more recently too. Saying he played it and enjoyed it and didn't really want to have to go back over it in a professsional capacity. Hes just happy with the time he spent with it and feels going over it with a more critical/analytical eye will take away from that.
 
John has directly confirmed via twitter that Psychonauts 2 will not be happening. He isn't doing it because he doesn't have time. I find that difficult to believe, but that's what he says. So there will be no Psychonauts 2 analysis at all from Digital Foundry.

Why does it need to be John? Regardless just looking at the content roster with a comparison of coverage it’s absurd.
 

Zathalus

Member
I don't think is even true XSX uses RTAO imo.
They confirmed it is using it in the video and it was further confirmed back when they did the original PC VS Series comparison. You can toggle it on/off on the PC version. It's using the bog standard RTAO implementation that Unreal offers. The lack of any shadow halo on the XSX version is proof enough of that.

As mentioned it is extremely taxing on the GPU, when enabling it on Ghostrunner it drops fps from 90 to 60 on a 2080ti.

I think they made the right call on the PS5, the slight visual difference is not worth the cost in performance.
 

assurdum

Banned
They confirmed it is using it in the video and it was further confirmed back when they did the original PC VS Series comparison. You can toggle it on/off on the PC version. It's using the bog standard RTAO implementation that Unreal offers. The lack of any shadow halo on the XSX version is proof enough of that.

As mentioned it is extremely taxing on the GPU, when enabling it on Ghostrunner it drops fps from 90 to 60 on a 2080ti.

I think they made the right call on the PS5, the slight visual difference is not worth the cost in performance.
Deathloop runs at the worst at 1836p res via DRS on ps5 with RTAO...
 
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Midn1ght

Member
I don't think is even true XSX uses RTAO imo. Another shot about the shadow difference.

From the DF Article :

"The first thing I noticed is a darker overall image on PS5. This isn't down to any changes in brightness, contrast or gamma, but rather because it looks like the developer has turned off the ray traced ambient occlusion on Xbox Series X in favour of a faster screen-space alternative, adding in halo artefacts and darkening the scene."

Something's wrong about that sentence or is it just me? He says the image is darker on PS5 then says RTAO was disabled on XSX. Maybe a mistake on his part.


LMjcIcu.png
 

Zathalus

Member
Deathloop runs at the worst at 1836p via DRS on ps5 with the same tech....
Completely different engine. Unreal RT settings are extremely taxing when compared to basically anything else. Hence why this game can even bring a 3090 to its knees.
 

assurdum

Banned
From the DF Article :

"The first thing I noticed is a darker overall image on PS5. This isn't down to any changes in brightness, contrast or gamma, but rather because it looks like the developer has turned off the ray traced ambient occlusion on Xbox Series X in favour of a faster screen-space alternative, adding in halo artefacts and darkening the scene."

Something's wrong about that sentence or is it just me? He says the image is darker on PS5 then says RTAO was disabled on XSX. Maybe a mistake on his part.


LMjcIcu.png
From this screen XSX not seems use RTAO as the pc. Look the borders of the object. On pc projecting a darker alone, not on XSX.
Never mind. Seems RTAO it's very subtle on XSX, and it works just in some scene (as raytracing reflection). I'm starting to think the omission on ps5 is more involuntary as the reflections, than a true choice by the developers.
 
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MrFunSocks

Banned
From the DF Article :

"The first thing I noticed is a darker overall image on PS5. This isn't down to any changes in brightness, contrast or gamma, but rather because it looks like the developer has turned off the ray traced ambient occlusion on Xbox Series X in favour of a faster screen-space alternative, adding in halo artefacts and darkening the scene."

Something's wrong about that sentence or is it just me? He says the image is darker on PS5 then says RTAO was disabled on XSX. Maybe a mistake on his part.


LMjcIcu.png
It's saying that the xbox version has RTAO but the PS5 doesn't.
 
John has directly confirmed via twitter that Psychonauts 2 will not be happening. He isn't doing it because he doesn't have time. I find that difficult to believe, but that's what he says. So there will be no Psychonauts 2 analysis at all from Digital Foundry.
I'm sure the 30 people who bought the game and the 150 who played it on GP for "Free" will be disappointed lol. Sorry but that's not a game many people care about, it wouldn't get views and being that there is no PS5 version to add to the mix it seems like those pushing for it just want to see the Series X win something where there is no competition. I'm surprised they even did the medium, it's not a good looking game nor a popular one.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
As DF said, it seems visual settings choices seem to influence the look of the game rather then the power of the machines.
With that said I think the choices made for the PS5 provide the better overall image. However I think the xsx could achieve similar results if the devs choose to do so.
 

Vognerful

Member
may
I don't think is even true only XSX uses RTAO imo. Anyway rethinking again, doesn't ps5 used RTAO in the Arkhane game in 4k mode?
Another shot about the shadow difference.
medium-4.png
Maybe because the game is "darker" so that the shadows are showing "sharper" on PS5.
 
As DF said, it seems visual settings choices seem to influence the look of the game rather then the power of the machines.
With that said I think the choices made for the PS5 provide the better overall image. However I think the xsx could achieve similar results if the devs choose to do so.
No offense, but this post should be used as the definition of cope.
 

assurdum

Banned
As DF said, it seems visual settings choices seem to influence the look of the game rather then the power of the machines.
With that said I think the choices made for the PS5 provide the better overall image. However I think the xsx could achieve similar results if the devs choose to do so.
Not necessarily.
 
What's psychonauts and why would anybody care?

The medium is interesting because its a actual next gen title that pushes hardware to the edge.

With logic like that why would anybody care about Touryst? Pretty silly. Psychonauts 2 is an absolutely beautiful looking game and also is running at 120fps on Series X and Series S. It has some of the most impressive and inventive level design out there. It's an artistic and visual tour de force that is quite strong in the technical department as well. If there's a game that ever deserves a technical analysis it's this one. Not quite sure how 'The Medium' pushes hardware more to the edge than Psychonauts 2 does when it doesn't even at least use the low level storage APIs to improve load times and has no 60fps performance mode.

Psychonauts 2 runs on Series S at native 1620p at 60fps and 1080p at 120fps, both modes appear locked or near it.
Psychonauts 2 runs on Series X at native 4K with a locked 60fps and native 1440p at a locked 120fps.

It definitely deserves a look.
 
Seems like between the two consoles the xsx is the clear winner. I tried the game on game pass and didn't enjoy it. For ps5 owners I'd say skip it

I'd go with the PS5 version personally. Even with the missing RT features or lower quality items, I prefer the higher resolution that produces the more visually better looking title with more solid performance because of the optimizations. Don't ever let anyone tell you I'm not consistent. My take will depend game by game, but in this game what they did with the PS5 version, to me, is the superior result due to the higher resolution and more consistent performance, though frame pacing has to be fixed.
 

assurdum

Banned
My scenario is just as likely as yours. Difference is I was just trying to piss you off and you were being serious.
Forgive me, are you sure it's me who is pissed off there? Just because I dare to say not necessarily resolution could go significantly higher on XSX just omitting selective RTAO uses, now we can say RTAO is impossible on ps5? We can be more underhand?
 
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Lognor

Banned
I'd go with the PS5 version personally. Even with the missing RT features or lower quality items, I prefer the higher resolution that produces the more visually better looking title with more solid performance because of the optimizations. Don't ever let anyone tell you I'm not consistent. My take will depend game by game, but in this game what they did with the PS5 version, to me, is the superior result due to the higher resolution and more consistent performance, though frame pacing has to be fixed.
Yeah those missing features are big losses so I could not recommend the ps5 version. The game is nice looking and losing those features is a big hit. Go with the xsx version. Plus it's on game pass.
 
Forgive me, are you sure it's me who is pissed off there? Just because I dare to say not necessarily resolution could go significantly higher on XSX just omitting selective RTAO uses, now we can say RTAO is impossible on ps5? We can be more underhand?
Yes, they are both bullshit scenarios. You just think yours is true.
 

assurdum

Banned
Yes, they are both bullshit scenarios. You just think yours is true.
There's an huge difference to say ps5 can render higher resolution games sometimes than RTAO was impossible on ps5. How in the hell such argumentations are remotely comparable? Seems you and some people have lost their mind just because lately two games showed higher resolution on ps5 :messenger_pensive:
 
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Duchess

Member
Rather odd. I thought the PS5 version has come off worse, but DF seem to think it's an improvement over the XSX.
 

Lysandros

Member
What a curious case of study this version is.. Reading the article, the worst pixel count is 720P for XSX and 1188P for PS5, that's easily more than 100% more pixels, at the cost of reduced RT settings, with still higher overall FPS prone to frame pacing problems. But i still think that PS5 version is very far from ideal. I can only call those loading times 'disastrous' considering the significant gulf in I/O hardware.
 
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Seems to be a pretty mixed release again, I know that they've improved the original release but not to the point where I'd really like it to be.
I'm not sure if Blooper Team feel that this is done now but somewhere between the two console releases is really where things should be, I know they took a while to sort some of the issues out with original release so hopefully there will be updates for this version too with the final goal seeing both versions benefiting from what they've learned and ideally there being a choice in both versions to prioritise either fidelity or performance with both versions
I'm still not that interested in the game that I'd buy it without it being heavily discounted first. I know that some people have loved the game and that's really good to see but I always calculate what I'm willing to pay on what I believe that I'll get out of the game and what else I could be doing with that limited gaming time that I do have.
I was going to suggest moving from 60fps to 30fps...then I remembered that it's 30fps already.
 
I'm sure the 30 people who bought the game and the 150 who played it on GP for "Free" will be disappointed lol. Sorry but that's not a game many people care about, it wouldn't get views and being that there is no PS5 version to add to the mix it seems like those pushing for it just want to see the Series X win something where there is no competition. I'm surprised they even did the medium, it's not a good looking game nor a popular one.

It doesn't get more ridiculous than this. Console wars is real.
 
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