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PS5 Tempest Engine Is More Exciting Than GPU/CPU Speeds, Says Developer

IbizaPocholo

NeoGAFs Kent Brockman

Speaking with GamingBolt, Halestorm said that the Tempest engine personally excites him more than other aspects of the PS5’s hardware, like its CPU or its clock speed, and is looking forward to how it can help get people more immersed in games with better audio.

“You know, features like the Tempest excite me more than GPUs and GPU speeds,” Halestorm said. “For me, there are other ways to get invested and immersed in a game than impressive visuals; audio – and in specific directional audio – is one of those ways, at least for me.”
 
As an avid headset user I’m pretty excited that we are seeing an emphasis on audio advancements with next gen consoles. Love it when a game’s audio just really adds to the immersion. Days Gone had really solid audio, from what I remember.

Personally, rendering power is probably what gets me most excited but it’s all gravy. To each their own. Scorn dev is most excited about CPU, this dev most excited for Tempest, a flavor for everyone next gen

LionWing Publishing, who recently brought over bullet hell shoot em up The Adventures of Ten and Till to the west.[/quote ]

Anyone playing this? Wonder if it’s a good game
 
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Looks like Bradly Halestorm had more comments for Gamingbolt:


On Variable Frequency:

As Halestorm notes, “Variable frequency is an interesting discussion in the console world, primarily because it’s never been a discussion in the console world. Sony’s stated that the PS5 will alter CPU and GPU frequency in way that allows developers not to have to worry about it, which is what you would say if you were trying to court developers and also put them at ease.

“Microsoft is taking the opposite approach; they’re touting the Series X’s fixed frequencies. It’s fascinating to see how the two companies are going about nudging developers into the coming gen.”

On MS Cross-Gen Support:

I don’t mean to punt on this answer as well, but I’m not sure. The cross-gen stuff is interesting and is a very consumer-first strategy.

“I do think, however, that the further we get into this next console cycle – and thereby the further we get away from the current one – the more we’ll see if there truly is an advantage in that cross-gen policy.

“Right now, it’s smart to promote cross-gen within your own family of consoles; after all, not everyone will upgrade to a PS5 or XSX this November or even next year. But 4 years down the road, will developers still be as willing to allocate resources to ensuring that their game runs on a console from the previous generation that is, at that point, nearly half a decade old? I’m not so certain.”
 
And once again "directional audio" on stereo speaker headsets. Yay!

We need better devices :mad:

For reals tho, this video helps explain to people that they should just get better stereo headsets.

 
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Matsuchezz

Member
On the UE5 demo, i first watched it on my tv speakers and the rocks falling into the chasm sound really good, but on my headset the sound was on another level, I do not know if that was part of the Tempest Engine, or it was all part of UE5, but it was awesome.
When you take into account the sum of all PS5 parts being the Tempest Engine, Dual Sense and SSD secret Sauce, and on top of that the games, you realize the whole package will be really great!
 

GHG

Gold Member
I already have that. It's called surround sound. I'd rather have a faster GPU/CPU.

Very few games take proper advantage of 5.1 (and above) setups.

This is about improving the impact of multidirectional audio.

If you actually have a surround sound system then there's no reason for you to not be excited by the prospect of something like this.
 
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Riven326

Banned
Very few games take proper advantage of 5.1 (and above) setups.
Most games I play take advantage of it. The thing is, this bullshit about stereo, which is what most people use, being transformed into surround systems by using Tempest, is nothing more than marketing and hype. They always do this with consoles because the product itself is little more than an underpowered PC, and that's difficult to market.

I have a 5.1 system. It works great for games. What I need is a system that has enough power to drive my 4k display. So far it seems like Xbox is offering more bang for my buck. But in the end I might just skip the consoles and build a PC this generation.
 
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GHG

Gold Member
Most games I play take advantage of it. The thing is, this bullshit about stereo, which is what most people use, being transformed into surround systems by using Tempest, is nothing more than marketing and hype. They always do this with consoles because the product itself is little more than an underpowered PC, and that's difficult to market.

I have a 5.1 system. It works great for games. What I need is a system that has enough power to drive my 4k display. So far it seems like Xbox is offering more bang for my buck. But in the end I might just skip the consoles and a PC this generation.

The problem is that too many games are designed with stereo users in mind and/or the sound proximity is off. Play something like Hellblade and then pretty much anything else and the difference is stark. We need that level of audio immersion in all games.

Personally I count give a fuck about driving 4k if that results in a bunch of 30fps games, with substandard audio but that why I primarily game at 1440p 120hz and have an atmos setup that I can take advantage of on PC.

High refresh rate on a high quality display + high quality audio = gaming nirvana
 

GHG

Gold Member
Riven326 Riven326 also watch Skill Up's review of Hunt Showdown from the timestamp below (7 minutes in of it doesn't work):



We need more games with this level of consideration and effort going into audio. Anything that allows developers to achieve that in an easier way is a good thing in my book.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Microsoft fans shouldn't be offended by PS5's tempest engine, work your magic SONY.
Offended by what ? They were the first to use Spatial Audio(software only implementation) on Xbox One X with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and WiSA. Xbox Series X will use its own dedicated audio chip for Spatial Audio with their own Windows Sonic along with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
And then there is Audio Ray Tracing(Sony hardly talks about Ray Tracing in general) and Project Acoustics.
The only way to know which is better is when an actual 3rd party game using Spatial Audio and 3D Audio is covered by an audiophile on YouTube. Till then its just a bunch of fanboys acting smart on an internet forum and accusing anyone not agreeing with them of console warring.
 
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Bradly Halestorm said:
Variable frequency is an interesting discussion in the console world, primarily because it’s never been a discussion in the console world. Sony’s stated that the PS5 will alter CPU and GPU frequency in way that allows developers not to have to worry about it, which is what you would say if you were trying to court developers and also put them at ease.

Microsoft is taking the opposite approach; they’re touting the Series X’s fixed frequencies. It’s fascinating to see how the two companies are going about nudging developers into the coming gen.
This is very interesting. I would love to know why Sony went with variable clock frequencies over fixed. Especially if they will try and put developers at ease with their choice. Has there been any write-ups that detail how variable clock frequencies are more beneficial than fixed with regards to console game development? If its not more beneficial why do it?
 
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.Pennywise

Banned
You know what's the boring part of a new gen?
This. Developers babling around.

Just show the damn games, that's how we see "how exciting and good and next gen, and the real deal, and blablabla" is.
 

Riven326

Banned
The problem is that too many games are designed with stereo users in mind and/or the sound proximity is off. Play something like Hellblade and then pretty much anything else and the difference is stark. We need that level of audio immersion in all games.

Personally I count give a fuck about driving 4k if that results in a bunch of 30fps games, with substandard audio but that why I primarily game at 1440p 120hz and have an atmos setup that I can take advantage of on PC.

High refresh rate on a high quality display + high quality audio = gaming nirvana
Yeah. I do miss the high frame rates of PC gaming. But I really like the big screen experience my 4k tv offers. If I go PC this next generation I will at least be back to playing at 60hz.
 

tmlDan

Member
i mean when the gpu is underwhelming then of course youll be more excited by an audio engine

Well good thing it isn't, huh?

But that's cool, Audio and Speed seem to be a big focus for both Sony and MS. I'm excited because both have been lackluster this gen.
 
Problem is, no matter how good the signal source is and nor the features that are driving it, crap headphones, amps and speakers will still sound crap.

Even stereo alone can sound amazing, but you need to spend a pretty penny to achieve it.
 

ToadMan

Member
This is very interesting. I would love to know why Sony went with variable clock frequencies over fixed. Especially if they will try and put developers at ease with their choice. Has there been any write-ups that detail how variable clock frequencies are more beneficial than fixed with regards to console game development? If its not more beneficial why do it?

Sony didn’t go for variable clock over fixed.

Sony decided to go for a “unified” power solution and the side effect was variable clocks (and a quieter console!). This is a solution used all over the place in various forms but this is a first for consoles.

In choosing to go this route, Sony can run their gpu harder - it’s got a 2.2Ghz max clock. Very high for a gpu - 20% faster than Xsex. When it’s doing a lot of work with such a high clock it’ll consume a lot power.

If they had a discrete power allocation for the gpu they wouldn’t be able to utilise it heavily before it hit its power limit while the cpu meanwhile sat there doing nothing with it’s power allocation.

Dynamically allocating power between the cpu/gpu as work load requires, allows the gpu to do more per clock tick if it needs to at the expense of cpu power allocation (or in some cases a cpu declock).

Code optimisation for power use will offer benefits of course. Well optimised code would allow the gpu and cpu to run at max clock all the time.

But if the designer prefers to push better graphics they can load up the gpu with the trade off of running less work on the cpu. If the developer fails to get the balance right the cpu will declock automatically to avoid exceeding its power budget.
 
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INC

Member
And once again "directional audio" on stereo speaker headsets. Yay!

We need better devices :mad:

For reals tho, this video helps explain to people that they should just get better stereo headsets.




i just use my studio headphones, sound 10x better than any 'gaming' headset
 

RespawnX

Member
Developer: "(...)the Tempest engine personally excites him more(...)"
GAF: "PS5 Tempest Engine Is More Exciting Than GPU/CPU Speeds, Says Developer"

Does anyone want to bet who will first make a clickbait news from the personal opinion that is formulated as fact in the title? Title wording is misleading ...

I bet on a gaming blog that no one has heard of before.
Soon we'll have a thread that transformed this opinion to a universal fact.

GAF -> Internet -> GAF

This is the way!
 
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Snake29

RSI Employee of the Year
Offended by what ? They were the first to use Spatial Audio(software only implementation) on Xbox One X with Dolby Atmos, DTS:X and WiSA. Xbox Series X will use its own dedicated audio chip for Spatial Audio with their own Windows Sonic along with support for Dolby Atmos and DTS:X.
And then there is Audio Ray Tracing(Sony hardly talks about Ray Tracing in general) and Project Acoustics.
The only way to know which is better is when an actual 3rd party game using Spatial Audio and 3D Audio is covered by an audiophile on YouTube. Till then its just a bunch of fanboys acting smart on an internet forum and accusing anyone not agreeing with them of console warring.

Sony mentioned Ray Traced Audio back in 2019 with the first wired article, long before Microsoft.
 

Bernkastel

Ask me about my fanboy energy!
Sony mentioned Ray Traced Audio back in 2019 with the first wired article, long before Microsoft.
Thats why I said "Sony hardly talks about Ray Tracing in general ". It was completely absent from their GDC talk. Ultimately, we dont know anything until an actual 3rd party comparison.
 
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