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Digital Foundry: Lords of the Fallen: PS5/Xbox Series X/S Tech Review - A Stunning Reboot With Ongoing Tech Issues

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?



Even a month on from its release, the 2023 reboot of Lords of the Fallen still has clear issues on console and PC. The use of Unreal Engine 5 allows for lumen and nanite technologies here, and this is a true current-gen PS5, Xbox Series X and S game. However this technology isn't optimised well for its 60fps performance mode on console - with extreme hang-ups dragging play down to single digit frame-rates.


00:00 Introduction
02:24 Xbox Series S Performance
06:08 Xbox Series X Performance
08:44 PlayStation 5 Performance + Three-Way Perf Comparison
10:14 30fps Quality Mode
11:19 Mode Comparison
14:29 Verdict
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Lots of stutters and hitches, especially on Series S where the frame rate can momentarily tank to the single digits. PS5 is the best of the bunch because it has less traversal stutters than the Xboxes. Series X is far from perfect but is a lot better than Series S, especially on Performance Mode. Frame rate and resolution on SX and PS5 is comparable. I think the range goes from 648p to 1152p in Performance Mode. Neither console does a great job at maintaining 60fps but they can hit semi-frequently.

Uneven frame pacing in the 30fps mode and resolution goes 1296 to 1620. Also better shadows and and image stability though because the frame pacing is so bad, Tom doesn't recommend this mode.

I'll let adamsapple do the summary.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
- Held back by technical issues on consoles. Built only for new-gen consoles.
- UE5 game. Nanite and Lumen used extensively.
- Realm switching mechanic is impressive but game has not been stable at launch even after a months worth of patches.
- Game contains 30 FPS Quality and 60 FPS Performance mode.

60 FPS Performance Mode:

- Series S:

- Worst case scenario. 60 FPS is often too high a target despite dynamic 720p (lowest of 432p)
- 40 to 60 FPS range, can drop to mid 20's in stressful boss battles.
- Image quality is quite poor because of the very low resolution.
- Frame times can also drop and can cause game to run in single digit frames for a few seconds.
- Eventually settles at regular frame rate after a few seconds. Less frequent than at launch but the issue still remains.
- Longer play sessions can cause it to happen more frequently.

- Series X:
- Every area where Series S dropped in 30s or 40s, SX retains 60 FPS almost entirely.
- Same stress boss battle can drop to mid 40s where Series S dropped to mid 20s
- Resolution: Dynamic 1152p with lowed 684p. DRS can reach higher when looking at sky.
- Hitching and traversal stutters still present, can have full game pauses to 00 FPS for a few seconds.
- Closing and restarting the game fixes this.

- PS5:
- Identical to SX in visual setting and general frame rate testing
- Hitching and frame time spikes are reduced over either Xbox consoles on PS5
- Same areas which see bigger lurches on either Xbox have smaller/minor ones comparatively.

- 30 FPS Quality Mode: (all consoles)
- All consoles have uneven frame pacing in 30 FPS
- PS5/SX use DRS 1620p with lows of 1296p
- More pixels to work with so IQ is much better.
- Series S: DRS 972p with lows of 648p
- Quality mode generally runs at 30 FPS all the time with minor frame time spikes.
- Massive lurches seen in Performance mode are not seen in Quality mode.

- Quality mode also has higher shadow quality, higher volumetric lighting, higher quality SSR.
- Shadow and geometry LoD differences also present in favor of Quality mode.
- DF still recommends the Performance mode but clear that there's a notable trade-off.
- Game was missing foliage on PS5 at launch which has been added via post-release patches.
- Series S has visual cutbacks like worse volumetric, texture quality and geometry.
- "The price to pay to reach 60 FPS with lumen and nanite"

- Conclusion
- Still a compromised experience on consoles.
- Other quirks: No setting to disable adaptive triggers on PS5 and no way to change HUD options (which go in overscan area) on Xbox right now.
 
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Luipadre

Member
The image quality this gen is so awful. We going backwards. The high quality assets and materials doesnt matter if you play these games at such low resolution upscaled with shit FSR. I miss the PS4 pro era image quality

Cerny should come up with some black magic tech in the PS6 to do some insane upscaling, because ho boy this is rough
 
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Zathalus

Member
Yeah Lumen and Nanite at 60fps is simply too much for these consoles. Almost all the UE5 titles work well at 30, but 60 is just too much. Sub 900p resolution and performance drops on the lot of them.
 

Darsxx82

Member
The game launched in a mess (even in an unplayable state on Xbox according to the Studio itself)... and still leaves a lot to be desired a month later.

Stoppages at even 0 fps and having to restart the console to solve them is the most unpleasant thing that can happen to you while you are enjoying a game and breaks the entire immersion.

PS. Coincidentally, a new patch was released today with performance improvements on all platforms. It would be interesting to know if there is any improvement in those fps cuts to single digits
 
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Bernardougf

Member
People wanted "trully next gen" games ....well.. enjoy it I guess...

I'll never understand wanting to pay the minimum possible for hardware (in 2020) and expect three years later to be at the cutting edge of graphical gaming at the same time.

Give me a stable game at 60 fps and fuck all the pretty lights and reflections...
 

Elysium44

Banned
First time I've heard of this game, just had a quick look at the video and the graphics look like nothing the Xbox 360 didn't do at 60fps 720p like Devil May Cry 4 or Bayonetta? But now two gens later a game like this runs at 432p 20fps with stutters on much more powerful hardware? Is it lack of developer talent these days?
 

GymWolf

Member
That part must be about the PC version. Stunning with near perfect IQ.
I played the game maxed out on pc, it doesn't really look better than demons remake from 2 years ago, stunning is a big word to describe the game.

It can look great but it is very uneven.
 

ripjoel

Member
We haven't seen what AAA studios can do with ue5 yet.(without management rushing them).

witcher remake, senua 2, gears 6, tomb raider, indiana jones, mass effect, max payne remake, stalker 2, new star wars jedi, silent hill remake, mgs 3 remake, mgs 4 remake

lol lots of remakes
 

GymWolf

Member
We haven't seen what AAA studios can do with ue5 yet.(without management rushing them).

witcher remake, senua 2, gears 6, tomb raider, indiana jones, mass effect, max payne remake, stalker 2, new star wars jedi, silent hill remake, mgs 3 remake, mgs 4 remake

lol lots of remakes
Robocop is the king of ue5 games for now.
 

Darsxx82

Member
We haven't seen what AAA studios can do with ue5 yet.(without management rushing them).

witcher remake, senua 2, gears 6, tomb raider, indiana jones, mass effect, max payne remake, stalker 2, new star wars jedi, silent hill remake, mgs 3 remake, mgs 4 remake

lol lots of remakes

Is Indiana Jones UE5??

Is there any indication that Machine Games Studios is now using UE5 instead of IDtech?
 
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Mr Moose

Member
Is Indiana Jones UE5??

Is there any indication that Machine Games Studios is now using UE5 instead of IDtech?
Rumour last year about it.
 

SABRE220

Member
Stunning hardly sadly, their fake bullshots made the heavy downgrade all the more disappointing. Demons souls looks better, runs much better, and is far more polished. The studio isnt exactly known for their technical proficiency but I would be lying if I said I'm not concerned about the state of ue5 on these consoles.
 
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intbal

Member
wVCksXP.jpg
 

Darsxx82

Member
Rumour last year about it.
It could be an indication, yes.

Let's wait for a confirmation. Mixed feelings because I love ID Tech and they are probably preparing IDtech 7. But I think that perhaps UE5 is more versatile for an adventure game and natural environments that is supposed to be Indiana Jones.

On the other hand, we are seeing that the change to UE5 is not being a cake walk for the Studios and delays and launches with problems are typical...

Hopefully gameplay will be presented in 2024. I'm looking forward to knowing what vision Machines Games and Todd have for a game with Indi as the protagonist.
 
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Tarnpanzer

Member
Damn, image quality is really bad in the performance mode. Play this on a beefy PC or don´t play this at all is my verdict when looking at the console versions.
 

Fbh

Member
UE5 on current consoles sucks.
Maybe it will be decent on Ps6/Next Box, but by then they'll release UE6 which will look slightly better and run like crap.
We haven't seen what AAA studios can do with ue5 yet.(without management rushing them).

witcher remake, senua 2, gears 6, tomb raider, indiana jones, mass effect, max payne remake, stalker 2, new star wars jedi, silent hill remake, mgs 3 remake, mgs 4 remake

lol lots of remakes

I guess I should be happy we got 3 years of 60fps and nice IQ on console.

Moving forward it seems it's back to 1080p at 30fps.
 
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Darsxx82

Member
Less traversal stutters on PS5 is not a surprise as it was already the case in Matrix Demo. I wonder where does come from? Maybe because PS5 has much faster I/O and they actually use it now in UE5?

There doesn't seem to be those big freezes on PS5 either. Didn't a dev recently reveal they also had memory problems on XSX in their UE5 game?
Of course, that's why at launch it was much worse and now it's thrown at certain points. That is why the problem does not exist in quality mode, and that is why the same problem does not occur in any of the games with UE5 released recently (and there have been many)....

Apart from the fact that "the dev" you mentioned have not said such a thing and also their game works in XSX up to 11 fps advantage and nothing similar to those 0fps sttuterf happens.

But OK, let's think better that the only logical response to those microsttuters at 0 fps is the reason for hardware I/O limitations vs PS5 🙃

PS. More recently Robocop Rogue City is also UE5 and there is no such type of slowdown at 0 fps, which all points to painful optimization.
 
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sinnergy

Member
I have no idea what the point of stuff like nanite is when the image quality is so bad you can't even notice it.


HEY GUYS WE ELIMINATED GEOMETRY POP-IN

Un8lOPI.png
You don’t need to get it, if we tech savvy get it, we support progress in technology even if it takes some hurdles to be taken care of.
Less traversal stutters on PS5 is not a surprise as it was already the case in Matrix Demo. I wonder where does come from? Maybe because PS5 has much faster I/O and they actually use it now in UE5?

There doesn't seem to be those big freezes on PS5 either. Didn't a dev recently reveal they also had memory problems on XSX in their UE5 game?
Probably Higher clocks in the PS5 and UE being almost single threaded and what not … they hardly max ssd bandwidth. Allan Wake 2 for example looks like to be using more.
 
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You don’t need to get it, if we tech savvy get it, we support progress in technology even if it takes some hurdles to be taken care of.
Probably Higher clocks in the PS5 and UE being almost single threaded and what not … they hardly max ssd bandwidth. Allan Wake 2 for example looks like to be using more.
Traversal stutters are usually caused by I/O. It's not about SSD bandwidth. There could be about 1000 things that slow down things between the rendered frame and SSD storage. Among those things is I/O pipeline.
 

StereoVsn

Gold Member
We haven't seen what AAA studios can do with ue5 yet.(without management rushing them).

witcher remake, senua 2, gears 6, tomb raider, indiana jones, mass effect, max payne remake, stalker 2, new star wars jedi, silent hill remake, mgs 3 remake, mgs 4 remake

lol lots of remakes
I have yet to see any indication that a major studio will do a better job with UE5 than all the current releases with middling performance.

We got Jedi Survivor, Hogwarts, and Starfield as some examples of major studio work this year. And that was older engines with still shit performance.
 

Zathalus

Member
Less traversal stutters on PS5 is not a surprise as it was already the case in Matrix Demo. I wonder where does come from? Maybe because PS5 has much faster I/O and they actually use it now in UE5?

There doesn't seem to be those big freezes on PS5 either. Didn't a dev recently reveal they also had memory problems on XSX in their UE5 game?
This game is such a shit show technically using it to claim anything regarding the relative strength of the consoles is disingenuous. It's had 9 patches since launch and is still a utter mess.

The big freezes are obviously a bug, considering it only happens after 2 hours of play and is fixed by restarting the game. That is what is known as a memory leak and even if the X had more memory it would still happen, it will just take longer to get to that point. Not even the S had this severe of a issue.
 
It's up to developers to balance visuals and performance. The Matrix demo still looks crisp on XSS, even with the low resolution (outside of the artifacting around the character) and looks fantastic on XSX. Clearly, there is a point where pushing the visuals too far drops the base resolution so low that the graphics can't really be appreciated. Some of these early UE5 games would have been much better served by having a little less detail and a clearer image, IMO.
 

Lysandros

Member
What's with that narrative framing at the conclusion which paints the performance state as bad in PS5 and XSX contradicting the whole video? PS5 FPS simply doesn't remotely drop as much/low as XSX (which freezes essentially), why it is so hard to outright say that the PS5 version is the least problematic and most playable currently Tom? AW2 runs considerably better on XSX, this one runs better on PS5, just stick to the facts without manipulative framing.
 

Lysandros

Member
Traversal stutters are usually caused by I/O. It's not about SSD bandwidth. There could be about 1000 things that slow down things between the rendered frame and SSD storage. Among those things is I/O pipeline.
Of course. Still the analyst has yet to mention the I/O hardware in any of his comparison videos. In this one he points to the CPU in XSS case in particular, while being mute about XSX. By the way i still think the single digits drops on series consoles can be significantly improved (at least) with further patches.
 
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sinnergy

Member
It's up to developers to balance visuals and performance. The Matrix demo still looks crisp on XSS, even with the low resolution (outside of the artifacting around the character) and looks fantastic on XSX. Clearly, there is a point where pushing the visuals too far drops the base resolution so low that the graphics can't really be appreciated. Some of these early UE5 games would have been much better served by having a little less detail and a clearer image, IMO.
I don’t think it matters how much detail there is with nanite .. that is the whole point of the system. something else is going on. Do they use world partition ?
 
I don’t think it matters how much detail there is with nanite .. that is the whole point of the system. something else is going on. Do they use world partition ?

I really don't know what specific thing they should cut back, but I think they are pushing a bit too far in some way or another. If the final image is too soft or is breaking up, it kind of defeats the purpose of the features.
 

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Of course. Yet the analyst has yet to mention the I/O hardware in any of his comparison videos. In this one he points to the CPU in XSS case in particular, while being mute about XSX. By the way i still think the single digits drops on series consoles can be significantly improved (at least) with further patches.
I'm sure this game is gonna get lots of patches in the coming days, the game didn't have foliage on PS5 at launch either. Clearly this is coming in very hot. The IO and traversal stutters are way too severe to be 'normal'.
 
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