Armored Core 6: a brilliant game with the standard From performance issues
After an 11 year absence, the Armored Core series jet-boosts back into action with Armored Core 6: Fires of Rubicon. An…
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The truth is that despite its different, mission-based game structure, Armored Core 6 does still share its technical DNA with Elden Ring, in that it uses the same engine. Based on Tweets from modder Lance McDonald, it's the same From Software technology, though put to work on a wildly different concept. The high fantasy, seamlessly traversable world of Elden Ring - its knights and magic - are replaced by bleak, futuristic areas, often segmented by the mission. We get giant warring mechs, thundering across its world at breakneck speed. We get explosive battles, going from tanks in the city to a colossal, weaponised mining ship. The sense of scale is often awe-inspiring, but can the technology handle it?
Let's kick off then with the graphics modes. There are three choices on PS5, Series X and Series S - and they work similarly to Elden Ring. Taking PS5 as an example, frame-rate mode and quality mode differ mainly in resolution. The quality mode runs at a fixed 3840x2160 resolution, even with big frame-rate drops, backed by a form of temporal anti-aliasing. However the frame-rate mode is a more sensible pick all round, in that it dynamically adjusts image quality based on how near or far it is from 60fps. So, at maximum it targets 4K in simpler scenes, and then its lower bound comes in at 2688x1512 - the same as Elden Ring. If the frame-rate is still going below 60fps with the resolution bottoming out at 1512p, the game doesn't adjust any further and the frame-rate drops become greater.
Armored Core 6 - the Digital Foundry video review, covering all current-gen consoles, along with PS4 Pro code running on PS5 with the expected performance uplift.
All of this applies to Series X of course. And straight up, I'd be looking to use the frame-rate mode from the moment you boot the game, simply because holding 60fps makes such a difference to the feel of Armored Core 6's gameplay. That said, the frame-rate mode is slightly simplified: you'll notice environmental shadows take a hit in quality compared to quality mode. This is the most significant drawback honestly. It's not pretty, and to be clear it only affects world shadows - not the shadows from your mech, which remain sharp. Also, it's worth noting this shadow quality setting is dynamic in nature while using the frame-rate mode - in much the same way as the resolution is dynamic. So, for example, if we drop the rendering load by looking straight at the ground in frame-rate mode, the shadow quality boosts to a higher preset. Give it a second, and it matches the quality mode shadows, and yes the overall resolution switches to 4K. Inevitably, looking back up to see the environment in all its complexity, the GPU rendering load spikes sharply. The frame-rate then tumbles as a result, below 60fps, and to restore PS5 and Series X to 60fps the shadows fall back to a pixellated, lower setting.
It's a clever system. Unfortunately, these settings changes - the dynamic resolution and shadows - do take a few seconds to kick in, meaning you'll still often see performance drops. Either way it's the best mode we have and worth the tradeoff to get closer to 60fps. Otherwise, geometry and foliage draw, texture resolution and the shadows from mechs themselves are all a match between these two particular options. The only other discrepancy is in screen-space reflection quality - SSR - which appears marginally higher resolution on quality mode. Also, one final point: Armored Core 6's cutscenes run at the same resolution and visual settings, regardless of mode chosen. Or in other words: in-engine cut-scenes switch to quality mode regardless of how it's set in the menus, and render at 4K.
With all of this in mind, there is one final option to try: the ray tracing mode. This is common to all current-gen consoles, though only engages with the quality mode selected. Unfortunately, it also only affects the garage portion - a small hangar where your mech is stored, essentiallyl, which is quite unlike Elden Ring where RT ambient occlusion and RT shadows actually engaged in gameplay itself. The application of ray tracing here is simply rather limited. Even in comparison, the before and after is subtle: the mech's metal chassis benefits from ray traced ambient occlusion - enhancing the shading in every corner. There's potentially RT shadows too, far below the deck, though this is much harder to catch. In summary, the use of ray tracing isn't a radical one - though From Software does at least include a photo mode to capture the details of your mech with it enabled.
The turnout of the three modes across the three consoles is straightforward. We've already talked about the quality and performance modes and these are a complete match between Series X and PlayStation 5. More interesting though is the Series S situation. In quality mode on Series S, the resolution is a fixed 1440p, while if we swap to its frame-rate mode, this becomes a dynamic 1440p instead, scaling down to 1792x1008 at lowest. Expectedly, shadows use the same dynamic system in frame-rate mode as PS5 and Series X, too. Though, it's worth noting Series S still runs at lower visual settings generally compared to the more powerful machines. The shadows - even in the best-case - are of a lower quality than PS5 and Series X, while texture quality, shadow draw distance and geometry are also dialled back, resulting in slightly more pop-in for select elements. Series S does hold up well visually in general, but it does make concessions to preserve its frame-rate.
All of which leads us to the key topic of performance, where Armored Core 6 runs with an unlocked frame-rate in both quality and frame-rate modes - but with an at times loose grasp on the target 60fps. Looking at quality mode, potentially there's scope for PS5 or Series X to hit the top 60fps line by looking directly up at the sky - but that's all. Sadly, the fixed 4K resolution on each console, the higher-grade shadows, drag the frame-rate into the 30-45fps region during any real action. The game runs at its best around the opening hangar area, closer to the 45fps lin, but the net result is that even a VRR-supporting display will struggle to hide the perceptible judder from sub-40 drops. Worse still, the game is also prone to lurches into the high-20s. I've barely scratched the surface of Armored Core 6's huge campaign - but the climax of the Strider battle has a huge sub-30fps stress point on both PS5 and Series X.