Digital Foundry: Forspoken on PlayStation 5 - What Works and What Doesn't

[thelastword]

Forspoken has three modes: Performance, RT and Quality.

Performance has a target of 1440p using FSR2, RT and Quality target 2160p using FSR2.

Both modes are 60fps and 120fps compatible..


Strengths of the engine/game:
Characters/character detail/clothing, Foliage. Foliage System, Animation work, Particle effects, Large worlds/parkour traversal systems. Map system, Loadtimes. Accessibility options is a highlight of the game. I think Alex will like the PC version for that alone.



Weaknesses of the engine/game:

Indirect Lighting, weak AO which just seems to trace edge contacts, Issues with textures in cutscenes, also animation blending issues in cutscenes. Also an issue with Asset Placement and Blending.


My thoughts: I think Forspoken does lots right technically, characters and models are excellent, the foliage system is remarkable, animation work is superb for the most part minus some cutscene issues. Particle effects are superb. Some may ask, why is it so heavy then, the particle effects are GPU generated, it has shadows RT and the worlds are massive. If you combine detailed character/npc's/creatures, an ambitious foliage system/particles system/alpha in a massive open world game, then it will cost. On a technical level, their ability to do so with parkour traversal where all the detail of the world is drawn at an alarmingly quick rate is quite impressive tbh, this whilst also maintaining maybe the best loading times we've seen in an open world game thus far.

It may be though that aspects of the graphics had to take a hit in the game world, some high quality texture assets, lighting and AO had to be dialed down to avoid more stutter and framedrops in a fast moving parkour system. It could be that they should have focused on baking the lighting more particularly in varying conditions for better results, but good AO can cost, especially in an open world. Having said that, it will be interesting what Alex's take is, I think he will love this game based on the menu system and accessibilty options alone, but we shall see. Also, I'm sure he will have something to say on the lighting as he did for HAlo Infinite, but if he is not biased, no one can not praise the foliage system/particles system and character detail at least....

Lastly, I must make some comparisons to a game which came to mind, whilst watching John's review....Control.... That game received lots of praise by some, I thought it was bland in many parts, mostly indoors. Yet characters are better in Forspoken, effects are better in Forspoken, an area where they both excel. RT is better in Control no doubt, but I think these two games share quite a bit whilst Forspoken excels over it in animations, characters and a larger world with better traversal.

 

[Satoru]

I agree with the analysis. The open world instantly reminded me of Halo Infinite in some scenes. Performance is absolutely appalling.

 

[adamsapple]

 

[rofif]

Yeah it dips but not constant so far

 

[ethomaz]

I agree with the analysis. The open world instantly reminded me of Halo Infinite in some scenes. Performance is absolutely appalling.

Comparisons a part this game looks better than Halo Infinte.

 

[Old Gamer]

Hard to justify this game...

 

[ethomaz]

Hard to justify this game...

I don’t know.
I only know what made me not buy it day one.
But I think it has pros that will make a lot of gamers happy.

Just remember I’m a guy that always felt that Assassin Creed game were the peak or boredom but that million of people found fun in it.

I think Forspoken has it place… it does a lot of thing good.

Let’s see how the market will take it.

 

[thelastword]

Mostly in quality mode, those vistas, long draw distance, particles do take effect at times in this mode. Linneman recommends the RT mode as the sweet spot for visuals and framerate. If you want it to run best obviously, there is framerate mode..

Hard to justify this game...

Some may choose to wait, but technically and in many ways I think the dev team did a lot of good work here. They are actually setting the standard on a few things.

 

[rofif]

Mostly in quality mode, those vistas, long draw distance, particles do take effect at times in this mode. Linneman recommends the RT mode as the sweet spot for visuals and framerate. If you want it to run best obviously, there is framerate mode..



Some may choose to wait, but technically and in many ways I think the dev team did a lot of good work here. They are actually setting the standard on a few things.

I wish we could just have normal good TAA instead of FSR. FSR breakup is really severe. I don't like fsr

 

[thelastword]

I wish we could just have normal good TAA instead of FSR. FSR breakup is really severe. I don't like fsr

I concur. I'm a big proponent of options. TAA + Native would look great.....Also, I know many people are just looking for negatives generally, but the hair in this game is also a highlight as well as the physics associated with most things, hair clothing, foliage, the environment.

EDIT:

It's a heavy game overall, even on PC. In the video below DLSS 2 had to be used to get better framerates on a 4080. Hopefully more optimization patches roll in as time goes by...

- Forspoken features 3 graphics modes on PS5: Quality, Ray-Tracing and Performance.
- Quality mode features better textures, draw distance and higher resolution (1728p on average).
- Ray-Tracing mode decreases resolution (1512p on average), texture quality and draw distance to present better shadows on some elements, but not on reflections or overall lighting.

- Performance mode has the same cuts in textures and draw distance as Ray-Tracing mode, as well as limiting its resolution to 1440p dynamic with temporal reconstruction. Despite the visual sacrifices, it does not maintain a stable 60fps.

- Forspoken supports 120Hz, however, this mode limits the maximum resolution to 1440p in all display modes. Ray-Tracing and Quality modes reach 40fps at 120hz, while Performance mode remains at 60fps.

- As for the PC version, the graphics settings are very similar to the PS5 Quality mode, improving the drawing distance and shadows by RT.
- Despite not having detected bugs or experiencing crashes on PC, it is a poorly optimized version. We barely achieved an average of 40fps using the equipment mentioned above, forcing us to use DLSS or FSR to get an acceptable framerate. Load times are very fast on both platforms, slightly faster on PC.

 

[rofif]

I concur. I'm a big proponent of options. TAA + Native would look great.....Also, I know many people are just looking for negatives generally, but the hair in this game is also a highlight as well as the physics associated with most things, hair clothing, foliage, the environment.

EDIT:

It's a heavy game overall, even on PC. In the video below DLSS 2 had to be used to get better framerates on a 4080. Hopefully more optimization patches roll in as time goes by...

- Forspoken features 3 graphics modes on PS5: Quality, Ray-Tracing and Performance.
- Quality mode features better textures, draw distance and higher resolution (1728p on average).
- Ray-Tracing mode decreases resolution (1512p on average), texture quality and draw distance to present better shadows on some elements, but not on reflections or overall lighting.

- Performance mode has the same cuts in textures and draw distance as Ray-Tracing mode, as well as limiting its resolution to 1440p dynamic with temporal reconstruction. Despite the visual sacrifices, it does not maintain a stable 60fps.

- Forspoken supports 120Hz, however, this mode limits the maximum resolution to 1440p in all display modes. Ray-Tracing and Quality modes reach 40fps at 120hz, while Performance mode remains at 60fps.

- As for the PC version, the graphics settings are very similar to the PS5 Quality mode, improving the drawing distance and shadows by RT.
- Despite not having detected bugs or experiencing crashes on PC, it is a poorly optimized version. We barely achieved an average of 40fps using the equipment mentioned above, forcing us to use DLSS or FSR to get an acceptable framerate. Load times are very fast on both platforms, slightly faster on PC.

Don't get me wrong.I think the game looks fantastic aside from FSR breakup and poor flat shading in some places.
my ps5 shots

 

[ethomaz]

Don't get me wrong.I think the game looks fantastic aside from FSR breakup and poor flat shading in some places.
my ps5 shots

The game looks good… I like the character quality… it is flat sometimes because it lack details.
A bit more time could have be great for this game.

 

[thelastword]

Don't get me wrong.I think the game looks fantastic aside from FSR breakup and poor flat shading in some places.
my ps5 shots

No, I know your stance on it. Tbh, there was a bit of a downgrade from the first Project Athia trailer, however that's par for the course for most games these days barring Sony Internal Studios. There is lots of ambition here though and the dev team should be commended. These folks who are saying PS3/PS2 level visuals are clearly off their rockers.

As for PC, we have further info..... Direct Storage 1.1 from our brothers at MicroSoft seem to have many issues in the game. It limits CPU output and thereby framerates on PC. The devs did attempt to use all modern technologies both on PC and Console, I think they've nailed it as much as they could for the engine's second game, but MS DS still needs work for proper implementation in the here and now.....I could definitely see this game improving more and more as time goes by. Hopefully it's initial sales can fuel further improvements by the devs longterm.

BTW, this is what DachsJaeger had to say on the MS DS issue...

Alex on resetera:

So as I wrote in my initial article ( https://www.dsogaming.com/news/forspoken-has-frame-pacing-audio-shader-compilation-stutters-issues/ ), this was the first thing I noticed, the weird frame pacing issues of the game. So I went ahead and moved the game folder from the SSD (Samsung 970 Pro Plus NvME) to me HDD. And look and behold, the game no longer downclocks the CPU and the frametime graphs are MUCH BETTER. DirectStorage is awful in this game (at least in its current implementation). I'm using Win10 BTW, so I don't know if things are better with Win11. Sure thing, the game loads really fast with DirectStorage. However, the frame pacing issues make the game completely unplayable with DirectStorage as the game never feels smooth, even when running with over 60fps. Here are two screenshots from the exact same place. The first one is with SSD and the second with HDD. The HDD runs 38fps better than the SSD.

 

[Satoru]

No, I know your stance on it. Tbh, there was a bit of a downgrade from the first Project Athia trailer, however that's par for the course for most games these days barring Sony Internal Studios. There is lots of ambition here though and the dev team should be commended. These folks who are saying PS3/PS2 level visuals are clearly off their rockers.

As for PC, we have further info..... Direct Storage 1.1 from our brothers at MicroSoft seem to have many issues in the game. It limits CPU output and thereby framerates on PC. The devs did attempt to use all modern technologies both on PC and Console, I think they've nailed it as much as they could for the engine's second game, but MS DS still needs work for proper implementation in the here and now.....I could definitely see this game improving more and more as time goes by. Hopefully it's initial sales can fuel further improvements by the devs longterm.

BTW, this is what DachsJaeger had to say on the MS DS issue...

But wait, wasn't directstorage going to obliterate the PS5s IO?

 

[Alabtrosmyster]

But wait, wasn't directstorage going to obliterate the PS5s IO?

that never made any sense because the PS5 has dedicated hardware for the feature while the PC has to sacrifice CPU and\or GPU plus the memory pool is split... so there may be some data moving around (however I am not sure about possible bandwidth contention).

 

[adamsapple]

I don't think anyone ever said Direct Storage will "obliterate" the PS5 I/O other than twitter warriors when patting themselves on the back for coming up with it.

But, it does have pretty good results in the PC version.

Loading back into the game from the main menu is pretty instantaneous.

 

[ethomaz]

I was reading ERA.
Seems like DirectStorage uses a lot of resources to decompress the data and so severe affect the framerate and overall performance of the game.

That was expected with DirectStorage... because it used heavy the CPU for decompression.

But with DirectStorage 1.1 it was suppose to use GPU for decompression.
CPU was only to be used to move data between SystemRAM and VRAM.

Is the framerate hit due GPU having to do more work than normal?
Or DirectStorage 1.1 is not working right in this game? Perhaps it is using DirectStorage 1.0 that indeed hit the CPU.

The lack of dedicated units for both move data (DMAs) and decompress is really hurting PC.
Everything is done by CPU and it is not optional for these tasks.

 

[ethomaz]

In another news... the engine have few changes from FFXV.

 

[ethomaz]

Something is not working right when HDD trumps over SSD.
Pics from ERA.

SSD

HDD

Where are my framerate? It should be not a trade off.

 

[rofif]

Something is not working right when HDD trumps over SSD.
Pics from ERA.

SSD

HDD

Where are my framerate? It should be not a trade off.

is this real?!
The IO trade off is SO HUGE ?!