Digital Foundry's Callisto Protocol's Analysis PS5 vs XBX/S

[thelastword]

I'm not sure how a company can't reach parity using a universal graphics engine like Unreal. It boggles my mind actually. There shouldn't be any "custom" coding going on here for the platforms as the engine is multiplatform to begin with. Devs need to polish it up before I pour money into it.

SIDENOTE: Props to the consoles at least getting more than 1 RT feature in a game (i.e. Metro: Exodus).

In the 360/PS3 days, UE favored the 360, now it may have been because of the exotic nature of the PS3, but you have to realize certain engines prefer certain hardware. 360 was easier to develop for, had a better GPU and had unified memory. It was also MS so it's API was closer to Direct X which Epic was so familiar with on PC.

When MS enjoyed better multiplat games through UE by default I didn't hear much crying, it's as if all the hype built on XBOX Series X hardware is now biting many in the ass and many are now seeing the error of their shallow reasoning.....

Besides, what was clear since the beginning of this gen is that Epic liked the PS5 for UE, I'm pretty sure Epic and Sony have been having dialogue for a while relative to what bottlenecks they should avoid on the PS5. As games get more ambitious and developers try to push the envelope, you will see PS5 pulling ahead a bit more. Remember Cerny said, you will see the real next gen games somewhere around year 3. Now, Callisto is not entirely next gen, but it's a sign of things to come. Let's be fair here, Callisto is doing raytraced reflections and shadows, two RT based techniques in realtime on PS5, that is next gen and the last gen versions are not even doing one, not even Series S which is a next gen console, that was said to be capable of everything X did at 1440p/lowered resolution.

The PS5 version does not only have RT shadows and reflections, it has better textures and SSR on top as well over S, so it's already pulling ahead, so imagine the state of the XBONE version, if you want to do the crossgen comparison, it's a huge leap up. So imagine the next gen multiplats using Nanite and Lumens, Series S will be left in the dust and even X will not be as close as it did with mainly last gen engines and crossgen games that still favor PC like API's and legacy engines. The next gen engines will prefer the more advanced architecture that something like the PS5 provides.

Also, this is not the first game where the PS5 is doing better at raytracing or in other cases handling lots of alpha with aplomb.

 

[KiryuRealty]

I'll remember to say that when XSX is the better performing platform. Hopefully people here can accept that fact and not mention developers don't know what they are doing like they normally do.

Developers know what they are doing, but you constantly show that you have no clue whatsoever what developers do, or how the systems they use to do it work beyond a very surface-level view. There is a very good reason why you are a punchline on multiple fora.

 

[Darth Vader]

I'll remember to say that when XSX is the better performing platform. Hopefully people here can accept that fact and not mention developers don't know what they are doing like they normally do.

Why so triggered? This game is poorly optimized and demonstrably so, same as many others. Nobody really believes that the XSX can't run this game on part, or at least almost on par, with the PS5. Some perform better on one, some on the other, developers have been lacking on the optimization department.

 

[Old Gamer]

other cases handling lots of alpha or other details.

Alpha effects are one of the few things Direct3D still has issues with for some strange reason.

 

[Darth Vader]

Also this is not the first game, the PS5 is doing better at raytracing or in other cases handling lots of alpha or other details.

Didn't the Matrix demo have better RT when compared to the XSX?

 

[KiryuRealty]

Alpha effects are one of the few things Direct3D still has issues with for some strange reason.

You mean Direct X isn't the code incarnation of Jesus, Buddha and Marilyn Monroe all rolled into one? I am shaken to the very core by this shocking revelation!

 

[thelastword]

Didn't the Matrix demo have better RT when compared to the XSX?

I think Watchdogs too...

 

[KiryuRealty]

Weirdly, this is actually one time where a car analogy isn't total crap.

Take, for example the Mitsubishi 2.4 Litre 4-cylinder motor. This same motor is found in both the Lancer and the Outlander, yet the Lancer goes faster than the Outlander, while the Outlander can pull a trailer and the Lancer can't. Why, you may ask? Because of differences in how the engine is tuned.

 

[PlacidusaX]

I'll remember to say that when XSX is the better performing platform. Hopefully people here can accept that fact and not mention developers don't know what they are doing like they normally do.

Lets get current gen only games to compare 1st.

 

[arvfab]

I'll remember to say that when XSX is the better performing platform. Hopefully people here can accept that fact and not mention developers don't know what they are doing like they normally do.

I don't know why you are quoting me, and honestly am confused by the comment.

For one, it wouldn't be the first time for you to point out a better performing XSX version ( https://icon-era.com/threads/df-a-p...consoles-graphics-comparison.1490/#post-43424 ). And I actually said in the post you quoted "sometimes it's the other way around".

But I don't understand why you find it bothersome if peope say that devs could/should have optimized the version(s) running worse, and at the same time expecting a multiplatform engine to perform equally on different platforms.

 

[arvfab]

Lets get current gen only games to compare 1st.

Isn't this one current-gen only?

 

[Gediminas]

Isn't this one current-gen only?

No

 

[thelastword]

You can export out to Vulkan API (which is just as low level). There's nothing fancy going on with this game to warrant particular optimizations in the game for one platform over the other. These are 3rd party developers like any other developer. Plenty of UE games have parity across platforms.

There should not be parity for parity's sake. In essence what happened with AC Unity on PS4 vs XBONE should never happen. In this case, PS has certain advantages that UE may prefer, higher GPU clocks, better SSD, more hardware based features that offsets bottlenecks.

In a way John made a similar statement to preface this video, I said "come on man". He said in essence "It's UE it has all these features, devs just have to utilize it"....NOPE, not all devs are built the same, that much is clear. I have to give credit to this dev team because they delivered what the much touted "Coalition" from XBOX circles could not, even with their remaster of Gears 5.....When I was playing Gears 5, I told folk the visuals/textures etc, was widely inconsistent, physics was better on prior Gears games by a landslide from the 360 gen, Gears 5 had so many low rez areas and textures I just could not understand how a man like John who likes to nitpick Sony games, could not see all these visual and physics issues, but here he is crying about not expecting the Series X shortcomings/results here, says much. I bet you, if things were reversed the wording from John would have been vastly different and no dev would be contacted, there is history to corroborate just that with him....

My point is, not all devs have the same talent, the reviewers can shit on certain gameplay issues in Callisto, but no multiplat dev or first party XBOX dev has shown a game with such consistent and high quality detail here as Striking Distance Studio, what I complained of in Gears 5 is rectified here a plenty, physics, textures, pbr and visual consistency is delivered here in spades, Coalition eat your heart out......Next, I will hear Undead Labs could have done these visuals......just bonkers..

 

[KiryuRealty]

There should not be parity for parity's sake. In essence what happened with AC Unity on PS4 vs XBONE should never happen. In this case, PS has certain advantages that UE may prefer, higher GPU clocks, better SSD, more hardware based features that offsets bottlenecks.

In a way John made a similar statement to preface this video, I said "come on man". He said in essence "It's UE it has all these features, devs just have to utilize it"....NOPE, not all devs are built the same, that much is clear. I have to give credit to this dev team because they delivered what the much touted "Coalition" from XBOX circles could not, even with their remaster of Gears 5.....When I was playing Gears 5, I told folk the visuals/textures etc, was widely inconsistent, physics was better on prior Gears games by a landslide from the 360 gen, Gears 5 had so many low rez areas and textures I just could not understand how a man like John who likes to nitpick Sony games, could not see all these visual and physics issues, but here he is crying about not expecting the Series X shortcomings/results here, says much. I bet you, if things were reversed the wording from John would have been vastly different and no dev would be contacted, there is history to corroborate just that with him....

My point is, not all devs have the same talent, the reviewers can shit on certain gameplay issues in Callisto, but no multiplat dev or first party XBOX dev has shown a game with such consistent and high quality detail here as Striking Distance Studio, what I complained of in Gears 5 is rectified here a plenty, physics, textures, pbr and visual consistency is delivered here in spades, Coalition eat your heart out......Next, I will hear Undead Labs could have done these visuals......just bonkers..

We can also dust off the classic line from Xbox fanboys in the 360/PS3 generation here!

Why bother optimizing the version for the last-place platform?

 

[Gediminas]

Didn't the Matrix demo have better RT when compared to the XSX?

It had and more detail.
And a shocker, actually xbox developers went there and helped with matrix demo to run better on xbox. Wasn't that coalition or whatever?

 

[Old Gamer]

Vulkan and DirectX 12 are very similar and are a higher level than what PS5 (or previous PS consoles) has.

Vulkan is lower level than either. DirectX 12 is lower level than 11 (credit where it's due), but it still is higher level than Vulkan.

 

[Hezekiah]

That 30% more GPU power on Series X should make up for any lack of dedicated optimisation no?

 

[arvfab]

No

Man now I want to know how it runs there. Don't think I've seen any comparison yet.

 

[KiryuRealty]

That 30% more GPU power on Series X should make up for any lack of dedicated optimisation no

It would, if that 30% extra oomph wasn't employed with putting its hand down its pants to make sure it's ass hasn't disappeared. OS and API overheads are a BITCH in real life!

 

[thelastword]

We can also dust off the classic line from Xbox fanboys in the 360/PS3 generation here!

Why bother optimizing the version for the last-place platform?

Do I ever remember.......

What's crazy is that people are still broomstruck by PS winning faceoffs, people are pretending like Series X is dominating faceoffs and living PS in the dust. If we check collectively, I think PS will be ahead and in the bigger games, it seems to be ahead most of the time. The last big game was COD and before that Elden Ring, even Evil West has better shadows on PS.