Elden Ring’s poor PS5 performance is due to one silly oversight according to modder Lance McDonald

[John Elden Ring]

According to FromSoftware game modder Lance McDonald, the executable that launches the PS5 version of Elden Ring is horrendously unoptimised. Unlike other versions of the game, including the PS4 version, Elden Ring on PS5 lacks simple optimisations.

When looking at FromSoftware’s new Armored Core VI’s PS5 performance, McDonald revealed that they recently reverse engineered the executable for Elden Ring. When doing so, they found out exactly why the game runs so poorly on PlayStation 5 systems.

I recently reverse engineered Elden Ring’s PS5 executable and the reason their game runs worse in their PS5 builds compared to PS4 is because their PS5 builds have no compiler optimisations whatsoever. It’s that simple.

As it turns out, Armored Core VI has the exact same issue on PlayStation 5. While the game is locked to 30fps 1800p on PS4 Pro, putting that version of the game into a PS5 gives you a solid 60fps instead. However, you will miss out on the ray-tracing feature, even if it’s not that great.

In his experience, McDonald believes that most people should play Armored Core VI’s PS4 version on PS5 instead of the console’s native port. If a solid framerate is most important to you, it’s clearly the way to go.


Source

 

[ethomaz]

All From games have the same issue.
Their engine is pretty bad at manage frame pacing.

 

[Bryank75]

Thats a disgrace, the PlayStation platform should be a huge priority and shader compiling should be optimized to the max. Where the fuck are Sony on this?

 

[Thief1987]

It's not completely explain poor performance, because this is not that simple, but it's a good example of fromsoftware's incompetence.

 

[ethomaz]

Thats a disgrace, the PlayStation platform should be a huge priority and shader compiling should be optimized to the max. Where the fuck are Sony on this?

It is the same engine with the same base issues across all From games.
There is no magic here... or Sony's help that can fix it.... if it was something that simples these issues should have been fixed 20 years ago but it is here in 2023 yet even after several releases.

Or From drop that engine and create something new (or use some 3rd-party engine) or they will continue having the same engines.

 

[Banana]

So, we have access to the ps5 encryption now? Lololol

 

[Box]

Thats a disgrace, the PlayStation platform should be a huge priority and shader compiling should be optimized to the max. Where the fuck are Sony on this?

They reqlly should just hire Lance McDonald at this point

 

[Old Gamer]

-O3

It's not that hard FFS

 

[anonpuffs]

Thats a disgrace, the PlayStation platform should be a huge priority and shader compiling should be optimized to the max. Where the fuck are Sony on this?

The post isn't about shader compilation, it's about code compilation.

 

[ChorizoPicozo]

Lazy devs strike again.

 

[John Elden Ring]

Thats a disgrace, the PlayStation platform should be a huge priority and shader compiling should be optimized to the max. Where the fuck are Sony on this?

I guess this Developer fredoom is why we have Life of Black Tiger.

 

[SSfox]

This is why Sony should buy the studio

 

[Dr Bass]

So they have optimization flags left off?

It might be "that simple" but there might also be a reason for it. I have a hard time believing that was just a simple oversight when it apparently was done for the PS4 version.

Can compiler optimization introduce bugs?

Today I had a discussion with a friend of mine and we debated for a couple of hours about "compiler optimization". I defended the point that sometimes, a compiler optimization might introduce bugs...

stackoverflow.com

 

[Bryank75]

This is why Sony should buy the studio

Fuck yes, absolutely a strategic buy. Very important studio shaping the future of single player phenomenon games.

 

[historia]

Fuck yes, absolutely a strategic buy. Very important studio shaping the future of single player phenomenon games.

Sony owns 14% of FromSoft, they also in bed *cough* *cough* strategic partnership with Kadokawa, own 1% of their shares.

Basically, all Kadokawa portfolio including animes, mangas will be distributed in the West by Aniplex. While Sony could leverage relationships with FromSoft.

I think Sony could do the same with other partner like SE, CC, KT.

 

[Shmunter]

Phil’s Spencer’s money hatted parity

 

[Old Gamer]

So they have optimization flags left off?

It might be "that simple" but there might also be a reason for it. I have a hard time believing that was just a simple oversight when it apparently was done for the PS4 version.

Can compiler optimization introduce bugs?

Today I had a discussion with a friend of mine and we debated for a couple of hours about "compiler optimization". I defended the point that sometimes, a compiler optimization might introduce bugs...

stackoverflow.com

If a compiler optimization changes the code enough to introduce bugs, that's a compiler bug.

 

[Dr Bass]

If a compiler optimization changes the code enough to introduce bugs, that's a compiler bug.

It's possible, but optimizations might cause issues that are not necessarily "bugs."

Look at what "undefined behavior" is in C/C++. There could easily be something in the PS5 hardware that is just not handled properly when optimizations are turned on. Again, I really doubt it's just because some dude forgot to put in the flag.

 

[Remij]

Yea, this isn't the only game where that's been the case. There's likely a reason they left the optimizations off. Nintendo did the same thing with Mario 64 on the N64. Very likely some outstanding bugs in the compiler that they didn't want to risk releasing with.

 

[Old Gamer]

Look at what "undefined behavior" is in C/C++. There could easily be something in the PS5 hardware that is just not handled properly when optimizations are turned on. Again, I really doubt it's just because some dude forgot to put in the flag.

Again, if your code relies on reinterpret_casts or undefined behavior - possible given FromSoft's reputation -, it already was buggy to begin with.
In which case, you are relying on disabling optimizations to prevent those nasty side effects from manifesting themselves.

MSVC is infamous for this kind of crap. It's dodgy expression evaluation order (prior to VS2019) comes to mind. Pretty much everyone I worked with has been bitten in the arse by std::map<T>:: operator[] on occasion.