Detroit Become Human PC - Native 4K vs Checkerboard Rendering on PS4 Pro - Image Quality Analysis

Image reconstruction techniques take a lower resolution image and use information from prior frames to improve quality. We've seen immense results from DLSS 2.0 and some forms of temporal supersampling, but what about checkerboarding? Here, we use Detroit Become Human on PC, running at native resolution to see how 4K rendering looks compared to PS4 Pro's checkerboard 2160p.
NOTE: Checkerboarding takes many forms and this is just one of implementation of many. We will be revisiting this topic with Death Stranding and Horizon Zero Dawn when their PC ports appear.
Subscribe for more Digital Foundry: bit.ly/DFSubscribe
Join the DF Patreon, support the team more directly and get pristine quality video downloads of everything we do: www.digitalfou...

[@existentialselkath1264]

I forgot how good this game looked, on any platform this looks great

[@vuongbinhan]

not much happens in this game though, every scene is heavily scripted

[@existentialselkath1264]

@@vuongbinhan yeah, it's not for everyone, but I wouldn't say it's bad or anything

[@darkwing5458]

Looks amazing but the gameplay is the deal breaker. Imagine how much better this game would be if they could get the gameplay right.

[@CharismaStrategies]

Never forget. It's one of the best looking games ever made, minus the PS5 obviously.

[@zubiecup]

Vương Ân there’s nothing inherently wrong with a game being heavily scripted. If a creator wants to tell a movie-like story, why stop him/her? There’s certainly an audience for this type of game (I’m part of that audience).

[@Neyney_97]

When pro was released the checkboard technique was looked down upon, from the looks of this comparison it was highly underrated. Still a debatable conversation.

[@RandomGamingMoments925]

@karl marx I think it's called DLSS

[@VideoWatcher8888]

@@RandomGamingMoments925 DLSS sucks but DLSS 2.0 IS AMAZING.

[@mjc0961]

The problem with checkerboarding was never the results. The problem is Sony advertising native 4K despite the fact that they're upscaling lower resolutions for 4K output.

[@1HololensfansOfNaruto]

I believe it wasn't the technique but the critism against the console. Why tag the console 4k when it can't do it? Same thing is with upcoming console's 8k tag.

[@ShadowRomeo1784]

@karl marx We do have this but a much better version. It's called DLSS 2.0 and it's by far the best image upscaler on the market. I wish Next Gen Console should implement something similar as well and ditch the shitty checkerboarding.

[@denda2643]

Alex: I have the eyes of a hawk and the ears of a fox. Richard: You' re hired.

[@kresimircosic9035]

So all in all, checkerboard is just a good idea to spawn good visuals without much effect on performance. Same as DLSS from Nvidia is using AI to maintain excellent FPS while making the image look 4k but not being close to it. Good, software solutions are finally coming together instead of smashing more and more hardware inside.

[@kochiyoshi]

It would be cool if they compare both, but i think there's no game that support both so we can compare them apple to apple.

[@diocub4022]

Dlss is much worse compared to checkerboard rendering, It increases fps but at the cost of graphical fidelity to a very HIGH degree. I was playing fps shooters and when I turn on DLSS it looked like a blurry mess, PC needs to adopt this technology from Sony since just from this video from digital foundry it shows how well it runs, and it's not as blurry like on PC with DLSS on.

[@MerryBlind]

Dio Cub Have you tried the latest version though? i believe DLSS 2.0. DF made a video about how much better it is now, being significantly less blurry.

[@8Paul7]

@@diocub4022 DLSS2 as used in Control is fantastic. The previous version was blurry.

[@JoaoVictor-hk7iv]

@Z3U5 No and this video proves it. DLSS is just a worse to implement solution for the developer, 2.0 also has that horrible sharpening filter while chekerboarding doesn't.

[@SineCordis]

I hope instead of only running at native 4K 30fps, Horizon 2 gets an optional 4K Checkerboard 60fps mode on PS5.

[@Stimros_halabad]

Yes. Agreed.

[@UnL1k3]

+1

[@TheeDevilWearsPrada]

Graphics over FPS

[@cristi8183]

@@TheeDevilWearsPrada Games over anything, fps, graphics, resolutions

[@pangbangdang3672]

@Z3U5 4k 30 doesn't mean the hardware is weak. It just means they push the graphics twice as much as 4k 60

[@GameMasterpg]

Checkerboard or Not I still can't get over how good Detroit Become Human looks on PS4 Pro

[@theprophet2444]

you pay the iron price for it: 30FPS

[@BIGNOIDS]

It was so nice to play.

[@gbc9053]

@Bear Omega It's not though. The PS4 Pro is closer to the RX 470 so it's a little weaker than the 1060

[@Nicola-ov5cz]

I really hope most PS5 titles will give the option to run in "performance" mode, with a lesser resolution upscaled with checkerboard and 60+fps. If a 2000$ pc has troubles managine 4k at solid 60fps, i doubt console will do a much better job, pushing native 4k is just dumb on ANY platform, moreso when at a normal TV distance you cant tell the difference from an upscaled 1440p. Native 4k could barely make sense on a very high end monitor at close distance, and you are still trading ALOT of framerate for a small improvement in clarity and detail

[@AdiiS]

I agree, my system that's well over 3000usd, i9 10900K & 2080ti & 32GB RAM has problems to keep up with native 4K60, playing with DLSS 2.0 gives me so much better framerate while literally having the same quality as native 4K, sometimes even better than native 4K resolution, it's unreal, these reconstruction techniques like DLSS are really the future and I like it very much!

[@DJ_Dopamine]

Native 4K is often only demanding on a PC when at all 'Ultra' settings. By using optimised graphical settings (as will already be done for us on a PS5 by the devs) then the performance can be significantly increased whilst keeping the resolution at full native 4K. I actually prefer to run at 83% of 4K and with 'optimised' settings when I've used my PC on a 4K TV. (This greatly increases the fps vs. 100% of 4K and all 'Ultra' settings... for no real observable loss of visual quality.)

[@justinstewart950]

I’ve always said this too. Native 4K is irrelevant in most cases. Focus on graphical fidelity at 1440p (or slightly higher) and let software to the rest. Cool I can run my game at 4K but does it actually look better or just sharper?

[@artschiloyan9101]

@@GreyDireWolf that's not true. Most games actually have a performance mode on the PS4Pro and considering that the Pro is a pretty slow device compared to the PS5, I'm pretty sure that they will keep giving the option of performance.

[@gromus6171]

Q80Legend it came down to cpu which is to weak for 60 FPS

[@GerudoRamirez]

I'm never gonna stop championing the fact the the PS5 came straight out of this game lol

[@UnknownUser-fg3fs]

They should have a Detroit branded version

[@denissssss8579]

Where did the ps5 came out?!

[@EDcaseNO]

@@denissssss8579 i think they mean in visual style of the console hardware. i think the design is more reminiscent of portal 2. but whatever it has that envisioned future look.

[@JB_inks]

@@denissssss8579 what happened to your grammar?

[@BLVDKillz]

@@EDcaseNO I mean even Quantum Break looks good asf on the Xbox

[@asheleydavies]

I really hope Sony and devs don't discard CB for next gen just because they can. It's like giving up free performance, hope they develop dlss like techniques to save rendering time and up games to 60fos or more

[@themarcshark]

Yeah I'd definitely take some jaggies that I won't even notice and a high framerate

[@AKSBSU]

I'm worried marketing will get in the way of them using checkerboard and temporal injection for performance modes. I hope not. I've been playing games using those techniques for the past 4 years, and they look very nice when implemented properly.

[@bodacious12]

@randomguy8196 No... just no.

[@bodacious12]

@randomguy8196 It's not. Checkerboarding is only one thing (interlacing pixel patterns in a checkerboard by halving the horizontal resolution) it results in quality somewhere between the render res and target res. DLSS's only similarity to checkerboarding is jitter (alternating pixels, but it's done differently) it also uses motion vectors, embedded info from the renderer, and temporal information from previous frames to use hardware accelerated AI upscaling, usually quarter resolution that creates images that look like native resolution with better anti aliasing than TAA because it's much sharper. It boosts the frame rate depending on how pixel bound the game is, but usually around ~120% extra performance, even more with ultra performance which is 1/9th resolution. I'm sure you didn't understand any of that based on how misinformed your comment was.

[@bodacious12]

@randomguy8196 Dlss 2 has barely any ghosting compared to earlier versions

[@batsai]

Great comparison Alex. This game made such an impact on me after I played it. And played it again, and again, trying to explore all the permutations of the story. Thanks!

[@kerryhoward6390]

The fact that you have to zoom in to see these differences is impressive

[@Helthurian]

Zooming in, while highlighting it more clearly isn't needed. You can tell what's checkerboarded, as he even pointed out, by the fact it's a softer image. That said, the technology is extremely impressive and I hope Sony is telling devs to utilize it for 60 FPS modes on the PS5.

[@ShatteringKatana]

Bear in mind that KZbin's compression greatly reduces the visual fidelity of both thus lessening the gap. Also screen size and resolution of the device the video is being played on come into play. If you are watching it on a screen with a resolution lower than 3840x2160 the image will get downscaled and the differences smoothed out. Screen size kinda does the same.

[@GraveUypo]

most people have to zoom because either resolution is larger than the resolution of the screen they're watching this in. also video doesn't resolve pixel-level detail that well. i'm watching it on a 1080p screen, for instance. though i have to say while that doesn't allow me to see the full picture, i can still tell some differences in the non-zoom side-by-side parts. a screen is best used when the render resolution is 4 times the size of the displayed resolution. much better sub-pixel fidelity and temporal constancy.

[@arnabpramanick3014]

@@ShatteringKatana both resolution got decreased by youtube compression idiot.. youtube doesnt compress video partially..

[@ShatteringKatana]

@@arnabpramanick3014 Calm down, idiot, and try to understand what I'm saying. Compression artefacts reduce detail and therefore the images look somewhat less different while not zoomed in. I never stated that the rendered video isn't compressed as a whole.

[@infinityeight8705]

I'd rather have 60fps + checkerboard4k Vs 30fps and native 4k Edit: In general going forwards, 60fps really should be the norm.

[@linuxretrogamer]

I'd rather a game thats fun to play.

[@iamarussianguy]

Well the checkerboard is on PS4 Pro...and the game is 30fps on PS4 Pro...so...

[@Morden97]

@aieden even in this game the difference between 30 and 60 fps is clear

[@sean70729]

Planning on keeping ps4 pro? With the specs of the new consoles frame rate and resolution don't have to be a choice you can have both and checkerboard rendering looks blurry I have some of the same games for pro and x and that blurriness is the first thing I notice.

[@Aristowi]

Framerate always the priority baby!

[@LongsamaGaming]

Based on this I'm just curious how you'd compare Checkboarding to DLSS?

[@Mareterra76]

I never tryed DLSS. But checkerboard create half of the real 4k image at time, part of the 4k informations are really there. While DLSS useses an IA on not 4k images. An ai can probably create a better illusion of 4k than checkerboard, but it can't create real 4k informations that aren't there. In few words real 4k is real 4k, the rest are more or less good illusions.

[@ShadowRomeo1784]

DLSS 2.0 can make a native 1080p look better than Native 4K while rendering at lower resolution giving huge performance increase and no checkerboarding has ever managed to produce that same kind of image quality and performance increase results.

[@xzraiderzx308]

@@ShadowRomeo1784 yep. DLSS 2.0 essentially accomplishes the same thing as checkerboarding but does it better. Not to say checkerboarding is bad though, especially for the time it came out

[@ShadowRomeo1784]

@@xzraiderzx308 It accomplishes it much better than checkerboarding could have imagined. Checkerboarding at it's best can only manage to produce a slightly better image quality than it's native resolution that it's rendering at but can't achieve the same target resolution's image quality which is 4K. DLSS 2.0 does achieve this and it does it even better by improving performance as well. By rendering at Native 1080p and letting the Artificial Intelligence do the heavy work of reconstructing the image to match or even surpass the image quality of Native 4K while at the same time achieving huge performance increase rather than requiring more GPU power to execute it. Because it does render at much lower resolution. And all it requires to do all of this is the specifically designed Tensor Cores that is built in inside RTX Cards and is solely dedicated for these kind of purposes. In my opinion this is much more impressive than the checker boarding, which i would admit it does help improve image quality. But it is not enough for me and it was advertised really wrong by Sony by saying it can match the image quality of what it targets to render at. I really hope that Next Gen Consoles and AMD is already developing a similar tech like DLSS because if they aren't then they will definitely get left behind by Nvidia when it comes to Image Reconstructing tech. DLSS 2.0 pretty much is currently the most superior and it puts Checkerboarding to shame.

[@fafski1199]

@@ShadowRomeo1784 The AI capability on RDNA2 is just enough for something similar and AMD does have a habit of copying anything Nvidia does. So yep, It might happen. I guess the only spanner in that works, is that Nvidia is light years ahead, when it comes to AI. I mean they've just bought out Mellanox one of the worlds leading companies, in AI. I believe they said the AI on Ampere is 2.5 times as fast as RTX on AI applications (20 trillion operations per second) and that's over 500% faster than the expected AI on AMD's RDNA2. Also the current rumour mill has it, that DLSS 3.0 will be released alongside Ampere and that has virtually near perfect scaling emulation, up to 8x the initial resolution (almost indistinguishable to the naked eye, when compared to native).

[@jqwright28]

Man, I can’t wait to see QD’s next game.

[@WhirlingMusic]

We are in the minority. It's trendy to hate QDs games.

[@n0vi]

@@WhirlingMusic Because the writing is bad and David Cage is a git

[@arthurcuesta6041]

I think he meant graphics-wise, since you don't have to like the game to love it's graphics

[@WhirlingMusic]

@@n0vi I thought the writing was great in Detroit.

[@n0vi]

@@WhirlingMusic It had moments, but damn did they fail to really hone in on certain subjects, allusions or literal or not. Some plot points don't make sense and are cheap gotchas. It's not some uber-intelligent thrill ride, that's for sure. It's easily-accessible utopia/dystopia young lit level storytelling.

[@thelarry383]

Having to pause and zoom in on small irrelevant details just to see a difference kinda makes those who get bent out of shape about this stuff look dumb af

[@BananaDorian]

Megatron yeah, but if you consider the fact that if you want to render in native 4K you’ll need a significantly stronger spec than what is in a ps4 pro, if you consider price to performance ratio it’s pretty impressive! As a PC player who doesn’t own a PS4, I would love to see this AA to be available on PC as well

[@SalveMonesvol]

Checkerboard rendering would work much better at 60fps, since there would be much more temporal information and therefore they could take data from 2 previous frames within a shorter time. Also, it could help to apply some sort of bicubic interpolation to fill in the gaps when there is no extra information, like after camera cuts.

[@pobbityboppity1110]

Videos like this are great for really understanding the specific tradeoffs of the technique. Thank you Alex! I would take a checkerboard resolution bump every time, if we could. I wish there was a way to add this at the driver level. Clever upscaling is the future of gaming.

[@wazaknight4245]

Even nvidea gets on board with dlss 2.0 (DF did a pretty nice review on it) and AMD will much likely folow.

[@ianmitchell5979]

Honestly, the framerate difference is more noticable and effective to me.

[@ClintBeastmode]

I hope next gen will also offer checkerboard rendering or something similar to save gpu Power. Id rather have 60 fps

[@wazaknight4245]

Even on the pc side you see nvidea an equivalent that they called dlss 2.0. I would expect the new amd gpu to do the same.

[@alexlyster3459]

Yeah, even if it's not exactly checker boarding, I think there are going to be alot of techniques used going forward that are similar in effect. Aka, upscaling to improve persceivable resolution while saving performance. I mean MS are pushing VRS hard, and I think DLSS 2.0 has already been mentioned. Tech wise, I think it's going to take a year or two for devs to really hit their stride, but next gen should be a huge leap once they do.

[@mohammedsadeq5392]

Sony first party ps5 games now offer performance mode at lesser or reconstructed resolution

[@peoplesgame1]

@@CindyShoe probably on games like mario lol

[@karma_decay]

03:46 "OBVIOUS Aliasing" Oh, Digital Foundry, please never change.

[@WamblyHades]

Native 4K, Checkerboarded 4K, DLSS 2.0 4K (from 1440p/1080p)… It all looks amazing in a 4K TV, and that's one of the best things of this new generation.

[@someman8772]

So basically the differences are so minute that a normal person wouldn't notice during gameplay.

[@Harb0eJac0b]

Great overview. I'm missing your HDR videos. This made me think of it, because the game have great hdr on PS4.

[@zfunk]

Checkerboard rendering was such an incredibly smart implementation by Sony despite the negativity towards it which was unwarranted and often said by those who had never seen it implemented.

[@AKSBSU]

+Mr Boydee The games "journalists" made it their faux controversy for this generation. Remember the "mandatory install" crap they brought up with practically every PS3 game? How well did that age? What game ISN'T installed to some capacity now? Some gamers have gone 100% digital purchases at this point.

[@xzraiderzx308]

@@AKSBSU it's just yet again a sign of how the common man is afraid of change. "Oh it isn't native resolution and uses some new tech? gtfo then"

[@ShadowRomeo1784]

It was so hyped by Sony and it only let down many people who expected it's gonna be as good as Sony says. I was one of them.

[@archetype6351]

I think ray tracing helped people realize how necessary these alternative rendering techniques are. The RTX cards, while very capable, still need to use DLSS to achieve acceptable results in games. It honestly now seems dumb to pursue the "real thing" when approaches like using DLSS, variable rate shading, and checkerboarding do so well visually and come so close to a native presentation, while essentially giving you performance for free. Kind of a dumb, too ambitious and unrealistic idea, but wouldn't it be awesome if we could do the same thing with framerate? Instead of having the machine render full 60+ frames, if we could interpolate from something like 30 and make it look higher, that would be awesome. Framerate interpolation does exist but let's say... It's not ideal. But seeing how mindbendingly good DLSS is even when reconstructing from an obscenely low resolution like 540p, makes you feel like everything is possible.

[@ShadowRomeo1784]

@@archetype6351 Agreed. DLSS 2.0 is much more superior compared to Checkerboarding which was a let down in my opinion. Hopefully Next Gen Consoles develops their own alternate version of DLSS and ditch the checkerboarding in future.

[@jimengab]

It is insane how close to native 4K Checkerboard looks. The very fact that you won't notice until you zoom says it all. I would rather keep having checkerboard games with resources spent elsewhere if the image quality remains this good.

[@thegreathadoken6808]

I could see the difference right here on a youtube video that is far inferior in quality than the game itself. I didn't need to zoom in, I just saw straight away that the checkerboarded version was blurrier. It's fine as an option, but it's far from the flawless and foolproof lifesaver that you're saying it is. In fact, it's probably little better than the modern-day equivalent of the difference between the old PS2 days of 1080i versus 480p. Yes, the interlaced picture is probably better than the 480p, but 1080p would have been preferred in every single case. Even 720p would give it a run for it's money if not beat it outright. Don't get me wrong, the option is great. But it's not the answer to all your prayers. Not my prayers at any rate.

[@Gr4yF0x]

You basically need to zoom stuff and pay extra attention to spot small differences. That shows how stupid this cb x native war is.

[@SmogginMog]

Or just y'know, use your eyes and see the textures appearing noticeably less detailed when checkerboarded. (look at facial imperfections for a terrific example)

[@VladTudorIonut]

But those details are so small that you wouldn't notice them during gameplay without having a direct comparison. So now the question is if these small details are worth the price in performance, and I don't think they are. But that's just me.

[@sheikhrayan9538]

@@VladTudorIonut true, but there are other upscaling techniques similar to checkerboard rendering that are better in most ways.

[@dekonoedono7477]

Same case will repeat with ps5 and xsx differences.. So much for the most powerful console.. Cant see the difference when you are actually playing the games and not doing comparison like this video

[@esuelle]

I love comparing these little details (it's why I'm here of course!) but the differences are so tiny it's kinda hilarious lol. We're literally comparing zoomed in pixels.

[@gabor-toth]

The biggest difference is seeing the PC version run at 60 fps. It's just amazing and I wish more console games offered high framerate as well. It matters so much more than pixel counting.

[@Phelaidar]

Yes! It's a shame developers did not get that memo and we are already seeing 30fps games. I'd rather not have low-res raytracing at 30 fps and have screen-space solutions at 60fps.

[@rob4222]

let's hope there will be 60FPS options on the next gen

[@femto8402]

I don't see the point of 60 for Detroit. It looks awful and wierd in cinematics just like movies. There is tones of games that benefits from 60 but Detroit is probably one of the few that should stay 30

[@Hybred]

The CPU this generation sucked very bad, even at the time of the release they were under powered. However we still had last gen consoles hit the 60fps mark on plently of games so there's no excuse but if we come into this next generation with these high end CPUs at 30fps I'm going to have some serious complaining. It's okay if they would offer a 30fps amd 60fps option but they rarley do.

[@rob4222]

@@Hybred There are some option and there will be

[@DeathEggTV]

Around 7:42, you have labeled the images backwards. Native 4K is on the left, Checkerboard is on the right. The relevant clips, played just prior, BOTH say "Native 4K," while it is actually a comparison. Just FYI!

[@The_Noticer.]

4:03 but it changed the fabric from being a vertical-only, to a mesh pattern on the collar. Meaning it warps the textures because it is interlacing those lines on top of eachother from previous frames. I've noticed this on several occasions in games that use it, and I really dont like checkerboard rendering as a result.

[@BRIANSTECHTHERAPY]

Excellent job as always Alex! Hope all is well my friend!

[@diebackmischung503]

That explains why it looks kinda blurry I feel like rdr2 looks better on 1080p

[@gamingfamilyman7801]

You guys need to make a dedicated video about checkerboard vs 4K discussing the benefits and trade offs. I realize that is was discussed in this video but the actual discussion could be overlooked and skipped by many due to this video being a DBH video.

[@NoahThomas29]

I remember everyone throwing crap at sony for using checkerboard rendering. yet it looks like a very nice technique to get extra clarity without losing tons of performance. wish all PC games had this option.

[@AKSBSU]

I've heard the "Fake 4K!" crap for 4 years now. DF did a video about how these techniques would be useful for PC as well, and they got attacked for it.

[@NoahThomas29]

@@AKSBSUif they got attacked for covering its use for PC then people are just complete morons. i would use it for all my PC games if i could. the fact of the matter is most, if not all, mainstream GPU on the market today are not 4k capable cards.

[@AKSBSU]

@@NoahThomas29 It was a video they made 3 years ago titled "[4K] Ultra HD Gaming! What Can PC Learn From PS4 Pro?" The vast majority of viewers appreciated their terrific video, but the comment section was quite toxic thanks to the PCMR crowd stinking the place up.

[@NoahThomas29]

AKSBSU unreal

[@happybuggy1582]

Is it just me or these games still look hell of good😮

[@buzzlopavich]

I own a pretty ridiculous high end PC, but I seriously think console gamers hardly miss out on a thing nowadays - totally different from the last gen PS3/360 which where a disaster by the end.

[@BlackEagle352]

Define "pretty ridiculous high end PC"

[@Phelaidar]

They miss on framerate, not on graphical quality.

[@reyesarsenal9]

Most PS-owners has a gaming-PC aswell, then u get games from both worlds.

[@ryanschindler923]

Yes cause console gamers don't know that games can run at a smooth frame rate, and at frame rates higher than 30 fps. After years of playing games at 60fps, playing anything at 30fps feels like there's lag and its unresponsive. Ill take high frame rates over image quality any day.

[@fVNzO]

The most damning thing is the frame rate. I've played through a lot of the major exclusive titles on my PS4, Death Stranding, GoW, Detroit, Spiderman and a few others. All of them have terrible frame pacing once the game heats up just a little bit - weather effects, too many pop ups on screen etc and it just tanks. It ruins the experience on an already borderline 30FPS. The resolution and sharpness on the pro console, textures in general are all very good even compared to PC.

[@tyr8338]

Checkerboard rendered image looks pretty good tbh. Native 4K is clearer but tbh if even 2080 ti can`t run it at 60 fps we just need to wait for next generation of graphic cards to play it at real 4K.

[@NexGenTek]

A 2080Ti can run it 4K60 locked with a simple overclock

[@tyr8338]

@@NexGenTek yeah but 2080 ti got terrible price to performance ratio. When RTX serier launched I just bought used 1080 TI which was only few months old and with warranty till 2021 for something like 425$ and it basically is only 30% slower while being like 600$ + cheaper ^^ OFC I dont have dlss and RTX but for now it`s not a big deal. RTX 3000 launch is just around the corner and rtx 2080 ti will loose most of it value very soon so buying one now is really not viable.

[@SHGames97]

0:39 "the quality of check your board."

[@AJDOLDCHANNELARCHIVE]

Trek your board rendering.

[@MercerVerse]

Check your board before you wreck your board.

[@JamieRobert_]

This guy struggles to talk

[@SHGames97]

@@AJDOLDCHANNELARCHIVE 🤣😂

[@verityz470]

The real WIN for this game is 60FPS, looks so much better. I can get over a non-native 4K if it’s done well, but seeing the 60FPS next to the 30 clearly shows which is a superior presentation.

[@LILLO84]

this video represents exactly why i'm sticking with consoles. The differences of a near to 2000euros pc native 4k image compared to a 399 ps4 pro are negligible

[@tintintb1980]

It's all about the higher frame rates for me personally.

Yeah 30fps not only looks horrid to the eye when moving the camera it's bad for controls and lag. I prefer 90-140 fps as motion has way less motion blur on current display tech and input lag on a monitor at these fps is close to crt. 60fps was great on a crt, zero motion blur and input lag but those days are over. The only way to combat motion blur and input lag on current monitors or even tvs is to increase the hz to 120 or above and even then it's still got blur just a tolerable amount. 30fps on an lcd is just an abomination where you can only see what's truly happening until you stop moving the camera around.

[@kresimirmandic3807]

Agreed. That is why I am sticking with consoles as well, among few other other reasons.

[@rodzandz]

Wow! Thanks DF! I'll be sure to remember all this next time when I'm playing my games WITH A FKN MAGNIFYING GLASS PRESSED AGAINST THE SCREEN!

[@Ahov]

When you're comparing his white collar, his ears in the PC version are far superior with less aliasing.

[@fafski1199]

Yep, I noticed that, it was far more glaring than the collar.

[@TaimatCR]

Yeah probably due to what he mentions later in the video, where some edges and objects are better suited for checkboard than others

[@arrowknee7356]

@@TaimatCR That and from what I have seen we are more sensitive to vertical resolution changes then horizontal ones, which makes this not an entirely apt comparison, but interesting all the same.

[@GamerInVoid]

Can we all just agree that this channel is one of the Best channels on KZbin related to gaming technology ?

[@robertlawrence9000]

I can't wait for Horizon Zero Dawn on pc. Looking forward to how this turns out

[@TaylorPhase]

is it coming to pc???

[@WindWolf28]

@@TaylorPhase Yes, you can check the game page on steam. It's supposed to be coming out this summer, however we don't have an exact date.

[@TaylorPhase]

WindWolf28 dang cuz I was about to buy a PS4 pro to play horizon in 4k to get ready for the new one coming out. Guess that’ll save me some money

[@matrix9452]

@@TaylorPhase Still worth it getting a PS4 if you didn't play Uncharted 4, Spider Man, Days Gone, also look for The Last of Us 2 and Ghost of Tsushima.

[@Magnulus76]

Consoles have been upscaling images since... forever. They rarely have the kind of power to render games in a complete resolution, since the graphics processors have to be relatively inexpensive and energy efficient.

[@nomercy8989]

Honestly my eyesight isn't good enough to notice any of this while playing. I'm fine with 1080p and TAA with high frame rates over 4k fake or native with low frame rates.

[@notchedbandit]

Typical PC gamer mentality. If it was the other way around, you'd be crying out loud "PC MASTERRACE!!".

[@aggelosblmp4637]

@@notchedbandit BRUH

[@kuros-ov]

Things like this, temporal aliasing and other oddities i find noticeable and really distracting in movement, So i prefer 4k60 over a lower resolution high framerate system. That's the real advantage of PC, We're free to choose our preference.

[@frogg4711]

@@notchedbandit what's wrong with preffering high framerate 1080p

[@WindWolf28]

Do you mean that the human eye can't see beyond 1080p on a 4k screen?

[@potatotablet727]

Checkerboarding is pretty smart, considering how much a sharpening filter applied on a game using Nvidia's overlay makes a world of difference on 1080p than without sharpening. A smart technique to give the machine in question more room to breathe.

[@luismartins3785]

OUF ! barely any noticeable difference. This said 4K Checkerboard must be praised for how impressively close it is to a native 4K image.

[@MistorDi]

The main reason why checkerboarding is so good is because 4K itself is mostly marketing bullshit in reality: the majority of display devices are smaller than they should be and have overkill pixel density at 4K as a result which most humans biologically can't see at normal viewing distances. So even when checkerboard rendering produces significant artifacts those stay unnoticeable in practice. In fact, even 1440p is indistinguishable from 2160p (native or CB) in a lot of cases.

[@NowakP]

7:44 the labels under the images are the other way around I think. Also right before this you show two different images in succession, but both are labeled as Native 4k. Great video otherwise!

[@StrengthInSpirit]

It is indeed !

[@jorge69696]

He also has the very rare cpu, ryzen 2900x!

[@SeanLumly]

The results of this checkerboard implementation are quite impressive, IMO well worth the performance trade-off. I sincerely hope that developers, in the same spirit, implement temporal upsampling (interpolated motion) so that a stable 4K120hz becomes a realistic option given a 30Hz render target. This works on TVs with motion smoothing, though with input lag and occasional artifacting. An in game solution could eliminate the input lag and artifacting, at a small quality loss. This would effectively increase the frame-rate without a significant cost to performance.

[@SuperemeRed]

7:05 Comparison incorrectly uses the same 4K image in the PS4 Pro example on the left. I overlayed them in Photoshop and they are exactly the same image, the more jagged PS4 version were in the cut right before though.

[@erubalu]

The differences are so subtle it makes me wonder if it's even worth going over 2k

[@zerofate6889]

I finished the EPIC version of this game at 60fps. Although this is a movie game, I still think 60fps is more important than 4k resolution in this game.

[@16valveBravoSpoonz]

yep, ive seen a few comments like this game doesn't need to be 60fps. naah i tried this game at 30fps on PC so i could have more eye candy and i hated it. i put the resolution to 1800p and had an almost locked 60fps experience and it was sooo much better, you could concentrate more on what's going on and it was better in the some scenes that needed quicker reaction times. 60fps makes everything better.

[@Scorpwind]

@@16valveBravoSpoonz I agree. But tell that to Sony. They should give players an option between framerate and visuals in every game instead of forcing more pixels down peoples throats. Not everyone cares about having the best visual quality.

[@sulimanz7067]

only filthy people like 30 fps in 2020

[@ghostthough7874]

I much prefer higher quality at 30 FPS than 60 FPS at a lower quality. A game like this is about the quality, not how well it performs.

[@sulimanz7067]

@@ghostthough7874 it wont be low quality but 4k is overrated people just dont get it i have 2k

[@lucasandrescosta391]

That initial simple explanation of how checkerboarding works was amazing! Now it would be really cool to get a DLSS 2 vs Checkerboarding

[@Hybred]

Checkerboard rendering vs DLSS 2.0 is a comparison I want to see. What looks better? And what provides better performance? They're both pretty good techniques from what I've seen.

[@SeanBarkerNegaScott128]

You can't really do a 1:1 comparison between checkerboard and DLSS because Detroit does not support DLSS. Maybe Horizon or Death Stranding could support them, but I wouldn't bet on it.

[@Hybred]

@@SeanBarkerNegaScott128 That is true but DLSS is supported on more games and if either performance, quality or both is better than we know what to advocate for on PC. If not then we should push for more checker boarding options, I'm just curious more than anything really.

[@HeloisGevit]

@@Hybred Surely DLSS2.0 must be better since it requires dedicated hardware to function and is more complicated than checkerboard. If checkerboard was better, then we'd be seeing it on PC instead of DLSS as DLSS wouldn't have a raison d'etre. That said, it should still be an option.

[@Hybred]

@@HeloisGevit better is subjective because although one might look better one might perform better and I wanted to compare the trade offs to see if they were both viable. If the graphical difference is big for example but the FPS advantage isn't then there wouldnt be a reason to use the other and we'll never truly be able to compare them unless there is a game that supports both or a console port that checkerboardi and a pc port that supports DLSS

[@JoaoVictor-hk7iv]

@@HeloisGevit DLSS 2.0 has some awful sharpening filter artifacts and requires additional hardware and AI training, just because it's more complicated to implement doesn't mean it's better looking, this video proves checkerboarding looks better. PS4 also has some custom hardware for checkerboarding, maybe that's why we don't really get that on PC.

[@RayCharlizard]

Thanks for looking at this Alex! Good timing too with it following the PS5 reveal event, showing games like Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart running at native 4K. I had kind of assumed Sony would continue using checkerboard rendering on next gen hardware just to get even more visual fidelity, or higher frame rates out of their first party titles. Maybe optional rendering modes like PS4 Pro can be expected? Should be interesting!

[@topperHarley]

conslusion: better use checkerboard on consoles if you don't plan to play your games zoomed 300%, as the results are really good. Hope PS5 continues to use it.

[@AKSBSU]

Same. That was one of the first things I thought about with the new Ratchet and Horizon on PS5. Insomniac initially fooled DF into thinking the previous Ratchet game was native 4K with their temporal injection technique until they did the pixel counting. Why not use that for a 60 fps performance mode now that they are working with a CPU that would probably allow it? Same deal with checkerboard and Horizon.

[@Yourlittlehomie1998]

Me : *watch 4k video analysis in 480p* Me : "I see no difference."

[@billygunn142]

Wait, a 2080ti cannot run this current gen game at consistent 4K60, yet people are moaning that PS5 cannot run next gen games at 4K60 with raytracing?

[@atlas8827]

PS5 is newer and should be a bit more powerful

[@PositronCannon]

@@atlas8827 The PS5 is not gonna be more powerful than the 2080 Ti, a $1200 GPU, and no one should ever expect it to. Same goes for Series X for that matter.

[@atlas8827]

@@PositronCannon In the past, consoles were more powerful than the most expensive gpu

[@Cosmycal]

Series X is very close to a 2080 Ti.

[@gtibro6799]

@@Cosmycal no it's close to a 2080 not a ti

[@andrerevolution455]

Amazing Alex, we still need that full settings and comparison between PS4 vs PC

[@demonitized6208]

We need more games like Detroit. I miss it .

[@MoonScentedHoonter]

Cause we totally need to be browbeat with absolutist takes on shitty whataboutisms while the creator inserts his fetishes under guises of progressivism. Tch, Fuck that.

[@エル-d7e]

**Heavy Rain

[@UnknownUser-fg3fs]

Heavy Rain and beyond 2 souls

[@TheLazyHangman]

I really really hope next gen will allow deeper visuals/performance balance customization on consoles. 4K/60 fps would be nice, but as Alex said I'd rather sacrifice a little bit of clarity in order to keep everything else running at full potential.

[@johngalactus4014]

Waiting super patiently for "The Last Us Part II" Tech breakdown....

[@dieterroos4371]

Can’t wait for the Horizon Zero Dawn PS4 Pro / PC comparison! 🎉

[@ViliEvans]

High framerate is the most important thing. Thank god this is on PC.

[@WindWolf28]

While I agree in a general sense, 60 fps for this particular game doesn't add much in terms of fidelity/immersion. What's important is that the framerate is stable.

[@XSeQToR]

Agree

[@lb5928]

LOL, all your checkerboard comparisons with native resolution are invalid because you used still images. Checkerboard rendering is a temporal technique meaning the quality it provides is only visible during gameplay not in stills. Checkerboarding is designed to combine any two frames during gameplay to produce practically native quality.

[@ProjectPenguinNetwork]

This is the graphic I am expecting to see in GTA 6, in the next generation (Especially after waiting so long for GTA 6)

[@zoroluffy4625]

I think GTA 6 graphics will be even better than this based on what they did with Red Dead 2

[@Jdogg4089]

Based on how things are going, Rockstar will rename GTA 5 to GTA 6 and re-re-re-re-rerelease it on PS6

[@darkowl9]

Too bad they've announced they're just going to re-release a slightly updated GTA V -- again -- on the PS5 for now.

[@KaiSchSp]

You guys are like my favourite KZbin channel!

[@JoeSmoe1]

So basically, PC master race has been spending thousands more just to notice stuff you wouldnt otherwise without a Digital Foundry video... Makes sense.....🤷🏽‍♀️🙃

[@AKSBSU]

I'm probably a 70/ 30 to 60/ 40 percent PC and Pro player, and I've wanted these efficiency techniques on PC since I played Ratchet on a Pro/ OLED 4 years ago. Digital Foundry put out a video about how PC gaming would benefit from them, and the PC elitists attacked them for it. I'm not a fan of this "master race" faction of PC gamers at all. The phrase used to be just a silly joke in jest to razz someone, but some of them are as bad as the console fanboys now.

[@DaHesus]

yep, because you`re eyes only see 25 frames per second ;D

[@sheikhrayan9538]

Imagine having a good discussion and these guys come out to talk shif

[@JoeSmoe1]

@@sheikhrayan9538 im a PC gamer... havent played a console in years... not talking shit, talking FACTS, I guess the truth hurts

[@griffgames9538]

Awesome comparison work, Alex. Obviously this Pro treatment vs. PC was a perfect opportunity to perform a detailed autopsy on reconstruction techniques. It was strong in Detroit, but can't compete with Guerilla's Horizon treatment on Pro, or Insomniac's tasty Temporal Injection for their Pro upgrades.

[@garyclaydon5071]

To the casual gamer they won't be able to see any difference in game

[@BeeboHamido]

Any gamer wouldn't see differences unless if he is piercing his eyes through the screen.

[@NotoriousRawDogger]

I have being waiting for this video since Detroit dropped on PC

[@YoungMrD29]

This video only for Less than 1% of pc gamers who actually game at 4k.

[@khhnator]

is just not worth it, a 4k monitor with adaptive sync and good colors costs 3~4x more than one at 1080p. and lets not talk about framerate or the more you gotta expend on a video card

[@MadOrange644]

Even though steam shows that there is only ~1% of players actually use a 4k monitor everyone on r/PCgaming claims they have a 4k setup. That sub makes me feel poor af.

[@laszlob3683]

Dee29Ldn me:4k 21:9 75HZ or other times 2k 16:9 144HZ but ultra/high settings are a must

[@HeloisGevit]

@@MadOrange644 Stop going by the fucking Steam survey numbers. A: Lots of people have weak secondary devices like laptops or school PCs that they install Steam on to stay connected with friends and play less demanding games on. I'm using one right now! This doesn't mean if their secondary devices get included in the survey over their main, that this is what they're limited to! B: There are lots of casual gamers on PC that just have weak setups but still download Steam because PC is flexible and you can still play games even with weak hardware. This skews the percentages but simply put, this wouldn't be an option on console period, this doesn't mean that these people are dedicated core gamers and their inclusion in the survey distorts the percentages too. C: There are less developed countries with large populations that primarily game on weak PCs, due to lack of consoles in their market or high prices, China is the huge obvious example. Just because loads of internet cafe PCs have Steam installed on them in China, doesn't mean the average western PC gamer's hardware gets considerably weaker, but this is what the survey would tell you. Use critical thinking next time you blindly quote stats as the truth.

[@pyrocro]

and 100% for those interested

[@MrJakku26]

FINALLY! I was asking for this sense it came out on PC.

[@GNCceo]

Goodbye 30fps. You will not be missed.

[@gangstagummybear3432]

Should with much newer much more expensive hardware

[@Evan-nw5ro]

30fps isn't going anywhere, I guarantee you

[@PogueSquadron]

30fps will always be around as developers strive for higher image quality. I'd say for a game like Detroit, 30fps with a solid motion blur implementation looks really great.

[@DJ_Dopamine]

30fps will be back with PS5 and Xbox SX.

[@gangstagummybear3432]

@@DJ_Dopamine the stupid thing about frame rates is the higher the frame rate the less you can do, so its stupid to try and bash 30 fps if that lets you push the uncanny valley further; how about the standard for fps be equal like my 500 dollar PS5 or series x does 4k 30 on a high demanding game and pc has to do the same game with a 1000 dollar GPU at 8k and 60fps; so if thats not feasible, shut up about 30 fps

[@omgawesomeomg]

caption at 7:38 should say "PS4" and at 7:43 the captions are reversed, otherwise great work as always alex

[@bahaaalrawi42]

Looks great on both systems. Not really worth paying $1500 more just for smooth edges that are hardly noticeable during game sessions.

[@therealdadbeardold7244]

For what are you paying 1500$ ??? Lol wtf? Can people stop saying you need top of the line hardware??

[@rootanolaofficial]

4K without antialiasing. That is what I expect to see in this video.

[@hector2fast]

me:how much Checkerboard ? alex:yes

[@FORZALEGEND360]

Checkerboard works great. 60fps vs 30fps that's a whole different matter.

[@AKSBSU]

Checkerboard could be used to get to 60 fps. This wasn't really possible on many games with the Pro due to the CPU being weak even at the time it was released, but it could be done on PS5.

[@phrozac]

Loved this game, but HZD and Death Stranding are the PS4 to PC ports I’m looking forward to. 60+fps at 21:9, baby!

[@mkb144p6]

Can't wait to play hzd on pc at 99999fps at resolution 9999999p

[@phrozac]

@@mkb144p6 YEAH BOIIII

[@WindWolf28]

I don't own a 21:9 display as I find it odd, but I have to admit that HZD and DS will certainly look phenomenal on those screens. The vistas will be breathtaking.

[@AKSBSU]

They could also be given significant PS5 updates similar to the Pro patches many games got this generation. They could even use a lot of the work being done on the PC versions in such updates. Why wouldn't they want some of their flagship PS4 games to look good on PS5? It would be good for marketing and image.

[@WindWolf28]

@@AKSBSU Absolutely, who said otherwise? :p

[@JorgeMartinez-dp3im]

Great content as always Alex.

[@denissssss8579]

I knew it checkerboard 4K is something special!

[@Yoshimatsu414]

I already saw the difference in the first scene lol. Can't beat true 4K.

[@ThePipton]

I would really want checkerboard rendering on PC, as a choice

[@DJ_Dopamine]

They could add it in the driver control panel. But it still might need a bit of 'tuning' to look really good. The sort of tweaking that they do with console games.

[@KRGraphicsCG]

I can definitely see myself using Checkerboard rendering in my game projects, especially if the characters and environments will always be detailed... I have no issues with Checkerboard 4k as long as the game plays smoothly

[@absterdam9795]

I was wondering when this was coming out

[@AndyGilleand]

Calling checkerboard 1920x2160 is an inaccurate way to describe it. The same way it's inaccurate to call 1080i 1920x540. The checkerboard pattern means the pixels being rendered are the same as those being rendered in a native 4K image. Meaning it's 1:1 pixel mapping to 3840x2160. The only difference is, it skips rendering every other pixel. Like, odd pixels are skipped on one line, and then even pixels skipped on the next. Then when you render the next frame, the opposite pattern is used. If no motion has occurred in that time frame, you have a 100% bit identical image to native 4K. Think of it as rendering half the pixels in one frame, and the other half in the next. The main thing that makes it better than interlacing is the temporal projection. So it can keep track of how objects have been moving the last few frames, and project those pixels forward. When doing so, you end up filling in the gaps in that checkerboard pattern in the current frame. Most of the gaps will usually be filled rather well, giving you something VERY close to native 4K. It's only those few gaps that aren't filled in that need to be interpolated, and this is going to be stuff that's moving on screen anyway, and would likely already have motion blur anyway, so you're not losing much. So the frame being rendered isn't 1920x2160. It's a 3840x2160 framebuffer with holes in it every other pixel, in that checkerboard pattern. Most of those holes get filled from previous frame data, giving you an image nearly identical to native 4K. If there was no AA, I have a feeling there would be a much smaller difference between checkerboard and native 4K. Temporal AA means not only will the pixel pattern be shifted every frame, but there will be subpixel jitter also happening each frame as well, to build the AA structure over time. Without that additional jitter, you'd get an image closer to native 4K, but of course it's worth it in the end to have smoother edges.

[@Pit_1209]

Do you think this technique can be improved for next-gen or will they use something more close to DLSS 2?

[@kailiburns366]

"So the frame being rendered isn't 1920 x 2160, it's a 3840 x 2160 framebuffer with holes in it every other pixel" ..Considering the holes aren't rendered that frame doesn't that mean it's effectively 1920 x 2160 in terms of pixels being pushed on screen? Hence it being an apt descriptor for the checkerboarding? Perhaps there's something I'm not grasping, but "It's sort of like 1920 x 2160" vs "No it's full 4k just half the pixels missing each frame on the horizontal" would quintessentially mean the same thing as far as pixel comparison goes?

[@leonthesleepy]

*This comment is Checkerboarded* . . . . OR IS IT?!

[@joseLDZ]

Hi Alex. I'm fan of DF for many years. To be honest, I wasn't quite convinced about you at the beginning, especially that mostly you prefer PC and I'm straight console gamer :) Also maybe you was a bit shy when you started your work but man, recently you are just amazing, you are doing a GREAT work and now I can say I'm as big fan of yourself as of any other DF family member. Keep being amazing being yourself :) Greetings from Poland.

[@julien6793]

I hope Sony make more titles for pc.

[@GrainMuncher]

Death Stranding is coming in July and HZD doesn’t have a release date yet unfortunately I think, but THEM GAMES BE COMING

[@HeloisGevit]

@ULTRAVIOLET And Uncharted and Last of Us, and Spiderman. Any other worthy PS titles?

[@kiwihub6454]

You can emulate PS3 games such as the last of us with RPCS3. And if you wait 2 more years, you will be able to play ps4 games without lag using the GPCS4 emulator.

[@HeloisGevit]

​@@kiwihub6454 We all know about emulators of course. But they take a long time to reach a playable state and PC versions would run far better and be more customisable with higher quality assets and proper mouse and keyboard support.

[@kiwihub6454]

@@HeloisGevit with emulation you can have custom assets, so you can technically put higher textures for example. Btw emulators are more and more playable on pc. For example "last of us" using RPCS3 couldn't hit 30 fps 1 month ago and now we can run the game at +40fps, thanks to some patchs.

[@Szmajdzik]

So reconstructed 1527p costs around 1600p and looks like 1800p. Win-win situation. Great technology. I also want to mention that most differences from native 4k are on such minor details that noone without magnifying glass or digital extra zoom along with freeze frame would NEVER notice (lines on buildings 100 metres away, edge of shirt, reflection on a visor a little bit pixelated, etc.)

[@ebgolfin]

I actually prefer the slower framerate for this title as it appears more cinematic. 60 FPS gives a cutscene heavy game like this a "soap opera" look. That being said, this title is much more suited for a living room and couch setup much more than my PC and desk setup.

[@TheKidDoc81]

It's not 1997. A lot of people have a PC setup in their living room, myself included. Also, Steam Big Picture mode is designed for such setup.

[@MrOP66]

One important aspect with checkerboard rendering is that it will perform better at higher framerates because movement between frames at 60Hz movement is halved, and there is less need for AA and less artifacts. Additionally, If the device has sufficient memory for buffering raw rendered frames, you could reach full 4k with two consequtive frames on static image, and only minor artifacting in motion. I would consider checkerboard 4k60 being more playable than true 4k30.

[@BlindTrustProject]

All the comparison with 1500p are a bit irrelevant. The PS4 pro checkboard solution is rendering with native 4K on the vertical and 2:1 ratio on horizontal. If we compare just pixel number and sharpness, we all know that keeping native resolution on one axis and anamorphose on the other one is a better setup at high resolution, than keeping the same number of pixels but scaled equally on both axis. The good keeping of sharpness is due to the resolution being native on one axis, not the quality of the Checkboarding.

[@trs8696]

the visual fidelity of chequerboard definitely looks much closer to 4k than to the kliudged 2k image, it's impressive

[@damir791]

Cool video with interesting outline, thanks.

[@BobbySRX]

I am happy to stay checkerboarding if required zoom in 3x or even more to compare the differences with native 4K. But, 60fps on PC version looks really nice.

[@diy-speaker]

Well the detail differences are not much of a deal. Without direct comparison it's not significant in both ways. But framerate does. Checkerboarding generate a very noticeable framerate lag. It feels like 40fps to 60fps. Frames looks distant from each other.

[@elazzja]

Finished the game yesterday after a year. I do have to admit I looked up some answers to the end because I didn't want my characters to die. Although looking at it maybe it wasn't needed seeing how I would have chosen the conversations. I might do another playthrough and go ballistic :p There are quite some possible outcomes. I enjoyed the experience and would like another game like this on PS5