DF Direct Weekly #170: VRR A Crutch For Good Console Perf? Auto SR Tested, Cerny Interview Reaction

In the new DF Direct, the team discuss the growing importance of VRR in console gaming - but are we reaching the point where it's becoming essential for good performance? Meanwhile, Rich has some positive things to say about Microsoft's Auto SR upscaling technology, John has much to share on the new Crazy Taxi, and there are some interesting discussion points raised in a recent Mark Cerny interview. Meanwhile, what on Earth is going on with the latest Elden Ring patch notes?
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0:00:00 Introduction
0:01:04 News 01: Has VRR become a crutch for good performance?
0:20:00 News 02: Auto SR impressions!
0:37:26 News 03: New Crazy Taxi is open world, massively multiplayer
0:47:43 News 04: Mark Cerny dishes on PS5 architecture, games
1:03:22 News 05: Sony killing off recordable disc production
1:11:19 News 06: Elden Ring patch notes suggest odd performance fix
1:19:43 News 07: OutRun steeply discounted on Nintendo eShop
1:29:16 Supporter Q1: When do you think we’ll hear more about the PS5 Pro?
1:36:55 Supporter Q2: Could DF provide technical context to Eurogamer or IGN game reviews?
1:47:42 Supporter Q3: Why does the PS5 only support VRR over HDMI 2.1?
1:54:15 Supporter Q4: Why do many developers only offer software Lumen in their UE5 games?
1:56:40 Supporter Q5: Whatever happened to SLI and CrossFire?
2:02:23 Supporter Q6: How should console versions of games expose graphical options?
2:06:17 Supporter Q7: Is there a place for cinematic trailers?

[@Xshinobi2k8]

The patch notes for Elden Ring makes it abundantly clear that From is never going to actually fix the performance issues with that game.

[@bab027]

I just… i can’t. Who put that in there.

[@djayjp]

Actually frame pacing inconsistency was proven to reduce input latency by DF (or reported by them to do so) so there is a logic to leave it as is.

[@harryhazza626]

Ok and ? It really isnt bad . This aint ds1 blighttown or anything lol

[@TheDarksideFNothing]

​@@djayjpuhhhh... I'm really not sure what you're meaning. I've watched all of DF content on Elden Ring and I don't recognize that sentiment at all from what they talked about. Bad frame pacing isn't going to improve latency generally speaking. Trying to use something like a framerate cap to smooth things out could cause problems if their framerates cap is also broken (I think it is?) but that's just more janky software from the devs. Don't get it twisted, this is just straight up From Software having poorly running games and for whatever reason not putting in the time/money to fix them.

[@mathburn1]

​@@djayjp What? Bad frame pacing is bad frame pacing. There's nothing good about it. Proper 16.67ms all the time is just better.

[@kosmosyche]

Blizzard's CGI trailers used to be so good. You would never confuse them for gameplay trailers, because they were completely different from what you were doing in games themselves, but they were very well directed and I would say artistically and creatively on a very high level, so I kinda used to love just watching them and they got people really hyped up, which was the point. There was never any intention to deceive people that it was real-time gameplay footage, cause everyone understood that it wasn't, it was just very well made CGI that got really cool vibes and was aesthetically pleasing to the eyes and ears. For example, I still remember their Starcraft II "It's about time" trailer and even as far back as Warcraft 3 "We never paid any heed to the ancient prophecies" trailer.

[@kwoni3337]

Yea, I think part of the problem now is that there isn't a need for completely different cgi stuff to get high quality scenes as most things can be done in game or in engine now. That's where the blurry line starts to appear. The gap between cgi that's clearly a cutscene and in game visuals has shortened substantially.

[@mutcholokoW]

"I've been FSRring all week" is such a good sentence to say lol

[@Gloamy17]

"Fondling Saggy Rectums"

[@colefellner5718]

😂

[@reddonut1518]

Is Alex still working on that PhysX video? I remember he was talking about it for a while, and then just kind of stopped? Seems like a really interesting project!

[@pixelvahl]

PhysX can be a little finickity on modern GPUs so he might be having some issues. Some games will either crash or still have major frame rate drops with it enabled even on Nvidia GPUs.

[@reddonut1518]

@@pixelvahl well, what about digital foundry’s huge stockpile of retro pc hardware? I remember Alex using a physx card in the Arkham knight video, and I’m sure they have a 780 or whatever old gpu lying around somewhere, right?

[@pixelvahl]

@@reddonut1518 Idk, it's just a guess from what I've seen recently.

[@reddonut1518]

@@pixelvahl fair, could still be the problem

[@JoshuaLundberg]

At a LAN once a friend launched the Predator game on Steam using my laptop, and the FPS was sub-20. No weird settings (have on occasion seen games inherit config from my other PCs), nothing obvious happening... wasn't using iGPU according to NVIDIA control panel... it was holding up everyone so I said "there's no reason this would improve it, but I'm going to verify the files. It won't work, but I'll try it." One file was redownloaded, and it worked. Performance went back to normal, and he said, "oh it must have been missing the 'dont run like shit file.'"

[@KARLOSPCgame]

The only thing i could guess is, were the files conpressed by NTFS/compactGUI?

[@bronwaith]

LOL

[@sequences8942]

It's funny to me that an organization that has a video about downloading a .DLL file to unofficially update games using XeSS to a newer version, somehow also think that file verification can't impact a game's performance.

[@MarcusAuerbach]

AvP always breaks after a while. I only seldomly play it these days but it's the one game I always validate before even starting (will crash on me if I don't oO).

[@JoshuaLundberg]

@@MarcusAuerbach oh that's interesting. But this was the Predator multiplayer game published by PlayStation.

[@DoctorHades]

VRR is great for two things: 1. fixing screen tearing; and 2. fixing stuttery framerates. It is a godsend in my experience even in games that run at a locked framerate for 99.99% of the time since VRR helps mask the 0.01% of the time it isn't!

[@Xsetsu]

I agree. Depends on the game but it certainly smooths out the frame rate. Not perfect, but I agree it is huge upgrade from previous methods of dealing with stuttering frames. I lock the frame rate, which at this point on the PC I don't know why you wouldn't. It's game dependent but fixes most any other problems you might have as long as you can get a somewhat stable frame rate.

[@andyward8430]

Agreed. My last two TVs have had vrr and I could never go back. For the most part most games feel locked even though they aren’t.

[@asleshplb4116]

Can't they add vrr support for hdmi 2.0 through a software update????

[@andyward8430]

@@asleshplb4116 some 2.0 TVs do have vrr but at least in the case of my Samsung q70 it could only output at 1440p with 120hz vrr enabled.

[@bose5160]

Imagine if game devs were competent and made games to run on the hardware instead of depending on things like fsr to have their games play at a stable, acceptable level of performance...

[@kohlmannj]

Hooting and hollering at the idea that John’s son refuses to move a mouse cursor at anything lower than 165 Hz 🤣

[@equinoxe3d]

Shoutout to Alex again for bringing awareness of the Outrun2006Tweaks mod. Lots of bugfixes, UI adjustments and unlocked framerate but also recently 4K texture pack support which greatly enhances the visuals as well.

[@jipjomon]

Nowadays I don't feel much of anything

[@oliverdavis4642]

44 likes, no comments because everyone just agrees

[@ketchup7867]

That’s a really good way of putting it with my psychologist

[@timmyp6297]

Thats because these channels cant tell you the things you want to hear, because they are dictated by their sponsors. Meanwhile the people that try to bring you information that matters are downvoted and silenced... go ahead and try to figure out why. Weve already lost, because all we have left is this.

[@keevacarroll5768]

I'm so happy Richard leadbetter is knocking about. I bought every single issue of Sega Saturn magazine

[@marcw3852]

'Crazy Taxi 99' ala Tetris 99 is such a no brainer for this game. Can't believe they haven't done it already

[@quagthias]

THank you for sharing the OutRun Amiga opening. I almost spit out my coffee.

[@MrJekken]

The biggest issue I see going forward with the 'all digital' future on consoles is that it will effectively make the playstation store a monopoly in regard to where you can purchase playstation games.

[@morganator4874]

I agree with Alex on the frame rate/time point he made in terms of performance. VRR definitely has its benefits, but I would much rather have a consistent frame rate/time than too much fluctuation depending on the game. I'd prefer to just cap the refresh rate at 60 instead of seeing significant jumps like 60 to 90fps (or higher). It doesn't look natural from a visual perspective and breaks immersion for me. I get that it's required for performance improvements on console however. Unless the game supports mods or receives a patch.

[@bb5307]

i just cap the cap around my minimal framerate could be around 60,70,90+ etc. I like how you can just set any framerate target with VRR.

[@strangevision99]

I think Cerny would've been less surprised if console games hadn't widely adopted various performance modes. If most games were developed with one mode and targeted 4K, with features like ray tracing, we'd see a lot more 30fps games.

[@paul1979uk2000]

Very likely, especially as the gen moves on and gamers expect better visuals out of the hardware that pressures publishers to reduce visuals in other areas like frame rate and resolution. But to be fair, that's already happening with many games where they are using upscaling tech to hide it and end up running the games at a crazy low resolution that is even lower than what the last gen consoles were doing and it's especially the case for many UE5 games.

[@imo098765]

@@paul1979uk2000 yeah I think its because the past few year the games were cross-gen OR going to have some cross-gen port done like Hogwarts Legacy Plus games can finally run at 60fps and RT is far too demanding, UE5 wasnt ready for releasing games. Its just a collection of yeah we can get 60fps by lowering some details and optimization in some areas

[@cheese_crab]

Can't believe I'm saying this but Fallout 4 actually has (in my opinion) the best UX style for console graphics choices. - One toggle for the graphics, such as performance or quality - A *separate* toggle for framerate cap unaffected by the graphics choice - 60Hz should get 30fps cap or 60fps cap options - 120Hz should get 30fps, 40fps, 60fps, 120fps cap options I can't really think of a better way to offer these to users. It's really powerful and also very simple to use.

[@imo098765]

Bethesda the peak of gaming

[@Jonatan606]

Spider-Man 2 did it better. Same options as you mentioned, plus support for 120hz and ray tracing

[@imo098765]

@@Jonatan606 Does it allow full ray tracing mode and a 60fps?

[@Jonatan606]

​@@imo098765If by full ray tracing, you mean path tracing, then no. But there is a solid 60 fps mode with ray tracing effects.

[@Not_Lewis]

The whole rebuild database excuse is more telling than anything. It shows that FromSoft KNOWs their game is a buggy mess but they refuse to address it explicitly because that would mean having to actually patch it. IF they don't want to patch it, it means that likely there's some operational mismanagement preventing them from doing so. Poor game engine design or too involved to make it worthwhile.

[@AJ-xv7oh]

Or they know they're just not talented enough to optimise it.

[@ChristopherFossMusic]

And before Midnight Club, there was Midtown Madness (by the same developers, too!)

[@PresidentKony]

Angel Studios

[@MKR3238]

Is MC3 hard AF or do i just suck that much lol

[@PresidentKony]

@@MKR3238 it can be a real pain at times but just gotta stick with it or grind for more money to upgrade

[@Reydriel]

@@MKR3238 The Midnight Club games are pretty infamous for being hard lol

[@mbsfaridi]

Love both

[@EastyyBlogspot]

To me a cinematic trailer is like advertising a song with no sound and just a picture

[@christonchev9762]

y but that's not the point the whole point is can u play a game at max graphics full RT and everything at 60fps+ on consoles andthe answer is no

[@spyczech]

So it's like album artwork, a respectable and important aspect of a work?

[@MarbleThumbs]

​@@spyczech It's more like a music video, totally superfluous.

[@Fitzwater]

Exactly! They're fine, but they tell you almost nothing about the game - since often times the gameplay doesn't match the cinematic trailer at all. I think they're much more palatable when they're paired with gameplay, or just not too long or numerous...so many showcases now have so many cinematic trailers that it's just too much and it's hard to get excited about games when they often don't tell you much about the game.

[@spyczech]

@@MarbleThumbs You have only seen mid music videos it seems

[@xbradx75]

For Elden ring's pc patch notes, that's supposedly to rectify the EAC causing failure to launch issues and false suspicious activity detected alerts , not the frame rate. No idea why they'd suggest that for PS5 frame rate issues 🤣

[@AJ-xv7oh]

They probably believe it does solve it. That's how talentless they are at optimising.

[@marsovac]

Why do you even need EAC in a single player game...

[@xbradx75]

@@marsovacbecause it’s not entirely a single player game.

[@praisetheoak]

@@marsovac Go play any older Souls game in multiplayer mode to answer your question.

[@praisetheoak]

@@AJ-xv7oh They are so talentless, like, absolutely a talentless inept studio uncapable of making fun games right? Better keep buying 130$ Ubislop full of microtransactions and time-wasting RNG mechanics amaright?

[@KrisDee1981]

Guys they are monitors with only HDMI 2.0 that support HDMI Forum VRR, and 1440p120Hz+vrr works on PS5! I have one, it's Dell aw3423dwf oled. The original DW model also supports it. Another one is Dell G2724D.

[@ItsWezOosh]

Makes no sense that it is supported on those HDMI 2.0 monitors but not other monitors, my point was that if my series S can detect and enable VRR, Then there's no reason as to why the PS5 isn't able to

[@KrisDee1981]

@@ItsWezOosh Bro Xbox support HDMI forum VRR but also Freesync, and that's why it works on every monitor. PS5 only supports HDMI forum VRR. Only a few monitors on the market with HDMI 2.0 also have HDMI forum VRR implemented.

[@ItsWezOosh]

@@KrisDee1981 yes I know that, it's something that they could implement with an update I imagine

[@KrisDee1981]

@@ItsWezOosh Unfortunately they probably never do it. It's Sony.😉 I couldn't believe it when they actually implemented 1440p support. System level VRR support is also weaker than Xbox, but I guess it's better than nothing.

[@ItsWezOosh]

@@KrisDee1981 yeah that's very true, I was surprised at the 1440p mode as well. Lets hope that they do 🤞

[@MadViking82]

What I would appreciate is the talk about is the image quality on VRR mode on TVs and Monitors. There are major drawbacks in most displays when using VRR such as miniled backlight not keeping up or acting strange, fluctuations in brightness (gamma) caused by voltage changes, half resolution or generally lower image quality on LCD displays etc. So if we only examine the FPS graphs, I think we are missing half the story of the VRR which are the image quality problems it comes with. I would hope DF can also open the door to this, as we are together pixel peeping. I fully understand it is really difficult to investigate with limited resources (DF can't of course suddenly start checking VRR out on mutiple displays!) but even just checking Rtings VRR flicker monitor tests will provide you with some data. Personally, I think VRR is at it's best when there's a target FPS and then the game cannot fully run locked, but fluctuates up to 20% from it. Then it is a surplus as Alex said.

[@AdnanAhmed]

The long stall in Elden Ring is due to input switching. I tested it myself. Whenever I switch from my game pad to mouse, my wireless mouse 'activates' from sleep and causes the stall. The game has issues with input switching and had it since launch

[@Zinkolo]

I'm pretty sure most people aren't using VRR on their console because It's only available on high-end TVs and the majority of consumers just have standard 60hz TVs. And even then, somehow the PS5 doesn't even work with my monitor because of how weirdly stringent Sony is with 1440p and VRR support on displays So I can only display 4K on my 1440p ultrawide monitor. Even though it can definitely support VRR.

[@kzin602]

People get consoles because they don't want to deal with janitoring a PC, I wouldn't be surprised if there's a significant number of people with vrr capable televisions and they simply don't have it turned on or can't enable it because of some configuration points in their home theater that they aren't even aware of.

[@b0nz0beavis]

Nah it's available on low/midtier junk like Hisense, who are currently in the top 3 unit selling TV manufacturer in the world. Decent picture quality, low prices but longevity doesn't seem to be that good. Still within reach of the masses. The U6K 65-inch is currently listed at $599 at Best Buy. That's not high end in any sense of the term.

[@frankmacs9379]

After the success of Outrun on Switch, I always wondered why Sega never released Sega Rally or Daytona USA on Switch. Or actually anything on Steam 😢

[@foulplay99]

I used SLI for the Voodoo 2 cards originally, and then for nvidia 3D Vision with SLI 670's and afterwards a pair of Titan X's, it scaled amazingly well in stereo 3D, and games in 3D looked amazing. I miss those days.

[@May1stBurst]

1:52:27 Its pretty much the norm for a lot of 1440p 165 or 144 hz monitors to not support hdmi 2.1. Hdmi 2.0 is perfectly capable of 1440p at 165hz and most people will use displayport on pc anyway so a lot of monitors dont bother with 2.1 support. Im surprised alex didn't mention that.

[@devan_danger]

That's pedantic. The issue is ultimately the PS5

[@SaggyWaggy-is8it]

Why use display port?

[@May1stBurst]

@@SaggyWaggy-is8it display port generally will support higher resolutions or framerates but HDMI is good enough these days. Display port is still the standard on pc because people are used to it and because it's a more open standard that costs less to licence for manufacturers.

[@SaggyWaggy-is8it]

@@May1stBurst display port was worse when I used it

[@mamuf]

Armored Core VI on the PC has frame limiters up to 120 so it's not unlimited but at least it allows you to go over 60.

[@forgettd]

There are unlimited framerate mods for ER, but with 5800x and 4070 (minimal settings) I found that I can't go over 72 fps and keep stable performance (it still dips below 60 sometimes). At the very least, if I switch my monitor to 144hz, it works really well with lossless scaling most of the time

[@slmcrs]

In regards to verify files on steam, I do believe some games have triggers tied to that that will reset some settings or re-run some configs. Not saying elden ring is actually doing this but I know some games have that set up. For example running it on monster hunter rise will trigger an install script on the next run.

[@Alexand3ry]

45:54 - Test Drive Unlimited (2006) is a key building block in Forza Horizon (2012), but not the first one. To me, Horizon is at its core Burnout Paradise (2008) + Metropolis Street Racer (2000), by Bizarre Creations on Dreamcast. MSR set up tracks across three real-world cities, which (weirdly) you could free roam across after beating the campaign. It had a Kudos system where you got points for stylish driving; multiple radio stations with their own DJs; and a day-night cycle that synced with real-world time (which was actually a flop because if you played at the same time each day, you always saw the same time). You can draw a direct line from MSR to Project Gotham Racing (PGR) to Forza Motorsport, then - borrowing liberally from Test Drive and Burnout Paradise - full circle to "MSR for the new millenium", Forza Horizon.

[@AquaticMammalOnBicycle]

Some of the same developers shared between MSR and Forza Horizon. Also PGR.

[@speedracer2please]

Yeah I think most racing games these days are more like The Crew or Need For Speed, where the handling is pre-programmed and the upgrades are just a number. I can't think of any other games that mix sim physics with casual gameplay like Forza, only the games it's descended from.

[@benvids]

Your Outrun/Virtua Racing is my F-Zero. Either Snes or GBA. Perfect.

[@benvids]

Oh my goodness, Windjammers is another.

[@mjc0961]

Haha I love that story about John's son and the monitor settings changing back to 60 Hz. I hate when my computer does that. And it always baffles me when people say they can't notice higher framerates because I can notice immediately when it's happened.

[@Phreno_Xeno]

You baffle easily.

[@mikesalami7]

Looking forward in paticular to Alex's video one day with a full focus on VRR

[@MentatOfDune]

The mouse 'issue' in Elden Ring reminds me of a peripheral issue I can 100% replicate with Elden Ring on Xbox SX. If I have my PowerA wired Xbox One controller plugged into my Xbox SX but I'm actually logged in with and using my standard wireless controller, Elden Ring gets huge stutter and frame drops every time. However if I unplug the wired controller the game works fine. Long story short, peripherals can have a negative impact to Elden Ring performance, even when they're not being used.

[@jngobngo]

Using the mclassic at 1440p is the only way I can play switch on my TV. Looked up the price of the ones john mentioned and oh boy 😅

[@Kinjara]

As crazy as the Elden Ring notes are, I can 100% confirm that the logitech ghub app literally does cause FPS stutters and hangs if and when your mouse "sleeps" after not being used for a period of time. While its certainly not the root cause of all performance issues, it 100% does cause issues.

[@davisorle]

Also agree about the cinematic trailers. It's up to the gamer to not be a dummy and somehow be confused by a CGI and wait for gameplay. I will never forget people talking about the preorders of Death Stranding having seen NOTHING of gameplay. It's not the devs. It's the fault of the gamers.

[@jarrodjob]

44:42 - DF Hall of Fame Level Commentary - Vanilla Wafer, Ryan Seacrest - I am 💀 😂

[@JKSmith-qs2ii]

John if you really care for frame consistency try the PS4 version of Elden Ring on PS5. It runs at the high ps4 pro resolution and the only downside seems to be the grass is a lower setting? It runs so well though.

[@Hans1994yout]

Digital foundry already knows this they talked about it at launch.

[@JKSmith-qs2ii]

@@initial_kd I know they did but John keeps saying he keeps playing for that frame consistency but yet recommends the xbox version. If he wants consistency the ps4 version is the way to go in this case.

[@weaverquest]

​@@JKSmith-qs2ii John did say previously he is playing the Series X version for the better graphics. I guess he is fine with 40-60 variable fps as long as there is VRR. Stutters seems to be his main problem which happens on non-VRR displays and with problems like shader compilation or traversal stutter on PC.

[@mauriciochacon]

Lol they did this since lauch

[@coliander4180]

Top mansplaining, thanks!

[@J.A.Z-TheMortal]

1:19:50 Hopefully this will sell well and motivate SEGA to port Outrun 2 /Outrun 2006 to modern consoles. Some awesome modders have just released a fix that allows the original PC version to be run on modern PCs, but an official remaster would be great.

[@strangevision99]

@@J.A.Z-TheMortal I think the Ferrari license will probably stop them from ever releasing that game again. It's a real shame because it's my favourite racing game ever.

[@SKHYJINX]

Im happy that SLI and Crossfire massively opened up the frametime discussion, as they in many cases had badframe pacing (choppy look, high fps) leading into deeper dives and explanations.

[@jameshardy6277]

When these three laugh together it's magical. Perfect dynamic and as always, great content.

[@Tim_Nilsson]

In regards of Crossfire/SLI I had a 4870 X2, GTX 580 in SLI (2) and GTX Titan in SLI (2). I had planned on having two 1080TI in SLI but at that point it made little to no sense but it does explain why I initially built that computer with a 1000 W PSU...

[@RivalGT]

The arcade version of 2006 actually also has 30 fps reflections I’m guessing the console ports also had this. But the arcade online on PS3/360 did actually have 60 fps reflections.

[@reza494]

Rich: other industries don't make "fake trailers" Other industries: *sweating intensifies*

[@Sportsfan255]

60 fps is a good choice for developers because not only is it more noticeable than some of the RT effects, but it's also always relevant to every scene equally.

[@chamericks]

Always love to hear Richard's takes and forecasts.

[@marcw3852]

Oh man if they bring back Outrun 2/2006 for modern consoles I'd be made up

[@Dr.D00p]

I loved my 4790K Asus GTX 970 SLI rig. I never had any issues with it, letting me play Witcher 3 at max settings 4K back in 2015. I miss it. Plus it just looked cool having 2 GPUs in your case 😊

[@GDI221]

15:35 yea in my experience it is only really noticeable with darker content. I have that problem in Rimworld for example when it changes from daytime to night. In that case i can disable gsync but its still a bummer.

[@tuc5987]

I wonder how much real time passes betweens Rich's "Okay let's move on" and the next segment. Does everyone go for a quick wee? I want to see the director's cut at some point.

[@SC0RPI0NFURY]

When i got a new monitor for my PS5 i made sure it had HDMI 2.1, VRR and ALLM (Auto Low Latency Mode)

[@davidconnorsands]

I don't usually feel the need to like the DF direct videos, but learning the origins of that Out Run music was great 😂 much appreciated All of the @GameSack shorts are even better now!

[@casualtuna2914]

I feel AutoSR is how the next gen xbox (especially the rumored handheld) gonna work. That’s why the xbox hardware division now is lead by the surface team.

[@ricepony33]

DF Stamp of Approval is a valuable asset, take advantage of it.

[@deviouslaw]

Meh, if Cerny wants to nitpick a used motherboard, what about 5-7 years of paid online at $60+ per year.

[@craigsampson3386]

That technically doesn't count as it isn't needed to play all games. You can blame that one directly at Microsoft/Xbox though for making it industry standard in the 360 era, when PS3 online was free... Unfortunately if one company gets away with something, the others will soon follow. I personally just bought up multiple years of PS+ subscription in bulk when I saw them on sale to reduce the cost long term.

[@deviouslaw]

@@craigsampson3386 It technically *does* count since online functionality is free on PC. And who said anything about Microsoft? Sony still runs the PSN last I checked. They don't have to copy everything that MS does. They don't have day-1 first party titles in their subscription. 🤷‍♂️

[@craigsampson3386]

@deviouslaw dude.. dudeee..... you're literally nitpicking even worse yourself if you consider Mark Cerny to be "nitpicking" lol when he clearly isn't, he is just keeping the playing field even for an accurate comparison. Like I've already said it *doesn't* count as its *not* required to play all online games and all off-line games, _if_ it was required for 100% everything on the console, then yes you could fairly add that in to the cost total for comparison sake against PC *BUT* its not, so it makes no logical sense to. We're comparing apples to apples here for an accurate comparison, like Mark Cerny said, if Linus cheated with 2nd hand parts then its only fair to compare 2nd hand PS5s which beats an equivalent gaming PC even further price wise. By the end of the gen PC will probably be able to match it price wise, but by then the PS5 Pro would've been out a while which the PC couldn't match on price yet again, plus PS6 would be right around the corner with even fresher more competitively priced hardware again. Consoles always have PC beat on value lol thats why they exist plus the ease of access and knowing _all_ games will work on their locked in platforms, plus optimisation is always better because of it too. Don't get me wrong I love my gaming PC but you always pay the price for it and I still find myself spending more time on PS5 anyways, especially since most of my friends are on Playstation. I brought up Microsoft because it was relevant to the paid online model you randomly brought up..? They're guilty of being the ones who started it and like I've already said if one company sees another getting away with charging customers for something, then they'll definitely follow suit. They're a business lol they're not leaving money on the table, its honestly pretty naive of you to expect Sony not to copy Microsoft's scummy business tactics if they can get away with it too.

[@deviouslaw]

@@craigsampson3386 once again. That's just your opinion that it doesn't count. In my opinion it totally does because it's required to get unrestricted access to online gaming that is totally free on PC. And it's a pretty big deal since they are asking $60/yr so in the course of a console life cycle that is a lot of money spent. Again, am I surprised that Sony followed suit with Xbox in charging, no. But it's still their own decision to do so and they're the ones responsible for their business practices, not Microsoft. They could just as easily treat it as a point of differentiation if they really wanted to. But they chose to stick their hand out, so therefore it has to be included in cost comparisons. I don't think it is super clear cut that console is a better value than PC. Not at all. Maybe initial purchase price, but there's a lot of benefits to PC like the online, price and availability of games. One example, a PC player would never be caught paying for a next gen patch that mainly just changes the settings and resolution. On PS they have the ability to lock you into that. There is also the performance angle. Something like a Ryzen 5600X from Linus's video has a lot more CPU performance than a PS5. So that has to be considered as well.

[@deviouslaw]

@@craigsampson3386 I don't know where you got your criteria but to me it counts because with PC you get unrestricted access to online for free and on PS you have to pay. For a gaming device I consider that basic functionality and therefore it has to be included in price comparisons. Now in terms of Microsoft. I'm not sure why you bring them up at all. It's almost like they're rent free in your head or something. But I'll reiterate - we can't hold Microsoft accountable for pricing practices of PlayStation. They run their own company and aren't obliged to follow Microsoft in anything. They certainly haven't followed their lead in a number of other ways: I'll list them. Backcompat Game pass Smart delivery Series S Day-1 PC ports Cross buy with PC So don't tell me they have to do everything Microsoft does. They pick and choose where to follow and where not to. You can't blame anyone but Sony for the price of PSN.

[@OneRandomVictory]

There are still several cinematic trailers I remember to this day especially from around the ps3 era. The Old Republic, Assassin's Creed Unity, God of War Ascension, Dante's Inferno, Dishonored, and more.

[@burretploof]

Speaking of OutRun - I was super into OutRun Europa as a kid. It's a spin-off that was released in the early 90s for various platforms. The Amiga version was really good. The game is about the player pursuing someone using various vehicles. Cars, Motorcycles and even boats. It's fun.

[@pronstorestiffi]

I made the mistake of going to the Steam community page for the Elden Ring patch. How anyone can find that section of Steam useful is beyond me.

[@Gravy1255]

Steam community pages are shit. It's either fanboys or pure hatred. The only one with a decent page is like morrowind and oblivion lol. Left for dead as well

[@Alcatraz760]

Sometimes it is useful for finding obscure errors and a fix for it, but aside from that its a wasteland

[@mjc0961]

Any community section on Steam is trash. Patch comments, trash. User reviews, trash. Discussions, trash. Even guides are trash, there are idiots posting "how to launch the game" as a guide and Valve refuses to remove that kind of unhelpful and useless spam no matter how many people report it. Call me crazy but I think not having all these community features is one of the strengths of the Epic Games Store. I'd rather have no community features at all than community features that are unusable because it's unmoderated toxic junk or spam.

[@pronstorestiffi]

@@mjc0961 No I don't think you are crazy, but if that is the case, I am too. I very much think you are right about that aspect of EGS. I'm not a launcher snob i will happily buy my games on EGS, GOG and Steam. But I actually like that EGS lacks the entire "community" aspect because its often the most rotten part.

[@benvids]

CG trailers are very welcome AFTER an extensive gameplay reveal. Gears 2’s marketing was fantastic and coming after the E3 demo, had no impact on my gameplay expectations.

[@Areinu]

I really liked smash character announcement trailers. They did start with hype CG(with "not actual gameplay" text), then they showed off character moves in engine. Everyone already knew how the game looks too.

[@ethanaderemi]

31:16 some projectors have nearest neighbor upscaling, and I agree that surprisingly, even 720 looks good. In the long run, I think raw resolution is going to become less and less important as upscaling gets more sophisticated.

[@MGsubbie]

"I don't understand why people prioritize improvements to gameplay over improvements to graphics." - Mark Cerny

[@metaknightguyWII]

John why not an in depth look at falcom history with the engines they use for ys and trails?

[@GameChronicles]

The whole DF review certification sounds like ENERGY STAR ratings. You provide the rating and let the review sites access/license that info.

[@AndyGilleand]

Can someone explain to me why software Lumen has better performance than hardware lumen? It seems like in every other aspect of processing, it's always faster for a hardware accelerated effect then to do it via software.

[@jcm2606]

The specific data structure that software Lumen uses, that being a signed distance field (SDF for short), is lightning fast to trace against since it literally tells you how close you are to the nearest surface, for any point in the data structure. That opens the door for sphere tracing, where the ray is stepped forward the "perfect" amount and can easily skip empty space, minimising the number of steps that need to be taken. This comes at the cost of limiting both how much detail you can retain for surfaces stored within the SDF and how much of the scene as a whole can be stored in the SDF, as the SDF has a finite resolution and a steep memory footprint. This is why Lumen offers a hardware mode, actually, as software mode may lose too much surface detail or scene coverage, whereas hardware mode is *much* better at retaining surface details and tends to cover a much larger area of the scene.

[@G4r2i0f]

Live action trailer that is one of my favorite's is for Deus Ex Mankind Divided called The Mechanical Apartheid. Yes the game was very different but it set the scene for the world in the story. The state of society in regards to augmented people after the events of Human Revolution. It's quite an emotional trailer.

[@sanctemify]

60fps must be the target and VRR shouldn’t be relied upon as those who don’t have VRR are treated as 2nd class citizens and get a worse experience.

[@Jonatan606]

Not all game designs can be designed for 60 fps on mid-range hardware. That target will limit the variety of hardware coming to the platform.

[@sanctemify]

@@Jonatan606 Sorry, I should have clarified - for those titles aiming for a 60fps target should not leave it with frame rates hovering between 45-60 fps on a fixed platform like consoles. This insinuates they're relying on VRR for a smooth experience for users.

[@sanctemify]

@@Jonatan606 If the game hovers between 45-55 fps a consistent 30 fps lock with proper frame pacing should be set in place on consoles and devs should look at improving settings somewhere.

[@Jonatan606]

@sanctemify Yeah but that's a big if already.

[@sanctemify]

@@Jonatan606 What do you mean it's a big if. It's an easy 'if' to determine - just run the game.

[@TylerHNothing]

I don’t think forward compatibility is as good as they’re saying. If games have a capped 30 mode with better visuals and a 60 performance mode with heavier DRS and other concessions, then next generation we’ll still be at 60 with the better DRS but other features disabled, or the 30 cap

[@wileyracer]

Gears of War, E-Days trailer was still super awesome and interesting and artistic, easily one of the best announce trailers of the last decade

[@ArkaynAdrian]

I'd like for Crazy Taxi that they do this multiplayer as planned etc and then the single player component is all the previous games maps and cars updated with the new assets and you just pick single player in the options menu. Maybe call it legacy mode. It would help sell it for those of us (me) who played the ever living crap out of the DC games but has no interest in multiplayer games.

[@MikeDBloke]

Every time they said VRR I think of that Simpsons bit "RDRR bart"

[@nu1mlock]

Likely reason for the monitor not working with VRR is that PS5 only support HDMI VRR. The monitor supports Freesync, which is not the same thing. Also, PS5 supports VRR with HDMI 2.0 as long as the monitor supports it. Samsung 2020 TV’s supports VRR on its 2.0 ports for example. Most don’t though. That’s because VRR is an optional feature that can be implemented.

[@yaosio]

The benefits of VRR are still coming. Once everybody has a VRR display then a developer can target a non-standard frame rate rather than one that's divisible by a particular number.

[@--waffle-]

Couldnt agree more on the CGI trailer question.

[@zodwraith5745]

I had more than a few SLI setups from Voodoo 2s, 8800GTs, 280s, 970s, and even 2 1080tis. It was great because it not only gave you truly "next gen" performance, but in the early days it _wasn't_ really all that cost prohibitive as not only was it enabled on cheaper SKUs, but GPUs as a whole were laughably cheaper. Honestly I don't get why more people didn't take advantage of it to inject a lot of life into an aging GPU. In every instance I started with a single card and only added another as prices came down and performance desires went up. It was far cheaper picking up a second 970 as they slipped below $300 than a new $700 1080ti to reliably play GTA5 at 4k. It was actually disheartening when I did buy a 1080ti it was barely a sidegrade on games that _did_ scale well, but there was an increasing number that didn't, and some that even ran _worse_ so you had to disable one card. I bought the second 1080ti after seeing the laughably insulting price of the 2080ti and returned it almost instantly once I realized just _how bad_ support had gotten and was completely useless in any relatively new games. I'm surprised we didn't see more dual GPU attempts but while it solved the latency issues between the GPUs it did nothing to help with poor game support that were still aware of them at the driver level. But I'm sure we'll see the return of multiple GPUs, it just needs to be hidden from the software such as you see with the XTX's cost cutting multiple dies as well as professional cards now using many dies to ramp up performance on a single package. I just doubt it will ever be in multiple card configurations anymore for gaming.

[@KoeiNL]

Just because console performance this generation is better than earlier generation doesn't mean its good. I recently switched from a non-VRR to a VRR display and my gaming experience on my Series X has become much better even though the rest of the specs of the VRR display aren't as good as my previous display. There are almost no graphically intensive games this generation that run at a rock solid framerate. Almost all of these issue can be solved if the developers tone down the settings just a tad. They willingly put framerate and frame pacing issues into their games.

[@dnakatomiuk]

I owned OutRun on the Sega Master System II wow that's 30+ years ago man thinking about gaming back then. If I see a Sega Rally Arcade I jump on the thing for about 10 goes, I loved Sega Rally. I even picked up the PS3 edition last week for like £4 yes granted nothing like the original Arcade/Saturn but it's Sega Rally

[@NothingHereForYou]

I feel the VRR issue is a thought process issue like when people get mad that a game is at low settings. If you just named it medium settings people don’t see an issue. Cryisis got around it with naming the settings different. The VRR issue is similar. If they just properly locked the game at 30, but added in an unlock fps mode for VRR displays it wouldn’t be an issue, but instead they added, “performance mode” or “targeting 60 fps mode” and now it looks like the game can’t handle the setting and needs to rely on VRR.

[@tolaut]

51:33 Best Racing Franchise ever mentioned!!

[@BryantChamberstv]

As it appears, There are two types of "gamers" regarding the question about cinematic trailers. Somewhere around the PS1 generation, gaming courted "gamers" who cared way more about stories and visuals than your average gamer did before that. There are now millions of gamers who LOVE the idea of an "interactive cinematic experience" even if the gameplay objectively sucks in some ways (Shenmue immediately comes to mind) Those of us who could not care less about stories (and frankly find most of them exhausting and self serving to the writer) have been relegated to th cheap seats in the gaming arena. I don't remember ANY of those trailers the question poster posted and i reviewed video games for 15yrs. (Save for dead island because of the ridiculous controversy). And that's cool if people like that stuff. But some of us find it time wasting and actually hate it. We want to PLAY our games, not watch them. But I think that type of gamer is a dinosaur to these publishers..... .....because effing RACING games need stories now. 😂😎

[@Tr1klops]

As an older gamer I remember having a C64 and my mate had an Amiga, he wouldn't let me play it and I had to watch him play it, I hated that lol, so when I asked my son when he was a teen if he had played a certain title, I was confused when he said he watched someone play it on KZbin 🤷

[@BryantChamberstv]

@@Tr1klops heard. 👍

[@1982markjm]

When I have VRR on playing Elden Ring on my XSX, the result is mostly amazing, however the few loading screens I see have a lot of flicker. This is on an LG C2.

[@jamesthomas2410]

It's something with from soft and their engine in my opinion all their games run like you're sludging through mud

[@xtr.7662]

​@@jamesthomas2410the sluggish movement is intentional its exactly the same as monster hunter

[@jamesthomas2410]

@@xtr.7662 for all their games? Come on I've played MH and from soft games MH far smoother experience

[@JamesGadbury]

I seem to remember John Carmack working with Nvidia on VRR (G-sync back then?)

[@larrytaylor2692]

vrr is not a crutch but an amazing feature and I’m glad my Xbox has it everything looks so smooth

[@damiandekker474]

IGN do have one guy who does really great tech reviews for some of the bigger profile games, but this kind of stuff is rarely referenced in their standard game reviews.

[@stealfromwork]

The game trailer I remember most is the MGSV trailer from E3 2015? Whichever one used "Elegia" by New Order. I don't actually recall many pre-rendered trailers.

[@VladQuake]

@02:02:00 [H]ard was talking about sli micro stutter and introducing frame times instead of average fps at the time

[@Canad1anKronic]

NFS Underground 2 is the best open world racing game of all time!

[@damiandekker474]

I was so stoked for my bravia X90j to get VRR, but I only used it for barely an hour, cuz it absolutely destroyed the HDR by limiting local dimming and peak brightness. Apparently not an issue on OLED, but not a luxury I have, so not worth the trade-off.

[@Apoplectic_Spock]

You're glowing red with enthusiasm, Rich!

[@blunderingfool]

That's lots of bloodflow going to the face, he has good circulation... webcams pick up on that really well for some reason. =P

[@nagolici3206]

beyond good and evil 2 cinematic trailers are amazing

[@dissecta]

With regards to HDMI 2.1 if you have an AV Amp in the pipeline between your console and your display you need to upgrade that too. I had a gap of 2 years to justify getting a Marantz 7015 ( and 3 way splitter box) to connect PS5 and series X to my LG C1. ARC wasn’t an option for me as my Pioneer Amp would only do lossy non Atmos sound.

[@zodwraith5745]

It's ridiculous how long they've gatekept 2.1 for any affordable TVs or AV gear. They couldn't con people into making 8k a thing so they've had to fall back on keeping OLED and high refresh only to the most expensive gear. What I'd like to know is when they're so slow to adopt HDMI and completely refuse to introduce DP to TVs, _what_ connections were they expecting users to use for 8k?

[@marsovac]

@@zodwraith5745 what do you need 8K for, apart from the 0.01% of people that have a 150" TV wall? If there is no widespread need it makes no business sense.

[@zodwraith5745]

@@marsovac Of course not, but it didn't stop them from _trying._ That's the whole point. They'll never allow a feature to trickle down to affordable sets until they have that bigger better thing to overcharge for on high end ones, and 8k flopped. OLED is NOT a new technology or even notably more expensive to produce than LED backlit LCDs, but where's the affordable OLED TVs? TVs have had 120hz displays for over a decade, but it gets locked behind "motion smoothing" BS and they make sure to not give you the full _connection_ to it if you're not paying up, even though the HDMI 4k/120hz standard was available more than a few years ago not to mention DisplayPort.

[@orangecroc]

ARC GPUs give you the choice between integer and nearest neighbour scaling via the post processing settings in the Arc control center.

[@paul1979uk2000]

I think AMD gives that option in the drivers, but I think it's for 2D pixel art games.

[@lancealex382]

Glad John picked out the final fantasy series for standout CGI. Armoured core had some good CGI cuts too. Personally I like these as a milestone to look forward to to get you going for the next section

[@lancealex382]

I need to watch to the end before commenting😂

[@kaptenteo]

Is VRR even standard on most owned TV's? It still feels like a niche feature that a minority of users even have access to. In which case it can't really be used as a crutch, since developers can't count on it being available for the end user. Unlike FSR, for example.

[@leeroy1986]

I think CG trailers are fine for an initial announcement, but thereafter, you have to show gameplay.

[@joesterling4299]

1:24:34 - Same request I made last time: Discuss the "evil" of having limited-time IP licenses in permanent products. The 2006 PC version of Outrun is another example of it. The game exists, and should exist forever, but the Ferrari license expires, and the game disappears. Are there any possible solutions other than unofficial archiving and piracy?

[@Hans1994yout]

Adaptive sync on Elden Ring PC version is a must.

[@mondodimotori]

46:30 The psp port is based on the ps2 version. Wich is just a conceptual port of the 360 version. The map is similar and at the same scale, but the engine and how the game plays is totally different.

[@WDeranged]

I'm slowly replaying old games on my latest PC. Along with running at 4k I've found VRR to be a huge gamechanger. It's hard to believe we put up with all that latency and framerate instability.