DF Direct Weekly #51 - Elden Ring, Switch Pro Spec Leak, Steam Deck Reaction

[@johnny7285]

Happy Anniversary Digital Foundry starting a podcast gotta be one of the best decision ever.

[@FlagshipFighter]

💯%, this is my no.1 fav podcast

[@anabang1251]

I never listened to any Podcast but this and the SpawnCast (by Gaming News KZbinr Spawn Wave) are the only exceptions. Really enjoying them!

[@xBINARYGODx]

yes, but a blindingly obvious one. Talk radio and tv, generally speaking, have always been huge.

[@amilyester]

@@xBINARYGODx even moreso now that we're all multitasking and have our ears free for more content

[@brotherbodhi237]

@@anabang1251 I only listen to four. And the two mentioned make up 50% of my intake lol

[@Taijifufu]

I'd definitely prefer letting the PC compile shaders for 10 minutes as part of the install process(a required benchmark maybe?). Either that or pay someone to beat Elden Ring on my PC before me so I can play it myself uninterrupted.

[@BenReierson]

Seriously, this seems like such an obvious option to add. It shouldn’t even be that difficult to build if all they need to do is throw up a progress bar and run the games through a bunch of scenarios behind it, and obviously make sure the cache size is big enough.

[@Berengal]

This is actually what happens on Linux. Valve's Fossilize project records the Vulkan shaders it encounters on a single machine, then distributes them to other machines so they can compile them for themselves. The compilation can be done without actually running the application, so possibly before first launch, or in the background while playing. It doesn't completely remove all shader compilation stutters since someone has to play through the game first to record all the shaders, and there's still the possibility of you encountering a completely new shader that nobody has seen before. It also can take quite a bit of time and CPU power to compile all the shaders at once, so you'll notice your PC chugging and your fans spinning up.

[@monkfishy6348]

There are reasons to compile shaders at runtime, rather than pre-compiling. But yes, it should definitely be an option.

[@johnsimon8457]

@@BenReierson Forza does this. And switching to/from DX11/DX12 you encounter a "Please wait while shader recompiles" progress bar and your GPU's fan maxes out. But while Forza is a technical showcase for MS hardware and software and they're given all the support they need from the system software designers ... FROM really looks like "Well, this is what we could get running for simultaneous launch."

[@startedtech]

Call of Duty does that.

[@IuriFiedoruk]

On the AMD drivers, as people already told, they are open-source and updated often in new Kernel, but that is only part of the story. Recently the Linux kernel is getting quite a lot of AMD optimizations, both CPU and GPU, and even some changes in thread's semaphores to better support Wine - that is a part of what SteamDeck uses for compatibility, that should give some really good performance upgrades. I do believe that, because of the Deck, Linux will get quite a lot of optimizations to make it run better, so that is good news for the device, it can see improvements of 5 to 10% in some games with just a new kernel feature. There is quite a lot of space in that area for better performance on Linux, so it might get really fun.

[@rhekman]

Indeed. When I got to 19:40 in the video, I came straight here to the comments to point out AMD has been making their Linux driver open source for years now, and the current driver base (AMDGPU) became mainline to Linux around the Tonga-Fiji-Polaris generations. Then when AMD announced they were working on an open source Vulkan implementation, enough people & companies got tired of waiting, that third parties developed the RADV driver (largely spearheaded by Valve, and modeled after an Intel iGPU Vulkan driver that Intel & Valve had made called ANV). RADV provides Vulkan support, Mesa provides OpenGL support, and AMDGPU drives the hardware on Linux, and in turn, the Steam Deck. That driver stack is arguably more performant than even AMD's Windows drivers, and while it gets a lot of support from AMD, it also gets direct updates from other companies including Valve, Google, Igalia, Codeweavers, and others.

[@nextlifeonearth]

On the Linux drivers. They're out of AMD's hands now, since they're open source now. If something is found in the drivers I'd wager that they're sooner patched in SteamOS than on Windows. Now what AMD is going to do with the Windows drivers I'm really wondering. Legal apparently doesn't like what Valve wants for whatever reason, so I'm wondering if they want to open source those drivers too, want them in Radeon Software or whether they made their own or what.

[@RobertJohnLora]

"I actually had to remind him" - editing is always A-tier with these vids, Audi. Love the teamwork here, not sure there's anything better on the internet right now 👏🏼

[@PatrikHorvathYT]

Kudos for adding blue and yellow backgrounds to the usual name tags.

[@christophes9712]

(51:39) Elden ring optimizations : on the steamdeck and Linux, Proton uses a shader cache : shaders are precompilated. On steamdeck it is downloaded from the server cause it is fixed hardware .. on Linux your machine makes the compilation at first start when possible or in background task for all your library (specific option for proton).

[@LinuxGamingAlchemy]

Also the pre-compilation can take a lot of time depending on the number of shaders, so the compilation task in background is a good option if you have lot's of cores. Note that if you change the GPU driver the pre-compilation will be relaunched again. In this process there is also a creation of a cache for videos from the games in a readable non proprietary format for proton to use (to avoid proprietary specific Ms video libraries).

[@monkfishy6348]

I'm considering dual-booting into Linux for Elden Ring just. But I've heard driver support is poor on Nvidia for Linux.

[@LinuxGamingAlchemy]

@@monkfishy6348 it is not that bad but it is not open source .. so it must be installed with the OS repositories.. (but avoid installing it from NVIDIA website)

[@TheAbandonedPotato]

Thanks for commenting this. Seems like some part of DF-community isn't aware of the background precompilation setting. Makes my life a lot easier while gaming on proton

[@badsimracer6377]

Tom's take on GT is 100% correct. The way to go has to be by improving the in game physics. Comparing the level of detail while driving, particularly when using a proper direct drive wheel is still night and day between GT7 and the more sim focused titles like assetto corsa competizione, iRacing and automobilista 2. On a side note, iRacing actually has soft body deformation implemented in most of the available cars. Also, it would be a great idea for a video if you could do an in-depth graphical and performance analysis on each of the available racing Sims.

[@ezaike335]

I think gt7 has done a pretty good job on the new weather effects. The new simulation of the rain affecting the road is impressive. This is the right direction to go, more realistic physics and high details on the cars.

[@KARRELLIA]

Every week Rich sounds surprised that the number of directs has gone up by one.

[@christophes9712]

(19:39) about emulators : Vulkan AMD driver on Linux are great... and they are open source so it is not like on Windows where AMD must modify the driver for performance.. Here Valve can adapt most of the driver themselves. Also emulators have native linux ports and run better on Vulkan .. So consider emulation on Linux as a gain compared to Windows.

[@TheShadoDragon]

well, there are closed source AMDGPU PRO drivers as well. Thought I'm not sure many use those. The interesting question would be: Does the SteamDeck use standard mesa shader compiler or the ACO compiler from Valve.

[@somedude4122]

@@TheShadoDragon The gaming part is still the same. The PRO drivers are more for OpenCL acceleration

[@rhekman]

19:40 AMD has been upstreaming open source GPU drivers to Linux for years. Around Polaris, they got good on the kernel side, driving the hardware. For API driver support, AMD on Linux relies on Open Source projects that they are a mere part of, instead being a sole provider. Those are the Mesa project, which provides the program level (user-space) GPU access for OpenGL, memory management, window system integration; as well as the RADV project, which integrates with Mesa to provide Vulkan support. Valve has been a supporter of Mesa and RADV for years, which hints at what they had planned for Steam, Steam Boxes, Proton, and eventually the Steam Deck.

[@Zveebo]

Congrats on your anniversary, guys. It’s been a great addition to the channel! I enjoy all the different combos in their own ways, but Alex, Tom and Rich are a really different vibe, in a good way.

[@rafaelraad555]

Happy anniversary all! Special thanks to Alex for helping us with PC optimal settings. So much work goes into figuring it out! Extremely helpful work!

[@joesterling4299]

The average PC gamer doesn't have a bleeding-edge system. PC developers are already dealing with the top GPU according to Steam stats being a GTX 1060. They have plenty of experience creating software that scales to a wide variety of hardware (at least those who want the most possible sales do). I can't imagine the Steam Deck would be an insurmountable challenge for them. And if it sells as well as a console, so much the better. For that, we'll have to wait.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

Plus DLSS is handy for people with lesser GPU's in the new range of Nvidia hardware. It would probably stop me from wasting money on a high end card when i eventually upgrade.

[@MegaTeeSmith]

Appreciated this detail 🇺🇦

[@Debanjanepiskey]

Time stamp?

[@sundhaug92]

@@Debanjanepiskey Note the color of the cards used to show their names

[@VerticalStrafes]

Lol, who deleted his comment

[@Zveebo]

@@Cxs1a3 Your comment, yeah. DF showing their support for a country being brutally invaded, nah - that’s just basic common decency.

[@Debanjanepiskey]

@@sundhaug92 Ah gotcha.

[@rhekman]

19:39 The AMD Linux driver is updated with every kernel release. A new kernel usually comes out every 9-10 weeks. Mesa (OpenGL and RADV Vulkan support) has a major release every 3-4 months, and bugfix point updates every couple weeks. Valve based SteamOS 3.0 on the Arch Linux distribution, which uses rolling release constant updates. So how often they plan to ship Steam Deck updates is really up to them.

[@Girvo747]

The fact that Elden Ring is forcing me to run it at 1440p to even play it at 60FPS (with all the stutters everyone else has) on a 3060 Ti is frustrating. It’s not a good-looking enough game for this sort of heavy performance. I should be able to hit 60FPS 4K even if I lowered settings, but no combination of settings gets it there! Ridiculous.

[@Girvo747]

@@AFistfulOf4K You absolutely should! Provided you’re not setting everything to “ultra” which is in nearly every game impossible to tell the difference visually from well chosen medium/high settings, you’ll easily hit 4K 60FPS in basically all of the latest games. Elden Ring is a fantastic game, probably the best I’ve played in years, but visually it pales in comparison to other games that I have running at far better performance at 4K right now today. That, and 4K high refresh rate monitors are getting cheap; it’s fantastic :) Valorant at 4K 300FPS is lovey on my 144hz Asus monitor. But that “second cheapest” you’re talking about is more powerful than a 2080 Super. Aside from the tiny percentage difference the Ti models of the 3070 and 3080 add over their non Ti counter parts, the performance of the 3060 Ti is ridiculously good for what it cost RRP (and I was lucky enough to get one). The 3070 for example is only a few percentage points faster in most games. Your 3080 Ti can smash out high setting 4K 60hz no worries on todays games, and once you try it you won’t wanna go back!

[@GordonGordon]

That being said, for Switch... I was just playing the Kirby demo. That game is gorgeous. The art direction is so strong, the frame pacing is great. I'm laughing at how that gorilla fight had this beautiful grass on the edges of the arena, and we're talking about grass draw distance being altered for Elden Ring affects frame rate... I feel like Nintendo is that goofball artist who makes art, gorgeous art, using Crayola crayons on asphalt. It's rough and low res, but it'll be gorgeous forever in its own genre.

[@lekudos]

You, dear sir… are a poet

[@scuppo]

Bravo 👏🏽

[@ShadowMan64572]

It's a cutesy cartoon game, you can't compare it to something like Elden Ring.

[@spenny2cents]

“Gorgeous forever in its own genre” - yes for children these graphics will age gracefully

[@lekudos]

@@spenny2cents It’s funny people say this but all the retro games that people want… the ones that continue to sell even though they’re 20years old are these exact games that are said to be childish. If history is anything go by, In 20years, nobody will want to play the realistic brown graphics of Elden Ring. Just like no one wants to play MDK, Hexen or any of those admittedly once great fantasy games From back in the day. But guess what; millions are still playing super mario bros 2 and Nintendo is still selling re-releases.

[@DfactorLongplays]

I'm not sure about that take with the next GT being closer to wreckfest. With purely anecdotal evidence I recall hearing that car manufacturers didn't like to see their cars broken/deformed. At least that was the case in the 90s.

[@RAZKEN.]

I think it's time for Rich to either upgrade to a better mic that dont pic up as much surrounding noise as the current or maybe put up some dampening material on the walls. Hi's sound is always sounding "roomy" and low bit-rate. Please consider either of the options above. It doesn't blend in that good tbh.

[@CheddarGetter]

From Software needs to take the money from Elden Ring's launch and hire a few specialists to tighten up their CPU and GPU cycles and optimize this damned engine. At this point, there's just no excuse. It's been the same issue called out game after game after game. Who optimizes performance to reduce frame rate to maintain resolution and post process effects?! C'mon man.

[@cybervoid8442]

I mean they could give it to Nixxes. They managed to fix the horrible horizon zero dawn port. That game runs buttery smooth now on PC

[@crazykenbei]

As I understand it and Tom alluded to it, the first game they made, demon souls was built on the PhyreEngine (an old Sony engine which would also explain why it runs better there perhaps) which of course has it issues but it has good artistic rendition I suppose. But as they went on with installment on installment fast forwarding to present elden ring; they kept adding to the framework of that with the function and basis of the phyreengine been the base and heart of it all. So like Tom was saying this engine is now this big web of legacy backwires and routes and it is something they can't get a hold on technical wise but it's an engine they're so familiar with that let's them deliver their artistic vision and delivery while maintaining a decent budget. But at this point does this problem now running seven games in a roll deserves a deep look to finally sort out the problem? Absolutely!!!

[@scott96999]

40:00 This is exactly the problem. You can absolutely love a game, or even a film or a band or whatever, and it can be your all-time favourite thing ever, but you still have to be willing to recognize its flaws. Giving a "10/10 flawless masterpiece" rating to something that's clearly objectively technically flawed is so intellectually dishonest. It is literally incredible

[@scott96999]

@@yellowcard8100 "In a game that is so highly praised for its tight hitboxes and milliseconds-long parry windows where every frame counts, it is absolutely ridiculous to say that sporadic stuttering is anything other than game-breaking. You can't have it both ways." -Me, in the other comment that triggered you so bad...

[@imo098765]

@@scott96999 but what are they rating it on and how they look at pre-launch performance? Thats the questions you need to answer because the game is a masterpiece if it had better performance

[@Herr.Mitternacht]

I play Elden Ring on my PC and I think is one of the best games ever made. I'm not gonna take that away from the game for a few fps drops, which I actually don't even notice.

[@rexthesheep]

Wow, one year! I've really been loving these weekly shows. Thank you DF team!

[@ChesterMan-qd3xj]

Happy anniversary DF! The discussion is appreciated on my long drives for work.

[@sleipnir_8364]

One of the only outlets discussing the technical aspects of elden ring. Great content.

[@BioTroy]

This is one of my favourite weekly podcasts. Happy Anniversary, DF!

[@Poptartsicles]

I'll take the nuclear option of caching all the shaders in an epic loading screen the first time you launch the game. Better than stuttering the whole game through.

[@richardtucker5938]

ditto

[@scott96999]

In a game that is so highly praised for its tight hitboxes and milliseconds-long parry windows where every frame counts, it is absolutely ridiculous to say that sporadic stuttering is anything other than game-breaking. You can't have it both ways.

[@scott96999]

​@@yellowcard8100 Uh... Some windows are under a second (some under half a second) so yeah they literally are milliseconds. That's not an opinion dude. Try math sometime.

[@DarkReturns1]

Yeah but all Souls games have frame rate issues, especially on console

[@scott96999]

@several webms Sub-second measurements are almost always made in ms, especially in gaming. Try again.

[@scott96999]

@several webms You just did... and were proven wrong. Try again.

[@poipoi300]

What's so difficult about pre-compiling shaders? I will gladly wait for my computer to compile all shaders for itself if it means avoiding stutter in the game. Warzone had that, and it was great. The gameplay was super smooth, with very very few stutters. I've been put off elden ring specifically because of the bad performance. Hopefully game makers in general learn from this, but I don't have hope for it.

[@rlfernandes9538]

@0:05 I see your message with the colors here :)

[@caramelpepsi2582]

On Elden Ring. Funnily enough in my experience, the game runs better on Linux under proton than it does on Windows. I've played several hours on both OS's specifically Manjaro (XFCE) for Linux and Windows 10 for well Windows. I had by far much more stuttering on Windows and many many more crashes. That's not to say the performance on Linux is perfect but honestly it's noticeably better, again from my own personal experience.

[@DyeHard79]

I think FromSoft needs to 'Get Good ' at engine optimization...yes it's difficult but you shouldn't use that as an excuse NOT to do it.....hm...hmm...? Eh?

[@Blaircamp74]

Holy snap! Happy Anniversary! wow! I can’t believe I’ve watched 51 of these because I’ve never missed a week. Great content like always, fellas! 👏🏽

[@keyboard_g]

AMD drivers are compiled into the Linux kernel. Removing fumbling with driver versions is part of the point of using Linux.

[@nickgamingmusic9911]

Neat subtle change to the nameplate introductions. I see you.

[@AP-hn8wd]

I love how in the beginning Alex talks of the mystery guest, but he’s shown in the thumbnail 😂😂

[@robbert4550]

509 views for 834 likes. That says a lot. Great work ,Great Channel . Happy anniversary.

[@TheAbandonedPotato]

About the shared precompilation. There already is a option on Steam Linux client's settings called "Allow background process of Vulcan shaders". After enabling it shaders are compiled automaticly identically to normal game updates.

[@VampireNoblesse]

Gratz on the anniversary! love the comparsion and (tech) reviews of games .. and litterily, Digital Foundry has established itself as the Nr. 1(grafix) gaming tech site.., a (neutral & professional) standard, for all other similar sites to follow

[@BigPhi84]

0:05 In the introduction, did anyone else spot the Ukraine flag colors behind the names and Twitter handles? 🇺🇦 I had to check past DF Weekly episodes to see if this was intentional or not (FYI, it used to be two shades of green before). Nice little Easter Egg 🥚 that might have been missed if not pointed out. Not trying to start a political debate in the comments so don’t @ me and fight please.

[@spinal_capped]

I’m glad you pointed that out! That’s awesome to see. 🇺🇦 Support for a country that’s being invaded shouldn’t even be a “political issue”.

[@gellister]

As much as I love From Soft, they are having a Bethesda style issue here with their engine: Persistent issues across many great games. The games themselves are great but their engine issues can put a big damper on the experience. It might be time to go back into their engine and strip back to the base code to build on as a new branch. Certainly they should have the money to take the time at this point.

[@gellister]

That or license and customize their own version of a more common engine.

[@trblemayker5157]

They've been overhyped by their fanbase for years that technical issues are a non-issue for them. No wonder there was no open beta for pc.

[@gellister]

I would argue that the level of quality on their creative side more than justifies the hype for those who like these games. The technical side of things are very rough though. Still while I would like both sides to be working, I'd rather have an Elden Ring come out than not have one if they gave up because of technical issues. Just me. So I am part of the problem but I can live with it.

[@trblemayker5157]

@@yellowcard8100 So From Software gets a free pass while any other company would've been insulted to the ground.

[@beeeffemm]

Loved this episode, as always. Congratulations on your first year! The annotation at 1:03:28 cracked me up. The Sending Saga continues!

[@ApotheosisDivine69]

Happy anniversary and great to see Tom again on DF weekly!! Tom is coolest!!

[@Tyranniod]

Happy anniversary for the podcast. This is the only podcast I listen to but it makes my walks to work great.

[@Rasec1120]

Is this available as a podcast ?

[@aj0413_]

Comment on using old engine/code: it clearly saved FromSoftware the time needed to focus on actual game design rather than feature implementation, so I can't say that it was a poor decision. Also, given just how popular Elden Ring is, it would make sense to give it a "remaster / next gen update"

[@alexweinberg3913]

I just got an ad for Bubsy Eye Care, Audi... you mind explaining yourself?

[@jameswalt1]

Tom's take on Elden Ring's 10/10's is very reasonable and kind of refreshing.

[@phrozac]

On a granular level Bluepoint's DeS Remake is superior to Elden Ring for sure. BP did a fantastic job recreating DeS and had the advantage of not targeting last gen hardware. But on the whole, I think Elden Ring is the more beautiful game due to its art direction and awe-inspiring vistas. From has taken a huge step forward in terms of the quality of their visuals. That being said, I would love for BP to remake Bloodborne.

[@anaguma90]

Bloodborne only needs a remaster. Up the framerates, improve (or rather, add) antialiasing, and maybe up texture resolutions. Job done.

[@phrozac]

@@anaguma90 Sure be nice to get a Bluepoint remake though. Their DeSR is fantastic.

[@anaguma90]

@@phrozac nah. I'd prefer the original vision is left intact. The game isn't even a decade old.

[@phrozac]

@@anaguma90 Have you played DeSR? I think BP did a damn fine job of retaining the original vision of that game on top of leaving all last gen Fromsoft games in their wake graphically speaking. Besides, if a remake did come out, the OG version still exists. BB is currently 7 years old. If a remake came out in a year or two, that'd be pretty close to a decade, and up until Sekiro, From's games have been known to lag behind the curve in terms of visuals and technical polish, so I think a current gen remake is justified.

[@anaguma90]

@@phrozac I have, and while it is very pretty I would still argue some of the original atmosphere is lost. Bloodborne, just needs a bit of polishing and it will look great.

[@BLitzRunner77]

Love the color pallet on the name plates.

[@isaiah1516]

The nice thing about the Steam Deck is I can treat it as a handheld console and I've bought games for my Steam library that I would normally reserve for my Switch. I hope more games get support on it because I'd love to farm some easy Halo weekly tasks on the couch instead of at my computer. Just got my 1tb micro sd card and waiting for my Q1 email to come through!

[@pferreira1983]

Happy Anniversary! That comment about remastering Elden Ring made me chuckle. 😄

[@SITSIndustries]

18:38 "Rich says in-the-here-and-now" drinking game.

[@SITSIndustries]

*of

[@GordonGordon]

I think you'd die of alcohol poisoning

[@stephanepiquemal8297]

To answer the 4th question, the Steam Deck under SteamOS does not run proprietary AMD drivers but Linux's MESA drivers (RADV for Vulkan). Those drivers are maintained by the community and are co-developed by several people from Red-Hat, Valve, AMD etc... Updates will come with others SteamOS updates and will be directly handled by Valve.

[@yellowbat79]

AMAZING touch with the Ukraine flag name tags and Metro Soundtrack. Audi. You are a legendary editor.😉

[@dropkick79]

I was just about to comment the same thing.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

They need to stay away from politics there is too much of that already.

[@pedrovieira8602]

That subtle color change in the name cards at the beginning

[@leonthesleepy]

I only watch Trash Taste and Digital Foundry podcasts, love them both

[@PhillyWatts]

You guys really are the best! Thank you for the awesome content. I find myself thinking about these topics on my own and love listening to your opinions on them.

[@krebs3r]

I would like to contribute my 5 cents to the Elden Ring disscusion. I play on my Series X on an LG 32GP850. VRR 1440p and 120Hz saves all the stutters. At least in my eyes.

[@AndyGilleand]

There is no "inevitable" push for 8K lol

[@AndyGilleand]

The only time 8K will ever be useful in the home is VR. Even in IMAX, the difference will almost not be noticeable

[@OscarHazeGaming]

As a Russian who is against the ongoing war, I approve you cheekily putting the colors of the Ukrainian flag on the name cards at the beginning of the video.

[@spinal_capped]

I loved that! Hope you’re well, and that you get reasonable leaders soon. Neither Ukraine nor Russia deserve to be under that jerk’s rule.

[@retrosean199]

I think some of these questions that you guys are fielding are coming from people that gave up on the PC space (even though they care about things like the extra 4 Radeon CUs) because they're not prepared to spend $2000 on a GPU but they'll fork out $600 for a game console.

[@pedrovieira8602]

Not sure how doable it would be, but I'd imagine a switch pro with dlss(and higher power consumption) enabled just for docked mode. While on portable mode it would perform (and consume) somewhat like the current switch (720p resolution, maybe 60fps target for more games).

[@1lichfield]

In some ways, films/TV shows that have poor looking CGI is the closest comparison to a game with less than ideal frame rates. It may be a great film/show but the poor CGI can take you out of the moment at times.

[@Kaiyening]

Thank you for your support for Ukraine in your overlay 🇺🇦

[@dragothica4925]

Interesting that the Steam Deck fan noise or heat dissipation performance for that matter, wasn't covered in the Digital Foundry reviews. Especially when they have done similar coverage with other products like PS5 console reviews (with a heat camera and other equipment).

[@scuppo]

Seems fishy

[@acem7749]

I remember think 720p was great then 1080p and saying no need for 4k. Now I love 4k and think it the final sweet spot. 4k Seems like the cap but I keep eating my words... Now for VR that's another debate...

[@GermanEnigma]

The 60 fps patch for DYING LIGHT is finally out! Both Performance (HD) and Balanced (QHD) modes at 60fps while Quality with 4K at 30 fps. After the patch the game boots up in Performance mode and the difference is striking even in the game menus.

[@spenny2cents]

Been playing in balanced mode and it’s gonna hold me over until DL2 is worth the purchase

[@OroborOSX11]

55:13 I think an astute developer could solve this while developing tools for their games. I could conceive of a stand-alone tool that renders every permutation of scenes, models, effects, etc based on how all the shaders are catalogued. In this way, an offscreen render target could just zip through every possible shader a game will be using as a one-time compilation step. However, this would require a developer to proactively build their games in a way that would allow for this level of organization and automation.

[@TheCrewExpendable]

Easier said than done. Though I think the hardest part would be to convince some product manager and UX person that, actually yes PC gamers would be fine with letting the game just sit for several minutes compiling shaders if it meant no stuttering.

[@OroborOSX11]

@@TheCrewExpendable Definitely not trivial. But this has become a big issue that’s starting to really affect most end users on PC. Honestly, we need a longer term solution to JIT shader compilation.

[@gavinderulo12]

@@OroborOSX11 but why would those extra minutes be a problem? I already need to wait hours for the game to download, I'll gladly take some extra wait time to ensure smoother gameplay. Jit compilation doesn't seem worth it to me.

[@OroborOSX11]

@@gavinderulo12 That’s my point…we need to eliminate JIT compilation of shaders entirely. It’s a relic of GPU programming from decades past. Precompiling shaders in some manner needs to be standardized so we never have to deal with JIT compilation again.

[@LuisFernando-lm6mf]

Happy Anniversary Guys!!

[@diddykong7354]

there wont be a switch pro dude. it makes no sense as the switch is soon due for a new console. but the sales are way too high for them to release mid gen.

[@adamthompson6669]

Happy Anniversary DF thank you for each and every week and love the channel as always please Thank John too the king of retro and Thank you to all and big boss :) Love DF heres to the next years and the future of gaming console and PC :)

[@KidTokyo_]

Still baffled by Sony putting 8K on the PS5 box.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

Well they have 1 8k game even though they are yet to allow the console to actually output at 8k lol

[@99Cheops99]

Is Tom still planning on doing an Elden Ring base console comparison?

[@anthonymoloney3671]

Thanks for another great DF Direct. When I hear the team discussing resolution and whether moving beyond 4K is warranted, it would be great to hear some discussion from the VR perspective. After all, GPU's aren't just for pancake mode.

[@DEVILTAZ35]

Hi , are you guys going to cover the latest patch for GTA Trilogy series?. I am sure a lot of people are keen to see how this is now is all.

[@TheRealTedNeal]

The only way I’ll be excited for the Switch 2 is if it plays my older Switch games better.

[@KyrenCross]

To improve FPS stability on Elden Ring, just google how to disable EAC - Easy Anti Cheat. Somehow that anti cheat is the cause of the tons of FPS issues on PC. If you check on the taskbar, if you have Epic Games installed. Then an Epic games process running in the background.

[@Hightower2804TP]

@@AFistfulOf4K true. I played Elden Ring with the latest patches, fps unlocker and without eac and it still stuttered like hell sometimes.

[@Aenima308]

Bespoke

[@tomoprime217]

@DF FYI You can go to NVidia’s control panel to set compiled shader cache to Unlimited. It helps in Elden Ring.

[@jiface]

Enjoyed toms input here. I LOVE John but I think he can dominate a little on the podcasts. Tom seems too chill and nice to cut through, but great episode

[@Joseki]

Guys you actually read the Orion (T234) specs instead of the Drake (T239) specs in the Switch segment.

[@svartholstjornuson6215]

Aha! Richard is adopting the Super Switch moniker. Yes! 55:14: I'm getting flashbacks of watching Old Snake smoking for an hour on the PS3. "Kept ya waiting, huh?"

[@doloresdebeauvoir4960]

Ex gamedev here. The shader cache issue can possibly be solved, imo, by 1. devs playing through the game and collecting all the *macro combinations* of shader programs (assuming that it uses ubershaders). Store this list in the game files. 2. when the game boots up for the first time (or after switching GPU), read the list, and start rebuilding all the combinations in a background thread. They can prioritize on the shaders that are global/often used/related to the current game region depending on save data. I only have OpenGL/DX11/console gamedev experience so this may have issues with DX12, but it is worth a try!

[@koda7720]

If you missed this wave of Steam Deck orders I highly recommend a Gamesir x2 and Parsec combo until you can get one.

[@JZF629]

Huge fan of DF Weekly. I’m quite proud of and thankful for, you guys!

[@therealbluedragon]

People want the best of all worlds all the time and get so angry when they can’t. Power / cost / heat and battery. Choose two!

[@Archivist42]

I'm really enjoying Elden Ring, but it's not a 10/10 IMO. Certainly a 9/10, but it's got a flaws and I don't think they should be overlooked.

[@tolaut]

Dear Digital Foundry, i love all your videos but please increase the sound volume by a bit. Fully turning it up equals regular volume for most other videos on youtube.

[@rav186]

Question for Tom: which 4K OLED screen are you using that you’re happy with? Happy anniversary!

[@sushimshah2896]

Happy Anniversary DF!! And love the fact that you showed *Ukraine's🇺🇦* colours right at the beginning! 👏🏻👍🏻

[@IanMcGarr]

Love this show guys, even if I've no clue what you're talking about half the time.

[@Odank]

Great podcast. I am not able to hit near 60fps in Elden Ring in most situations with a rtx 3090 and a 4790k cpu (maybe its my processor?). However, I have found that changing my refresh to 50hz in the NV control panel and then using Rivatuner SS to limit the game to 50fps adn then running the game in Window Borderless results in a smooth presentation (outside of the stutters and performance dips in heavy scenes) when exploring. Now if you switch to Fullscreen mode, what's interesting is that this will result in judder (maybe the game in FS is forcing 60hz regardless of what you have set in NV control panel?). I tried this on an Oled without VRR btw. You can do the same with 40hz btw, but I found that when you switch to Fullscreen you will also see judder (with both NV control panel set to 40hz and RSS set to 40fps limit) as opposed to Borderless Windowed on a non-VRR display. If anyone can try this and make the game run as smooth in FS as in Windowed under these Hz settings/limits please let me know!

[@Jossages]

It's your CPU, for the most part my vanilla 3080 (Paired with 3900X) is at 50% utilization at 60fps 1440p, 4K is 2x the workload so there will be the odd-drop but you should be able to have a mostly 60 experience on a 3090. Also I've found the stutter to be no worse than other recent games.

[@Odank]

@@Jossages I figured, my brother tested the game on his new pc with a 5600x and a 3060 and he was getting a pretty locked 60. I'm going to go for the 12600k setup soon.

[@Lionlovesunity]

35:50 Normally I agree with your thoughts 💭 Alex but not here. Game ratings are literally Necessary. Imagine any test or skill performance task without Numbers. Numbers are everything. They take a fact and represent it in numerical form. Yes reviews are subjective so are the numbers. But taking lots of games together and rating them gives you a baseline of which to give each other game a score. A benchmark. Imagine a frame rate graph without numbers. You need ratings. 1-10 is a great system. I hate reading a review when someone says some good and some bad points with no score. It’s like….okay??? But how does it compare to all your other thoughts and opinions? Numbers are necessary. 🦁❤️

[@Ziggurat1]

Yes I agree that the first few episodes wasn't so good, but by the fourth episode, I think you have been really picking it up, I can't believe its been a whole year, lets hope for many more!

[@TheRocketLombax]

Older music may have tape drop outs and film prints have dirt and scratches on them. Those could be 'Technical flaws' in a way comparable to games

[@Aethelbeorn]

11:55 I've been on a commercial flight a couple times and I could barely even hear my music from my noise canceling headphones during a flight.

[@hotdognl70]

Happy anniversary! Realy liked your take on the scoring system and 8K. Also the explanation about the crossgen games is something worth mentioning.

[@DuckAlertBeats]

PS4 Pro version works if you buy the PS4 disc too, on PS5. I've got both Pro and PS5 versions installed. It's interesting to see the differences.

[@cakeisamadeupdrug6134]

As much as I like the idea of the Steam Deck, I hate that it's taken a device like this for the question of games running on integrated graphics to even come up. I think every game developer making games for PC should aim to have a 720p low setting that will target 30 fps on modern integrated systems, steam deck or otherwise. I think something like GeForce Experience and the way it automatically optimises settings for game should have been part of the Intel driver for years, since this is what very low end gamers (usually on laptops) are actually using.

[@universegaming1353]

I'm surprised not many devs actually tried with optimizing the lowest graphics settings of their games for Intel/AMD-based iGPU's. Kinda makes sense since it's called "Low" settings after all.

[@cakeisamadeupdrug6134]

@@universegaming1353 It certainly would apply to the vast majority of devices out there. I know a lot of casual gamers who try to play games on £300-tier laptops.