I've seen more impressive sights in Cyberpunk with all the sliders cranked to the max.
I think it's a bit unfair to compare the results you can get from two grands worth of top end enthusiast hardware to something that runs on an Xbox. A lot of what makes this impressive is what they are managing to get out of the consoles.
Maybe I'm easily fooled but I thought the virtual characters at the beginning were pretty much indistinguishable from their real-life counterparts. I think any casual viewer would be easily fooled as well. If that becomes the fidelity of in-game characters by the end of this gen then I think that's a massive leap forward.
2 grand is the figure I told my accountant and loved ones.
I think my point is that this was good in some areas, but not a great leap forward in others. And even on current gen PS5/1X hardware there have been games that outperform the tech demo in many areas. But, as i said, I do think there were plenty of interesting things about it, and hopefully when this gen moves on and stops doing cross platform stuff we'll see a new round of amazing games which will once again run at 30fps and I'll be waiting to play remasters of in 6 years time.
I'll tell you something that was eye openingly next gen recently. Last Of Us 1 was absolutely chronic for showing you a puzzle format then re-introducing it almost immediately (with a minor twist). And then hitting you with it about 15 times in succession. Last of Us 2 is slightly better at this, though still gratingly videogamey at times. However, when you first reach the main city, there's a fairly typical videogame puzzle set up where you have to connect a generator to something that needs power.
The animation of how Ellie coils and feeds out the cable is astonishingly good for a start. But, once you've done the puzzle the game moves you into a new videogamey area next to the old one. And what do you find? Something that needs power. Now every single videogame ever has trained your brain to assume the game taught you this just moments before (find generator, connect power) and now there'll be a twist to it (one of the things will be hidden, or there'll be enemies while you try to do the task etc….). In this case, there was a twist, for sure. But it involved me having to go…. "hold on…. they can't possibly want me to do this? Surely the game engine doesn't….. well…. wow, it does". I'm not going to say what the solution was but it was quite simple and very close to what you'd think first of all in the real world. I was really impressed by just a small moment that must've taken a huge amount of dev effort to implement.
I think that's what I'm craving in next-gen titles now - and that Unreal demo also has flickerings of a similar sort of rule breaking. Traffic that's persistent across the city rather than vanishing when it goes out of sight, for example. I love seeing videogame assumptions challenged and hopefully we'll get a lot more games with that sort of stuff.
@Garwoofoo
Did you go for Dolby Atmos in the end or DTS? I've spent a long time flipping between Windows Sonic, those two and just the EQ in the controlling software for a new set of headphones, and in the end went for Dolby as I felt DTS sounded a little more fake. But I still have trial for DTS and keep flipping to it and wondering if it sounds better.
I've spent a long time flipping between Windows Sonic, those two and just the EQ in the controlling software for a new set of headphones, and in the end went for Dolby as I felt DTS sounded a little more fake. But I still have trial for DTS and keep flipping to it and wondering if it sounds better.
I did exactly the same. It probably depends to an extent on what headphones you are using. Dolby seems to me to have the most natural sound to it, DTS definitely the wider soundscape.
In the end I went for Dolby Atmos, and tweaked the settings in the app to use Game mode, Performance mode OFF (this just accentuates footsteps etc, it's a bit bizarre it's on by default), and the Warm preset for EQ. I'm pretty happy with that.
That's weirdly where I've settled too, almost exactly. What headphones are you using? I've switched from Razer somethings to a Corsair Virtuoso.
A pair of Sennheiser HD580s that must be at least 20 years old. Dug them out of a drawer, replaced all the pads and swapped out the lead for one with an inline mic. Plugged them into the Xbox controller and they sound better than any dedicated gaming headset I’ve heard.
HD580s are great. Modern headphones are by and large absolutely terrible. Even these Corsairs are outperformed by my old studio phones, but they do have light up ear cups, so #whatyougonnado.
So here's a weird one - I started Cyberpunk on the Xbox the other night and after a few hours of play I am very surprised to find that I prefer the 30fps "ray tracing" mode over the 60fps "performance" mode.
Even Digital Foundry is a bit sniffy about the ray tracing on the console versions - it's shadows only - but there's something about the image overall that looks a lot better to my eyes. As well as shadows I think a number of other settings get a boost (like running them on high rather than medium) and of course there's a resolution boost too. It's just a really, really nice picture that somehow looks more coherent and less gamey than the performance mode, and the 30fps seems to give everything a bit more weight and heft than the slightly skittery performance mode. I swear even the lip syncing is better.
It's weird, I started off this gen thinking "frame rate over everything" but this isn't the first game lately where I've settled for 30fps. I find after a day or two I adjust to a lower frame rate quite well, so I might as well have all the bells and whistles. I'd definitely rather take a locked 30 over something that wobbles between 40 and 60, as seems to be increasingly the case with newer games this gen.
But… but… anything less than 60fps is unplayable, Gar. UNPLAYABLE. The internet tells me so.
Unplayable is obviously internet silliness, but I can’t do 30fps any more. Certainly not for first person games. It’s fine for strategy stuff, and handheld is a lot more forgiving. But I couldn’t play Cyberpunk at 30.
I had forgotten about this thread, but it’s interesting to read the replies after a few years of living with more powerful hardware. My response now would be 60fps (plus) above all else, ray tracing is pretty irrelevant, path tracing is exciting, and I actually can tell the difference between 4K and 1080p now, even at TV distance.
Yeah, Cyberpunk at 30, oof non merci.
Competitive games (e.g. Valorant, CS etc) - 120hz minimum, pref 144.
All others 60hz minimum (unless it's a puzzle game).
Ray Tracing - meh
Path tracing - maybe
4k, no. 1440p yes at monitor distance above 24inches. For everything else 1080p is fine.
I only have a few comments in here, we got the C3 LG Oled screen in Feb, and it's actually amazing and has reignited my interest in actually watching films. I say watching, I mainly mean I am now back into collecting 4k versions of films I love and rewatching them! But prior to that I feel like I had only watched about 3 or 4 films in the last 5 or show years, may even be longer.
I have a 1440p monitor and that does make a difference to the niceness of working so close to something, I do actually hate going from that to my 14" work laptop at 1080p.
