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Questions for DF Direct Weekly #20 (Week 28, 2021) (Patreon)

Published:
2021-07-14 15:06:58
Edited:
2021-07-14 15:07:15
Imported:
2022-03

Content

Wait, what... we've managed to keep DF Direct happening each and every week for 20 weeks now? Wow. Does the tech chat ever end? Well, funnily enough, news this week is very thin on the ground - so what would you like us to discuss? Topics, observations - let us have them! And if nothing happens in the next 12 hours, it looks like we'll be having a ton of extra time to answer your questions, so pop them in the comments box below and we'll take a look! 

Comments

Anonymous

Three years ago, John published two DF Retro videos covering progress in water rendering, spanning up until around 2010. Since then, I don’t feel like water rendering in games has advanced that much. Outside of some demos and a handful of games (Arkham Knight, Sea of Thieves, and Watch Dogs 1), water in modern games often looks rather coarse or flat, especially for larger bodies of water. This is despite the fact we have highly tessellated and detailed water rendering built into engines like UE4. Does John or the rest of the team have any thoughts on this?

Anonymous

Maybe this shouldn't sit here and is more suited to a DF Retro annex but I would love to hear your take on the Evercade's latest cartridge announcement: https://evercade.co.uk/evercade-announces-renovation-collection-1/

Anonymous

I hear a lot of talking about how GTA5 is a very old game now, having been ported to three generations. You even mentioned it in the last DF Direct.
But did you notice Mario Kart 8 is only 8 months younger than Rockstar's game? GTA V was indeed released in septembre 2013 and MK8 in may 2014. And both are still on top of the charts today in 2021. Do you think both are stuck with the problem they still sell too well to let a sequel happen now ? #MARIOKART9WEN

Anonymous

What are 1-2 games from each of your childhoods or early days that jump-started your interest in the video game industry, and how do you feel about each of them now in terms of nostalgia, playability, and quality?

Anonymous

While I'd imagine they are low, if not non existent. What are the chances of other back compat PS4 titles getting 120fps support?

Anonymous

Why are some studios such as Naughty dog, Insomniac or the Coalition so much better at producing impressive graphics with limited hardware than other studios? Talented/skilled individuals? Bigger budgets for graphics? Your thoughts and are there maybe some hidden graphical rock stars out there? Thanks!

Anonymous

Why are the Atari VCS and Intellivision Amico so bad?

Anonymous

Do you have any plans or are you against supporting torrent downloads on your site, since right now speeds are somewhat slow and throttled to ~15MB/s? I'm sure there would be at least a few people including myself that would be willing to contribute to the health of the swarm.

Anonymous
>>63751864

Let me just add that the water series was one of my favorites. I would love to revisit this and other environmental effects. Heck, you could do a whole series on N64 fog. :)

Anonymous

What happened with the Skyward Sword remake? From the reviews, it feels like Nintendo grossly undershot the mark.

Anonymous

Going forward into this new console generation and beyond, how do you feel about developers breaking the 30 fps barrier in mostly all genres and implementing a 120hz mode like that of R&C once VRR is more mainstream?

Anonymous

I'd like to know more about audio technology development. Ray tracing has impacted lighting design and I've wondered what's on the horizon for audio developments. We used to have dedicated sound cards, those are almost a thing of the past. Sony had Mark Cerny talk up 3D audio but what actually technically is that or its just marketing. The last time I was truly impressed with dedicated audio integration was with Tetris effect in VR.

Benjamin Addison

I'm curious about your thoughts on the current state of play with regards DRM on the PC. When the frame rate tanked when playing Resident Evil Village I just assumed my 1060 wasn't up to the job. Its only when MVG posted his recent video about Denuvo that I realised what the actual problem was. By that point I had already paid my money and played the game. Should vendors be obliged to disclose the nature of any DRM present on a game so customers can make an informed choice prior to purchase?

Anonymous

Got to talk more on the RE Village DRM debacle, your thoughts etc

Jonas Taghizadeh (Taggen86)

Any plans for more switch overclocking videos (using the OG switch and/or a hardware modded mariko switch)?

adam

I’ve seen a few Video card retrospectives done lately by gamers nexus. Have you guys ever considered going back and doing a special on the Titan cards? If so I’m curious which version you guys liked the most and why?

Anonymous

Does the PS5 Shortage indicate a long PS3-era console generation?

Luke

Do you think Xbox + VR will ever happen? Sony is really pushing forward on this one. Alright, it's still a niche, but maybe some day it won't and then there'll be a lot to catch up for MS. What do you think?

Anonymous

Hi, DF. Over Twitter, Alex described some possible impacts to the DLSS implementation in RDR2 due to the specific rendering style of the game. Would you be able to expand on this topic? Not sure if Alex is back from vacation, but I'd love to see even just a brief segment discussing this.

Ray

What are some current in development games that you have a close eye on? Also, Company of Heroes 3 was announced in pre-alpha and is playable for feedback and testing. Do you guys have concerns about this approach or does it feel right given the poor reaction to CoH 2? Have any of you had a chance to play the pre-alpha yet?

Anonymous

Observation: I haven’t heard a single tech journalist mention or lament the fact that Microsoft removed the IR blaster of the Xbox One Generation from the latest Series consoles. Well, here i am to lament. The IR control is integral to multiple setups in my situation. The feature is missed. Time to purchase another programmable remote. (Also, am i entirely mistaken?) Thanks for the wonderful content.

Anonymous

Hey guys! I couldn’t help but notice that you seem to be rather impressed by the tech of alien isolation. You mentioned it from time to time. What makes it so interesting?

Anonymous

Since it probably doesn't warrant a full video, I would love to know if the 59 FPS bug that Alex found in Nier Automata on PC has been fixed by the Steam patch Square is releasing on July 15th. It's only taken four years to fix, but better late than never I guess.

MittenFacedLass
>>63752299

Money and time honestly. Money means more time, more experienced/more in demand personnel, more time for research and implementation. There's skill there, sure, but it's also partially that money buys that skill and can give the time for the skill to be put to work.

Anonymous

Hey all! I'm wondering if any of you have an opinion and/or think there is a trend in how GPU resources will be devoted in the context of game engines in the coming generations. DLSS and other effective upsampling/reconstruction techniques have alleviated some of the burden on GPUs in attaining high resolutions, and this generation it seems that achieving accurate lighting using ray tracing is more highly emphasized. But looking at Nanite, do you think that rendering high level detail on an ever wider range of scales will be the bigger drain on GPUs in future generations? Or will there eventually be some tech improvements tangential to the GPU (e.g. even faster SSDs, better memory, etc) that will improve multiscale detail instead? Or are we not going to be done improving ray tracing application for quite a bit more time?

Anonymous

Hello again, DF gang. Based on the joke I came up with, about Alex wearing his Turok cosplay for his analysis of the cracked version of Resident Evil Village (which sadly never happened), it made me think of the wacky, outlandish openings that some earlier DF reviews have (Ark on Switch, Life of Black Tiger). Is there a method on coming up with these openings, or do they come up at random?

Anonymous

John and Audi! Ever since your PlayStation video I've been craving more Saturn comparisons so I hope to see more. Will Sega ever tap the vast and excellent Saturn library or is it doomed to remain the best system almost nobody in the west played? Also please talk about the Saturn more.

Anonymous

I'd love to hear you guy's thoughts on Remasters/Remakes. It's funny - I can't stand them as far as movies/shows are concerned, but usually love game remasters/remakes. Have a good day guys.

disproportionately massive dwayne johnson from the end of furious 6

This one's for John & Audi -- what's the best way to "clean up" the signal a SNES puts out? I have HDRV cables going through an OSSC, which works great with my TV directly, but my HDMI matrix hates it and won't accept the signal at all.

Anonymous

Suggestion: discuss auto hdr in windows 11 preview. How it works with regular pc games, emulators, favorite games of DF team. I tried it out briefly, seems to work great, would like to hear your thoughts

Anonymous

Hi DF team! In continuation of the Nintendo switch pro discussion, what would be your wildest dreams in terms of the technology? For example i would like to see apu similar in cpu performance to apple m1 paired to integrated graphics similar to 3050 ti. Or alternatively amd mobile gpu similar to the rumored upcoming samsung exynos chips.

Anonymous

My original launch switch overheats when playing games docked. It always has. Do you think the die shrink switch we got a couple years ago or the new oled switch will run cooler? I mostly play docked and so the screen isn’t as important as good dock performance.

Anonymous

So we always thought of a VR/AR solution where light is beamed onto the retina's. We have that now. It's 720p, crazy field of view and nothing like anything else. Watch the video on Tested to see https://youtu.be/Jse-GwkcYgI Jeri is a legend. Worked for Valve, did the C64 in a stick and is insanely gifted. What do you think of the tech? Also, how about a DF Retro interview with her?

Bryan McIntosh
>>63752796

I am sure that the crew will have more to say about this, but the reasons we went away from dedicated sound cards are: 1) The CPU got fast enough to easily do the 3D audio calculations from DirectSound 3D in software. 2) Windows Vista changed the audio stack significantly, making hardware accelerated sound playback pretty much a non-starter. Creative's "Alchemy" software did all of the EAX HD calculations in software, relegating our expensive Audigy 2 and X-Fi sound cards to glorified dongles with DACs attached. 3) On-board audio got good at the same time that good enough sounding DAC hardware became super inexpensive. GSM Arena doesn't even bother measuring audio output quality on phones anymore, since everything has been equally impressive since about 2013.

Bryan McIntosh

Alex's coverage of FSR was informative, and I really appreciated the detail he went into to show how it behaves in different situations. The latest patch for Elite Dangerous Odyssey implements FSR and I tried it out on my 1070 Ti, and I must say I am impressed. For reference, I used to play Elite at native resolution on my 4K monitor with tweaked settings; the new Odyssey patch has notoriously bad performance, and I needed to drop the rendering resolution down to 1440p to maintain a somewhat steady framerate even in space (the new on-foot sections are still a framerate nightmare). With FSR activated and a 1440p rendering resolution, it gets rid of a lot of the blurriness from the game's normal resolution scaling, and the textures don't suffer as badly in Elite's art style as they did for Alex in Godfall. Do you have plans to revisit FSR in different games in the future as more games support it? It looks like it's a technology that can work well under the right conditions, and while it's not as impressive as DLSS it's still a good deal better than some of the alternatives.

Anonymous

With all the talk around the disappointment of the Switch oled.. do you think that the hardware of the switch has been completely tapped out or are there still major optimization routes for games? There are some stunning games on the Switch, but I can't help but feel like the initial concept of a "portable home console" was a bit of a pipe dream given the limitations of the hardware.

Anonymous

Hey guys I have a question regarding the continued use of FMVs in modern video games. In the past couple of years I have moved towards PC gaming, and have replayed a lot of games that I played on console at 1080p/30fps, now at 1440p and much high frame rates. One thing about this experience that has been jarring, has been the presence of 1080p/30fps (or lower) cutscenes in these games that I didn't even know were FMVs before. Why is it that developers still render certain cutscenes offline as opposed to in engine? And do you think we'll get to a point where FMV cutscenes will be gone for good, so that there is perfect consistency throughout the experience regardless of what resolution / frame rate you play at?

Anonymous
>>63754165

It’s a feature I miss, too. My Wii U is now the sole console plugged in that is capable of adjusting volume on the TV without the remote.

Anonymous

What are each of your favourite video game box arts, and why is it the US release of Phalanx on SNES? Keep up the incredible content, all!

Anonymous

When you're ready to really dig into a game and not just playing for DF content, what do you do to immerse yourself? Lights off? Headphones or speakers? Beverages? You get the idea. Thanks for the great content!

Anonymous

To me, a next gen leap I'm continually looking for is the physicalization of more objects through interaction, displacement, and deformation. Specifically, I'm thinking of water displacementent, or muscle/skeleton deformation of bodies. We saw a great implementation of the latter in God of War 2018, as well as Miles Morales on PS5 - but it's certainly not ubiquitous. As for the water displacement, the best example I can think of is the puzzles in Last Guardian. I believe that advancing beyond the generally static nature of most water, and most character bodies in games, is the next step in realism - especially now that we've physicalized light. I'm curious if you have any thoughts on this.

Anonymous

Would you be interested in digging into some of the older computer titles for DF Retro? Many of us in Europe grew up on a computer diet rather than a console diet, and comparisons between different home computers (and consoles where appropriate) could be interesting. Titles like Stunt Car Racer, Slamtilt and Elite could be interesting to hear about - and you could even dig into true masterpieces like Alfred Chicken. What say ye, gentlemen of refined taste?

Anonymous

John has often talked about the black frame insertion feature of modern LG OLEDs, saying it gives games motion clarity close to that of old CRT displays. Regular LCD screens with this feature use backlight strobing, where the back light shuts off during the period when pixels are transitioning and comes back on once the pixels show the correct image, thereby improving the perceived motion clarity. Given that OLED subpixels are self emissive, I don't understand how a feature like this could work on this type of screen. Can you provide some technical insight into this? Thank you.

Anonymous

Why does the Unreal Engine 4 have such a spotty track record on the Nintendo Switch?

Jay Fischetti

There was a brief period during the 6th gen where a ton of classic 70s and 80s films were getting really solid game adaptations. What were some of your favorites from this period? What brought on these adaptations?

Anonymous

When it comes to the mini consoles, why didn't any of the big companies go with hardware emulation via FPGA? Was it purely cost? Also are there any rumors of new mini consoles? Thanks.

Anonymous

What are your thoughts on the rumored SUPER refresh for desktop and laptop Ampere GPUs? Is there even room for a GA103 die to make any sense between the 3070 Ti and 3080? Do you think higher VRAM capacities for the x70 and x80 cards is necessary? Source is from the venerable and reliable kopite7kimi: https://twitter.com/kopite7kimi/status/1415265864790601730

Anonymous

So, I often question if games relying on prerendered graphics like the original Mortal Kombat or Myst games couldn't see a sort of comeback or how they would look when made for modern hardware ('member that canceled MK remake?). Especially backgrounds in modern 2D gameplay fighting games are still mostly displayed with just a panning camera that mostly just zooms in for mini cut scenes during EX moves / fatalities, which shouln't result in more than a few minutes of video per stage at worsed. I think using prerendered assets for the characters isn't feasable with how the business model / game design relies on tons of skins per character. Any thoughts about that?

Anonymous
>>63753273

You’re in luck! That was just responded to in today’s video.

Anonymous

Working on games as you do, you’re often forced to look at games you might have otherwise passed up, sometimes having to look at them multiple times over. Are there any games, particularly frequently released ones, that you feel you would have loved if you’d been able to leave that series alone for a few games prior? For example, would Assassin’s Creed: Odyssey have been less of a slog if you hadn’t played since Brotherhood? From Cliptacular

tod weitzel

If Alex is on the panel: while I'm stuck with my 1070ti thanks to cryptominers, I've noticed when trying to tweak settings that plain old shadows are the most bang for buck. Why is that?

Anonymous

Using the same rationale of the 40Hz mode on 120Hz screens, do you think films, whether streaming or physical media, will start seeing 24Hz mode to reflect the original theatrical release (and artistic intent)?

digitalfoundry
>>63799026

Most panels should already support 48Hz, which Blu-ray players should be able to support for native 24fps playback.

Kris Graney

Hi all. With the release of the series X|S and PS5 Doom Eternal patch, I was hoping for RT on the series S. Alas, it was not to be. John and Rich state this is likely to do with the insufficient RAM of the series S. Do you expect this situation to persist for this generation with the Series S or can we expect some with games that were designed from the ground up to take advantage of RT on the Series S? Is the latter just a pipe dream because it's very unlikely to happen due to the Series S being a lesser selling console and therefore not worth the development investment and better to target X and PS5? Thank you!

Anonymous

Hi guys, New and happy supporter here :) Have you guys had a chance to look at the Nvidia jetson SBCs or their graphical prowess? Do you think something like the jetson xavier nx could be the next SOC supporting 48 tensor cores on which the super switch will be based? You guys have looked at the tegra x1 and its emulation capabilities before. Any chance to give the jetson boards a similar look? Thank you!

Anonymous

Hi guys. As the GPU crisis continues on, there seems to be at least a glimmer of hope that things will recover, but for the moment only in the high end space. Prospects for budget and midrange cards are still looking pretty dire. Are you at all concerned that this could have a negative impact on the long term growth of PC gaming as a platform, and could ultimately lead to new gamers flocking to consoles over PCs as their platform of choice?

Alan

Hi DF, I have a question. The console manufactures said that the PS4 and Xbox One would be able to run games at 1080p and 60fps, however this was very limited in the actual number of games that could achieve this, now with the PS5 and Xbox Series X we have been told to expect games to run at 4k and 60fps with ray-tracing and on the current games so far released were are having to choose between 4k, 60fps and ray-tracing, is the PS5 and Xbox Series X actually capable of running games in 4k at 60fps with ray-tracing or have we been suckered in like we were with the PS4 and Xbox One, is this as good as we are going to get with the PS5 and Xbox Series X or are there things that developers can do to achieve this more constantly in games?

Anonymous

Not sure the Steam Deck news is too late for this episode but I'd love to hear your thoughts on it. I'm a fan of the general design and I think performance should be very good, but the controller layout looks a bit awkward and uncomfortable.

Anonymous

Thoughs on Steam Deck. And LPDDR5 ram could fix most of switch framerate issues, where the memory bandwidth is the main bottleneck?

DAVE_RAM0S

Can you discuss what insomniac games does so well that when their games render hair, it looks so good. So jelly and hoping other devs learn/leverage similar in future games. R&C hair looked fantastic

Anonymous

Planning to have a look at the new DLSS implementation for Red Dead Redemption 2?

Anonymous

What do you guys think of valve's new steam deck? Do you think it is in competition with the switch or are the games / fanbase different enough for them to exist and do well along side each other?

Anonymous

Is there way to link patreon videos to my YouTube? So all exclusive retro content etc would show up in YouTube app ? Really liking amount of content for retro tier