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Quantum Break PC is a mess (non-native render, badly optimized, overpriced, etc)

GRaider81

Member
Not making excuses for MS or Remedy, but in one of the other threads, someone from Remedy made a comment about them working on the PC version up until the last minute. I personally think that the reason for the issues is that it was a late decision to have the game on PC. We did not hear about the game coming to PC until very early this year, who knows internally how long they were working on the PC version, but Remedy's past suggest that there PC ports are very good and I just think that this was coming in way too hot and someone at MS said "push it through".

On a related note, been playing the game on Xbox One and the game is just great. There are some inconsistencies here and there in the visuals, but the good/great stuff highly outweigh the negative things. At times the game looks just stunning and other not so much, but the amount I played I would say the entire package so far is pretty outstanding. Great lighting, special effect like I have never seen before in a game and incredible animation/character models and so far great game play. Hopefully things get ironed out on the PC version as I plan a second play through making different decisions when I play through the PC version.

This is the hardest part. All of these games and especially this look great and I want to play them :(
 

LordRaptor

Member
I'd say the difference between launch era GFWL and the UWP represents a lateral move overall. They each have their own reasons for being awful platforms.

I think even the worst excesses of GFWL like encrypting savegames to a specific machine are actually better than what we have with UWAs.
Maybe thats the plan. Unleash something so abysmally unsuitable for purpose and against eveything that the PC as a platform stands for, that we all breathe a sigh of relief when GFWL One appears.
 

ISee

Member
For all you people mixing up uneven frame timings with sub 30fps and UWP with DX12.

According to PCGH.de

(quick, dirty translation)

Das Spiel fühlt sich selbst mit High-End-GPUs und schon in 1080p extrem unrund an, selbst dann, wenn die Framerate auf anachronistische 30 Bilder pro Sekunde beschränkt wird. Der Grund dafür ist der Windows Store selbst beziehungsweise die verwendete Universal Windows Plattform (UWP). Diese greift aggressiv in die Bildausgabe ein: Gehen wir von dem Fall aus, dass 60 Fps erzielt werden sollen (16,67 ms zwischen einzelnen Frames), diese mit kurzfristig auf 59 Fps abfallender Performance aber nicht ganz erreicht werden können. Die Display Engine wartet in diesem Fall auf den nächsten passenden Refresh - das wäre die halbe Refreshrate und doppelte Zeit von 33,33 ms - und zeigt erst dann das nächstpassende Bild an. Die dazwischenliegenden Bilder lässt die Engine fallen (Framedrop).Dies vermeidet zwar effektiv unschöne Bildrisse (Tearing), "versaut" aber gleichermaßen die Frametimes, zudem fühlt sich das Spiel wegen des stark schwankenden Inputlags auch noch außerordentlich unrund an.


The game never feels smooth, not even on a high end gpu in 1080p and 30fps. The reason is the Windows Store respectively the Universal Windows Plattform (UWP).
UWP is very aggressively interfering with the frame output. For example: Let's assume the game is being rendered with a 60 fps target (16.7 ms between each frame) which can't be reached for a brief moment and the fps go down to 59 fps. In this case the engine drops all other frames and goes for a 33.3 ms (30fps) half refresh rate. This method effectively eliminates tearing but it also messes up the frametimes and the way the game feels in a very bad way.

Dazu kommt eine sehr verwaschen wirkende Optik, zumindest in gängigen Auflösungen wie Full HD und WQHD. Offenbar werden einige Effekte wie auf der Xbox One in einer sehr niedrigen Auflösung berechnet, beispielsweise die Umgebungsverdeckung (wahrscheinlich 720p). Um dies zu kontern, werden Informationen von mehreren Frames temporal verrechnet. Dies geht mit einem starken Unschärfe- und zusätzlichem Verwischeffekt einher. Zu dieser Problematik ergänzt sich ein relativ aggressives Level of Detail: Gräser wuchern teilweise 10 Meter vor der Nase des Protagonisten aus dem Boden, Objekte wechseln deutlich sichtbar zwischen mehreren Detailstufen, die Texturen werden oft erst dann scharf, wenn wir aktiv die Kamera auf sie richten. Offenbar wurden hier ebenfalls Settings der Xbox-Version genutzt, auf dem PC sind wir jedenfalls weitaus Besseres gewöhnt.

In addition [QB] has an extremely blurry IQ at least in standard resolutions such as full HD and WQHD. Apparently some effects are being rendered in a very low resolutions like on the Xbox One (for example the Ambient Occlusion - probably 720p ). To counter this, a temporal reconstruction method is being used, but this method is also accompanied by a strong blur. Further there is a relatively aggressive level of detail issue here: grass appears out of nowhere, objects clearly change between multiple levels of detail, textures are often only sharp while on focus. Apparently Xbox version settings were used here and on the PC we are used to better stuff.
 

RexNovis

Banned
Yep, we just need to be patient while they fix these things. It's not like they set the release schedule and tested the product prior to release. Surely they wouldn't treat consumers that way.

Maybe they'll fix everything else a few months after next /////build////

But everybody totally expected Quantum Break to have issues! Silly us we should've known we shouldn't expect native resolution, standard PC options and reasonably optimized frametimes on a full priced PC game. Clearly we are just blowing this all out of proportion. /s
 

prag16

Banned
Yes, I'm aware of those tweets from yesterday. But many people have actually played the game and his tweets look kinda ridiculous now.

Yeah. The game could/should perform better, 100%, no doubt. But those tweets definitely do smell like bullshit now that I've played the game firsthand.
 
Yeah. The game could/should perform better, 100%, no doubt. But those tweets definitely do smell like bullshit now that I've played the game firsthand.

What's your rig like?

I have an i7-4790, 16GB ram, and a GTX 970. So I'm hoping for a good experience.
 

Heshinsi

"playing" dumb? unpossible
Wow this looks awful.

W4gY7eK.jpg
No way this is max graphics on PC. How does the game look so good from what I've seen on X1, and then look horrid here?
 
No way this is max graphics on PC. How does the game look so good from what I've seen on X1, and then look horrid here?
There isn't that much consistency in terms of the game looking good. During very specific scenes it looks downright amazing, and the rest of the time it looks pretty good, but you'll also run into a lot of messy visuals and things that basically look bad if you stop and inspect them (rather than gun through and move on).
 

nOoblet16

Member
No way this is max graphics on PC. How does the game look so good from what I've seen on X1, and then look horrid here?

A lot has to do with the way the characters are lit up in that screen, harsh lighting makes faces and textures look flat.

Gameplay lighting can look harsh depending on how it falls on an object/character (which depends on how you place your characters). This is why some games (like QB) look better in cutscenes even while using same/mostly same assets since they use handplaced lights at the best angles with the best combination of softness and intensity for that particular object/character in that scene, which brings out the best in models.

You can get a lot of good gameplay shots in the game depending on how you place your character since the game has very good lighting.
 

greenry

Member
Been playing it on PC all day. I have a 980ti - it runs great on the Ultra setting. Looks fluctuate from amazing to good and it controls well with the kb/m. Being able to exit out of the game (or minimize) instantly is .. kind of nice.
 
Microsoft just let me refund the game, which I did not expect. I wasn't about to wait 7-10 days just to jump into this mess. I'll look to buy it on the cheap after I'm done with Dark Souls III. Hopefully by then the issues will have been sorted out.
 
It's a disservice to the game, because, holy shit, it plays like a dream. I'm playing it on Xbox and I was gonna do my second run on PC, and now I'm just bummed. Microsoft could have delayed this a month, and Remedy could have had the time to make it as good as the Alan Wake port. I just don't get Microsoft's PC strategy anymore. They delayed their other games by over six months, but rushed this out day one in the form of a disastrous port. What were they even thinking?
 

MageBoySA

Member
I mean you may be right, but this isn't the type of strategy that will successfully sell Xbones or UWP games, rather it will simply alienate more potential customers. No PC gamers are selling their PC's for Xbones based on exclusives, and no PC gamer with a vast Steam library is going to be willing to get too deep into the Microsoft PC ecosystem if this is what they're taught to expect early on. If this is Business 101, then someone's failing.

It's what happens when middle management says "make us money on our store, because Apple and Google are doing it, we need to be too." Then they try to throw things at the wall to see what sticks. The thought was probably something like "Gamers want to play our games on PC, they have told us this. Let's use our store, that's what it's there for."

If they did it correctly this could have been a successful push. Unfortunately rushing, and making bad decisions look like they are going to make a GFWL 2 situation instead of the real push they wanted. Then a bunch of programmers will get "laid off" because of these issues and the managers that caused it will get promoted.
 

wazoo

Member
i understand that top managers are clueless. They most surely do not know anything about video games except "it makes apple tons of money", but guys like Phil Spencer. Come on, how can they green light such mess ? They work to establish this UWP and fails on any criterion that takes 2 min to evaluate.
 

Kezen

Banned
The sad part for me is: I was actually looking forward to this game.

So was I but no way I'm spending anything on this. I'll wait until the game's performance is improved at least.
Ideally the PC version would also be able to render natively at the resolution chosen in the settings.

PC is about choice after all.
 

harSon

Banned
I get the feeling I'm the only one whose having a relatively positive experience with the PC port of Quantum Break Lol. I'm playing on a PC with a i5-4690K, gtx 970 and 16gb ram system. I'm playing 1080p with every setting turned to their highest (either high or ultra, depending on what the setting allows) - and I'm getting a consistent / playable frame rate regardless of the situation.

In terms of visual clarity - I think people are confusing a sub optimal resolution with the film's over usage of a film grain filter, which is definitely a symptom of the fact that the game was created with under powered hardware in mind. It'd be nice if we had the option to remove film grain, or reduce it (uwp :3) - since the cut scenes give a glimpse of how nice the game would look without it.

It still looks pretty good though:

 
For all you people mixing up uneven frame timings with sub 30fps and UWP with DX12.

According to PCGH.de

(quick, dirty translation)




The game never feels smooth, not even on a high end gpu in 1080p and 30fps. The reason is the Windows Store respectively the Universal Windows Plattform (UWP).
UWP is very aggressively interfering with the frame output. For example: Let's assume the game is being rendered with a 60 fps target (16.7 ms between each frame) which can't be reached for a brief moment and the fps go down to 59 fps. In this case the engine drops all other frames and goes for a 33.3 ms (30fps) half refresh rate. This method effectively eliminates tearing but it also messes up the frametimes and the way the game feels in a very bad way.



In addition [QB] has an extremely blurry IQ at least in standard resolutions such as full HD and WQHD. Apparently some effects are being rendered in a very low resolutions like on the Xbox One (for example the Ambient Occlusion - probably 720p ). To counter this, a temporal reconstruction method is being used, but this method is also accompanied by a strong blur. Further there is a relatively aggressive level of detail issue here: grass appears out of nowhere, objects clearly change between multiple levels of detail, textures are often only sharp while on focus. Apparently Xbox version settings were used here and on the PC we are used to better stuff.

This video shows it clearly. 60fps footage where the X1 is smoother than the PC version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsvZ9lQPsro
 

hlhbk

Member
So was I but no way I'm spending anything on this. I'll wait until the game's performance is improved at least.
Ideally the PC version would also be able to render natively at the resolution chosen in the settings.

PC is about choice after all.

I sure hope Microsoft got that memo.
 

Lazaro

Member
I think it's pretty obvious what Microsoft was/is trying to do here.

Get PC players to pre-order the better value Xbox One version with bonus Xbox Alan Wake games and Win 10 code that was only available on the Xbox Store, hoping PC players would flock onto Xbox Consoles because they technically purchased a Xbox One game and would feel obligated to have a Xbox Console. The reason Quantum Break has cloud saves is to help PC players move over to the Xbox One console once they get sick of the PC version.


Microsoft has thrown away any care of PC gaming once Xbox was produced and I would not be surprised if this is their way of somehow making the Xbox Console look better superior by making crap unoptimized ports of their Xbox first party tiles, in order for PC gamers to stop asking for Xbox IPs on PC. Microsoft do have asshole execs/managers who don't give a shit about PC gaming and still consider it a Niche/F2p/MMO gaming scene.

"We're through the looking glass here people."

I don't mind some UWP games, I have played alot of the Xbox enabled ones since Windows 8. But I can't give up the liberties I've grown up with from the early days of PC gaming in order to make something positive out of these new actual PC games on the Windows Store.
 
Having played it awhile now I've had the odd hiccup,also a crash.It's certainly not as good as it should be.But my problem is more with the game itself rather than technical issues.
 

Kevin

Member
i've always found Microsoft to be a shady company. They managed to make the old Games For Windows look good. At least those games were still playable.

Sad to see Remedy go down in flames like this. They were one of my most favorite game companies. I won't touch this game with a ten foot pole.
 

tuna_love

Banned
I get the feeling I'm the only one whose having a relatively positive experience with the PC port of Quantum Break Lol. I'm playing on a PC with a i5-4690K, gtx 970 and 16gb ram system. I'm playing 1080p with every setting turned to their highest (either high or ultra, depending on what the setting allows) - and I'm getting a consistent / playable frame rate regardless of the situation.

In terms of visual clarity - I think people are confusing a sub optimal resolution with the film's over usage of a film grain filter, which is definitely a symptom of the fact that the game was created with under powered hardware in mind. It'd be nice if we had the option to remove film grain, or reduce it (uwp :3) - since the cut scenes give a glimpse of how nice the game would look without it.

It still looks pretty good though:
I ended up getting it. It actually runs well other than the frame pacing, its incredibly distracting.
6700k
980ti
32gb ram
Ssd
 

Chobel

Member
I get the feeling I'm the only one whose having a relatively positive experience with the PC port of Quantum Break Lol. I'm playing on a PC with a i5-4690K, gtx 970 and 16gb ram system. I'm playing 1080p with every setting turned to their highest (either high or ultra, depending on what the setting allows) - and I'm getting a consistent / playable frame rate regardless of the situation.

In terms of visual clarity - I think people are confusing a sub optimal resolution with the film's over usage of a film grain filter, which is definitely a symptom of the fact that the game was created with under powered hardware in mind. It'd be nice if we had the option to remove film grain, or reduce it (uwp :3) - since the cut scenes give a glimpse of how nice the game would look without it.

It still looks pretty good though:

You do not notice any frame pacing issues? Like at all?
 

Kevin

Member
I think it's pretty obvious what Microsoft was/is trying to do here.

Get PC players to pre-order the better value Xbox One version with bonus Xbox Alan Wake games and Win 10 code that was only available on the Xbox Store, hoping PC players would flock onto Xbox Consoles because they technically purchased a Xbox One game and would feel obligated to have a Xbox Console. The reason Quantum Break has cloud saves is to help PC players move over to the Xbox One console once they get sick of the PC version.


Microsoft has thrown away any care of PC gaming once Xbox was produced and I would not be surprised if this is their way of somehow making the Xbox Console look better superior by making crap unoptimized ports of their Xbox first party tiles, in order for PC gamers to stop asking for Xbox IPs on PC. Microsoft do have asshole execs/managers who don't give a shit about PC gaming and still consider it a Niche/F2p/MMO gaming scene.

"We're through the looking glass here people."

I don't mind some UWP games, I have played alot of the Xbox enabled ones since Windows 8. But I can't give up the liberties I've grown up with from the early days of PC gaming in order to make something positive out of these new actual PC games on the Windows Store.

Nailed it. I think these broken ass ports are intention.

Their line of thinking?

1. Make the Xbox look magical when people's multi-thousand dollar computer rigs are chocking on magical Xbox One games.

2. Make a little money ripping people off.

3. Completely take away any and all freedom from computer users by forcing them to use a drm-infested, limited and severely crippled app store in order to play the games they want.

I honestly thought Microsoft would improve when Bill Gates and Steve Balmer stepped but they just got a lot worse and more anti-consumer.
 

derFeef

Member
Nailed it. I think these broken ass ports are intention.

Their line of thinking?

1. Make the Xbox look magical when people's multi-thousand dollar computer rigs are chocking on magical Xbox One games.
.

Do people really believe that? Jesus...
 
I think it's pretty obvious what Microsoft was/is trying to do here.

Get PC players to pre-order the better value Xbox One version with bonus Xbox Alan Wake games and Win 10 code that was only available on the Xbox Store, hoping PC players would flock onto Xbox Consoles because they technically purchased a Xbox One game and would feel obligated to have a Xbox Console. The reason Quantum Break has cloud saves is to help PC players move over to the Xbox One console once they get sick of the PC version.


Microsoft has thrown away any care of PC gaming once Xbox was produced and I would not be surprised if this is their way of somehow making the Xbox Console look better superior by making crap unoptimized ports of their Xbox first party tiles, in order for PC gamers to stop asking for Xbox IPs on PC. Microsoft do have asshole execs/managers who don't give a shit about PC gaming and still consider it a Niche/F2p/MMO gaming scene.

"We're through the looking glass here people."

I don't mind some UWP games, I have played alot of the Xbox enabled ones since Windows 8. But I can't give up the liberties I've grown up with from the early days of PC gaming in order to make something positive out of these new actual PC games on the Windows Store.

No one is going to buy it for the PC code, have a bad time, and then decide to buy an Xbox One instead. This isn't some elaborate trick on MS's part to trick all the PC users into purchasing a console.
 
Nailed it. I think these broken ass ports are intention.

Their line of thinking?

1. Make the Xbox look magical when people's multi-thousand dollar computer rigs are chocking on magical Xbox One games.

2. Make a little money ripping people off.

3. Completely take away any and all freedom from computer users by forcing them to use a drm-infested, limited and severely crippled app store in order to play the games they want.

I honestly thought Microsoft would improve when Bill Gates and Steve Balmer stepped but they just got a lot worse and more anti-consumer.

I'm in agreement with what you and many others are saying for the most part, but can we end the "forced" nonsense? Microsoft is not forcing anyone to use anything. You don't have to buy the game. They're not forcing your hand into your wallet or putting a gun to your head.
 

hlhbk

Member
I'm in agreement with what you and many others are saying for the most part, but can we end the "forced" nonsense? Microsoft is not forcing anyone to use anything. You don't have to buy the game. They're not forcing your hand into your wallet or putting a gun to your head.

Unless I can buy Quantum Break, and Gears Ultimate on Steam without UWP how are we not forced to put up with this bullshit when we want to play these games?
 
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