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DigitalFoundry: What's Up With Nier Automata on PC? (Also stutters on PS4/Pro)

M

Massicot

Member
Soltype said:
Had no idea the port was bad, was planning on picking this up soon.
Click to expand...

It's not "bad", imo. It's just not a great port. Maybe I have low standards.

I just hope they patch the issue with cutscene stutter and not maintaining proper aspect ratios. That's its biggest weakness imo.
 
G

gngf123

Member
Soltype said:
Had no idea the port was bad, was planning on picking this up soon.
Click to expand...

It's not bad at all. It's actually good, but it has a couple of weird bugs that need to be ironed out.

Even if Square/Platinum don't fix it, it's already getting user fixed for the most part.

It's by far the best way to play the game if you have a decent rig.
 
T

The End

Member
Is this running on the same engine that TF:Devastation and TMNT did?

TF:D was a solid PC port and TMNT was a fine port of a mediocre game IIRC.
 
D

DalikSkywing

Member
Incredibly misleading article, PC version is the best version you can currently buy, the game itself is poorly made from a technical point of view. PS4 versions have the same problems like sloppy cutscenes.
 
G

gngf123

Member
The End said:
Is this running on the same engine that TF:Devastation and TMNT did?

TF:D was a solid PC port and TMNT was a fine port of a mediocre game IIRC.
Click to expand...

It's been modified quite a lot so it is suitable for open world games like Nier, but yes that's my understanding.

Yautja_Warrior said:
That's a shame, oh well PS4 version for me then.
Click to expand...

Again, even with the problems as they are right now, the PC version is still the best version of the game.
 
M

Mupod

Member
DalikSkywing said:
Incredibly misleading article, PC version is the best version you can currently buy, the game itself is poorly made from a technical point of view. PS4 versions have the same problems like sloppy cutscenes.
Click to expand...

I haven't been following it closely and I can't check the DF video in OP right now. But the PC performance thread was going on about pop-in that wasn't present on the console versions, is that not true?

I was prepared to be in on day 1 for this - I even played Nier for the first time back in January - but I think I can wait until after Persona. If the PC version gets fixed up in the meantime then that's perfect.
 
T

T.O.P

Banned
Except for the framerate drops during cutscenes the game runs just fine on my end (970 and 4690)

Not a shabby port at all imo

10k said:
Man cmon do mass effect and Nier need to both have unoptimized PC ports? :(
Click to expand...

Last i hear Andromeda was running quite well on pc? did i miss something?
 
G

gngf123

Member
10k said:
Man cmon do mass effect and Nier need to both have unoptimized PC ports? :(
Click to expand...

It's not unoptimized.

For most people the PC version runs basically as expected if you have the PS4 version as a reference point. The stuttering problems seem to be related to streaming issues, and the fact that the game seems to be more graphically intensive than some people might have suspected is because of how the game uses Global Illumination.

There's a fix for the global illumination being released soon for people on low end rigs, and the streaming issue exists on both PC and console, it's an engine thing.
 
C

CheesecakeRecipe

Stormy Grey
The game doesn't run as well as it should on any platform, and a GAFer may have discovered something Platinum did with the engine that could allow for some fairly significant framerate gains:

DrDaxxy said:
Alright, I've managed to improve performance by 30-60% (in 4K, on a 980 Ti, a friend reports more than doubled performance on a low-end mobile GPU).

Here's the visual differences (and framerate impact). Warning: if you haven't completed Route A you may find this a bit of a spoiler.
http://diff.pics/VBmFSLj8bn95/1
http://diff.pics/VBmFSLj8bn95/2

Expect to see a fix incorporating this change soon.
Click to expand...
 
G

gngf123

Member
Mupod said:
I haven't been following it closely and I can't check the DF video in OP right now. But the PC performance thread was going on about pop-in that wasn't present on the console versions, is that not true?

I was prepared to be in on day 1 for this - I even played Nier for the first time back in January - but I think I can wait until after Persona. If the PC version gets fixed up in the meantime then that's perfect.
Click to expand...

The pop in issue is not present on consoles, as the console version does not use MSAA. The problem seems to be caused by a weird interaction between MSAA and the post process AA that is enabled with AO.

Disabling MSAA on the PC version also entirely removes the pop in issue on PC.
 
A

AEdouard

Member
dr_rus said:
It's not bad, it's just not great.
Click to expand...

The major problem is a terrible bug that makes fullscreen rendering pretty much impossible at your chosen resolution (unless you use a simple external program like Borderless Gaming, which fixes the issue).
 
M

Markoman

Member
T.O.P said:
Except for the framerate drops during cutscenes the game runs just fine on my end (970 and 4690)

Not a shabby port at all imo



Last i hear Andromeda was running quite well on pc? did i miss something?
Click to expand...

Ah, good to hear, 970 owner here. Do you get frame-drops when traversing the map or do you achieve steady 60fps with settings lowered? If so, will double-dip when it hits the 20-30€ line.
 
Danny Dudekisser

Danny Dudekisser

I paid good money for this Dynex!
Weren't there also some issues with pop in that were worse than what was on the PS4? I recall reading that in the performance thread, but dunno if that's been confirmed.
 
M

MTC100

Banned
T.O.P said:
Except for the framerate drops during cutscenes the game runs just fine on my end (970 and 4690)

Not a shabby port at all imo
Click to expand...

How's the framerate @1080p for you with the 970, have the same card and am wondering weather to get the game now or wait a bit for a few patches to happen.
 
G

gngf123

Member
Chacranajxy said:
Weren't there also some issues with pop in that were worse than what was on the PS4? I recall reading that in the performance thread, but dunno if that's been confirmed.
Click to expand...

See:

gngf123 said:
The pop in issue is not present on consoles, as the console version does not use MSAA. The problem seems to be caused by a weird interaction between MSAA and the post process AA that is enabled with AO.

Disabling MSAA on the PC version also entirely removes the pop in issue on PC.
Click to expand...

To be more precise - Having both MSAA and post processing AA/AO enabled seems to break the fade-in LOD. This causes objects to appear like they are popping in suddenly instead of transitioning.

Most people should be turning MSAA off anyway. They never should have included it as a preset. It's confusing so many people.
 
Lister

Lister

Banned
specdot said:
And console guys are the annoying ones right?
Click to expand...

I don't know about console guys, but you sure as hell are. The PC version is better than the console version in terms of performance and resolution, those are the facts. The issues brought up are present on all versions. If that bothers you on some deep emotional level, I'd suggest you stay away from PC performance related threads.

We wouldn't want you to get al l bent out of shape at PC elitists, for, you know, pointing out facts about performance on a performance thread, because, the horror.
 
G

Gitaroo

Member
Looks like their engine isn't meant for large environment and streaming high quality assets. Game stutter a bit from streaming on PS4 pro.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Gitaroo said:
Looks like their engine isn't meant for large environment and streaming high quality assets. Game stutter a bit from streaming on PS4 pro.
Click to expand...

Their engine isn't optimized for a a lot of things apparently .. even on Pro the cut-scenes drop to 900p/30 FPS without any anti aliasing.

Not sure whether it's rushed development, the engine just not supporting this etc etc but this was one of the most underwhelming Pro updates I've seen.
 
F

Ferr986

Member
The engine seems pretty bad overall. Playing it on Pro and although it's 60 fps, there's a lot of random stutters while traversing the world (while fighting it runs fine, so I guess it's a streaming issue).
 
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