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Digital Foundry: Elite Dangerous PS4/Pro/XOne/PC Comparison

I

Irminsul

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mDyi7Fwrxno

Key Findings:

- Resolution is 1080p on all platforms including PS4 Pro quality mode
- No support for HDR
- Advantages for PS4 against XOne w.r.t. terrain detail and draw distance
- PS4 Pro quality mode ups that to comparable PC High settings
- XOne uses SMAA, PS4 only FXAA (except for Pro quality mode, which also uses SMAA)
- Frame rate is 60 fps in dogfights or empty space, but always lower on planets or close to a space station
- PS4 uses double buffered vsync, meaning frame rate locks to 30 fps if it's not 60, whereas XOne is triple buffered. Yes, that means frame rate on XOne is often significantly higher than on base PS4
- PS4 Pro quality frame rate is comparable to base PS4, performance mode is much better (but not 60 fps locked)
 
Caayn

Caayn

Member
My hats off to DF for tackling this game. I always felt the performance drop on XB1 when my boots were on the ground, good to see numbers attached to this feeling.

Strange to see a double buffer vsync used for the PS4 (Pro) version.
 
W

wesleyshark

Banned
It has always ran really well for me on Xbox. Really interesting seeing how it stacks up against ps4 though.

Edit: It should be really lovely on the One X, I bet.
 
G

Gestault

Member
I absolutely fucking love this game. I've noticed small performance up-ticks over time on the XB1 version, and most of the differences between the versions make sense.

INSURANCE-COMPLIANT SPACE TRUCKER 21XX: READ MANUAL for MAXIMUM COMPREHENSION.
 
N

Nachtfalke

Member
Serious question: what's the benefit with double buffer vsync over triple buffer? Especially in cases like this when the game can not hold the target framerate and the drops are much harder.
 
G

Gestault

Member
Nachtfalke said:
Serious question: what's the benefit with double buffer vsync over triple buffer? Especially in cases like this when the game can not hold the target framerate and the drops are much harder.
Click to expand...

I think it's to prevent screen tearing and theoretically retain overall frame-pacing.
 
R

Retro Edge

Member
Can't watch the video yet, so the quality mode on pro really does something? I can't really see a difference on the console himself.

This 30fps drop is very noticeable sometimes, specially when you drop out to areas where other people are.
One time I even had the feeling I had 20fps for a whole area in performance mode, that was pretty bad.
 
adamsapple

adamsapple

Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Retro Edge said:
Can't watch the video yet, so the quality mode on pro really does something? I can't really see a difference on the console himself.

This 30fps drop is very noticeable sometimes, specially when you drop out to areas where other people are.
One time I even had the feeling I had 20fps for a whole area in performance mode, that was pretty bad.
Click to expand...

Based on the video, every setting is dialed up in Quality mode. LoD effects, shadow quality, higher resolution Occlusion and the AA gets upgraded to SMAA.

Also the texture filtering and terrain detail is closer to the highest on PC. They say it looks "infinitely better" this way even though its still 1080p. However, performance mode is mostly close to 60 FPS and Quality mode has the same dips as OG PS4.

They say the Pro on Performance mode is the best way to play Elite on a console. It has the standard advantages the OG PS4 has over XB1 (better LoD and terrain) while not having the hard drops to 30 FPS that OG PS4 has in comparison to XB1.
 
R

Retro Edge

Member
chandoog said:
Based on the video, every setting is dialed up in Quality mode. LoD effects, shadow quality, higher resolution Occlusion and the AA gets upgraded to SMAA.

Also the texture filtering and terrain detail is closer to the highest on PC. They say it looks "infinitely better" this way even though its still 1080p. However, performance mode is mostly close to 60 FPS and Quality mode has the same dips as OG PS4.

They say the Pro on Performance mode is the best way to play Elite on a console. It has the standard advantages the OG PS4 has over XB1 (better LoD and terrain) while not having the hard drops to 30 FPS that OG PS4 has in comparison to XB1.
Click to expand...


Thank you very much!

Never noticed anything directly when I switched inside a base to quality. Weird. Can't wait to see the video.
 
R

RdN

Member
Xbox One version seems to have benefited from the Early Access phase.

Cool game, hopefully it does well.
 
D

Dictator93

Member
I wonder why Tom did not go into the PC settings and PC performance in comparison. That would be interesting to see how far it can be pushed, and low it can be brought in comparison to the consoles.
 
R

Retro Edge

Member
Saw the video now, pretty interesting again, still saw almost no differences between performance and quality with the exception of the planets.

All this anti aliasing stuff that doesn't make much difference in the first place, it still is shimmering as fuck in the bases, could be completely avoided if they just had raised the resolution to at least 1440p and activated downsampling. Problems solved. This would gives us the almost perfect anti aliasing without any problems at all.
 
L

LukasTaves

Member
Shouldn't the PS4 framerate lock straight to 30 if it was forced double buffered? It sticks mostly to that indeed, but there are a couple of 40's and 50's instances there.

Sounds like the game is in a weird state where they can't deliver 60fps on consoles, but the game doesn't look as good as a 30fps game should... Hope they can still smooth it out, otherwise I think I would prefer a 30fps game with everything cranked up.
 
R

Retro Edge

Member
Maybe because it's a game that shouldn't need much power in the first place and somehow it works like logically intended on the one? :D


It's empty space, a few flying rocks and single buildings in form of space stations. That's it. It's not a witchcraft. At least it shouldn't be...
 
P

pottuvoi

Banned
Retro Edge said:
Saw the video now, pretty interesting again, still saw almost no differences between performance and quality with the exception of the planets.

All this anti aliasing stuff that doesn't make much difference in the first place, it still is shimmering as fuck in the bases, could be completely avoided if they just had raised the resolution to at least 1440p and activated downsampling. Problems solved. This would gives us the almost perfect anti aliasing without any problems at all.
Click to expand...
The game would still shimmer with 4k and fxaa downsampled to 1080p.
It just has very thin, high contrast screen aligned edges in which ordered ssaa doesn't work very well.

Also due to single pixel sparkling detail fxaa is for me preferable to smaa in Elite. (It has component which seeks small highcontrast detail and dims it.)

Would love a half decent TAA to make image stable.
 
A

AEdouard

Member
LukasTaves said:
Shouldn't the PS4 framerate lock straight to 30 if it was forced double buffered? It sticks mostly to that indeed, but there are a couple of 40's and 50's instances there.

Sounds like the game is in a weird state where they can't deliver 60fps on consoles, but the game doesn't look as good as a 30fps game should... Hope they can still smooth it out, otherwise I think I would prefer a 30fps game with everything cranked up.
Click to expand...

I remember my old 970 having some trouble with the landing on planet stuff framerate wise (although that might also have been because it was the very early versions of planetary landings), and this is a gpu about twice as powerful as a base ps4. Landing looks pretty demanding for the One/PS4.
 
N

Netherscourge

Banned
Is it too late to get into this game on PC?

I want to get into a space sim so bad.

But MMO-like games tend to become unbalanced for newbies after a couple years and I have a feeling some players are so powerful that it's impossible for a newbie to get anywhere from scratch anymore?

Just curious.

I give up Star Citizen and NMS is just disappointing.
 
godhandiscen

godhandiscen

There are millions of whiny 5-year olds on Earth, and I AM THEIR KING.
DarkLordMalik said:
I am surprised by how well Xbox One holds up here. What's the secret?
Click to expand...

The game has been on the platform for a long time. Probably it will improve on Ps4 a bit eventually.

I want to see how the game holds on the X1X.

Netherscourge said:
Is it too late to get into this game on PC?

I want to get into a space sim so bad.

But MMO-like games tend to become unbalanced for newbies after a couple years and I have a feeling some players are so powerful that it's impossible for a newbie to get anywhere from scratch anymore?

Just curious.

I give up Star Citizen and NMS is just disappointing.
Click to expand...


Not at all. This game is as much of an MMO as it is SP game. You can avoid the MMO portion for as long as you like and then join the MMO portion once you know what you are doing.
 
I

i-Lo

Member
This is disappointing. I was hoping to pick up the legendary edition (physical copy) for PS4 Pro when I got back home in two months time but I think I'll now wait for patches to see if the situation improves. Wish they'd allow for a 30fps lock altogether.

Wanted to play this game desperately ever since it was out for Xbone.
 
B

Bsigg12

Member
I think this is a huge talking point for games in Game Preview on Xbox One. They have had the game up and running for a long time now and have been able to optimize the living hell out of it with my scenarios to make it a really solid port.
 
C

cakely

Member
i-Lo said:
This is disappointing. I was hoping to pick up the legendary edition (physical copy) for PS4 Pro when I got back home in two months time but I think I'll now wait for patches to see if the situation improves. Wish they'd allow for a 30fps lock altogether.

Wanted to play this game desperately ever since it was out for Xbone.
Click to expand...

If you have a pro, performance mode stays very close to 60fps except when flying close to a planet's surface, in which case it drops down to 50fps.

It's a big leap in performance from the other console versions.
 
C

Corleth the Fey

Member
i-Lo said:
This is disappointing. I was hoping to pick up the legendary edition (physical copy) for PS4 Pro when I got back home in two months time but I think I'll now wait for patches to see if the situation improves. Wish they'd allow for a 30fps lock altogether.

Wanted to play this game desperately ever since it was out for Xbone.
Click to expand...
I'm playing now. It's very good on Pro in Performance mode. Don't miss out on a great game you want just because of a few FPS drops every now and again.
 
R

Risk Breaker

Member
FlutterPuffs said:
Or rather it has been out for so long on the Xbox One that they have optimised it greatly through patches.
Click to expand...

AEdouard said:
Maybe Elite needs a lot from the CPU vs the GPU, relatively speaking?
Click to expand...

Journey said:
The console's weakness was grossly overstated? or maybe the console's power was grossly underestimated? one of the two :p
Click to expand...

None of those? Read the OP?

- PS4 uses double buffered vsync, meaning frame rate locks to 30 fps if it's not 60, whereas XOne is triple buffered. Yes, that means frame rate on XOne is often significantly higher than on base PS4
Click to expand...
 
R

RK9039

Member
Netherscourge said:
Is it too late to get into this game on PC?

I want to get into a space sim so bad.

But MMO-like games tend to become unbalanced for newbies after a couple years and I have a feeling some players are so powerful that it's impossible for a newbie to get anywhere from scratch anymore?

Just curious.

I give up Star Citizen and NMS is just disappointing.
Click to expand...

You can play solo, that's what I do, and then join the MMO side of things when you're ready.
 
T

Tagyhag

Member
- PS4 uses double buffered vsync, meaning frame rate locks to 30 fps if it's not 60, whereas XOne is triple buffered. Yes, that means frame rate on XOne is often significantly higher than on base PS4
Click to expand...

That seems outright horrible and a stupid decision.
 
F

FZW

Member
cakely said:
It looks like if you're playing on a console that PS4 Pro performance mode is really the way to go.
Click to expand...

yea if you're primarily a Playstation player or just impatient, if not waiting on the X1X is probably a better idea
 
T

timberger

Member
FZW said:
yea if you're primarily a Playstation player or just impatient, if not waiting on the X1X is probably a better idea
Click to expand...

Not if you also don't want to pay 500 bucks because of the possibility it might be better in any real way to what is already currently available it isn't.
 
Tumle

Tumle

Member
FZW said:
yea if you're primarily a Playstation player or just impatient, if not waiting on the X1X is probably a better idea
Click to expand...
Yea.. or I don't know.. just play the PC Version... if you are going to spend 500$ extxtra to play a game..
 
F

FZW

Member
timberger said:
Not if you also don't want to pay 500 bucks because of the possibility it might be better in any real way to what is already currently available it isn't.
Click to expand...

might?

Tumle said:
Yea.. or I don't know.. just play the PC Version... if you are going to spend 500$ extxtra to play a game..
Click to expand...

true but that's only if you actually care about PC gaming. Some ppl don't, I know I don't. But if we are just talking about consoles then yea X1X is most likely gonna be the best place to play it.
 
C

c0de

Member
timberger said:
Not if you also don't want to pay 500 bucks because of the possibility it might be better in any real way to what is already currently available it isn't.
Click to expand...

You think it's not certain that Scorpio will run the game better than any other console? Lol
 
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