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Digital Foundry - Marvel's Spider-Man 2 Secrets Revealed: Debug Menu Features Tested

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter


So, a recent patch that was since patched accidentally added a user-facing debug mode. Lots of awesome stuff that gives insight into the inner-workings of the game. You got stuff like frame rate counter, frame time counter, resolution counter, level selection, scrapped content, test levels, and other things.
 
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Was actually wondering if DF would make a video about this since a game dev friend of mine told me that the debug menu had all those fancy things mentioned in the OP. Would def watch it after I'm done with work.
 
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So, a recent patch that was since patched accidentally added a user-facing debug mode. Lots of awesome stuff that gives insight into the inner-workings of the game. You got stuff like frame rate counter, frame time counter, resolution counter, level selection, scrapped content, test levels, and other things.

Hopefully this is still here when the pro comes out will be even more interesting then
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes


So, a recent patch that was since patched accidentally added a user-facing debug mode. Lots of awesome stuff that gives insight into the inner-workings of the game. You got stuff like frame rate counter, frame time counter, resolution counter, level selection, scrapped content, test levels, and other things.

Can i get an apology?

In the video he states that the 60 fps mode has CPU driven drops. Its clear the Zen 2 CPU in these consoles is a bottleneck even at 60 fps.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Framerate in 60 fps mode drops below its 1080p target. No wonder so many gaffers were meh on this game. They played the game on sub PS4 era resolutions.

Even the 40 fps mode drops to 1152p. I noticed this immediately and switched back to 30 fps right away. Though its typically 1440p during non-setpiece moments.

30 FPS isnt 4k like it was at launch so they have downgraded the resolution since. It's still way higher than the 60 and 30 fps modes at around 1800p. At their peak, fidelity is at 3328*1872 while 40 fps fidelity is 2304x1296p. Thats 113% extra pixels for just a 33% boost in performance.
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
I understand why releasing debug mode options for a AAA game like this is a bad idea, but I wish devs would make debug modes intentionally available for people who want to peek under the hood. This is such a cool analysis vid, and I wish we could have rock solid insights to more games like this.
 
Can i get an apology?

In the video he states that the 60 fps mode has CPU driven drops. Its clear the Zen 2 CPU in these consoles is a bottleneck even at 60 fps.
The fact you got backlash shows no one on this site should ever talk again even before I joined this site in late 2021 I knew the ps5 cpu was bad and easily the worst aspect of the console and that all the gps benches would be lopsided cause of it. This will be even worse with the pro if those cpu rumors really are true which I pray to god they aren’t.
 
Framerate in 60 fps mode drops below its 1080p target. No wonder so many gaffers were meh on this game. They played the game on sub PS4 era resolutions.

Even the 40 fps mode drops to 1152p. I noticed this immediately and switched back to 30 fps right away. Though its typically 1440p during non-setpiece moments.

30 FPS isnt 4k like it was at launch so they have downgraded the resolution since. It's still way higher than the 60 and 30 fps modes at around 1800p. At their peak, fidelity is at 3328*1872 while 40 fps fidelity is 2304x1296p. Thats 113% extra pixels for just a 33% boost in performance.
Wait they downgraded fidelity mode? Do you mean the high end of the drs isn’t 4k anymore? Oh no this is really bad for when the pro comes out
 

Zathalus

Member
Can i get an apology?

In the video he states that the 60 fps mode has CPU driven drops. Its clear the Zen 2 CPU in these consoles is a bottleneck even at 60 fps.
Apology for what? I don't recall any CPU benchmarks for Spider-Man 2, since the game is not out on PC. You will also notice the resolution doesn't drop when encountering one of those rare CPU drops, since it would change nothing.

Just because game X is heavy in CPU doesn't mean game Y would be, otherwise 120fps games on PS5 wouldn't be a thing.
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Can i get an apology?

In the video he states that the 60 fps mode has CPU driven drops. Its clear the Zen 2 CPU in these consoles is a bottleneck even at 60 fps.
I don't see your point. This is Spider-Man 2, probably one of the most CPU-intensive games on PS5. I don't even think it has a 120Hz uncapped mode like the first one which could shoot past 100fps at 1080p. Clearly, this one is much more demanding.
 
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SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Wait they downgraded fidelity mode? Do you mean the high end of the drs isn’t 4k anymore? Oh no this is really bad for when the pro comes out
its still drs so when the pro comes out, it will hit higher resolutions in the 40 fps modes getting closer to the 30 fps mode's resolutions. DF just found that the counts they had at launch are no longer the same. it was mostly around 2160p back at launch, now its around 1800p.
 

Xyphie

Member
~4:35 section really shows why PS5 Pro shipping with Zen 2 would be a massive disappointment as the CPU is basically pegged at or above >16ms making beyond 60 FPS modes not all that viable.
 
its still drs so when the pro comes out, it will hit higher resolutions in the 40 fps modes getting closer to the 30 fps mode's resolutions. DF just found that the counts they had at launch are no longer the same. it was mostly around 2160p back at launch, now its around 1800p.
Is there a reason it’s different now are the assists higher quality now? Or is it a bug?
 

Dacvak

No one shall be brought before our LORD David Bowie without the true and secret knowledge of the Photoshop. For in that time, so shall He appear.
Man, I’m bummed I missed the window on this. I don’t own Spidey 2, but I absolutely would have bought it just to be able to use the debug mode. There is so much fascinating stuff to glean from it.
 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
Is there a reason it’s different now are the assists higher quality now? Or is it a bug?
no idea. All DF could say was that the post launch patches might have been the culprit. We dont know if there were any visual improvements were made.
 
~4:35 section really shows why PS5 Pro shipping with Zen 2 would be a massive disappointment as the CPU is basically pegged at or above >16ms making beyond 60 FPS modes not all that viable.
Let’s not immediately believe the rumors zen 5 is
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Apology for what? I don't recall any CPU benchmarks for Spider-Man 2, since the game is not out on PC. You will also notice the resolution doesn't drop when encountering one of those rare CPU drops, since it would change nothing.

Just because game X is heavy in CPU doesn't mean game Y would be, otherwise 120fps games on PS5 wouldn't be a thing.
Yeah, I mean, look at the remaster on PS5.

 

SlimySnake

Flashless at the Golden Globes
~4:35 section really shows why PS5 Pro shipping with Zen 2 would be a massive disappointment as the CPU is basically pegged at or above >16ms making beyond 60 FPS modes not all that viable.
Zen 4's biggest upgrade is the higher clocks. As long as the Pro ships with higher clocks, it will improve single thread performance which is basically the bottleneck in most games. the IPC gains from zen 2 to zen 4 are around 30% combined. Sony can get that by increasing the clocks to 4.5 Ghz and maybe adding some extra cache.

But thats if we believe the rumors. I dont know why Sony would pair a RDNA4 GPU with a Zen 2 CPU and forego all the IPC gains. Unless all those IPC gains come from the 3d cache.
 

JaksGhost

Member
Thanks for telling me man this is very strange indeed
For performance they explained the resolution difference which is still upscaled to 1440p:
In typical play, resolution hovers around 1152p and 1296p, which produces a respectable looking final image. Interestingly, this mode now has ray traced reflections on all transparent surfaces, which wasn't the case at launch. The addition of RT reflections on these car windows makes the world feel more consistent, though I imagine it carries a resolution penalty.
 

shamoomoo

Member
~4:35 section really shows why PS5 Pro shipping with Zen 2 would be a massive disappointment as the CPU is basically pegged at or above >16ms making beyond 60 FPS modes not all that viable.
The Pro is meant as a stopgap, it's not intended to be a new generation of PlayStation consoles.
 

RickSanchez

Member
Cool. So are there any other cheaty options apart from the "no damage" ones ? Anything to make enemies weaker or increase your damage output ?
 

Zathalus

Member
Are they really taking performance metrics from DEBUG MODE? What a major fail. Debug modes are notoriously less performant than the non-debug mode because of all the data processing/wrangling.
Addressed in the video, they did a pixel and performance check to confirm the debug menu results.
 
Nothing the pro has even the literal best tech right now would touch a ps6 literally nothing can we please stop with this idea
English, please.

pulp fiction they speak english in what GIF
 
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Bojji

Member
Can i get an apology?

In the video he states that the 60 fps mode has CPU driven drops. Its clear the Zen 2 CPU in these consoles is a bottleneck even at 60 fps.

IN THIS GAME, and no wonder it's massive open world with a lot of stuff going on and CONSTANT ray tracing. Just like Jedi was CPU limited and Gotham knights and everyone knew this.
 

omegasc

Member
IN THIS GAME, and no wonder it's massive open world with a lot of stuff going on and CONSTANT ray tracing. Just like Jedi was CPU limited and Gotham knights and everyone knew this.
Yeah I believe RT is what is taxing the CPU in this case.
As for Zen 2 on PS5 Pro, I think they will put something to handle RT and free up some CPU load.
Just my guesses.
 

ChiefDada

Gold Member
Shouldn't we want current gen games to push hardware to their limit assuming the game performs well overall and there is tangible payoff as a result? Spider-Man 2 succeeds at both with all play modes performing as advertised and best RT implementation and open world streaming on console to date.
 
There is this narrative that if you upgrade say the cpu on the pro to like zen 5 then the ps6 won’t be able to be an upgrade which is so preposterously stupid when even the literal best tech out today including the 8800x3d (zen 5) will be nothing to the tech used in the ps6 so gimping the pro doesn’t bene
You might have a point, but Sony knows the ps5 pro is just to be a stop gap. I dont expect them to do anything besides boost perfomance enough so that games can be played at higher framerates and have 4k resolution on more games. The ps5 still use hdmi 2.0, so theres a still a lot of things the ps6 will have that the ps5 wont have, but putting some of these features in the ps5 pro will take away from the technical gap the ps6 would have over the base console.
 
You might have a point, but Sony knows the ps5 pro is just to be a stop gap. I dont expect them to do anything besides boost perfomance enough so that games can be played at higher framerates and have 4k resolution on more games. The ps5 still use hdmi 2.0, so theres a still a lot of things the ps6 will have that the ps5 wont have, but putting some of these features in the ps5 pro will take away from the technical gap the ps6 would have over the base console.
Not in the context that the ps6 would likely be cheaper than the pro
 
Does it not achieve it's performance targets in all modes for the most part? Is it not the best showcase of dense, open world asset streaming on console and perhaps on any platform. Yeah I'm done defending the blatant tech achievements of SM2. You'll appreciate it once it comes to PC I'm sure.
I mean he’s the same guy who says the 4080 is 2.5x the guy raster power of the ps5 so there’s
 

Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
Does it not achieve it's performance targets in all modes for the most part? Is it not the best showcase of dense, open world asset streaming on console and perhaps on any platform. Yeah I'm done defending the blatant tech achievements of SM2. You'll appreciate it once it comes to PC I'm sure.
Dunno, I find HFW more impressive. I was initially defending it with the pre-release trailers, especially that first one where Miles glides over the water and sneaks into that plant.

The actual game though? I don't know. Kind of inconsistent. There are some setpieces like the Sandman that look awe-inspiring but at other times, I can hardly spot the difference between 2 and the remastered version on PC/PS5.

I was just expecting a lot more out of it. I thought it would be a crowning achievement and THE game to beat. Overall, I think it looks alright with amazing bits here and there.
 
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Gaiff

SBI’s Resident Gaslighter
I mean he’s the same guy who says the 4080 is 2.5x the guy raster power of the ps5 so there’s
You never showed us that video benchmark with your 2.15x claim. Until you can show it, shut the fuck up and stop quoting me. I grow tired of the idiocy of your posts.
 
You never showed us that video benchmark with your 2.15x claim. Until you can show it, shut the fuck up and stop quoting me. I grow tired of the idiocy of your posts.
There are dozens of benchmarks online I only didn’t link 1 cause you would claim the source is biased
 
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