• Hey, guest user. Hope you're enjoying NeoGAF! Have you considered registering for an account? Come join us and add your take to the daily discourse.

Prey patch adds major stuttering to PS4 version, "worst ever" frame pacing

N

Nirolak

Mrgrgr
With the release of patch 1.04, Pro features have finally arrived, but Arkane Austin's attempts to improve the laggy controls have resulted in a massive own goal. Put simply, for PS4 owners, there's a strong argument that the new patch now represents a retrograde step.
Click to expand...
Unfortunately, a new problem has been introduced across both PlayStation consoles - a problem that first appeared in version 1.02 and compromises what was one of the game's most impressive aspects, its consistency and fluidity in motion. On the plus side, input latency has been fixed - the game is much more responsive now - but the knock-on effect is that, put simply, the game is a stuttering mess in motion. We've often reported on bad frame-pacing in the past, but nothing could prepare us for the severity of the problem in Prey.

This is, without a doubt, the worst instance of irregular frame delivery we've encountered, giving the illusion of a much lower frame-rate. In addition, as the game uses an adaptive v-sync solution, there is now a plethora of torn frames present in each and every scene along the top portion of the image. Taken as a whole, Prey no longer feels smooth to play. Clearly, the fix for input latency is to blame for this problem. Whichever settings have been adjusted, the results are poor.
Click to expand...
Nice, nice.
 
M

matrix-cat

Member
Boy, this game can't catch a break. I played it at launch on PS4, and the framerate was fine, but there was obviously no Pro support and bad input lag. I heard they'd patched the lag right after I was finished with it, and when I heard they'd added Pro support I thought it'd all be fine, but now this.

Shame, because it's an excellent game (and a strong GOTY contender for me). Definitely one to get on PC if you can, though.
 
D

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Shame about these issues as the game itself is one of my favorites of the year. It's really really good. It's just that...it's only REALLY good on PC.

Zojirushi said:
What is going on with devs fucking up framepacing this gen?
Click to expand...
It's a battle with input latency to a degree, I'd imagine. On PC you can adjust the number of frames pre-rendered by the CPU before sending to the GPU. If you lower this too much, you get jittery performance but if you raise it too far, input becomes very laggy.

I'm not sure what the comparable commands would be on PS4 but the PC situation demonstrates how easily it could happen. If they were trying to solve input latency, this is the kind of issue that might pop-up as a result.

It should be possible to get both a responsive game and a stable frame-rate (most games do this) but CryEngine games all seem to have lag issues on PS4 for some reason (aside from Robinson on PSVR).
 
S

stryke

Member
That FOV bug is weird.

Arkanius said:
Underpowered consoles and a market that keeps demanding "great graphics in a small cheap box"

Something gets compromised
Click to expand...

Framepacing has nothing to do with the power of these consoles. If that were the case, every game would have it.
 
P

Primethius

Banned
Arkanius said:
Underpowered consoles and a market that keeps demanding "great graphics in a small cheap box"

Something gets compromised
Click to expand...

Given that the XB1 version has no framepacing issues, I don't think your point holds much merit.

--

As for the article... Yikes!
 
F

FaintDeftone

Junior Member
Man, what a bummer. I totally regret not buying this on PC. At this point I'm waiting so long for the game to get proper fixes that I'll probably end up never returning to it.
 
C

chrominance

Member
This is pretty brutal. The worst part is that the PC version is among my top games of the year, but these PS4 issues really let it down. Hopefully one day the PS4 version will manage to be decent.
 
killatopak

killatopak

Member
Arkanius said:
Underpowered consoles and a market that keeps demanding "great graphics in a small cheap box"

Something gets compromised
Click to expand...

Is this a joke? Xbox has near perfect frame pacing and framerate aside from those dips when you look at some grasses that are in a particular section.

PS4 is a fair bit more powerful so I don't see why they can't have the same performance as the Xbox One version.

Aside from that, the engine used in the game is notoriously bad at framerates and this game has been the best implementation of that engine to date other than the games the makers of the engine themselves made.

I think the game needed more time in the oven before it got released especially with how obvious it needed it when it came out without a pro support.
 
G

Gbraga

Member
dark10x said:
Shame about these issues as the game itself is one of my favorites of the year. It's really really good. It's just that...it's only REALLY good on PC.


It's a battle with input latency to a degree, I'd imagine. On PC you can adjust the number of frames pre-rendered by the CPU before sending to the GPU. If you lower this too much, you get jittery performance but if you raise it too far, input becomes very laggy.

I'm not sure what the comparable commands would be on PS4 but the PC situation demonstrates how easily it could happen. If they were trying to solve input latency, this is the kind of issue that might pop-up as a result.

It should be possible to get both a responsive game and a stable frame-rate (most games do this) but CryEngine games all seem to have lag issues on PS4 for some reason (aside from Robinson on PSVR).
Click to expand...

For what it's worth, I have to play every Crysis game on PC with vsync off because I can't stand the input lag with it on, while I play almost every other game with vsync on. So there's definitely something in their engine in general, not just on PS4.
 
J

JP

Member
Such a shame, this is a really promising looking game but things like this really put me off it.

It's ridiculous that I have to say this but I do think that I'd really prefer a 900p option on the Pro that ran as the game should. It's far from ideal but if it's a choice between the current version or making it look worse to improve performance, I think I'd always go for the lower resolution. Maybe they could keep the extras from the Pro version and still have it running steadily at 900p?
 
THE:MILKMAN

THE:MILKMAN

Member
I'm no expert but are the frame pacing issues simply down to poor dev tools/software from Sony? Clearly Microsoft don't have these issues...

I guess Pro is complicating development and making things worse?
 
J

jimboton

Member
Teletraan1 said:
So a patch to a previously smooth game was the result of the hardware somehow becoming worse?
Click to expand...
To a previously smooth and laggy game. It's a trade off.

stryke said:
Framepacing has nothing to do with the power of these consoles. If that were the case, every game would have it.
Click to expand...
I think the point here is that something gets compromised. Not necessarily framepacing every time. Of course it has everything to do with the power of these consoles, which doesn't mean it's unavoidable.
 
D

Dictator93

Member
The FOV bug + the frame pacing issue makes me really think they did not QA these patches nearly enough. The FOV one is something that would be obvious to humans* who are not even capable of seeing the horrendous frame pacing.

The question tI have though is how come the xb1 fairs completely differently in this regard. Is there much less pressure on the GPU due to lowered render load on average (it has more GPU headroom)... so it kicks out frames earlier than the PS4 version? Does this cause fewer problems with vsync flip? Does the faster CPU in the xb1 have some effect here? Is the DX11 style / DX12 style front buffer management better for this than the default stuff in PS4/PS4pro?

I am really curious why PS4 is affected by this....



* I use this word loosely here.
 
Auto_aim1

Auto_aim1

MeisaMcCaffrey
further tinkering to the PS4 code has compromised one of the best things about the game: its smooth performance.
Click to expand...
It was smooth before? WTF.

I'm still waiting to play the game. I want them to fix it first.
 
T

texhnolyze

Banned
I thought From Software is the only devs who are constantly struggling with frame pacing in their games.

It's always good to have a competition.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

[DF] Resident Evil 4 Remake on iPhone 15 Pro: Can Mobile Truly Handle AAA Gaming?
44
3K
StereoVsn replied
ENDER MAGNOLIA: Bloom in the Mist adds PS5, Xbox Series, PS4, and PC versions; launches in Early Access for PC on March 25
News
3
569
Thick Thighs Save Lives replied
Cyberpunk 2077 Patch 2.1 Patch Notes Released
News 2 3
117
8K
DanEON replied
AMD announces frame generation for all DX11 and DX12 games
2 3 4
169
12K
Crayon replied
Graven |OT| A heretic priest killing hexed creatures
4
427
mansoor1980 replied
Top Bottom