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Digital Foundry vs. The Last of Us Remastered

V

Vashetti

Banned
So let's look at the tentpole enhancements as Naughty Dog has outlined them. Principally, we're looking at 1080p resolution at 60fps in both single and multi-player, a 4x detail increase to texture maps and a 2x resolution boost to shadow maps. Texture streaming is no longer required owing to the PS4's prodigious RAM, and there's longer draw distances, better LOD and improved particle effects. In essence, Naughty Dog has scaled up the original game to full HD and boosted assets to match, while doubling frame-rate. How does that look? Well, we've prepared a 22-minute 60fps gameplay capture here, downscaled from full resolution captures, and we've provided a 1080p60 download that should work just fine on most modern computers - and indeed the PlayStation 3.

This segment - chosen to leave the heart-rending prologue unspoiled - gives a much better account of the quality of the game than the prologue, and it's important to point out that this is a remaster, not a remake. Where existing higher quality assets are available (for example, cut-scene character models) they are utilised, but there's little evidence to suggest that Naughty Dog has upgraded any of the environments, or boosted geometry. First impressions aren't actually that impressive - The Last of Us' prologue initially has you in control of an unenhanced character model and despite the mooted enhancements to texture and shadow quality, the overall impression is that next-gen is actually much more of a leap than you'd give it credit for. Geometry quality is unimpressive, environment detail is relatively spartan and this section does little to showcase the game at its best.

It's also apparent that there's still a yawning chasm between the quality of the pre-rendered cinematics - almost certainly rendered at a much higher resolution, then downscaled - and the game itself, resulting in a jarring leap between FMV and gameplay not helped by a small pause between them. Uncharted's cinematics were rendered in-engine but were designed to look like gameplay with seamless transitions, making for a more consistent experience and that is lacking here. What's clear is that Naughty Dog has completely re-rendered each cut-scene though - they would have been 30fps on PS3 to match the gameplay, and they're running at 60 here, with compression artefacts only really a noticeable problem on very dark scenes.
Click to expand...

However, more GPU-intensive effects may have impacted The Last of Us Remastered's other major enhancement: 60fps gameplay, doubled from the PS3 30fps standard (and based on our analysis videos, a target it frequently had issues sustaining). To answer the question everyone's been asking, frame-rate isn't locked to 60fps, but The Last of Us Remastered does spend the vast majority of its time at the optimal refresh. Problems can kick in during busy combat scenes, and just like the PS3 version, particles and transparent effects in particular can take their toll - the first confrontation with a fungus-spewing Bloater sees frame-rate hit a minimum of 48fps.

The good news is that this is pretty much as bad as it got across multiple hours of gameplay, and it's telling that in the 14-minute performance analysis video below (comprised of a number of gameplay clips), the game holds its lock well for the vast majority of its duration. You'll need to skip ahead to the nine minute mark to see the combat clips that caused genuine issues for this first iteration of the Naughty Dog engine running on PS4. At this point it has to be said that the game's day one patch was not available for testing, so there remains the possibility that things may improve once that hits - and we'll be sure to update you if that is the case.
Click to expand...

Much more: http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2014-vs-the-last-of-us-remastered
 
C

CambriaRising

Member
Yeah, I expected the framerate to go down during that first bloater encounter, there is a lot going on in that fight. It was a slideshow on Ps3. Still though, if 48fps is as bad as it gets and its only that fight? I'm not complaining.
 
B

BigDug13

Member
LoL release detailed article before receiving day one patch. Seems like they did a good job on this remaster though.
 
M

MavFan619

Banned
Vast majority at 60fps comment will be ignored for the small instances where it hits 48fps I'm sure (by some.) Either way I'll still be sticking with the higher framerate (vast majority of the time) :p and cannot wait.
 
F

FlutterPuffs

Member
I'm still confused how people find the frame rate drops such a bad thing.

Game will still be great even if there's a few instances of bad Frame drops.
 
A

Aeana

Member
That 60 FPS footage there is super great. Looks so good. Wish I had the time to justify a replay of the game.
 
P

Putty

Member
Good to read, as predicted really. I'm pleased the dip down to 48 is a low as it got...anyone expecting more in a year, porting from such exotic hardware, needs a reality check.
 
A

Afrikan

Member
why not wait 1-2 days to get the patch and then to do their little article?.. I mean its not like they are reviewing the game like IGN and Gamespot... there should be no rush to getting a story out there...no competition for Digital Foundry.

Did they just want to get some juicy negative stuff out there first for hits or something??? and then try to get everyone to come back for more hits, for an updated article?
 
K

Kiyo

Member
FlutterPuffs said:
I'm still confused how people find the frame rate drops such a bad thing.

Game will still be great even if there's a few instances of bad Frame drops.
Click to expand...

I'm still confused as to why people think that a game is going to run at 60 fps with no drops ever. Even CoD which is praised for its 60fps gameplay, dips when there's a ton of stuff going on.
 
T

THEaaron

Member
JLeack said:
Day 1 patch went live Friday @ 4:30PM~ FOR EVERYONE.
Click to expand...

That's not true.


I'm awaiting lots of piss over the whole thread because it is not sitting completely on 60fps and not everything is super high resolution and absolutely flawless.

Gonna lean back and laugh about the hate.
 
E

ElTorro

I wanted to dominate the living room. Then I took an ESRAM in the knee.
manual4 said:
here we go
Click to expand...

Way to quote-mine the actual paragraph...

To answer the question everyone's been asking, frame-rate isn't locked to 60fps, but The Last of Us Remastered does spend the vast majority of its time at the optimal refresh. Problems can kick in during busy combat scenes, and just like the PS3 version, particles and transparent effects in particular can take their toll - the first confrontation with a fungus-spewing Bloater sees frame-rate hit a minimum of 48fps.
Click to expand...
 
M

mercenar1e

Member
I'm blown away at just how much better it looks compared to the PS3 version.. Sony really needs to look into a remastered version of Beyond Two Souls for the PS4.
 
J

JaseC

gave away the keys to the kingdom.
AdanVC said:
Damn. :(
Edit: Ohh I forgot about the day one patch. That will definitely improve stuff so it's all good.
Click to expand...

If you're expecting the game to reach a perpetual 60fps state then you're quite likely going to be disappointed.
 
B

bananafactory

Banned
mercenar1e said:
It wasn't good? I haven't played the PS3 version
Click to expand...

It was a very divisive game. Many people hated the story and some people just don't like Cage's interpretation of "gameplay".

But there are quite a few people, myself included, who really enjoyed it. It definitely sold decently despite not reviewing that well.
 
K

Kaze2212

Member
Blimblim said:
I don't know about DF, but we were specifically instructed not to go online with our console until the end of the embargo, so we couldn't get the patch for our videos.
Click to expand...

That's weird... wouldn't it be better to show the game at it's best instead of showing it without a patch, that possibly fixes some issues? Doesn't make sense to me...
 
L

libregkd

Member
While the framerate is unlocked, that DF video shows the game keeping a solid 60FPS for the majority of the time. And for the majority of the framerate drops it still seemed in the 55+ FPS range.

It's going to be a real treat playing this again.
 
V

viveks86

Member
Lowest dip is 48 and the average is much above that? I'm cool with that. I have no reason to go for the 30 fps option at this point.
 
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