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[DF] Metro Exodus : a vision for the future of graphics technology (PC)

Evilms

Banned



Summary :

- The PC version of Metro Exodus is described as a real graphic revolution where real-time rendering is taken to the next level.
- The game is a little reminiscent of Crysis in its time when the technique was pushed to its limits.
- The 4A graphics engine has been extensively updated so that Metro Exodus on PC offers the full range of possible graphics and polish effects.
- Super-precise shadows rendering.
- The level of detail is higher than on consoles especially on monsters and animals, a realistic and detailed fur thanks to Nvidia's HairWorks exclusive to the PC version which makes it all very convincing.
- The environments of Metro Exodus are particularly spectacular in this PC version.
- Fantastic materials, fantastic lighting, dense vegetation, deformation for splashes... all with a complete SSR on PC.
- Extensive use of tessellation to round objects such as bricks....
- The game features a brand new lighting and particle shading system similar to Star Citizen, Doom 2016 or Alien Isolation.
- Accelerated particle effects such as the omnipresent volumetric fog... exclusive to PCs thanks to PhysX.
- Metro Exodus uses the DirectX 12 extension of the DXR to use real-time ray tracing to accelerate indirect light "global illumination". Ray tracing provides simply spectacular moments.
- The ray tracing in Metro Exodus effectively simulates light, instead of trying to imitate how it works. This extends to almost all the scenes in the game that have some indirect interaction with the sun or the sky, on this side it is a generational leap.
- The PC version clearly differs from its console counterparts, both in terms of performance and purely visual appearance.
- The X (2160p) and Pro (1440p) versions are equivalent to the PC version in high settings but with HairWorks, PhysX, DXR and Tessellation disabled of course.
- In addition to High, the PC version offers Ultra and Extreme graphics settings.
- For the moment the DLSS implementation is a bit screwy because the image, although more stable and fluid, actually seems more fuzzy than a native 1440p for example.
- Unlike the consoles here, 60fps and more is possible depending on your configuration.
- This is by far the best real-time Ray Tracing implementation DF has seen so far on a PC.

Ray Tracing comparisons (on/off) start at 12:10.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2019-metro-exodus-tech-analysis
 
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TacosNSalsa

Member
A half hour video while eating breakfast! :messenger_smiling_with_eyes: While I got this for Xbox because of a B2G1 deal if I enjoy it enough maybe I'll double dip when it comes to steam next year..
 

Starfield

Member
My 1080 is crying.

I get around 30-60fps depening on the area in the desert zone. Shit is crazy.

i7 8700k sweating tooo
 

kingbean

Member
Does anyone know how to use an FPS counter for this game? I've got an i7 9700K with a gtx1080ti and I want to see how it's doing.
 

lukilladog

Member
I think the result would have been much better if the devs were paid to better the graphics without being dictated the techniques and features they were to use. Change my mind.
 
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dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
I think the result would have been much better if the devs were paid to better the graphics without being dictated the techniques and features they were to use. Change my mind.
Ok, this was implemented in the last six months of development or so. The art was not crafted for this yet it works great. They wanted to do this, in fact, and jumped on board when they had a chance. It wasn’t a case of being paid off to implement it. Which shouldn’t be a surprise - ray tracing is awesome and these guys are going to be interested in it.
 

Larxia

Member
Does anyone know how to use an FPS counter for this game? I've got an i7 9700K with a gtx1080ti and I want to see how it's doing.
You should use MSI Afterburner / Rivatuner.
With a great rig like that i'm surprised you don't use it already! It's an extremely useful tool to monitor all your performance and specific hardware usage, while also being a great solution for fixing various frame pacing issues in many games, it can do a lot of stuff.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Amazing results.

I think the result would have been much better if the devs were paid to better the graphics without being dictated the techniques and features they were to use. Change my mind.
Working in a specific technique or features give always better results because the exclusive tech/feature is already optimized to better results.

You will take take way more time and it won’t reach the pinacle of optimizations with “open” “Cross-hardware” tech.

BTW Ray-tracing is only possible on RTX right now.
 

kingbean

Member
You should use MSI Afterburner / Rivatuner.
With a great rig like that i'm surprised you don't use it already! It's an extremely useful tool to monitor all your performance and specific hardware usage, while also being a great solution for fixing various frame pacing issues in many games, it can do a lot of stuff.

I use g-sync so I don't really notice frame pacing issues I think. I use steam and origins overlays for frame rate.

The only thing that actually caused me to feel FPS drops was smoke effects from the train while in a firefight. I might turn advanced physics off and see if that stops the smoke/fog from being so intense.
 
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Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
Low textures on small objects aside, my my, that raytraced GI really proves its worth. Let me explain below:
  • The rasterized version still looks like a video game.
  • The raytraced version looks more akin to a movie in terms of rendering.
I get The Order 1886 vibes in here, which didn't had RT and had to rely on some very clever placement of light probes. More over, The Order 1886 had relative small environments - This is open world, Crytek style. So not as big as say RDR2, but quite large.

This, without questioning, is a watershed moment for RT and video game rendering in general.

BFV gave a few snippets of the potential but you can tell that Exodus, despite the game not being made with RT in mind, has far better consideration for the tech built in mind when they were making the game. The difference in lighting is staggering and surreal. This is literally a real-time image.

Another awesome feature that got mentioned are the self-shadows when shooting in dark areas. The theatre of shadows that appear in all their variety reminds me of Stalker's dynamic shadow system during thunder, which looked more like a pattern and less natural, but was really impressive back in the day. Exodus seems to have taken that idea and bring it to 2019.

And then there is the fog. It looks brilliantly, even when it causes framerate drops on consoles.

What more is there to say? Without bragging or
popular.png
to DF, this truly highlights the massive potential of raytraced lighting in games, even when it carries a hefty penalty.

Conclusion:
Metro Exodus is THE benchmark game of choice, a true worthy successor to the venerable Crysis. It took almost 12 years, but 4A has taken over the crown from Crytek, even out beating DICE, a game delivering next gen now on PC, with the additional benefit of pushing consoles to new great heights. The new king in technical rendering, and by that, taking its place in video gaming history.


I think the result would have been much better if the devs were paid to better the graphics without being dictated the techniques and features they were to use. Change my mind.
''Would have been much better''

For being such a negative ninny about RTX, there finally is a game that really puts the visual difference out there and yet you are still making strides that it could be much better?

Some people really are never going to be pleased. Its literally a generational difference and bordering on CGI style rendering but yeah..
 

Alebrije

Member
As a console player do you think PS5 next Xbone could achieve those Metro high PC settings below $400.00 U.S.?
 

Ivellios

Member
There is no denying that Ray Tracing is amazing and this games proves this.

Even without it and on consoles this game is really beatiful
 

VertigoOA

Banned
Yea it looks amazing across the board.

This new DF guy these use for the pc stuff bores me to tears. Rants too much.
 
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Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
As a console player do you think PS5 next Xbone could achieve those Metro high PC settings below $400.00 U.S.?
Well it can already do those PC high equivalent settings on console... video literally says that.

I am just fucking with you although it is true.

I reckon you meant the raytracing stuff. Well that's too little to tell, because we dunno if the next-gen hardware is going to support raytracing, either accelerated or through simulation, so that's a guessing game for now.

But.... Gaf said it was a waste

tenor.gif


I have to take into account that its weekend and thus less people will visit GAF but it is kind of telling that the majority of the naysayers are surprisingly silent now. Its worse when you know that Exodus never hid its RTX looks but i guess it took a release and a DF video before it showed the visual differences.

It's also why i debated so heavily with these people in the first place because it was rather obvious they couldn't see the differences.

Yea it looks amazing across the board.

This new DF guy these use for the pc stuff bores me to tears. Rants too much.
This new DF guy is called Alex Battaglia aka Dictator. Give him a shout at his tweet, or tell him over Discord. Ill be happy to oblige.

Alex is more of the tech jargon than say John or Thomas are and that's definitely noticeable. For PC centric stuff though, its a godsend. Atleast Alex explained how RTX is used in the game.
 

lukilladog

Member
Ok, this was implemented in the last six months of development or so. The art was not crafted for this yet it works great. They wanted to do this, in fact, and jumped on board when they had a chance. It wasn’t a case of being paid off to implement it. Which shouldn’t be a surprise - ray tracing is awesome and these guys are going to be interested in it.

Well I doubt they didn´t jump on board for the paycheck. Anyway, I don´t think that this implementation not handling GI for other light sources like interior lights is a matter of time. It seems they have been working on their own non RT GI methods for years, so they could have used one of those and have GI also for interior light sources and make it available for XboxX and ps4pro, at least for 1080p. It also might have been compatible with HDR, although I´m not sure if it´s broken because of GI or Dlss.

...

''Would have been much better''

For being such a negative ninny about RTX, there finally is a game that really puts the visual difference out there and yet you are still making strides that it could be much better?

Some people really are never going to be pleased. Its literally a generational difference and bordering on CGI style rendering but yeah..

That would be the expected position of a "negative ninny". You are not improving your semantics, it´s annoying to discuss with people like you so I´m not doing it.

Amazing results.


Working in a specific technique or features give always better results because the exclusive tech/feature is already optimized to better results.

You will take take way more time and it won’t reach the pinacle of optimizations with “open” “Cross-hardware” tech.

BTW Ray-tracing is only possible on RTX right now.

But Devs might want to do things that your techniques don´t even cover or are too slow to achieve, like GI from more than one light source for example, I think this would have been possible with a non RT GI solution, which I think they have. Also some of these techniques are breaking HDR and some visual effects, so the game would be better with an alternative method that doesn´t break them? :p
 
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Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
That would be the expected position of a "negative ninny". You are not improving your semantics, it´s annoying to discuss with people like you so I´m not doing it.
Uhuh, never going to be pleased even if it ticks all the boxes.

But Devs might want to do things that your techniques don´t even cover or are too slow to achieve, like GI from more than one light source for example,
GI from more than one bounce has already been achieved this generation, The Tomorrow Children, to name one.

I think this would have been possible with a non RT GI solution, which I think they have. Also some of these techniques are breaking HDR and some visual effects, so the game would be better with an alternative method that doesn´t break them? :p
Try doing this with light probes and SSR. But it does that in the non-RT version. That's how close you are going to get without RT, an approximation.
 

Krappadizzle

Gold Member
Seems to be THE game to really show RTX. Still not enough games to support it to justify buying an RTX card over the 1080ti. But the game is simply stunning for sure.
 
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dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Well I doubt they didn´t jump on board for the paycheck. Anyway, I don´t think that this implementation not handling GI for other light sources like interior lights is a matter of time. It seems they have been working on their own non RT GI methods for years, so they could have used one of those and have GI also for interior light sources and make it available for XboxX and ps4pro, at least for 1080p. It also might have been compatible with HDR, although I´m not sure if it´s broken because of GI or Dlss.
They did, though. They are using their GI solution on consoles and PC (without RTX). What do you think they’re doing?

No rasterized GI solution can match RT, though, because it requires manual placement and tweaking.
 

lukilladog

Member
They did, though. They are using their GI solution on consoles and PC (without RTX). What do you think they’re doing?

No rasterized GI solution can match RT, though, because it requires manual placement and tweaking.

Not real time GI I think.
 
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nikolino840

Member



Summary :

- The PC version of Metro Exodus is described as a real graphic revolution where real-time rendering is taken to the next level.
- The game is a little reminiscent of Crysis in its time when the technique was pushed to its limits.
- The 4A graphics engine has been extensively updated so that Metro Exodus on PC offers the full range of possible graphics and polish effects.
- Super-precise shadows rendering.
- The level of detail is higher than on consoles especially on monsters and animals, a realistic and detailed fur thanks to Nvidia's HairWorks exclusive to the PC version which makes it all very convincing.
- The environments of Metro Exodus are particularly spectacular in this PC version.
- Fantastic materials, fantastic lighting, dense vegetation, deformation for splashes... all with a complete SSR on PC.
- Extensive use of tessellation to round objects such as bricks....
- The game features a brand new lighting and particle shading system similar to Star Citizen, Doom 2016 or Alien Isolation.
- Accelerated particle effects such as the omnipresent volumetric fog... exclusive to PCs thanks to PhysX.
- Metro Exodus uses the DirectX 12 extension of the DXR to use real-time ray tracing to accelerate indirect light "global illumination". Ray tracing provides simply spectacular moments.
- The ray tracing in Metro Exodus effectively simulates light, instead of trying to imitate how it works. This extends to almost all the scenes in the game that have some indirect interaction with the sun or the sky, on this side it is a generational leap.
- The PC version clearly differs from its console counterparts, both in terms of performance and purely visual appearance.
- The X (2160p) and Pro (1440p) versions are equivalent to the PC version in high settings but with HairWorks, PhysX, DXR and Tessellation disabled of course.
- In addition to High, the PC version offers Ultra and Extreme graphics settings.
- For the moment the DLSS implementation is a bit screwy because the image, although more stable and fluid, actually seems more fuzzy than a native 1440p for example.
- Unlike the consoles here, 60fps and more is possible depending on your configuration.
- This is by far the best real-time Ray Tracing implementation DF has seen so far on a PC.

Ray Tracing comparisons (on/off) start at 12:10.

https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2019-metro-exodus-tech-analysis

What kind of pc do you Need for All that stuff?
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Not real time GI I think.
It’s as real-time as possible in this case. Examples of real-time GI without ray tracing are still fairly limited. If anything, the consoles are a huge limiting factor - with drops to 16fps with tearing at points. There isn’t a lot of head room.

RTX came late and the game was developed primarily with the GI they developed.
 

lukilladog

Member
It’s as real-time as possible in this case. Examples of real-time GI without ray tracing are still fairly limited. If anything, the consoles are a huge limiting factor - with drops to 16fps with tearing at points. There isn’t a lot of head room.

RTX came late and the game was developed primarily with the GI they developed.

Real time as possible doesn´t make too much sense.
 

Redneckerz

Those long posts don't cover that red neck boy
They did, though. They are using their GI solution on consoles and PC (without RTX). What do you think they’re doing?

No rasterized GI solution can match RT, though, because it requires manual placement and tweaking.
They are using light probes intermixed with some static lightmaps, no? Lightmaps obviously can handle GI since its pre-baked but light probes are really just about approximating it all.

Not real time GI I think.
It is real time, just not accurate compared to the RTX accelerated lighting.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Real time as possible doesn´t make too much sense.
Sure. They can use probes with light maps or interpolate between different bakes to simulate and allow time of day changes. What are you thinking about?

All of this requires lots of additional setup too.
 
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Starfield

Member
As a console player do you think PS5 next Xbone could achieve those Metro high PC settings below $400.00 U.S.?
Xbox One X is already delivering High settings (or almost), just with no tessellation and nvidia hairworks...which is kinda a shame because it gives the game a much better visual feel, especially Tessellation is so much needed nowadays. Flat textures are just gross and old gen


How do u think a 6600k and gtx970 would fare?
1080p ultra 60fps?
lmao no. I have a 1080 and i7 8700k and play on Extreme @1080p with 40-80fps depending on the area.

If I turn the shader from 1.0 to lets say 1.5 or 2 I lose about 20% in perfomance.

In the desert on day I had around 40-60fps depending on the area.
 
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Shai-Tan

Banned
Great and very detailed analysis although techpower up article suggest RT GI used in metro is limited just to sky lighting.


https://www.techpowerup.com/reviews/Performance_Analysis/Metro_Exodus/4.html

Nice examples with the sliders. One criticism I have about some of the discussion about RTX here and in that article is the use of language like "correct" and "accuracy". Better approximation is closer to the difference. We can agree the lighting is better and that a more simulated model is the way to go but also that it is far from where it could be in the future with more powerful hardware, improved methods, etc.

It's a bit weird to say that some scenes are "accurate" when there is significant distance visually from real behavior of light that wasn't chosen for aesthetic reasons e.g. claims that some overly dark scenes are "accurate" when behavior of photons bouncing around a room from a window would normally create significantly more reflected light not apparent with this method/the amount of samples/whatever

edit: And we haven't even gotten to the role of the observer moving in and out of higher and lower lit zones in view. These current methods seem to assume one view from "nowhere" e.g. looking out a bright window or getting hit a big light shaft would tend to lead to increased acuity for objects out there but not in here. Maybe not so desirable in a game when blinding in transition but some of those dark scenes wouldn't be so dark with adjustment to darker parts of a scene i.e. picking up more "photons"
 
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johntown

Banned
Game looks fantastic! I’m always impressed by this series. Too bad I have to wait a year to play it.

I guess by then I should have an RTX card too so it should actually work out.
 
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stranno

Member
The light model through smoke is absolutely gorgeous, probably the best tech of the entire game as far as i seen (RTX aside).
 

longdi

Banned
The GI raytracing is the next leap in visuals. The difference is like seeing pixel shaders vs no-shaders, PS2 games vs Xbox OG games if you remember the old days. Everything just looks righter with raytraced lighting!
 

Solarstrike

Member
DLSS OFF at Ultra settings, DX12, RTX On/Ultra in 4k looks amazing but I get more fps on my Rubik's Cube. The game looks great however, there's a lot of places with very poor texture work, seemingly rushed.

my PC specs:
i9 9900k Windows 10 64bit, @4.6ghz (OC)
32GB Memory
Nvidia RTX 2080Ti 11gb Founders Edition, driver 418.91

Disk Drives:
Samsung 860 EVO 2TB <-------Metro Exodus installed
Samsung 970 PRO 1TB
WD My Passport external HD 4TB

Display:
ASUS ROG 27in. 4k 144hz GSYNC, Model: PG27UQ
 
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Shifty

Member
Wow, that's a gushing appraisal if ever I saw one. Impressive tech, good to see devs putting RTX to use outside of reflections.
Nice that we have DF to keep the haters in check as well :messenger_winking:

I look forward to experiencing it myself in a year or so.
 

Shin

Banned
A4 magic since the original Metro, doing so much with so little that a lot of others could learn from.
 

KINDERFELD

Banned
RTX implementation seems to be groundbreaking in this game.
Scenes look drastically different with it on and DF has me now watching my 1080ti with great disdain.
 
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