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Digital Foundry Face-Off: Rise of the Tomb Raider on Xbox 360

Ultralow

Banned
Thats a nice write up but after playing both versions no way i would buy the xbox 360 vers its just that a downport with all the shine knocked off...
 

Dibils2k

Member
it looks generation apart, any high LOD is gone from 360. it looks inline with other 360 games which is good, they didnt go down the blops 3 way where the 360 version looks pathetic lol

X1 Input lag is disappointing though
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
So which is it?
It can be both, you know. It's *NOT* an insult or a put-down.

It's an evolution.

The thing is, I prefer it that way. I actually tend to enjoy games that stick to classic formulas more than those that innovate for innovations sake.

What they did NOT hold back on, however, were the visuals. It's clear that CD's vision for the game's presentation was not limited by Xbox 360.

Gameplay wise, this is rooted in Tomb Raider 2013 - and that's OK.

Presentation wise (on XO), it's a big step up
 

Bioshocker

Member
I'm very impressed with the 360 version. It's cool to see what a 10 year old console can still do.

Still buying the Xbox One version, though.
 
The pecularities between versions are pretty darn interesting. The fact that the xb360 does not have all that specular aliasing everywhere makes it look suitably clean for a last gen game if one uses the xb1 version as a direct comparison. Pretty awesome.

Fantastic video and article as well.

I wonder what in the hell is going on with input latency though.
 

GHG

Member
Think I'll get this one for the 360 instead of the Xbox One then - I prefer the controller and user interface.
 
I thought the aiming was a bit muddy on XBO, it's difficult to be precise with quick movements in close quarters. That's been one of my complaints for the game, but I kinda figured it was just me being bad at it. I guess the input lag must be at least partially to blame here.

Hopefully they'll patch the input lag as soon as possible. I'd love to be able to feel the difference before I finish my playthrough.
 

Bliddo

Member
Yeah the input lag is massive on xbone, I really hope they fix it soon because the rest of the game is amazing.
 

Jawmuncher

Member
Even if you get ROTTR on Xbox one it's still worth playing. The input lag you're seeing isn't going to impact your playthrough.
 

dark10x

Digital Foundry pixel pusher
Even if you get ROTTR on Xbox one it's still worth playing. The input lag you're seeing isn't going to impact your playthrough.
Yeah, I don't think it ruins the game or anything, but it definitely has an impact. The combat just doesn't feel crisp as a result. I'd like to use the bow and arrow or pistol more, but it's more difficult and twitchy to line up shots. I've become somewhat used to it, but it doesn't feel good. Once I got the shotgun, I ended up using that like crazy just because of the wider spread.

Thankfully, you can stealth through many sections (which also keeps the frame-rate up) and the game isn't too heavily focused on combat to begin with.

It was just surprising to me when I first engaged in combat on 360 and was like, wow, this feels totally different.
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
Nixxes is better than CD, IMO, and their results have always been better. Obviously their job here is dramatically different but they are wizards.
 

Green Yoshi

Member
In fact, Rise of the Tomb Raider feels significantly more responsive here on Xbox 360. Pulling off headshots and manipulating the camera is a joy and the entire game feels more satisfying to play.

WTF? Latency is a design choice, right?

Looking forward to pick it up next month. Will be my last Xbox 360 game, because I bought a PS4 this month.
 
I am playing the 360 version of Rise of the Tomb Raider now. I actually just paused it to check GAF.

It's seriously great! If you want to play this game but don't want to wait on a PS4/PC port, it honestly plays perfectly and is a ton of fun. Don't feel bad to buy it now and maybe buy the PC version 75% off on a steam sale.
 

Dunkley

Member
It's interesting to see a current to last gen port get so much attention that it feels like it's pushing both respective platforms.
 
Either I'm blind or naive, but that doesn't look 10x more powerful to me. Looks identical minus fancy lighting, bloom, and motion blur.

240 GF GPU vs ~1.3 TF GPU. Not really 10x on the GPU front necessarily.

Also, you have to consider the cost of rendering at a higher resolution... and all those "fancy" things you mention are actually significant and expensive.
 

twobear

sputum-flecked apoplexy
Either I'm blind or naive, but that doesn't look 10x more powerful to me. Looks identical minus fancy lighting, bloom, and motion blur.

'looks identical minus these missing effects'

well, in all seriousness, those are the biggest changes this generation compared with the last one, the shader power of the consoles lets you do fancy lighting, bloom, and motion blur
 

Kezen

Banned
Either I'm blind or naive, but that doesn't look 10x more powerful to me. Looks identical minus fancy lighting, bloom, and motion blur.

Well it is possible that they had to maintain down portability with the 360 version, which could have limited them.
Then, there are also diminishing returns.
 

dEvAnGeL

Member
significantly more input lag on the xbox one as said by dark10x, why? is it a coding problem? is it a hardware problem? can it be fixed with a patch?
 

SilentRob

Member
Nixxes is better than CD, IMO, and their results have always been better. Obviously their job here is dramatically different but they are wizards.

What do you mean by that, "Nixxes is better"? They are only working on technical aspects of an already developed game and porting it to another console, This is a huge task and they deserve all the respect in the world for the great work they did with the 360 version of this game, but comparing it to building and developing a game from the ground up, including storytelling, gameplay mechanics and it's own engine seems silly to me, especiall with such a black/white statement like "A is better than B".
 

big_z

Member
has CD said if a patch for the lag is coming or at least mentioned they are looking into it?


significantly more input lag on the xbox one as said by dark10x, why? is it a coding problem? is it a hardware problem? can it be fixed with a patch?

it can be patched, other games in the past have had lag issue and got fixed.
 
Did they drop PBR from the 360 version?

pabst_blowup.jpg
 

Kezen

Banned
Watching now, great work from Nixxes!

I think TressFX/HairWorks is one of my favourite visual features tbh.

I prefer Tressfx to be honest. Geralt's hair looks more "plausible" with Hairworks but the shading is not as good, although that could be due to the difference in color. White hair must be more challenging to render (self-shadowing, transparencies and the likes) while brown hair could look better with less going on.

Lara's hair looks great in all situation in ROTTR, regardless of how the hair is lit.
IWScoTC.jpg

x4QGOnV.jpg
 

Y2Kev

TLG Fan Caretaker Est. 2009
What do you mean by that, "Nixxes is better"? They are only working on technical aspects of an already developed game and porting it to another console, This is a huge task and they deserve all the respect in the world for the great work they did with the 360 version of this game, but comparing it to building and developing a game from the ground up, including storytelling, gameplay mechanics and it's own engine seems silly to me, especiall with such a black/white statement like "A is better than B".

Nixxes' technical work has always been more impressive than CD's on their own games. It's not like CD's artists and animators are under the hood with the programmers; Nixxes' own programmers have always had better results than CD's using their own assets.

Why would I talk about storytelling or gameplay mechanics in a DF thread?
 
I prefer Tressfx to be honest. Geralt's hair looks more "plausible" with Hairworks but the shading is not as good, although that could be due to the difference in color. White hair must be more challenging to render (self-shadowing, transparencies and the likes) while brown hair could look better with less going on.

Lara's hair looks great in all situation in ROTTR, regardless of how the hair is lit.
IWScoTC.jpg

x4QGOnV.jpg
Same, I prefer TressFX too but if HairWorks is the only option I still take that over normal hair. :) also TressFX seems incredibly well optimised seeing how well it works in the XB1 version of this - compare that to the TressFX that debuted in the PC version of TR2013 and there's clearly a lot of work gone into optimisation. The simulation was cut back quite a bit for TRDE but comparing TR2013 PC's TressFX to ROTTR XB1's TressFX shows how far they've come in maintaining a lot of the simulation with less of a performance cost.
 

OsirisBlack

Banned
This is pretty interesting actually so Graphically XB1 > than 360 but 360> XB1 when it comes to Control. How does this happen and will the latency issue be addressed?
 

Cleve

Member
I'm loving the game so far but I hope they do get a chance to address the input lag. It's pretty bad. While it doesn't affect normal gameplay, it is much harder to land headshots than is should be, and those reward bonus xp/combo.
 

Kezen

Banned
Same, I prefer TressFX too but if HairWorks is the only option I still take that over normal hair. :) also TressFX seems incredibly well optimised seeing how well it works in the XB1 version of this - compare that to the TressFX that debuted in the PC version of TR2013 and there's clearly a lot of work gone into optimisation. The simulation was cut back quite a bit for TRDE but comparing TR2013 PC's TressFX to ROTTR XB1's TressFX shows how far they've come in maintaining a lot of the simulation with less of a performance cost.

Well the first Tressfx had no LOD at all, regardless of the distance between you and the camera the workload was the same. On top of that they have substantially optimized various components. TressFX 1.0 which shipped with TR2013 was a brute force approach, just to put TressFX on the map.
apu14-tressfx-5.jpg

apu14-tressfx-7.jpg


ROTTR and Deus Ex MD use TressFX 3.0 which can also be applied to fur.
 

SmokedMeat

Gamer™
Man, some people already taking this article to be a slight against Xbox One (not here). I do not understand.

What would you expect from GAF?

The Bone version's the best looking game I've ever seen. Nice to see this port wasn't a cash in.
 
Well the first Tressfx had no LOD at all, regardless of the distance between you and the camera the workload was the same. On top of that they have substantially optimized various components. TressFX 1.0 which shipped with TR2013 was a brute force approach, just to put TressFX on the map.
apu14-tressfx-5.jpg

apu14-tressfx-7.jpg


ROTTR and Deus Ex MD use TressFX 3.0 which can also be applied to fur.
I wonder how extensively it'll be used on consoles for MD.
 
The second video has a very low audio bitrate in the beginning sadly.

ROTTR and Deus Ex MD use TressFX 3.0 which can also be applied to fur.
http://amd-dev.wpengine.netdna-cdn....in-Deus-Ex-Universe-Projects-TressFX-3.0.ppsx
(power point format)
The biggest performance improvements in 3.0 come from master/slave strand skinning and hair LoD.
Master to slave strands skinning (also in TressFX 3.0)
  • Much less strands to simulate
  • Allows shape preserving LODs
  • Prevents simulation from breaking too much the haircut (from gravity & displacements)
msbnsto.png

Shape preserving LODs:
  • Progressively reduce the number of strands within each wisp while increasing each strand width.
  • Since LOD is applied per wisp, the overall shape is preserved.
lodjxsy4.png

Whereas previous updates have been mostly focuses on perf, TressFX 3.0 is a larger update. It’s a big update that we hope will be exciting and useful to game developers

hairworks1n3q2k.png

Lightning + AA only, + Volumetric shadows, + Transparency
Hair shading (good lighting) using Marschner dual highlight approach and Kajiya-Kay lighting model. AA is not hardware MSAA. Calculate coverage in pixel shader and convert to alpha value. Simplified Deep Shadow Map technique. Order-independent transparency (OIT) using a per-pixel linked list (PPLL)
 
It's still weird to me that a $60 release would come out on last gen when the new console bundle itself will be $300 with all sorts of incentives in a week. Whoever's clamoring for this (amazing) port could probably easily jump to next gen if they saved for a little while.

It's understandable if you have a 360 and PS4/PC or something, but even then I would just wait for the "GotY" version next year on those systems anyways...
 

Pachinko

Member
How much more powerful is the Xbox one compared to the 360? Game looks great on the 360.

The CPU is roughly the same(but uses far less power and produces way less heat), the GPU is 5 times more powerful but most importantly it has 16 times the memory and the frame buffer is 3 times larger.

So you can see the obvious differences showcased by DF here- 1080p versus 720p (that's twice as many pixels being drawn), almost all of the special effects are turned off on the 360 because they'd tax the GPU to much , the textures are being displayed at 25% or less the resolution they are on XB1 , world geometry is mostly unnaffected but the world detail/clutter level has been rebuilt and most (sometimes all) of the clutter/debris is missing entirely on the 360. The tressFX is a pretty big difference that requires a ton of power (just based on the PC versions performance).

The only areas where it improves on the xb1 edition are the anisiotropic filtering (which has trouble co-operating with tesselation and normal mapping in some cases and since the 360 release has both largely turned off, it's easier to use here) and by having all the other special effects turned off, there was room to add in some FXAA to smooth over the jaggies a bit. The xbox one appears to have no AA at all , CD probably hoped the motion blur would cover it up in most cases.

I wonder if the input lag issue is caused by a sloppily implemented post process effect perhaps ? It's not a big problem for me because most of the combat can be dealt with through stealth or making one good shot at environmental hazzards.

Either way, Nixxes did some impressive stuff here.
 

jelly

Member
Very impressive. Hope it gets some good sales on 360. Looks and performs great. Nice one devs, give them more jobs!
 
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