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Digital Foundry - Tech Analysis: Final Fantasy XV Episode Duscae

Incoming graphical downgrade pt 1, pt 2 and then pt 3 before release to get that cinematic 30fps?

Vashetti said:
It never ends.
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I'm not sure if you're complaining about my post, but that's what has been going on a lot lately. Developers show one thing that looks amazing but has a crappy framerate and then they start scaling down the graphics just to get it to run properly. That would be great if this was the exception, but why should it be?

BlazingDarkness said:
Mainline FF games always look amazing, I've no doubt XV will be the same. Hell, XIII is still one of the best looking games from last gen.
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Compare XIII to Lightning Returns and then think about why they look so different.
 
ArchedThunder said:
Of all things it seems like, to me at least, that the biggest thing they wanted to show off with this demo is that the game actually exists and they are dedicated to finishing it.
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Judging from the myriad opinions over on the OT I think there's a lot of extremely valuable feedback that's not solely on the technical side that they can get out of this.
 
However, prior to the launch of the demo, the director of the game cautioned that the build was still in its early stages and does not represent the final level of performance or visual quality planned for the final release. Of course, unlike most demos released in this day and age, Final Fantasy 15 really does have a significant amount of time left in development, making Episode Duscae more of a sneak peak than a typical demo. Keeping that in mind, and always eager to get our hands on a brand new engine, we jumped in to see if the director's warning holds weight.
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Doesn't seem like some people even read the 2nd paragraph. They're pointing out things that need ironing out. I'm pretty sure they'll go back to this article in the future and compare and contrast.

Ultimately, Final Fantasy 15 Episode Duscae is an impressive preview of what's to come, limited only by the unfinished, unoptimised nature of its rendering technology.
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That's what I got out of it. I think people are praying SE won't be "lazy devs" and leave everything as is, and of course want to make "SQUARESOFT IS BACK" praises that people have been eagerly awaiting to say. From what I've played, I like the direction it's heading. The high-quality Square bar is still set for quite a few people who I've seen tweet how they despise the demo.
 
Man, the Xbox version is bringing back memories of the horrific 360 port of FFXIII. It's so far out though that it wouldn't be fair to come to any real conclusions. At the same time, we all knew the PS4 version would be clearly superior.
 
IQ on the demo is terrible, I took it on the Xbox One because it was there earlier on the Xbox Store but I should have go with the PS4 version as always...

The game will improve over the year until the release of the game so we don't have to worry yet ...

I chuckled a little at the : Game needs to be at 1080p from Digital Foundy...

Are you ok Leadbetter lmao ?
 
You've got to give them credit though. The character/enemy graphics and animations are very noticeably "next-gen". They feel incredibly smooth and nuanced, especially the Magitek soldiers and Noctis.

Also that fucking warp mechanic is like a "to the metal" version of Portal's portals. Though it has limits on where it could be used that is the first piece of gameplay I can describe as "next-gen."

I trust Square to deliver. They've made their name as technical juggernauts and this is obviously a very early build.
 
Holy shit, the amount of people who didn't read the actual article on the first page is astounding.

This stuff is plain interesting, is probably why DF comments on it. Luminous engine seems on the whole like a really good next gen engine, they have everything you'd expect baked in there including -gasp- Infamous Second son style GPGPU particle system!? Of course, those particles for the summons defy belief, the pure amount of them flying around, its not something that can be done with those CPU definitely in a normal scenario.

As a demo, the things to improve technically on release are the AF, main resolution and framerate, but those are the expected things that should be rough at this stage. Looks promising for the pS4 version to get there atleast. XB1 isnt so clear...that performance is really rough by comparison even running at below 800p
 
Angel_DvA said:
IQ on the demo is terrible, I took it on the Xbox One because it was there earlier on the Xbox Store but I should have go with the PS4 version as always...

The game will improve over the year until the release of the game so we don't have to worry yet ...

I chuckled a little at the : Game needs to be at 1080p from Digital Foundy...

Are you ok Leadbetter lmao ?
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i got both demos and they are not that far apart. the blurriness of the AA they are using along with the poor texture filtering is what makes them look the way they do.
 
Maztorre said:
You're right, all technical information should be suppressed about this demo. Which Square-Enix not only felt should be released to the public, but charged customers for access to it. So let's not discuss its technical performance because...reasons.

I agree that the demo is basically an alpha but this is exactly what can and should happen when a company releases a demo of an anticipated game that is marketing itself partially on its technical merits.



Actually it's more like an alpha. I realise that nowadays most "demos" are purely hype building exercises for multiplayer games with some server testing thrown in but this game is a long way off.



I know your only agenda is this thread is to defend, defend, defend consoles at any cost, so any attempt at discussion is pointless, but I can only laugh that you think the situations below are comparable:

1) 3rd party developer releases title funded and published by a 1st party developer, exclusive to a single console
2) 3rd party developer releases title developed and published in-house on 2 consoles running on x86-derived architecture

So yeah you're totally right, FFXV is in exactly the same situation as Bloodborne...
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I know the situations are not comparable. Was just showing what he said was proof of nothing.
 
Sanctuary said:
Incoming graphical downgrade pt 1, pt 2 and then pt 3 before release to get that cinematic 30fps?



I'm not sure if you're complaining about my post, but that's what has been going on a lot lately. Developers show one thing that looks amazing but has a crappy framerate and then they start scaling down the graphics just to get it to run properly. That would be great if this was the exception, but why should it be?



Compare XIII to Lightning Returns and then think about why they look so different.
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The budget on LR was probably one tenth as much. The open area in FFXIII was pretty big anyway. With this game, there is no way they will downgrade the visuals from what we have here. This is the roughest the game will look and many of things on the engine seemed tuned down. I think it will look a good deal better closer to release. On both platforms.
 
My demo is downloading but i got a question

Does the demo not look as good as the trailers that showed the same area before? Because I thought it looked amazing
 
"Sounds like an unfinished game" it IS an unfinished game, by about a year or more. Jesus some people, and this is probably already an old build

Lovely Salsa said:
My demo is downloading but i got a question

Does the demo not look as good as the trailers that showed the same area before? Because I thought it looked amazing
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It looks fine. If you've seen the gameplay footage of them in the car, its the same sub FHD aliased area of the world. Its definitely the same
 
What matters is the fun part, resolution doesn't matter. Stick to 1600x900.

;)


For the people asking why they are analyzing an unfinished game, this isn't news, they did that with Battlefield 4+Hardline too.
 
All technical issues aside... this game is stunning.

It really needs some AF and either a higher resolution or better AA solution. But asset diversity, the realistic SSS, and cloud simulation are very very impressive.
 
Vashetti said:
Just finished reading the whole thing, and it sounds like they have a mammoth task getting the XB1 version up to scratch.

It's clear that the PS4 is the main platform and will be the best version on final release.
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I thought the PC wa s the main platform and it's being ported to consoles. They just don't know of they want to release it on the platform or not.
 
Based of off this I'm expecting the final game to be 1080p on PS4 and 900p on Xbox One.

I hope both version will eventually reach a solid 30fps though.
 
They rushed out a demo that was scheduled for the summer for a game that isnt releasing in the next twelve months. I can understand the roughness.
 
Lovely Salsa said:
My demo is downloading but i got a question

Does the demo not look as good as the trailers that showed the same area before? Because I thought it looked amazing
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It does but it doesn't. It's rough but gorgeous. I don't know how else to explain it, but it looks decent to me. Not sure if you saw the "FFXV stage event" demo of the characters standing around while the camera is manually moved. (It's on YouTube) The video wasn't completely smooth and clear, but the animations and style made it look good. It pretty much looks just like that, maybe a bit more clear? If you think the video looks amazing then the demo won't disappoint.
 
LordOcidax said:
How you know is an Alpha? this game have a loooot of time in dev....
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Squidward_headdesk.gif
 
LordOcidax said:
How you know is an Alpha? this game have a loooot of time in dev....
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The game started development on the current generation in 2012, so it hasn't been that long. The engine that is being used for the game still hasn't been finished yet. The game ships with version 1.5 of the Luminious Engine while Final game will ship with likely a more advanced version of the same engine.

Kezen said:
This looks absolutely disgusting.

IQ is beyond poor as well.

What a mess.
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jennifer-lawrence-10.gif
 
Z3M0G said:
This is alpha level code, or earlier... DF shouldnt even have touched this. But they do it for the clicks.
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Anything the company puts out to the public--especially as a pre-order incentive for a $60 game--absolutely deserves to be analyzed. Especially in XV's case, seeing as this is the first time the public has had access to the game since it was announced 9 years ago.
 
Chittagong said:
Square just shot themselves in the foot.

I don't know how much the rest of you know about Japanese culture (I'm an expert), but honor and shame are huge parts of it. It's not like it is in America where you can become successful by being an asshole. If you screw someone over in Japan, you bring shame to yourself, and the only way to get rid of that shame is repentance.

What this means is the japanese public, after hearing about this, is not going to want to purchase FFXV for either system, nor will they purchase any of Square's games. This is HUGE. You can laugh all you want, but Square has alienated an entire market with this move.

Square, publicly apologize and cancel FFXV Episode Duscae or you can kiss your business goodbye.
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Holy sh** this is funny
 
In all seriousness though this game is still 18 months or so before release. I'm surprised SE put out something so early and it's clear they're favoring the platform the vast majority of sales will be on - which is nothing new for them or other publishers.
 
Interesting read.

My main take away from the demo was also the animations. They really are great.

Should be reall something by the time it releases.
 
I would prefer them keeping the resolution a but low of it means a more stable and higher framerate. I can do with lower resolution but framerate drops are way more frustrating.
 
Kagari said:
In all seriousness though this game is still 18 months or so before release. I'm surprised SE put out something so early and it's clear they're favoring the platform the vast majority of sales will be on - which is nothing new for them or other publishers.
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But.. But..its so disgusting. /s

I agree, people getting worked up over nothing.
 
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