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[Kleegamefan]

Anyone remember this thing?:

Durango/Xb1 was/is criticized for being underpowered hardware compared to the cheaper (at the time) PS4. Proponents of the Xbox One would counter it was unfair to compare xbone and PS4 on paper because XB1 had specialized hardware that could offload some of the heavy lifting and so is more comparable to PS4 in the real world.

A big source of the XB1 "secret sauce" was said to be the SHAPE chip......bespoke hardware for audio instead of a more powerful APU with more compute units.


But....

What examples do we have of games audio on XB1 that is objectively superior to PS4?
Anything out there head and shoulders beyond the rest?
Night and day differences between multiplatform games like COD:AW, Far Cry 4 or Destiny?

We got weaker hardware, was the payoff worth it?

 

[heyitsphil]

I haven't noticed any significant differences.

 

[Sinfamy]

We got weaker hardware, was the payoff worth it?

No, and never will be.

 

[Terbinator]

A big source of the XB1 "secret sauce" was said to be the SHAPE chip......bespoke hardware for audio instead of a more powerful APU with more compute units.

I don't think anyone actually said or believed this.

As for audio, it's unlikely the vast majority of people would be able to discern any difference as most people are using stock sound hardware and headphones.

 

[Kleegamefan]

The two game systems share 80% of their game library via multiplats......are there any websites out there that do head to head PS4/XB1 comparison on game audio?

 

[Noobcraft]

Halo 4 in the MCC has some awesome sound/reverb in multiplayer. I haven't been blown away by much in terms of sound but Forza 5 also has some awesome sound effects.

I have no idea if they're utilizing that hardware though.

 

[Kleegamefan]

I don't think anyone actually said or believed this.

I disagree.....plenty of posters were saying this during the Durango days (misterxmedia, anyone) and fueled heated console warrior battles on gaf quite a bit...


Dark days, those....

 

[migh_and_highty]

I aint techy but doesn't ps4 have a dedicated audio chip too?
Plus I don't think it'd make a huge difference

 

[Kleegamefan]

Halo 4 in the MCC has some awesome sound/reverb in multiplayer. I haven't been blown away by much in terms of sound but Forza 5 also has some awesome sound effects.

I have no idea if they're utilizing that hardware though.

Haven't played MCC yet, but yes, Forza 5 has awesome sound. Problem is, F5 is a first party game, and so it is difficult to objectively compare it to a non-existing PS4 version of the game.

There are tons and tons of mulitplatform games on both systems and while I have both consoles, I don't own an XB1 and a PS4 version of the same game, so I can't compare it myself.

I do own a high end audio system, and so I was considering buying the XB1 version of Advanced Warfare and giving an audio review, comparing it to my PS4 copy

 

[JP]

I'm not sure the SHAPE chip was any more of advantage for the Xbox than the TrueAudio chip was for the PS4. I don't know if we'll ever get a proper head to head of the two systems but the real benefits of both chips lie mainly in the fact that if they weren't there the CPU would have to do the work.

 

[Cavalier]

I aint techy but doesn't ps4 have a dedicated audio chip too?
Plus I don't think it'd make a huge difference

PS4's got AMD's True Audio DSP chip

 

[JaggedSac]

I don't think the end consumer would notice any difference in audio. The chip merely provides a solution to alleviate CPU usage.

 

[mintylurb]

I disagree.....plenty of posters were saying this during the Durango days (misterxmedia, anyone) and fueled heated console warrior battles on gaf quite a bit...


Dark days, those....

We can start from here. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=84735541#post84735541

 

[Pimpbaa]

Doesn't the xb1, ps4, and AMD video cards use Tensilica DSP cores (TrueAudio)? Probably pretty much the same except for some minor tweaks. And probably why there isn't much difference in audio in both systems.

 

[Hellshy.]

Anyone remember this thing?:

Durango/Xb1 was/is criticized for being underpowered hardware compared to the cheaper (at the time) PS4. Proponents of the Xbox One would counter it was unfair to compare xbone and PS4 on paper because XB1 had specialized hardware that could offload some of the heavy lifting and so is more comparable to PS3 in the real world.

A big source of the XB1 "secret sauce" was said to be the SHAPE chip......bespoke hardware for audio instead of a more powerful APU with more compute units.


But....

What examples do we have of games audio on XB1 that is objectively superior to PS4?
Anything out there head and shoulders beyond the rest?
Night and day differences between multiplatform games like COD:AW, Far Cry 4 or Destiny?

We got weaker hardware, was the payoff worth it?

And one could argue ps4 has even more custom hardware then xb1 to offload heavy lifting Or does true audio chip and a secons cpu with ita own ram dedicates to background tasks not count? Then there is all the gpu customizations done to help The main cpu .

 

[Dazza]

I don't think the Xbox One has any advantage of the PS4 audio processing in the first place. And even if it did I don't know if the media and general consumer would notice it. The PS3 has vastly better sound than the Xbox 360 yet I never saw any mention of this fact in media or reviews and only a few times in forums and those were audio enthusiast forums

 

[Kleegamefan]

We can start from here. http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?p=84735541#post84735541

*shudder*

 

[ekgrey]

And one could argue ps4 has even more custom hardware then xb1 to offload heavy lifting Or does true audio chip and a secons cpu with ita own ram dedicates to background tasks not count? Then there is all the gpu customizations done to help The main cpu .

...what?

edit: nevermind, sorry. couldn't make sense of that at first. i'm not great at reading mobilese.

 

[Kleegamefan]

Judging by the responses, I guess the answer to my question is.....

No, there are no websites offering objective comparisons between Xbox One audio and PS4 audio in games.


If I had the time, I would do it myself, but alas, I am always working and barely have enough time to play my monsterous backlog of games as it is

 

[onQ123]

It did a good job at making die hard fans feel as through there was an big advantage in the Xbox One's audio processing & that it was going to help make up for the weaker GPU.

 

[Kinthalis]

The PS4 also has a DSP chip - well, they both should be able to use it for in engine audio effects, not just processing on top of the final audio.

They should be capable of hardware accellerated reverb, sound dampening, much larger number of audio sources, pinpoint 3D audio positioning (virtual or what have you).

Modern AMD cards also feature this type of audio processing capability, but I don't know of any games that specifically say they are using these hardware features.

 

[Kleegamefan]

It did a good job at making die hard fans feel as through there was an big advantage in the Xbox One's audio processing & that it was going to help make up for the weaker GPU.

I truly believe that this was a great contributor of the current tension between PS fans and XB1 fans on this forum, as we were led (by the nose) to believe there wouldn't be a significant performance delta between the two consoles....

We now know how that all turned out....

 

[Duxxy3]

I noticed at least a 30% improvement over the audio quality in my PS4.

Spoiler

No difference actually. Sound is the least improved part of the generation.

 

[wachie]

As far as I remember "SHAPE" is nothing but the TrueAudio DSP with a few more functions, If the PS4 didn't have the TrueAudio DSP, maybe there was an outlier of chance but that's not the case.

 

[Rotzetool]

It will totally make cortana sound awesome while I fiddle on her using hololens and kinect...

But seriously isn't this chip the same as ps4s true audio thing only with dedicated speech recognition/kinect wizardry hardware?

 

[DagnastyEp]

Interesting article with a middleware audio company that has worked on PS4 and Xbox One.

http://gamingbolt.com/audiokinectic...next-gen-audio-solutions-for-ps4-and-xbox-one

Rashid Sayed: The PS4 does not have an on board audio processor but the Xbox One has one. Does this impose any kind of limitations when developing the tool for the PS4 version?

Mike Drummelsmith: Not really. Having extra hardware is nice, since it makes some things ‘free’ from a performance standpoint. However, extra hardware can also add complexity into the mix that makes it more difficult to diagnose issues and maintain full control over your audio pipeline. As soon as you hand off something to a dedicated processor and say ‘do something with this’, you’re pretty much bound to whatever that processor does! Both Xbox One and PS4 have each presented their own challenges and benefits, but we’re nicely on top of each (and we have a ton of current-gen games in development, running the gamut from small indies to massive AAA titles)

 

[Terbinator]

No, there are no websites offering objective comparisons between Xbox One audio and PS4 audio in games.

That's because unless there's a specific implementation of some effect or similar, there won't be any difference. Both consoles output the same sound formats AFAIK and so the objective measure is nil on that front.

This doesn't mean to say that SHAPE may not be better, faster, stronger (lol) than what's in the PS4, but for the end-user it doesn't really matter as most people are going to be listening in stereo anyway. The other way to look at it could be the 'EQ' audio options on offer from within games (specifically thinking of TLoU:R here), but again, that's 1st party (and not necessarily hardware related) but you could possibly extrapolate from that a trend of 'Sony's games generally have more audio options therefore tend to be better on the audio front...'.

FWIW, DigitalFoundry did leave a note at the end of their gen7 face-offs about the sound advantage on Sony's box.

 

[JaggedSac]

Judging by the responses, I guess the answer to my question is.....

No, there are no websites offering objective comparisons between Xbox One audio and PS4 audio in games.


If I had the time, I would do it myself, but alas, I am always working and barely have enough time to play my monsterous backlog of games as it is

I recall reading something on Beyond3D regarding some audio middleware that mentioned SHAPE and such.

 

[On Demand]

I don't know what significant differences it has made compared to PS4. Doesn't the PS4 use True Audio?

 

[ocean]

I thought that component was to ease the load caused by Kinect voice recognition though, not to increase audio quality.

 

[JP]

That's because unless there's a specific implementation of some effect or similar, there won't be any difference. Both consoles output the same sound formats AFAIK and so the objective measure is nil on that front.

This doesn't mean to say that SHAPE may not be better, faster, stronger (lol) than what's in the PS4, but for the end-user it doesn't really matter as most people are going to be listening in stereo anyway. The other way to look at it could be the 'EQ' audio options on offer from within games (specifically thinking of TLoU:R here), but again, that's 1st party (and not necessarily hardware related) but you could possibly extrapolate from that a trend of 'Sony's games generally have more audio options therefore tend to be better on the audio front...'.

FWIW, DigitalFoundry did leave a note at the end of their gen7 face-offs about the sound advantage on Sony's box.

This has always been important to me and I think it's something that too many games don't bother with. I hate going into an audio menu and only finding a single slider labelled as "volume" because I know that the chances are the sound stage will have been really poor;y balanced for my particular setup. I then get a whole game of poorly balanced audio where something inevitable overpowers everything else.

I was half hoping to get a system wide setting in the options of the PS4 & Xbox where I could set it up correctly in the way that you could with the controller setup on the 360. The system wide controller should be in both the new consoles two but this thread isn't really the place for that.

 

[Pimpbaa]

That's because unless there's a specific implementation of some effect or similar, there won't be any difference. Both consoles output the same sound formats AFAIK and so the objective measure is nil on that front.

This doesn't mean to say that SHAPE may not be better, faster, stronger (lol) than what's in the PS4, but for the end-user it doesn't really matter as most people are going to be listening in stereo anyway. The other way to look at it could be the 'EQ' audio options on offer from within games (specifically thinking of TLoU:R here), but again, that's 1st party (and not necessarily hardware related) but you could possibly extrapolate from that a trend of 'Sony's games generally have more audio options therefore tend to be better on the audio front...'.

FWIW, DigitalFoundry did leave a note at the end of their gen7 face-offs about the sound advantage on Sony's box.

Doesn't help that Microsoft's own headset for the XB1 is only stereo and has terrible sound quality (that could be entirely the fault of the stereo headset adaptor for the controller). You have to get far more expensive 3rd party headsets to get simulated surround sound on the XB1. Whereas even the first headset Sony put out for the ps3 has simulated surround sound and works with the ps4 not to mention vastly better sound.

 

[Terbinator]

Doesn't help that Microsoft's own headset for the XB1 is only stereo and has terrible sound quality (that could be entirely the fault of the stereo headset adaptor for the controller).

Erm what? I disagree entirely that it's terrible sound quality and it only supporting stereo is preferable for me personally.

You have to get far more expensive 3rd party headsets to get simulated surround sound on the XB1. Whereas even the first headset Sony put out for the ps3 has simulated surround sound and works with the ps4 not to mention vastly better sound.

Again the simulation aspect isn't in anyway objective. For £40 the MS headset is awesome, IMO.

 

[LordOfChaos]

A big source of the XB1 "secret sauce" was said to be the SHAPE chip......bespoke hardware for audio instead of a more powerful APU with more compute units.

The other consoles have DSPs too you know, both the PS4 and Wii U. The PS4 iirc is able to handle less simultaneous sounds than the XBO, but there may be a point of diminishing returns with that in current game design, how much can you listen to at once.

So it's not like the XBO can offload sound and the PS4 cannot. They both do, the XBO just has a bit more powerful of a DSP, but that doesn't mean it always matters in games.

 

[gimmmick]

Emotion engine talk for this generation.

 

[Kleegamefan]

I thought that component was to ease the load caused by Kinect voice recognition though, not to increase audio quality.

That might be the case, but it was astroturfed as something more than that on this and other forums, IMO....

 

[El-Pistolero]

It did a good job at making die hard fans feel as through there was an big advantage in the Xbox One's audio processing & that it was going to help make up for the weaker GPU.

It might be that the names MS used in its documents to label otherwise known components simply lead some readers into thinking those components were some exotic, never seen before parts.

 

[LiquidSolid]

The other consoles have DSPs too you know, both the PS4 and Wii U. The PS4 iirc is able to handle less simultaneous sounds than the XBO, but there may be a point of diminishing returns with that in current game design, how much can you listen to at once.

So it's not like the XBO can offload sound and the PS4 cannot. They both do, the XBO just has a bit more powerful of a DSP, but that doesn't mean it always matters in games.

And the only reason why it had a more powerful DSP is because they needed the extra processing power for the Kinect. From what I remember, it's the chip that processes the voice commands.

OP clearly bought into the misterXmedia deluded crazy. Poor guy.

 

[Brad Grenz]

Most of the extra audio hardware in the Xbox One Compared to the PS4 is dedicated to processing speech recognition from Kinect. It offers little advantage over the ps4 solution for game audio.

 

[Pimpbaa]

Erm what? I disagree entirely that it's terrible sound quality and it only supporting stereo is preferable for me personally.

Again the simulation aspect isn't in anyway objective. For £40 the MS headset is awesome, IMO.

For over the ear headphones they are terrible. I've had cheaper regular on ear headphones that have sounded better. Hell even the cheap Playstation Vita branded ear buds I got sound better. Maybe I need to break them in or something (or the fault of the stereo headset adaptor), but they are probably the most tinny sounding headphones of this type that I've ever had. About the only good thing I can say about them are they are comfortable and they are good at blocking outside sound.

 

[Kleegamefan]

Most of the extra audio hardware in the Xbox One Compared to the PS4 is dedicated to processing speech recognition from Kinect. It offers little advantage over the ps4 solution for game audio.

You are a game developer, correct?

 

[Jessie.Bristol]

Halo 4 in the MCC has some awesome sound/reverb in multiplayer. I haven't been blown away by much in terms of sound but Forza 5 also has some awesome sound effects.

I have no idea if they're utilizing that hardware though.

One of the first things I noticed was how amazing the sound was. With how you hear gunfire outside of a room as opposed to inside, as well as footsteps. Halo 4 definitely has some amazing sound design (haven't played SP in TMCC yet) on Xbox One.

 

[bobbytkc]

Lets face it, it was just a desperate attempt by certain xbox enthusiasts to convince themselves the xb1 is somehow not weaker than the ps4

 

[Shin-Ra]

I disagree.....plenty of posters were saying this during the Durango days (misterxmedia, anyone) and fueled heated console warrior battles on gaf quite a bit...


Dark days, those....

It died off pretty much immediately after this thread:

http://www.neogaf.com/forum/showthread.php?t=715035

edit: which you posted in. Some good Jeff Rigby stuff there too. ;P

 

[StoOgE]

I truly believe that this was a great contributor of the current tension between PS fans and XB1 fans on this forum, as we were led (by the nose) to believe there wouldn't be a significant performance delta between the two consoles....

We now know how that all turned out....

I'm sure passive aggressive threads calling people out isn't contributing To tension at all.

 

[Kleegamefan]

I'm sure passive aggressive threads calling people out isn't contributing To tension at all.

Duly noted

 

[AgentP]

This is so 2014 secret sauce, its all DX12 now....