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Call For Questions For DF Direct Weekly #203! (Patreon)

Published:
2025-02-27 15:49:57
Edited:
2025-02-28 17:46:46
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

UPDATE: Hi everyone, Rich here. Because of a family situation that kinda came out of nowhere, it was not possible for us to record DF Direct Weekly today. Instead, we will be convening tomorrow morning to 'tape' the show and I would expect early access to occur on Sunday instead. Apologies for this, but it does mean you have extra time to post any questions and comments - it'll be me, Oliver and John on the panel and deadline for questions will be 8am GMT Saturday morning.

Original Post: Hi there, it's time for us to call upon you - our wonderful Supporters - to embellish and embolden the content for tomorrow's filming of DF Direct Weekly #203. It's gonna be a tricky one. Typically we film first thing in the morning, but I'm not available and anyway... it's all about the RDNA 4 reveal at 1pm GMT. So we're going to need to figure out how we get this show done. No idea on the panel yet, but I'd like to be involved at least for the RDNA 4 stuff!

Other topics for the show? We'll be discussing the delay of Fable into 2026, we'll be sharing a likely mix of bemusement and bafflement about "the ROPs situation" with RTX 50-series while John gets quietly (or not so quietly) excited about the nigh-on certainty of a Tony Hawk Pro Skater 3+4 release. Also, what to make of the news that PS5 Pro is losing momentum in like-for-like sales vs PS4 Pro? We'll also be talking about the recent Sonic Racing: Crosswinds beta.

Any more news topics we should be covering? Like Satya Nadalla's thoughts on generative AI gaming and COD using generative AI-derived assets? Or anything else for that matter. Please supply your suggestions only with a battery of probing questions for the Supporter Q+A section. Many thanks!

Files

Comments

Nuwa

I am quite excited for Strix Halo to appear onto Desktop PCs at 120watts, from observations and napkin math from RDNA 3 > 3.5, I believe that 8050s should possibly beat an RX 7600 and a 8060s should match a 4060ti at 120 watts, do you guys think this is probable?

Julián Oroza

Hola Ricardo! Do any of the DLSS alternatives, like PSSR or FSR 4, stand a chance without ray reconstruction? In a world of increasing RT extravaganza, I feel like this is an essential feature, considering that every game needs to enable upscaling for high RT workloads.

Macky Dee

With Monolith now tragically dismantled by WB, do you think we'll ever get the fabled official rerelease of No One Lives Forever? Seems to be a Nightdive dream project, but one perpetually stuck in rights limbo. Is this one destined to only be preserved by fans?

Having an AI-neurysm

Thoughts on PS VR2 now it has crossed the two-year mark? With the upcoming MSRP reduction to $399, is it worth buying 2025 or is that money better spent investing into the Quest ecosystem instead? (Price note: PS VR2 been on *sale* for as low as $349 previously, but presumably this official MSRP reduction will result in even lower sale prices when those eventually happen)

Marcus

Hey Foundrymen! We just had the Pokémon Presents showcase, and there’s already speculation about whether the footage of Pokémon Legends ZA is running on Switch 2 hardware. Personally, I’m skeptical, but I’d love to hear your analysis. How does the game look overall from a technical perspective, and do you see any indications that it might be running on next-gen hardware rather than the current Switch?

Peter Karadimas

Should we expect the transformer model of DLSS to iteratively improve at the same rate that the CNN model has over the last few years? Or has will DLSS start to hit hard limits on what upscaling can do.

Pol Kallamata

What do you make of the rumors / speculation that Fable was delayed to 2026 due to a decision to have the game launch day-and-date on PlayStation 5?

Jonny_5a

Hoping for something great from RDNA4 to take a bite out of Nvidia’s market share. Do you think AMD has done enough to close the technology gap these past few years?

Wolf0202

With Nvidia’s 5000 series dropping support for X32 CUDA, and recalling how much it was once advertised as a key differentiator against AMD/ATI, I can't help but draw a comparison. A similar situation occurred when tessellation was the next big thing—though, in that case, it remained a standard feature in nearly every game. Do you think Ray Tracing is truly here to stay, or is it just Nvidia's current advantage over AMD until the next big "innovation"emerges?

Never Ready Eddie

Ahoy DF crew! So given how objectivity incredible the new transformer model of DLSS is vs the old CNN model, why did NVIDIA just double down on telling the world how great MFG was and with very little marketing around this? It almost solves a decade+ long dark age of TAA blur! This can wipe away the Vaseline covering all games that have DLSS in them going back years and for any RTX card too. Its mind blowing they didn’t trumpet this from the roof tops (yes I know they gave it 5 minutes or so on stage but come on). Hammering home to RTX owners they have this free upgrade to visual quality would win back hearts and minds after really annoying their users with walling off MFG and having no stock of 50XX series cards.

Pomps

Hey DF Gents! What do you think is the probability that Doom the dark ages will be on switch 2? Given it's ray tracing requirements I'm not too confident it's something that can be pulled off. What's your insight on this given what we know of the leaked specs so far?

randyrrs

Hi DF crew! With DLSS being so successful in enhancing image quality do you think it was a mistake for the PS5 and series x not to release with their own machine learning equivalent back in 2020? Do you think these consoles should've launched with this feature back then?

Eric Benoit

What do you gentleman think should be the Microsoft, Xbox in particular, strategy if gets a proper Steam OS running in the near future? If everything on Xbox is going to be available on Sony,Nintendo, and Steam, what's the motivation to buy new iteration of Xbox? The Xbox seems to fusing into a weird mutation of the Dreamcast and 3D0.

Question Generated By JensenGPT

What are your thoughts on the new devices shown off by Framework, particularly the desktop? The desktop is obviously designed more for software / AI developers with workloads that require boat loads of VRAM without the need to sell a kidney to afford it, but it's also technically the closest thing we have right now to a "PS5 PC" since it has a 40CU AMD APU. I'd be very interested in seeing gaming benchmarks, since it's the only Strix Halo device we have right now that's not in a power and thermal constrained tablet or laptop design.

Wolf0202

The PlayStation 5 Pro doesn’t feel like a true upgrade, but rather a bespoke solution for poor game optimization. If players want the best graphics, they get a PC; if they want a plug & play experience, they get a console. The PS5 Pro sits awkwardly in between—like a mid-range PC without shader compilation issues. I bought one for that reason alone. Do you think its smaller market appeal is due to this, or does it serve a distinct niche compared to the PS4 Pro, which offered better pricing and clearer upgrades?

Iuri Grangeiro

Hi df gents! A lot was said about the community “having to change how it approaches reviews”, but I feel like most reviews have stayed largely the same as a hole, with some discussion sessions being added here and there. A format that specifically came to mind that I’m sure is not the best, but seems like an improvement over the current state, is to simply take one or two GPUs one wants to compare the most, and in a smaller selection of games (maybe 5 or 10) discuss how one would play these games on these GPUs - with purposefully different settings/resolution targets, which are a better experience, and why (justified with subjective impressions along with the framerate and latency figures for the settings chosen for each GPU), that along with the dreaded “one number” for general uplift that the classical like-for-like testing have been returning to us seems like a much more complete idea of how good a GPU is than diving into any specific like-for-like comparisons, which, imo, are simply made irrelevant by the average over all games - and much better suited for a text review where you can scroll to the game you take interest on than a video review which 90% of these results are completely irrelevant for most of the public. Why aren’t reviews leaning in this direction, with hopefully a much better thought out method than what I could come up really quickly here? We got to a point where the like-for-like pervasion is so big we’re comparing Nvidia GPUs merely among themselves while using FSR and completely discounting the likely different performance impact DLSS has among the different classes of GPU, and I fair completely to see the point of that. At the end of the day, the two things I want to know when buying are: how is the performance different objectively, and how is the experience different subjectively. Telling me the first one in the course of 15 continuous minutes doesn’t make it better told when the second info benefits so much more from these 15 minutes.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Given the way that truly advanced CGI works in the movie industry, I would expect a continual shift of baked RT effects moving gradually over into real time. It's more likely that the hardware part of it evolves or leaps significantly as use of the technology grows. That could mean older hardware becomes incompatible with newer software, but it seems unlikely that the technique will disappear any time soon.. the only thing that currently threatens that is some kind of A.I. lighting - which can "generate" the lighting in realtime without the need to trace rays. This seems possible given that it's already being used to generate entire games.

DaJaCo (Dan)

I think it's a great compromise. It reminds me of how my steam deck oled taught be how beautifully balanced, optimized and instantaneous the switch oled is. I sold my steam deck and appreciated the switch oled in new previously unappreciated ways. You get to spend most of your time playing games, instead of fixing problems, tolerating OS problems, installing workarounds and tweaks, constantly being tempted by wallet-emptying upgrades, while still having to cope with stutter, poor HDR support, annoying launchers.. etc. etc. In short - The PS5 PRO is the best sweet spot for those that want to focus on the uninterrupted appreciation of the artform - that is gaming. There's also something to be said for software built for set hardware - you get better controller optimization, weird and wonderful interfaces..etc. The PS5 controller is a case in point here. One of the best of all time.

Sean Deehan

Hello! Looking at the performance issues Alex covered in his Monster Hunter video, are there parallels here with the recent Dragons Dogma 2 release and the myriad performance woes it faced? Do these seem to be RE Engine issues or are they unrelated?

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half-Fortnight Lads! A balanced view of any industry always has to be “warts and all”, and as it stood, Warner Brothers Games was set to hog all the warts; by making Hogwarts Legacy 2 a “live service game”. It seems however that hogs can fly, as the legacy of Hogwarts Legacy is no longer under this horrible spell! Not only will there be a bona fide 'Hoggy Leggers 2', There’s a cash hogging “Definitive Edition” due to keep money printers in business too! Mere muggles like myself hope only for 40FPS RT modes (at least on PS5 PRO) – where do you guys see the future of the series in light of this promising news?

Samdenn

Hey y’all! AMD has a lot to prove, don’t they? Not just in performance and price, but also in features and software. Have they done it? Have they convinced you that their customers will get to experience the fun and interesting things that NVIDIA GPU owners get to? I’m curious what things you were looking for to match the experience of NVIDIA GPUs, and whether AMD has shown those things in their reveal. Thanks exclamation point!

Someguyperson

I would say it's actually running on a PC, but it's targeting the Switch with that level of performance and visuals. The trailer experience is probably what you'll get with the Switch 2 and I would assume the OG Switch will have some framerate drops in there.

Bulbous_Bow

Good evening all. One for John if I may. Have you tried the mobile JRPG (demo recently released on Steam) Wagatobi? Aims to teach the player Japanese by slowly replacing English dialogue with Japanese as the player explores each of Japan’s prefectures in turn - on the way to becoming a Japanese Master! And whether you think it’s up to scratch or not, did you use games in your language learning journey at all either for German or Japanese?

HelenX

Hello ! Are we doomed? Is this the end? From Hardware that can't be afforded and isn't really available to buy anyway; to games that 'fai'l resulting ibn unemployed whether they make the game they were told to make or even if the game actually sells really quite well (by any reasonable metric). It really does feel like the end-times for blockbust3er gaming. Is this pure sensationalism ? or is there a lot of truth (and the lay offs speak to it being a truth). What hope do you see for the future of gaming and the people that make games?

Michael Brown

Hello DF Crew! I was wondering if you think this absolute tomfoolery going on in the PC hardware market with GPU prices will drive some players to just buy a PS5 or PS5 pro since they can't actually buy a GPU?

Rich

I think the chances are basically 100%. Ampere has good RT performance even in a 3050 laptop, a 2050 can run Doom Eternal with DLSS. We don't know how many RT cores Nintendo will enable, and the amount of VRAM is unknown, but idtech should be able to scale.

Rich

I agree with Dan's comment above, but wanted to add that 64-bit CUDA still has a long future, even outside of AI.

Rich

Transformers scale much, much more than convolutional neural networks if the last 7 years of AI history tell us anything (*cough*LLMs*cough), there's a reason why its ChatGPT and not ChatGPC! That said, DLSS4 is the first use of a transformer in a real-time context, and under a strict latency budget.

Piotr Bakiewicz

Greetings everyone! I’ve noticed the discussion around Xbox moving toward a more PC-like experience—supporting platforms like Steam—and why some see it as beneficial. I disagree, because I believe consoles should stay as plug-and-play as possible to attract more players. Even as a tech enthusiast, dealing with multiple modes and specific hardware requirements on my PS5 is tiring when I just want to play a game after a long day at the office. Now imagine a casual gamer who just wants to play without fussing over 120Hz screens or VRR compatibility. In contrast, the Nintendo Switch remains true to the original console philosophy: you buy it, pop in a game cartridge, and start playing. No activation required, and physical media means you can take the same game and play it on another Switch. It’s no surprise the Switch has been the only console growing its user base and market share. Simplicity still has its advantages. Thanks, and keep up the good work!

Someguyperson

RT is a mainstay feature now in DirectX and Sony has fully committed to it as well, so it's clearly just the future of rendering. The things that could easily hit the chopping block are things like the Neural Faces that aren't really part of a standard and probably won't see much adoption.

Someguyperson

Nvidia's earnings had some suggestions of what's actually going on with the supply of GPUs. First, the consumer division was down 11% y/y, which indicates Nvidia produced 90% of the GPUs they would normally sell to ensure the 40 series cards were sold through by the time the 50 series was launched. This has clearly created a lot of pent up demand for products and prices are soaring as supply has been dwindled down and production of the Blackwell GPUs are still ramping up. Nvidia also had lower operating margin and the CFO said: "…we know there is an opportunity for us to improve these gross margins going forward, but right now we are going to focus on getting the manufacturing complete and to our customers as soon as possible.” If Nvidia can improve margins relatively quickly, that indicates that they're spending a lot of money on something they can do without later this year. While they didn't directly say it, it would seem to confirm that Nvidia is running "hot lots" at TSMC. This reduces the number of GPUs they can manufacturer and greatly increases costs associated with making these chips, in exchange for much lower latency and quicker time to market in the manufacturing process. It's essentially an expedited manufacturing process that would eat into margins, and this checks with the actual financials as well. Nvidia is probably doing this because they have a lot of enterprise orders on contract with specific time deadlines to hit, and Nvidia is doing everything in their power to meet those contractual obligations. After those contracts have been met, Nvidia can go back to producing chips normally, which would increase the number they can put out on the market, although those particular chips will be manufactured in the regular/normal way, so it will take 3-6 months for those chips to make it through TSMC. For the average consumer, supply will get better in 3-6 months, but that's basically all you can look forward to and hope for.

Someguyperson

Will you guys take a look at "Lushfoil Photography Sim"? It's a UE5 game that fully utilizes the engine to produce some fantastic looking visuals that you take pictures of. How much do you think the visuals come down to the engine vs. the art direction?

Someguyperson

How extensive will your coverage of "to a T" be? The game looks perfect for any Katamari Damacy fan.

Someguyperson

Whenever you read the word "maximum" do you all read it in in the Nanosuit voice? I was working on something at work and just read, "maximum signal strength" in the Nanosuit voice as I was typing an email. How many times a day does this happen to you?

Someguyperson

What's the latency impact of frame generation when compared to triple buffered vsync? To the best of my knowledge, if you use frame generation, you essentially take a double buffered pipeline with an additional frame and generate the in-between frames before displaying them. Isn't this effectively just a better way to do triple buffering? How much of a latency impact is there? Does that depend on how powerful/large the GPU is? If the two are broadly similar in latency, isn't frame generation just better?

Peter

Do you see a shift in what your audience want from tech coverage? LTT Linus recently mentioned on WAN Show (Feb 7) that there's a trend of disengagement on videos from "shit I can't afford". Even though I spent almost €2000 on my gaming rig last year, much of DF's stuff, like full path tracing, still seems out of reach for most and even me. On the other hand DLSS 4 is very interesting, because it helps everyone with a RTX card, not just high-end GPUs. I also like your optimal settings videos, especially when they include non-RT recommendations for low to mid-range PCs.

Colin Robinson

Considering the recent meltdown involving the 12VHPWR connector in both 40 and 50 series GPUs (with some fiery results), might it be time for Nvidia to take a cue from their old defeated rival 3dfx and use an external power supply? Perhaps a power brick in which they could install additional ROPs just in case?

tod weitzel

Which title was Monolith's crowning achievement?

Having an AI-neurysm

Forza Horizon 5’s PS5 graphics modes have just been detailed – RT in gameplay on Pro! - Forza Horizon 5 on PS5 features two rendering modes to choose from: Performance (60fps) and Quality (30fps). - On PS5 Pro, the Performance mode receives increased visual fidelity, while Quality mode adds ray traced car reflections to Races and Free Roam. https://forza.net/news/forza-horizon-5-horizon-realms

MGsubbie

Was the drop in sales of the PS5 Pro compared to the PS4 Pro really anything but obvious? High sales at the first because it's an enthusiast system, and enthusiasts tend to buy early. But then a drop-off, as it's a $700/€800 system, which is 75% more/twice as expensive as the PS4 Pro was. Then there's the factor of 4k TV's becoming popular after the PS4 launch, and the 4k being accounted for in that system, while there is no change in display support from PS5 amateur to PS5 Pro. Is this really a surprise for anyone?

MGsubbie

I guess there will be some, but it's not going to be anything more than a light dip. More affordable cards are already more powerful, and then there is the whole thing of not having access to your existing library, which can be massive on Steam.

Mehzeb Chowdhury

Hi DF Crew. As someone working at the intersection of gaming, AI, and forensic applications, I see fascinating and potentially unsettling implications in Microsoft’s AI playing games autonomously. If AI begins not only learning from games but actively participating in them, where do we draw the ethical line in terms of agency, accountability, and creative ownership? Should AI-trained gaming systems be considered collaborators, competitors, or just sophisticated tools? Also, could AI-trained on past titles develop emergent, unpredictable game mechanics that reshape interactive storytelling? Or do you think this will primarily lead to more formulaic game development, where AI reinforces existing industry trends rather than innovating beyond them?

DanTurismo

In the last DF Direct John looked like he was wearing new headphones. Did he replace the Sennheiser HD595s?! A while back he said they were the first thing he ever bought on Amazon and has been using them since 2006. Why the change now and how are the new ones working out?

jogrre

hello team! i have been looking to make the console to PC switch for a few years now. Every time i start to get serious about it there is some kerfuffle about relatively serious- sometimes dangerous- hardware concerns or sleazy biz practices. And from my research there are exactly zero reliably good prebuilts. Do you envision a time when a fella can spend thousands $$$ building a PC rig and have the same relative assurance it will be as reliable and safe and compatible as consoles have been more often than not from intellivision to colecovision and beyond? Or is that just part of the PC gaming package? cheers! y'all rock!

1040STF

The Steam Deck has celebrated its third birthday on February 25th. Considering Valve said it would take them about at least a few years to release a more powerful model as they want "a true generational leap" as they say, do you think 2025 is the year this new hardware could release? What would you want such a model brings to the table? On my side, I would hope for a mix of the high-end tech specs of today's most advanced handhelds and the optimization of the OG Steam Deck. A 120Hz Oled screen too of course. But I feel like I'm lacking ambition here compared to what they want from the Steam Deck 2. Maybe an ARM processor would offer that generation leap? A Nvidia processor?

The Knight Who Says Ni!

Greetings, DF crew, Assuming AMD doesn’t delay the announcement of RDNA 4 and the RX 9700 series again, do you see anything new and exciting from RDNA 4?

The Knight Who Says Ni!

Hey DF, Aiming the mouse cursor at John on this one if he on panel. Have you seen the news that EA have released the source code for Command & Conquer and are you as excited by the news as Ni!?

Snorlax cat

There is reporting that late in the dev cycle Capcom switched from interlaced usual RE engine upscale on the server test to fsr1 on the final version. What’s up with that?

Skyrimfest 26 FPS Edition

Blackwell has an 'AI Management Processor' based on RISC-V. At what point in the future (if ever) do you think we will see the CPU side of gaming fully integrated into the GPU? AMD might be the GPU underdog, but they know a thing or two about CPUs (and APUs).

USCStevestromo

Howdy gents! With the supposedly leaked data suggesting that Rasterisation performance from the 9070XT is close to that of the 5070ti, would this, FSR 4 and much better RT make it a far more competitive choice than the 50XX series...... as long as they don't muck up the pricing?

ClockRocket

Greetings DF Team! If the numbers are looking down for PS5 Pro, do you reckon it is because PSSR hasn’t performed as well as predicted, PS4 enhancements were underwhelming, or PS5 Pro enhancements have been a very small mixed bag? All of them? Some? None?

Alan

Hi Gents, The other week there was a question about your thoughts on Ai tech, what are your thoughts on the robots, Boston Dynamics, Clone etc, Figure seems to be the one furthest along, at the moment, I am hyped for them are you?

DaJaCo (Dan)

As often as i recall the Roman Empire.

Graczdari

I have a few questions : ) 1. do you think the "big consoles" from SONY and Microsoft will ever switch to ARM processors? 2) In retrospect, don't you think that with Unreal Engine 3 was as problematic as Unreal Engine 5 before a long time? 3. why didn't SVOGI become a standard, even though it was even part of Unreal Engine 4? It seems to be an effective system, much more so than LUMEN.

Jamie

Greetings DF, I recently finished Monster Hunter Wilds Story on PS5 Pro (very tiny amount of the game in the grand scheme) , and I have to say, I'm a huge fan of the gameplay. However, I encountered quite a few issues, more so when I tried it on the base PS5. In terms of performance mode on base ps5. it reminded me of how Cyberpunk runs on the base PS4—completely unacceptable. On the PS5 Pro, I faced texture issues where textures would fail to load properly—not just delayed loading, but stuck loading. This problem was most noticeable in the city of 'Azuz, the Everforge,' which was the worst offender in the entire game. Although the issue was somewhat present throughout the game from this point to a much lesser extent. it was most severe in that location across all modes. One thing I feel reviewers should focus on is the performance on base PS5, as this is likely where the majority of sales will be. The experience on base PS5 could seriously affect purchasing decisions, and I imagine most reviewers tested the game on either the PS5 Pro or a high-end PC, which doesn’t reflect the experience that 90% of players will have. If I had played on the base PS5, I would have refunded the game immediately, even though I love Monster Hunter. Did Oliver make it to Azuz in Monster Hunter Wilds and notice any texture issues?

Diecou

Hi DF! Do you think there is a chance of the Switch 2 having an OLED screen on launch day? While Nintendo probably wants to hit the best price point they can get and leave this to a mid year refresh, a LED screen would make it look inferior to the Switch OLED in portable mode, even with its performance gains. What are your thoughts?

Michael Pearn

Nailed it. Sales will explode though if GTA6 comes out and has substantial PS5 Pro enhancements, and GTA6 doesn't come to PC (or at least a PC release date isn't announced during the first 6 months or so).

Jamie

Here is a Spin off Question Should reviews be done on the most popular console rather than the most powerful. Reviewers review the experience that 80% of players will have.

Ryan H

As a long time console gamer I’m starting to weigh up whether a high end gaming PC would give me enough graphical improvements to be worth it over my Series X and PS5 Pro. Have you considered a video that showcases the top end PC settings in comparison with the best console version to show the gap? I know the difference in a game like Cyberpunk is large but it’s hard to know what percentage of games look drastically better on max settings on PC vs how many are “close enough” that it wouldn’t be worth buying a Gaming PC for. Even having an estimate on the percentage of PC games that you think look significantly better on max PC settings vs mild improvements would be useful. Thanks in advance!

DaJaCo (Dan)

Surely needs a 40FPS RT mode to be playable with RT.. ?

DaJaCo (Dan)

They could take it further and add a small diesel generator or solar array.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Precisely, it might a touch outdated - but it's not in the Dark Ages.

DaJaCo (Dan)

It still needs that "killer App" that really sells it.. and Sony just hasn't invested in that. It feels like an isolated hardware experiment, where it should feel more like a console in its own right (unless any first person PS5 game could be easily adapted to it).

Xfiles_Frohikee

Good morning and I beg you to bring this up on this week's direct. The pricing between the 9070 and 9070 xt has to do with manufacturing and nothing to do with value. With limited manufacturing supply and binning capabilities (make only 9070xt and only the defects become 9070s) this pricing will ensure how the demand will sell. Once they have enough binned supply of the 9070 they will lower the price. Whether this is right or wrong strategy I personally can't say In all the reviews I watch this is never addressed and feel it should be brought up somewhere.

Jasper

Hi guys! I was wondering if you had the opportunity to look into the vrr issues that have been popping up on ps5 and ps5 pro since a late 2024 update. Cheers!

Lexxington87

What do you all make of ultra and super ultrawide monitor gaming? I have the mad Samsung G9 57” curved double 4k(!) monitor which is quite the experience! The only screen made for a 5090 perhaps? 🤔

Pomps

Kind of unrelated and maybe a project for a very *very* far in future DF retro but, how in the world did Xenoblade X look so good on the Wii U?

Container7

What is everyone’s favorite kind of crisps?

Evan

Hope everything goes OK with your family situation! I look forward to watching the direct on Sunday.

Sultim

Hallo, DF team, On 3dfx T-buffer and 3dfx antialiasing in 1999. It's quite funny how that T-buffer technology was in its core a frame interpolation technique, but in the 90s. The only way I found out about that tech was reading the Serious Sam TFE (2001) and TSE (2002) source code. Also, from there, I found that it interstingly supports EAX sound behavior, which was deprecated in the later 2000s, so after installing a DLL wrapper over a wrapper, it blew me away that all this time there should have been echoing and sound spatialization in old games, how sewers sound different from temples, narrow corridors from a desert. Funny how I always saw the EAX logo in GTA:SA, but never truly experienced it. So, I would like to ask if you remember any cool tech, that was simply forgotten, and it's hard to restore "the way it's meant to be played". Link to the white paper on 3dfx T-buffer: https://www.voodooalert.de/de/files/whitepaper/t-buffer.pdf

Evan

That actually sounds like a great video idea. As someone who has all the consoles and a decently high-end PC, I think the differences on most games are significant. However, I think if I showed it to someone else in my family, they would probably not care either way. I would look at it like this. On console, does the difference between "Quality" and "Performance" seem significant to you? A high-end PC will usually give you better visuals than "Quality" at higher frame rates. You also get more control over the trade-offs.

Douglas Fowler

Holy crow that did not take long to beat

Kitty Raven

Could we maybe just collectively agree that a quarterly Oliver AI update special should get equal consideration alongside Alex / RT and John / Retro / Philosophy? With Rich dropping in some British style understated grounding and guidance? Message ends. ;-)

Spodlude

Rich, please could you give us a tour of the room you film in? I’ve always wondered what’s beyond the frame. Do you ever feel tempted to leave embargoed hardware in the background awaiting a keen eye like Microsoft did with the series S? At what stage does a GPU lose its place on your window seal? I noticed the Radeon 7 didn’t quite occupy the prime position over your shoulder last week, has it moved?! Same request to the whole team, thanks!

Evan

I think the fact that it has been a pretty underwhelming upgrade in most games is definitely part of it, but I think it is also due overall economic situation, where many people have less disposable income right now. It initially sold well because of all the people who were going to buy one "no matter what". But since that point, what is the killer reason to go out and get one? I have a Pro and when people ask me if it is worth it, I say "no". Unless you are a die hard PS5 fan or someone who wants to have the "best", I don't see a lot of value in it right now.

syswivv

Greetings, DF Crew! I heard tell on an Insert Credit podcast that John has acquired a 480hz display. Can he give some general feedback on its performance? And specifically, has he tested the Blur Busters CRT beam simulation shader? Eager to hear his thoughts. Many thanks, y’all!

Jonathan Thomassen

What is Analytical Anti-Aliasing and do you think it is the next big leap on Anti-Aliasing tech?

wildwildwesty

I think more so than just a graphical upgrade, what i enjoy with PC gaming over consoles is the choice you get to personalise your experience. And what you want may differ between games and genres. For example, a high end PC will let you choose between pushing performance and frame rate to the max in action games where fluidity take precedence, but then take a step back to crank up the detail and bask in ray tracing beauty in the latest RPGs. Nowadays, we are getting that experience with consoles offering performance and fidelity modes, but you’ll unlikely get fine tuning control that you see in PC. Depends if you’re in to that sort of thing, as someone who is, it’s why Alex’s optimised settings videos is up there with the best DF content.

Evan

PC building, in most cases, is reliable and safe. Don't get overly fixated on the edge cases. But it will probably not ever be as simple, reliable or consistent as a fixed-spec console. However, the trade-off is upgradability and a huge library of games. A PC can play an absolutely gigantic library of games from almost every generation on a single box and you aren't locked into that hardware.

Groovy Duck

Howdy Gents. There have been more rumors regarding Valve's new standalone wireless VR headset codenamed "Deckard." The newest rumor is the kit is going to MSRP for an eye watering $1200. While it is said it would include " 'in-house' games (or demos)" that is an expensive deal. It is also claimed that "One of the core features is the ability to play flat-screen game that are already playable on Steam Deck, but in VR on a big screen without a PC." My manic red string on the cork board speculation is that if these rumors actually are holding water, Valve is going to release the first x86 based, standalone inside out headset and sell it as an open system like the Deck. It would fit with the Deckard name anyway. $1200 for a full portable PC isn't unheard of. What about $1200 for a full PC that you can strap to your face? So this brings me to my questions: Would you pay 1200 big ones for a kit like that? What would you have to pack into this hypothetical head mounted PC to make $1200 a compelling price? Personally, it's too rich for my blood but I think it is what the VR space is missing: an open standalone, inside-out VR system that can be tinkered with freely like you can with the Steam Deck.

hobx

Hey team, with the new AMD graphics card we have four GPU’s with a roughly similar performance profile. 4080 x 2, 5070 Ti, and 9070XT. Could you see developers targeting this performance level as a standard for future games? It’s always unclear what devs do as a target for PC

BespokeEP

As long as AMD doesn’t have something catastrophic happen it looks like RDNA4 is going to be a better choice over the RX50 series. And I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again PSSR and FSR4 are based off the same underlying SuperResolution part of the tech, with the difference in performance coming from the massively increased AI TOPS, and the RDNA4 architecture, and all the extra AI features that come with it. ie. the de-noiser, and neural tech. And this will be proven during PS6 when we are able to compare a like for like graphics architecture with likely FSR5 vs. PSSR2

BespokeEP

Unfortunately likely not. Since development cycles are so long you typically need to target your game for future performance which is guesstimate work at best with some level of insight. This is why PlayStation and Nintendo games typically punch above their weight, and before Xbox did day and date with Pc they did as well. It’s one of the biggest reasons PS will never go day and date with PC for its 1st party high fidelity AAA single player games. There is way too much guess work and variation of hardware for PC gaming. It would also mean Sony’s studios would need to increase in size, and they would likely need to switch from their proprietary API to DirectX. It doesn’t make financial sense either. A game launching on PC a year or more later is still a new game for PC only gamers. There is zero supporting evidence that sales would sky rocket if one of Sony’s big single player games launched day and date. And PS owners would always have the lesser version from day one. Sorry for going a little off topic.

DaJaCo (Dan)

OK my second question lads - is everyone ok?

BespokeEP

All the kinds 🤤

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Good morning DF crew, hope everyone’s ok! Why do you think Nintendo 3D games from the sixth generation onwards get old most gracefully? Is it just the art style or does Nintendo have another secret ingredient? Cheers!

Jamie

It can beat finished in 15 hours and it took me roughly 20

Rich

There's quite a bit of evidence that sales will be better if released day and date, see Helldivers 2. Developers and marketers study GPU sales carefully, but its unlikely the current 70-class would be the minimum Recommended anytime soon. People should probably wait for actual reviews before declaring any AMD product comparable to any specific released product, given recent history.

Rich

You can tinker freely with the Quest ecosystem if you enable developer mode, and that includes running .apk files directly without the Meta ecosystem. That said, $1200 is a cheap price compared to hardware like the Apple Vision Pro.

Rich

I think even features like NeuralFaces will just run on tensor cores; regardless of adoption of the feature, Tensor cores will be around forever.

Groovy Duck

If I buy a Quest, can I wholesale replace the OS Meta ships the headset with?

jogrre

agreed- but those edge cases are far too commonplace lately? especially for how much i tend to spend. i've been gaming for over 40 years and building PCs for over 30- i stopped doing it for fun when i started doing it for a living- and i have never seen it this bad. i usually go all out with my electronics purchases and a top of the line 5090 with a top of the line intel cpu and a top of the line PS w/a 12-pin power connecter doesn't really seem like much of an edge case to me?

digitalfoundry

Outside of the 'cone of respectability' - ie the bits you see - it's really not good.