Home
Creators
Search Recent Random
Posts
Search DMs Popular Hash Lookup Tags Random
Importer
Import FAQ
Register Favorites Keys Review DMs Logout
Community
Telegram ThePornDude
Home Creators Posts Import Register Favorites Logout

Call For Questions For DF Direct Weekly #228 (Patreon)

Published:
2025-08-22 09:49:08
Imported:
2026-06

Content

Hello there. I've just finished packing and am about to head to the airport after a packed, exhausting, literally feet-flattening Gamescom 2025. We have a bunch of capture we'll be running across the coming week (or weeks, schedule permitting) but the first order of business is tackling DF Direct Weekly #228, which we'll be taping tomorrow per Monday's weekly update. Early access on Sunday, public on Monday.

We're currently debating doing two: a Direct Special on the Xbox handheld, along with a regular show. Topics we're considering for inclusion are the PS5 Pro versions of the Capcom we've run content on already, Final Fantasy 7 Remake and Elden Ring on Switch 2 (John saw both on the Nintendo booth), some of our highlights from Opening Night Live, and potentially the Valve Fremont console.

Feel free to suggest your own topics for inclusion and of course, relentlessly hammer us with your comments and questions for the show or shows. Thanks as ever for your input and support!

Files

Comments

zurce

Hello DF crew ! With the sad news of the terrible performance of Elden Ring on switch 2 , the disappointing effort of keeping switch 1 as a target from Nintendo , and the upcoming interesting tech coming from PC handheld , do you feel the Switch 2 can sustain a whole “generation” or is this just a mid generation refresh in disguise ?

1040STF

One of the biggest trademark of Silent Hill is that all games takes place in a town in the US. Now that you've played Silent Hill f John, which takes place for the first time in Japan, how much does it feel as a "Silent Hill" for you?

Lukas Underscore

Looking forward to the coverage! Did you guys have the chance to check out the switch 2 version of cronos by blooper team? I saw some footage of it floating around yesterday, looks really interesting.

Buzz Bee Spoke

Digital Vodoo. If you could revive any Developer which one would it be and why? I would pick Troika games and my brother picks evolution studios (I dont actually have a brother I just wanted to pick two)

goregutz

HELL-o, squirmy humies from DF. I just wanted to give you twats a warning from me and my Boyz that this will indeed be a dawn of war, a dawn of bloodshed and a dawn of carnage. Me and my mega armoured nobz along with the flash gitz will be crashing into your territory very soon and if you value your life, you better run away. No space marines ain't gonna protect ya.

RagingWhisky

Regarding the ROG/Xbox handheld: Is this possibly the last hurrah for Xbox as a hardware platform? The dilution of what it means to have an "Xbox Console" with spreading the eco-system over PC, other platforms (hello Sony/Nintendo) and now releasing a handheld? Gears on PS5 exists, so does the ROG experiment not risk being another "Series X gathering dust" scenario? It would be a different proposition if you could play your old Xbox back catalogue natively on Windows - dusting off an optical drive to play OG Xbox titles for native enjoyment!

DGBooth

Hello distinguished DF folks! With the disappointing performance profile in Metal Gear Delta, especially on the Professional, is this a surprise based on what we know about the current performance of SH2 and other UE5 games and do you expect that this performance can be resolved to a satisfactory level?

Aaron

Hey all, bumped into ye briefly at ONL on Tuesday, it was great to meet ye and say hi. Finding out that Geoff reads verbatim from a teleprompter was like finding out Santa isn't real. Anyway, like John, I also played Elden Ring on Switch 2 at the Nintendo booth. As soon as I started into game itself the frame rate tanked, before recovering a bit, though it was choppy throughout my brief session. Been considering picking it up as it's the only physical complete edition at the moment, but based on my experience I might skip for now. Curious to hear if John's experience was similar.

Lux

Hello Digital Founders, is quick resume and a decent implementation of standby mode possible on the future Windows based Xbox devices? Cheers!

SonOfFaith

Hello DF crew, hope you've had a wonderful Gamescom! I've been warming up the frame generation lately but I'm still not sure if I should be using any in-game frame rate cap with FG. I've heard that having consistent framerate can help with latency and the quality of the generated frames. Although some games disable the in-game cap with frame gen turned on. I'd appreciate any insight you could provide.

CaptainNooble

Guten Tag DF Herren! Hopefully you had a lovely time at Gamescom. With path tracing hopefully becoming the standard in future games, are you hopeful that the next generation consoles (PS6/Xbox Series 360 X One Ally X) will be able to support this GPU heavy task? If so which Desktop PC equivalent graphics card would you consider for them to use in order to reach 60 fps? Did you manage to get any good German Food? Cheers CaptainNooble

superbargie

Hail fellows, well met. With regards to the Xbox handheld, it's interesting that Microsoft have gone the Steam Deck route of effectively condensing a PC style device into a tablet shell running Windows. What are your thoughts on whether Microsoft could instead build an Xbox handheld using, for instance, a condensed version of the Series S or X hardware running the console dashboard? As good as the Deck is, it doesn't have quite that same console-like "immediacy" or ease of use as the Switch, despite Valve's best efforts to streamline the experience with SteamOS. I wonder if the Xbox handheld is likely to be similar in that regard. Could a more "console-like" device genuinely go after the Switch's audience in a way something more in-line with the Deck would not?

Series Xistential Crisis

Whats up DF crew!? I hope you all enjoyed your time at Gamescom. Lots of good stuff coming out of it From what I’ve seen. Speaking of “From”, they’ve been earily quiet lately (unless I’ve missed something) along with a few other developers. I was wondering if you guys are ever privvy to inside info like From’s next big project or Elder Scrolls VI upates, Silent Hill 2 on Xbox, things like that. And if so, are you willing to share?

scud

Ahoy-hoy chaps, just a quick UE5 question here. I'm not on the anti-UE5 bandwagon. I think it's an incredibly impressive engine that often catches flack just because it's not the underdog, but do you think most of its issues (stutter aside) are just down to it maybe launching one console generation too early? Curious what you think. Cheers!

TIKE

Good day chaps, first message since recently starting my Patreon membership. I've followed via the traditional DF channels on EG for years but seemed like the jumping off point meant it was high time I stopped freeloading your work and provided you with some direct support! This was more a question of how the team divide and conquer a show like Gamescom - I guess you all have your own peccadilloes when it comes to the content. Alex makes a beeline for the PC/GFX stuff, maybe John/Oli with a more console centric and indie/retro vibe and Rich with an eye to 'the business'/hardware dev..? I hope you allow yourselves time 'off piste' to allow for some serendipity - and on that have you each uncovered any unexpected but life-affirming findings? Whilst I can imagine a high-old time after each day closes with the team wassailing between various corpo-events I'm sure the reality is somewhat more prosaic - evenings spent editing and prepping content! Any broadcast-safe tips for surviving the show or humorous anecdotes you'd care to share!?

Ian

Hi Digital Foundryers - hope you enjoyed gamescom. I’m sure it was great but also tiring. I’m interested in who you think the Xbox Ally X is for? It’s probably a £900 device that has the name Xbox in so presumably to push Xbox gamers to PC to help the general PC push from Xbox. But feels far too expensive to do that (and the cheaper one feels like it will not offer the performance). And then those in the PC handheld market already have devices and a pretty niche market with a small subset looking to upgrade feels too small for Microsoft’s ambitions. I’m still confused why they didn’t just aim to integrate Xbox functionality more broadly through an ASUS partnership rather than labelling this an Xbox?

Jordan + Cinewhirl

I don't understand why Xbox/Playstation would move towards the handheld market. The Steam Deck - whilst great - has only sold around 4/5 million units, which if replicated by Sony/Microsoft, they would see as a failure. If they go the Switch route allowing them to be docked - they will have the same library as the consoles, but would just be seen as weaker alternatives to the stationary versions, and probably not much cheaper. I can't see either of them ever making custom software specifically for handheld usage like they used too - so what would really be the benefit of them competing in that market? Do they know something we don't?

CrashOverride

Hello everybody! With Moore's Law effectively dead for the purposes of generational gains in chip power, will we start to see more experimentation regarding ASIC blocks on GPUs? Current Nvidia chips are well-known and regarded for their ray-tracing and tensor cores, and all chip manufacturers have specialized media encoding blocks to boost the speed of video encode and decode. Is there more room on the silicon for such optimizations? What of AMDs chiplet strategy? Would love to know everybody's thoughts!

Zero

Good Day DF Crew! While we all know Alex loves the Switch 2 more than anything, could/would there be any conversations about having him be a part of any Elden Ring Switch 2 content? With reports of the game not running well on the console, I'm reminded of how Alex was one of the few members of the gaming media space who was willing to fully critique FromSoftware's continued performance issues, and demand better from them on behalf of their customers. Cheers!

Commander Keen

Dear Independant DF Crew, this morning I was pondering the new Xbox Handheld combined with the next generation(s) of users - these are the kids that grew up living on/inside their mobile phone. I grew up in the generation that has chased the cinema experience with bigger and bolder screens sizes - but the new generation probably doesn't care for that(?). Taking that context, would you expect developers to target handhelds first and home consoles second? And what would that mean, targeting handhelds first, when it comes to optimizing to certain specs? Lastly, if you consider hardware and software in tandem optimized for handhelds where would that take us - what would be the bottleneck in this growth? And would it be worth pursuing solutions? Thank you.

Andreas Wright

Greetings and Salutations to the (newly independent!) DF Crew, just a quick Q concerning Kirby Air Riders. Seems to look quite interesting and it was an exhausting yet entertaining Direct. Looking forward to John's thoughts on the improvement on the original and if he thinks it brings anything new to the table?

Peter

Success is relative to expectation. Steam Deck doesn't even sell in mainline retail stores in most countries.

Critically Wild

Why is full fat Windows getting hauled out again on the handhelds instead of a lean gaming version of the OS, when Microsoft are happy to have an ARM version out there? And that has been like a wet fart thus far. Presumably they fear that's what we'd all install instead of a telemetry-laden CoPilot terminal? Did I just answer my own question or is there more to it? Cheers.

Peter

Good day DF chaps! Hope you have had a great time at Gamescom! I write this after having just watched the MGS tech review. The game has reviewed very well, despite the obvious technical issues. In my opinion, this is a problem as strong reviews, which may lead to strong sales, sends the wrong message to publishers that it is ok to release a sub par game from a technical point of view and fix later. Do you think reviewers should knock a games score and call out such issues?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hey DF gents! Re MGS3 remake. Wouldn’t it be better to use prebaked lighting for this kind of game if it meant a stable performance? I’m all for RT in games, especially int the GI department, but for a game with no dynamic weather or time of day and maps that are not big at all, prebaked lighting makes more sense. Cheers!

SolidState

Hi DF crew, what are some of your standout picks for games with surround sound support? Are there any titles where you would say surround sound is "essential," or a game changer over stereo?

Richard Leadworst

Hi DF Team. Long time fan, but just recently a Patreon to support your independence. I've read that Elden Ring on Switch 2 runs terribly. Is it true? and if so, how terrible? It doesn't run particularly well on any platform, but I'm surprised that it runs worse on Switch 2.

Snorlax cat

Which gaming devices you take when you don’t travel for work?

Karvox

Salutations DF. I was curious if the team has seen the recent update to GeForce Now from Nvidia and if there is any interest in testing the '5K Stream' claim from their end? I hope the crew had fun at Gamescom and safe travels back to the respective homesteads. Cheers!

BespokeEP

Maybe if handhelds actually become popular. The PC handheld user base is quite small. Steam Deck is number 1 with about 4m sold. And the entire lot combined including steam Deck is only around 6m. So they aren't as popular as you would think. They really are not overly convenient, they are heavy, bulky, and do not get a long battery life

FalconPunch

Hi, DF! Is the unified memory architecture on Apple Silicon a net advantage or disadvantage for gaming workloads compared to discrete VRAM on PC GPUs? Also, are we going to see more Mac gaming coverage from Oliver? Keep up the great work!

Expansion Pak

With another messy PSSR example in MGS3, will the promised PSSR/FSR4 upgrade for Pro next year benefit prior titles at all, or would individual updates be required? And did you happen to see or hear of any in-progress titles being built with the upgrade in mind?

RAVE_DAM0S

Hola Foundrymen of Digital Freedom! (Freedom Hells Yeah!) With the PlayStation 5 Pro introducing PSSR, ASUS enabling the NPU in the Z2 Extreme, and DLSS already established as the gold standard for Al upscaling, I'm curious about Microsoft's approach with the Xbox Series X and S. Their GPUs are advertised as capable of around 40 TOPS of machine learning performance. Is there any realistic chance that Microsoft could still tap into that unused potential before this generation ends? For example, could the Series X's ML horsepower be leveraged to retroactively implement something thin like DirectSR or is the ML potential (natively) rendered moot at this point? Prost!

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Dear DF, do you think Microsoft will limit the new „gaming version of Windows” to their handhelds and the future Xbox or could they surprise us and offer it to everyone who’s gaming on PCs right now? Cheers!

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Dear Foundrymen, what do you think about the latest Android handhelds? Especially from the emulation perspective? They now offer 120hz OLED screens which sound ideal for black frame insertion and the CRT beam sim. Cheers!

FrametimeSommelier

Hi DF team, hope you had a fantastic time Germany (maybe you even enjoyed some Kölsch while being there)! Curious to hear, what were the most visually striking games or tech demos you saw at Gamescom this year? And do you feel we've finally reached the tipping point where most developers are fully embracing current-gen rendering tech like ray tracing, and perhaps even path tracing?

Hansen

Gentlemen! I am wondering whether Alex’s newly (and dare I say, completely willingly) obtained Nintendo Switch 2 has survived the trip back to Berlin, or if this wonderful device has somehow been lost on the train?

Marcus

Hello, foundrymen! Hope you’re having a good time at Gamescom. Has Microsoft finally cured the plague that is shader compilation stutter? They announced the advanced shader delivery system that’s apparently coming to directX and will be used on the new Xbox handheld to begin with.

(Don’t be a) Richard

Has Richard ever met Xbox Partner Head of Design, Carl Ledbetter, and if so did you talk about how you have practically the same name?

Jimbojones

Sup guys, will Richard be reviewing Bubsy 4D?

Daniel Sun

Hi DF-Team. Glad to be a brand new patreon after your independence day. As you‘re gonna talk about Elden Ring on Switch 2, I would like your opinions on third party ports on switch 2 in general. With the what it seems like abysmal port of Elden Ring (a game that’s been out for 3,5 years) and my own experience with the Cronos-Demo on Switch 2 at Gamescom (it was not good), I‘m starting to worry: do we already witness the technical limits for ports of third party games on the Switch 2 in it‘s first year on the market or are these just lackluster ports? Much love from Cologne

HappyVineyrd

To the League of extra-bespoke Gentlemen, i suffer from Versatilitis which currently manifests itself in me using an Ally X both on the Go and docked as a Desktop via TB4 with an eGPU. There's always a bit of work to adjust the settings for the current game when docking/undocking - but it just kind of feels like living in the future. From what i heard on some Reporting covering the reveal and first hands-ons of the Xbox Ally X, Microsoft also demoed an eGPU setup behind the scenes and they keep talking about looking forward to share more about the Docked Xbox experience. So here's my question: do you think Microsoft will put in the work to make Switch like docking experience possible on windows? Many thanks for your hard work and best regards

(Don’t be a) Richard

We saw this generation that an extended cross gen period corresponded with a shift towards leveraging performance benefits in newer gen consoles to make 60fps performance modes common place, perhaps over pushing tech in other ways that could preclude a game from shipping on previous gen consoles. Will the rise of handheld devices in the Windows and console space, with an expectation that a game will ship cross platforms, similarly see devs needing to adapt games to a broader range of device capabilities, and how might that influence tech advancements and its rate of adoption into the future.

speedlemur

DF crew - is there a recommendation for frame limiting in combination with frame generation? Games seem inconsistent as to whether they stop you exceeding your max refresh rate, which causes dropped frames microstutter. Most external frame rate limiters (NVCP, Special K) seem to introduce frame pacing issues when used in conjunction with frame gen.

Dubuc Nathan

Hi there! Very often when we hear about a new breakthrough in the PC GPU space, we hear Nvidia or AMD partnered very closely with Microsoft for implementation in DirectX. Isn't the fact that Vulkan is never mentioned in those conversations quite problematic for the openness of the PC platform? I'm personally very attached to open-source and I sometimes play my games on Linux, and seeing Vulkan being seemingly so often forgotten about in these conversations makes me scared that key future GPU features might be stuck on Windows/DirectX. What are your thoughts?

Mr Bespoke

Hi DF Crew! Is John looking forward to Shenmue 3 Enhanced and what would his thoughts be on what they could improve to the game? PS If wasn't for Johns DF Retro Video on Shenmue I'd probably wouldn't of found this channel and been a supporter. Thanks and keep up the awesome work!!!

Pulec

Guten Tag, DorFs! What do you think about the specs of Valve's Fremont console? CPU is compared to i3-13100F and with RX 7600 it could handle many current games at 60 FPS FullHD. And with SteamOS users might use the ported Lossless Scaling which can do decent frame gen in some titles (Dragon's Dogma 2). Maybe even FSR 4 might be possible. Will Valve manage to offer decent console alternative between PS5 and Xbox Series X if priced at $599? Or less?

FrametimeSommelier

I researched it a bit just earlier this week and it looks like if you use DLSS frame gen you should only use the frame limiter in the Nvidia Control Panel/Nvidia App. This supposedly will avoid stutters or desync issues that can occur with other limiters. But I am still not 100% certain about best practice (all this above comes from some surface scratching internet research) and I would love the DF Crew to shed some light on it. I do have some success with this in Avowed recently with a Nvidia Control Panel 120fps limit in combo with my 4080 on my 1440k OLED. Its seem to work actually very well. Without the Frame Limit the game hops around between 140 and 170 fps, now its smooth at constant 120. The discord recommended Special K in the past but with frame gen I am not getting a smooth experience.

speedlemur

The only success I have actually had is with an in game limiter, but they often don't exist or have their own issues. NVCP limiter has created pacing issues for me, but it is what I would turn to if I had no other option. Sometimes I have found it easier to have less generated frames in the hope I stay within gsync range, but then I'm hardly saturating the refresh rate of my monitor. I feel like this is an under discussed issue of frame generation in general. I am aware frame generation multiplies frame pacing issues, but you definitely notice a significant worsening with an external frame rate limiter (Including NVCP)

Someguyperson

GeForce Now Ultimate now has 5080-class GPUs with 48 GB of memory and you can install any game you want now? That sounds like a great DF video about why we need more VRAM on GPUs. Also, could I buy a 5080 with 32 GB of VRAM without costing an arm and/or leg?

The Phantomnaut

Even if AMD deleted their GitHub source code page for FSR 4, it’s out there being worked on to even work on last gen AMD cards. Given that the library of FSR 4 supported games are not as big as something like DLSS or even XeSS, should AMD officially turn it open source if possible? The quality of FSR 4 is competitive and with their cards being a very viable option, it can bring more interest in people trying Team Red.

FrametimeSommelier

I'm asking for all shader compile stutter plagued PC players out there. Why do game developer not offer a "Compile All Shaders" option in their settings? I understand that many games already perform some basic shader compilation on first launch (and some even at every lunch). But personally, I wouldn't mind letting an optional complete shader compile run while I watch a movie or relax on the patio. Wouldn't this eliminate all shader compilation stutter during gameplay? It seems like a no-brainer. Just compile everything up front and avoid the hiccups entirely. Am I overlooking something? Is there a technical constraint that make full pre-compilation impractical?

Someguyperson

I'm not sure what everyone is missing here, Elden Ring is DESIGNED to run at a flexible 30-60 FPS depending on the direction of the wind to increase the difficulty and to deliberately troll the player, which is something FromSoftware loves to do. With all this in mind, are you all hoping for a flexible 12-24 FPS experience for the Elden Ring movie? I would just love it if there were 500 ms hitches & stutters throughout the movie. It just warms my heart when I'm literally seeing the "picture" in a "moving picture".

James

Xbox handheld, and Valve freemont sound like awesome things to cover. Any info on any OS features of either (if any divulged) would be interesting too.

Holmelock

Excellent job! You discuss gpu, cpu power requirements on handhelds, have there been any improvements in battery tech?

ConcreteLlama

Consoles always have a bit of an advantage over equivalently specced PCs because developers can cater their games for a specific piece of hardware. Given the likelihood that there will eventually be multiple Xboxes with a variety of hardware from multiple vendors, will it lose that advantage entirely or are there still some inherent benefits from being an SoC?

Someguyperson

Moore's Law is absolutely not dead and anyone who says otherwise has no comprehension of what any of it all means. Moore's Law is a doubling of transistor density per mm^2 energy 24 months or so. This has absolutely been the case, but not all companies have been wanting to use the latest & greatest nodes for their products, which has always been the case. Phone chips have been at the forefront of this for the past 15 years. The AI craze is all relatively new and it takes 5 years for a company like Nvidia to change course and use the latest & greatest nose every year. But, even then, TSMC's roadmap has already assumed that phone chips will lead the way for each new process node. This is changing with AMD's latest server CPUs now being a pipe cleaner product for the N2 node. Also, adding in dedicated silicon for specific tasks has been a thing since the first days of video cards - it's not new at all. If anything, Nvidia, AMD & Intel all want more programmable GPUs, not ones that have tons of dedicated silicon for graphics only applications.

Someguyperson

Well, it does look like Steam Machines for the living room is going to be a real thing, but why would Valve use such anemic hardware as the leaks state? Wouldn't they be a lot better off with Strix Halo? Won't their partners also put out Strix Halo products that would blow away the rumored Fremont?

Retro Sean

Hello DF friends, my question this week is: why do you think it has taken so long for Microsoft to (allegedly) be working to bring a 'video game' interface to Windows? I can recall long ago, while I was in the menu of some game or other, my father walked by and remarked that he wished his office machine had an interface for everyday tasks, "more like that." I think that was 20 years ago.

Someguyperson

Handhelds actually become popular? Did you somehow miss that the Switch 1 is going to be the highest selling console of all time somehow? Or how the Switch 2 set the record for most sales of a console in the first month? Or how the Switch 2 was released in June, which is so far away from the holiday season that nobody thought it would sell nearly that well? The Steamdeck is a novelty, the Switch is what everyone is actually aiming for.

Someguyperson

It's a trade-off in terms of how much data you need to include for all that shadowmap data. It shouldn't be too bad for the MGS3 remake, but it's a huge problem for other games, just like Alex explained in the AC: Shadows coverage earlier this year.

Someguyperson

It would be great if Microsoft actually cared about the end user experience, but I'm not holding my breath here. They'll probably need to see revenue actually declining before they try to make something for the benefit of the consumer.

Sudiukil

Hello DF! Long time listener now proud subscriber, congrats on the independence! Gaming on Linux has gained quite a lot of traction lately thanks to the tremendous efforts of Valve and the open-source community and it works quite well now that DX11 and DX12 games are well supported. However, what do you reckon will happen whenever DX13 (or any big evolution of DX in general) happens? I imagine Valve would be hard-pressed to have Proton be DX13-ready in a timely manner. I'd be curious to hear your thoughts on how perenne Linux gaming can really be as games keep relying on Windows native technologies that need to be unofficially translated. Cheers!

Will Cooling

Would love to hear your thoughts but particularly John's on Mortal Kombat Mythologies announcements, especially the UKM3 Nextwave news.

Will Cooling

Just curious about why you haven't directly address Will Judd leaving DF given how transparent you've been about everything else. What's your plans for written content moving forward?

FrametimeSommelier

Might be price. I read somewhere that OEM partners pay between $400 and $600 dollar per Strix Halo APU. You can't find Strix Halo laptops under $2000. And don't forget, Gabe Newell has to maintain a boating and diving lifestyle with fancy glasses and shirts. ;-)

CrashOverride

I wasn't asking you, but it's not actually going to get better than 3nm and I'm well aware of how Moore's Law works.

Mog

Hi DF crew, and congratulations on your separation from the mothership! Now that you have full control over the creative reins, is there any chance that we might be graced by the Ghost of Phoenix Past? Or is he too busy developing his new patented 10x loading times?

Someguyperson

Hey DF! In my entire life, I have only felt motion sickness from one game: Kirby Air Ride. Even in the Nintendo Direct presentation this week for Kirby Air Riders my stomach didn't feel great. What are these games uniquely doing on a technical level to enhance motion sickness? Screen shake + fast speeds?

Jiminy the 26th

Good morning, afternoon, or night. After the 5 year peregrination of these consoles upon the market, every console has seen a price increase. Is it smarter for the console makers to wait an extra year or two (maybe even three?) to manufacture a console that’s worth less than a spare appendix? Thanks laddies

Someguyperson

Strix Halo is absolutely an expensive part, but Valve is never going to be able to compete with the PS5 on price, so you might as well go for broke on the best thing you can make right now. I think they could realistically sell a Strix Halo part for $1000 and be a flagship product that people view fondly and want to buy. Even with the anemic specs of the Hawk Point SoC, I don't expect the purported Fremont to sell for less than $600.

Jagster

Gents, I hope you are all well! It's been exciting to see and hear and even greater level of fervor in the work you do since going fully independent! Just finished watching your MGS Delta PS5/Pro tech review video, and the question that comes to mind is: what needs to happen? What needs to shift in the dev work, workflows, whatever else in order for UE5 games to not be plagued with same performance issues that seem to hit so many titles? Would love to hear your thoughts on the matter

The Shadow-Map

There's nothing on the docket that makes this relevant topic, but can we expect a PSVR3, or is VR the territory of freemium software and standalone headsets now? Hitman PSVR2 is really good -- so good I now find myself with Google alerts to notify me of the PSVR3's fate. Please tell me the odds are better than the Generals beating the Globetrotters. Happy independence!

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Exactly why I asked my question. For bigger games with dynamic time of day and weather I’d always go for RTGI. Both as a developer and gamer. But seeing how the remake performs and knowing the OG game almost by heart I think it could’ve been made with baked lighting and there wouldn’t be a huge difference. Or the difference would be worth it if it vastly improved performance.

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hello brave Travelers, do you think the more expensive Xbox Ally will be worth the price? Did you see how it performs when docked and with AutoSR turned on? Cheers

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hello Foundrymen, do you think GamesCom is worth going to if you can only get there on the general public days? Or does it lose its charm every year while not losing the number of visitors?

Anxiously Chrono Triggered

Hi DF! Did you see the latest Asus OLED monitor with 520hz refresh rate (or even up to 720hz in 720p!)? If combined with the CRT Beam Simulator do you think we can finally get the same motion clarity as on CRT screens? Cheers!

Fowler is God

Hi team - with a fair few Switch 2 games struggling for good optimisation and lacking of new feature use (DLSS, 120hz, etc) or even some developers just assuming the Switch 1 game will do (looking at you Ninja Gaiden Ragebound!) do you think Nintendo are regretting not sharing the dev kits wider, sooner? Why would they not have? Fear of leaks? Surely better to have better games promoting your new system??

RL

Hey fellas, hope you're having an awesome time at Gamescom. Speaking of which I've got to ask about two games that are there. Were you able to play Crimson Desert and Borderlands 4? I'm incredibly curious about your thoughts.

DaJaCo (Dan)

Happy Half-Fortnight Sore-Footed Lads! GAMESCOM Questions!.. Did you find the "courage in the face of death" (Valor Mortis) to make it through Gamescom? Did you "stalk down" Stalker 2 on PS5 Pro? How "Tarnished" is Elden Ring Tarnished edition, is it a worryingly honest title? How "silky" was Silksong (120hz) on Switch 2? How many "parades" should we be having to celebrate the announcement of "Zero Parades"? Hope you all had a blast.

Bazlurgan

Good morning gentlemen - long time watcher, new supporter. With the news that Elden Ring: Tarnished Edition unfortunately is a tarnished/broken port, I was wondering if you had a chance to try this? Why do you think this is running so poorly when it seems to run well on my Steam Deck?

Alan

Hi Chaps, So Pete Parsons CEO is leaving Bungie after a decade, what has happened to Bungie, there's been no fruits from the deal with Sony, who were going to use Bungie's Live Service tech and skills, where did it go wrong? What about existing IP switching to Live Service, GT7 for example, what about £30 a year for continual tech upgrades and content.

Alan

Hi Guys, What was the general vibe at Gamescom, with all the layoffs and corpo greed going on, is there any positivity or is it all doom and gloom? especially with reports that Gen Z is really cutting back spending on gaming, must be pivoting to F2P mobile time burners!

The Knight Who Says Ni!

NI DF, Have you seen Microsoft’s new DirectX Advanced Shader Delivery? Sounds cool that it could make updates easier and cut down on storage, but I’m not sure how I feel about it being cloud-based. Kinda worried it might end up needing a really solid internet connection all the time. Could be great if it works smoothly, but also a bit risky.

Nicholas Long

Hello there to you! Long-time viewer new-time Patreon member here. All can chime in but this question is mainly for Rich. What would you say is the most enRiching aspect of attending gaming events such as Gamescom, E3, TGS?

Bulbous_Bow

Good evening most independent foundrymen. On a recent DF Direct musings were made about how a future Xbox console adding Steam support could be an exciting development for console and PC gamers alike. It was also put that the venture could be ‘lucrative’. I couldn’t agree more on the first point. On the second my question is simple: how? I can see the appeal to gamers. If MS want to allow me a way of jumping into medium-high end RDNA5, with full Steam support - all via a subsidised box - just tell me where to deposit my readies. But if people will be using this subsidised box to buy their games via Steam (and if you give them the option to they will) how could it actually make money for Microsoft? I appreciate as gamers there’s few things we could care less about than Microsoft or anyone else’s profit margins. But equally, if there isn’t at least a potential route to profit on the venture, I’d say you can be pretty sure isn’t going to work out like that. Microsoft don’t seem in a particularly charitable mood toward their game division these days after all. Personally, the only path forward I can see is that they don’t subsidise it at all, but simply hope to use scale to undercut more expensive pre-built options… then hope if they can make their own store & gamepass more prominent on the dashboard they’ll get buyers there through inertia? Or maybe the ROG Xbox Ally price point will give us more of a clue? Looking forward to hearing your thoughts

Octolimar

You guys have taken a look at most of the first party games that recieved nintendo switch 2 upgrades, but how about third party? There's already a decent amount of games with both switch 1 and 2 versions, it could make for an interesting comparison to see how different developers utilize the increased power. The new Ys game even has a 120fps mode. Is this something in the cards for a future video?

VioletVulptex

Hello gents, what are your thoughts on smooth motion and global DLSS overrides being added to the NVIDIA app in the most recent driver update?

TheUnrealRich

Hello Founders (exclamationpoint) a Question for Rich: how happy are you personally that it is officially called GameScom and not Gamecom? Please rate it on a Scale from one to Geoff-announcing-a-world-premiere and keep up the great work!

digitalfoundry

Fair point - but at the same time, I didn't feel it was for me to make career announcements on his behalf. Not only that, broader disclosure on the separation was somewhat out of my control and I'm not even sure if Eurogamer has published an article yet on our departure?

Spodlude

Good day DF crew! I'd love to hear your thoughts on the advanced shader delivery on the ROG ally xbox. When the trimmed windows 11 eventually makes its way to the original ally, is there any reason why these shader packs wouldn't be compatible? Also, do you think it will be a feature locked to games downloaded from the Windows/ xbox store... that would suck!

Douglas Fowler

Hello DFers, After your reporting on the performance woes of MGS Δ, there’s been a lot of renewed chatter online along the lines of “UE5 = bad performance.” I’d love to hear your take: when UE5 games struggle, how much of that is down to developer implementation versus shortcomings in the engine itself? And more broadly—do you think UE5 titles are inherently doomed to run with issues like shader compilation stutter, traversal hitches, and frame-time spikes, etc.?

BespokeEP

I was talking about PC handhelds lol. The question was about PC handhelds becoming the target spec.. more people probably own a 4090:than a PC handheld lol

Keaten

Seconded on Ys! I find that 120fps mode very interesting!

10 Watts Raytracing

Bonjour Digital Foundry ! The market of handhelds is exploding these days. There's just so many models, and more on the horizon! Du you believe that this will make the developers of future AAA titles target good performances on that class of devices? Should we then foresee that more AAA franchise will ship to Switch 2 compared to Switch 1 due to that new market condition?

Will Dobbs

Hello chaps! I’m personally quite interested in Microsoft’s “handheld compatibility mode” as user of SteamOS/Bazzite, but at the same time I’ve used every Xbox from 360 onward and was mostly less than impressed with the user experience in the latter generations (blades for life). Do you all think that Microsoft really have the incentive this time around to make a genuinely great gaming OS, or is this likely to be a half-measure in the midst of their copilot fixation? Keep up the amazing work and all the best!

Stephen Heim

Happy Game's Con! How many of us gamer/tech nerds here are Metalheads? The reason for inquiry is did anyone see the Mount and Blade 2 trailer featuring the Viking Metal band Amon Amarth for the trailer soundtrack? ROW! ROW! ROW! Obviously you cant play the song but it worked so well for what looks like a good trailer with promise. I'm curious on what kind of music does the DF team like or listen too while gaming or in their free time? Do you miss games like Tony hawk, Killing floor 2 or NFS: Underground 1/2 that set the mood with licensed music? or do you run your favorite music app in the background. I do the same while I research and brainstorm new tech ideas like this new Gaussian Splat NeRF AI videos for a new way to interact with video content. I like my crazy metal music so i can focus. Cheers everyone and thank you for all you do for the community!

Rostislav Ulbricht

bespoken gents, when is the early access dropping, I cannot wait any longer

Travesty Stutter

I'm glad someone (be)spoke out about this travesty

AMH

Exclamation point

Natiq İsmayılzadə

Greetings from Baku! Do you think artificial intelligence will one day be used for game porting? For example, if we give AI all the information about a PS4 game and the device, can it port the game?