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Call For Questions For DF Direct Weekly #147 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-01-25 10:20:24
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

It's that time again! Tomorrow morning, John, Alex and Rich will convene to record DF Direct Weekly #147, and try as we might to avoid it, the chances are we'll need to tackle the Palworld discourse - and maybe play a bit more of it! 

Beyond that, other news topics that caught our eye include the potential reveal of an updated version of Until Dawn, the official reveal of AMD Fluid Motion Frames offering frame-gen for DX11/12 games seemingly without restriction, while Rich will be accommodating John's fetish for outdated AMD flagships by returning to the Radeon 7! 

Any topics you'd like us to cover, or questions you'd like the team to tackle? There's an invitingly empty box below in which to offer up your input - go for it!

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Comments

1040STF

There's a whole debate on social medias and in the news since a few days about the thin line between a game copying other ones and a game getting inspired by other ones. On what side do you think Palworld sits?

PixelPeepin

Howdy fellas, here's a few quick hitters for ya. Q1 - Why do console games often limit Anisotropic Filtering to low values when it's such a typically inexpensive (yet impactful) graphical option on PC? Q2 - Will DLSS 3 theoretically allow games that have their physics tied to framerate, to exceed that framerate by up to ~2X without any undue effects? Q3 - To each of you. What is your preferred aspect ratio & resolution when gaming? Appreciate everything you put into the world gents.

DF enjoyer

Hi Team, what was your favourite childhood game growing up, that after replaying in your adulthood you realised it wasn’t thaaaat incredible . Mine was Mission Impossible Operation Surma.

ConcreteLlama

Last week you asked how Xbox players feel about Microsoft phasing out physical media. I personally feel that they may as well just do away with physical media because they already half-arse it anyway. It's not like the content is on the discs half the time anyway and the only real advantage to physical media is the ability to buy second hand. I would also just like to highlight an advantage to digital media that is not often discussed here, and is the reason I primarily get games digitally on Xbox (I also have a PS5). If you have 2 Xbox consoles and set one console to your home console then sign into the other, you can play the game on both consoles at the same time and this even includes Xbox Live and Game Pass. This is a huge advantage in my household as I have a Series X and my wife has a Series S, and as most games these days do not have split screen coop. I think a similar system may exist on PS5 but I only have one of those.

Tom Bomb

Hi. This is not meant as a question, but feedback on last week's DF Weekly. John once again talked about digital content on consoles and that's the 3rd or 4th time I hear him say the same things in DF Weekly which are very inaccurate, and that's honestly starting to piss me off. First, let me get something straight. Is digital content handled perfectly on consoles today? No. Can improvements be made? Certainly. However. 1) John keeps talking about people losing access to games they purchased digitally on consoles. The only example I know is PT, where even if you had added it to your library (for free, BTW), once it was removed from the store you could not download it anymore (though there is a workaround). Aside from this example, I personally have tons of digital content I bought on PS3 and XBOX over the years, some of which is not available to purchase in the stores anymore, but I can still access, download and use this content, with no problem. I'm not aware of any content that I lost access to. 2) A couple of months ago, I dug out my PS3 to play or replay some classics. John mislead me into thinking the store was shut down, and I went and bought physical copies of most Ratchet & Clank games as I wanted to play the entire series, only to find out the store is actually alive and well, and some games were cheaper on the PlayStation Store. The Ratchet & Clank Trilogy is even cross-buy, meaning if I bought it on the store I would have paid less and would have had the game on PS3 AND on Vita. I was able to get games like Daytona USA on PS3 or Velocity Ultra on the VITA, and there's really no issue buying from these stores even though they've been around since 2007. It's true that there are less games on the store now, but then again, I can understand some publishers removing 15 year old games from those old stores. And players who bought the games lose nothing. For instance, one of the games I played is GTI Club+. One problem with the game, for those who want the full experience, is that the DLC has been removed from the store. I bought the game and its DLC back in 2009... I still have access to both no problem. I even lent my account to a fellow trophy hunter so he could 100% the game, so I really struggle to see what the big fuss is about players losing access to their content or choosing what to do with it. 3) Lastly, John keeps saying that the only place that's safe for digital games is the PC? That supposedly Steam would be a safe haven for digital games as valve "promised" everything would be made available if it ever went down. I'm pretty sure there are more examples on Steam of players loosing access to games than anywhere else. Didn't Counter-Strike Global Offensive disappear from Steam just recently as it was replaced by Counter-Strike 2? I'm sure there have been similar examples before, with things like Day of Defeat or Doom 3. Anyway, if John prefers physical media, good for him. He's got thoughts on how digital media could be handled better across the board? Let's hear him. But please stop repeating the same inaccuracies regarding the digital stores on consoles, because that's not doing anyone any good.

bjorktribe

Regarding frame gen, the Galaxy S24 series offers instant slow motion by way of generating frames on the fly. Forgiving that the phone doesn't have to deal with all the complications that make it resource intensive on Nvidia GPUs, any chance of a comparison there for some fun? I imagine the solution is not dissimilar from what TVs have been doing for years except that the S24s have access to the entire video from the start rather than having to add a delay buffer to wait for frames to draw from. P.S, I was overseas in London for work and happened to be contracted for some of that in the O2 Arena. I got to see the big red Game Palace you had a hand in building. Marvelous bit of tech in there! Thanks as ever, gents!

Patrick Llaban

Hey guys! I recently had a baby and the last 5 months have been busy with little to no time for gaming, having to balance my job, health and family duties. How do you come to grips with having less time to play video games/pursue hobbies while raising kids?

Diego ElRey

I have a question about Anti-Aliasing. I became aware of AA during the shortly-lived Dreamcast/PS2 battle. Multiplats on the DC would actually have a cleaner output compared to PS2's jaggies, and this was due to the DC using AA, and AA was lauded as a nice to have. Now, it seems that with the higher resolutions, and other tech of today, that when AA mentioned, it's done so as lowering image quality, making things blurry, etc. Is AA something that is bad once you're passed SDTV? Is implementation simply different now? Or?

zephyr

Hi DF team! Have you gotten the chance to look at the latest Starfield beta? They have dramatically changed the lighting making a lot of scenes look completely different!

Special Agent Cooper

Hi DF! I would love to spark a discussion about the state of HUDs in games! In my opinion, they are the #1 enemy of immersion and as far as graphics have advanced, I am personally disappointed that HUDs / immersion have largely stayed the same. For example, I cannot bring myself to play any of the Horizon games. It just pains me so much to have a beautiful world like that corrupted by multiple elements on screen reminding me that I am having a superficial experience at any point. People often respond to this with "Well, nobody stops you from turning the HUD elements off if you want to. They allow you to do that". Yes, they do. But the game is fundamentally not designed around this way of playing. It results in a severe disadvantage, as HUD information is not brought into the physical game world (like in Dead Space), it simply disappears. I don't want handicaps, I want immersion. Thoughts?

EvilNeo

Hi DF, with consumer CPUs being so stingy with PCIe lanes, why don't modern GPUs support PCIe Gen5x8 as an alternative to Gen4x16? Does the length of the plug determine how many lanes must be used or could there be a way to disable half the lanes through the driver and get the same bandwidth on Gen5 while freeing up 8 (!) lanes for storage, networking, or whatever.

Diego ElRey

Regarding the Radeon VII; If nothing else, the card looks good, and has a badass name. I mean, Radeon VII. It sounds so...final.

Leftisthominid

What is the status on Richards' notionally instant notifications? Could there be a bespoke solution to his problem?

Leftisthominid

What is the difference between capping a frame rate in-game vs in Nvidia control center? Nvidia control center lets you cap to any integer while many gaves limit the fps cap to multiples of 5. This is not cromulent for 144Hz non-VRR displays.

Leftisthominid

Now that Richard has switched to Unreal Engine 5 per DF Directs 56 and 87, if something unexpected happens during recording, will the new shaders not be able to asynchronously compile and thus cause an unfortunate stutter?

Leftisthominid

Have you reconsidered doing a collaboration with Random Gaming in HD? The Radeon VII tests may be up his alley.

Leftisthominid

What was the last time that Alex played a game on console on his own volition? (It cannot be related to his work at DF)

DaJaCo (Dan)

This week saw the release of AMD's "Fluid Motion Frames" (AFMF), which as far as I understand it - adds frame interpolation at the Direct X API level; meaning that it can be utilized without developers adding native support to their titles. Could something similar be done with SteamOS? How is it likely to differ from native FSR 3 support?

I love the Habs

Who wants to make a betting pool on how quickly Nintendo will take down Palworld? I got five pokemon dollars on within the month.

Lil Gohan

Hey guys, first question from me for 2024. Now that we have seen from the MS leaks that the new Xbox controller will support gyro/motion controls, this brings near-parity to all 3 major console manufacturers’ controllers. However, that actually leaves Nintendo behind the curve, as they have not returned to Analog Triggers since the GameCube. Do we think the Switch Jr. will incorporate analog triggers? Furthermore, will they go the GameCube route with clickable buttons at the bottom of the triggers? This would allow for games like Returnal to use their native PS5 control schemes, and could make porting slightly easier. Thoughts?

Plasma4Life

Good’ay gents! Long time viewer, first time patreon subscriber here. Over the last year or so, I’ve seen PS5 games ship with a simple graphics toggle between Resolution and Performance. e.g. Wild Hearts, Wo Long, and FF7 Remake. For someone who is still on a Panasonic Plasma 1080p TV and will not subject my retinas to anything inferior, which setting makes most sense for my display? Are these games true in stating the toggle is only for resolution? May the DF gods favor me on this day, for the answer to this question has been haunting my peace of mind. Cheers!

Anon2648

Is the time of 1080p monitors over? What are your thoughts on image quality/performance of 1440p dlss quality on a 1440p monitor vs running 1080p native on a 1080p screen. Is there any reason, outside of super high refresh rate, to still buy a 1080p monitor over 1440p or is upscaling to the point where even those with low-mid range hardware would be better buying a higher resolution monitor.

Hobobench

Hey DF bois! There were recently potential leaked memos from Walmart about pulling Starfield's physical version from shelves per directive from the publisher. Have you guys seen this, and what are your thoughts? This seems to confirm that XBox is moving out of the physical media market and may already be working to shrink their physical presence in retailers.

ctg867

Last year John covered The Last Hope, a shovelware eShop game imitating The Last of Us. I can't help but draw some parallels to the recently released Palworld. The copying of Pokemon's art assets (as VGC and others have reported) is pretty egregious, to say nothing of Ark, Breath of the Wild, or its other "inspirations." The dev apparently has a track record of knock off games like these, including ones which use AI "art" assets. Does DF plan on covering this Palworld? I can't help but feel like creatively bankrupt products like these do far more harm than good for the medium. Curious to hear your thoughts, and keep up the good work, as always.

KiMoSaBi

Hi DF Team, greetings from moderately cold GTA (Greater Toronto Area). Gotta give Kudos to Oliver for the times he joins in due to the time difference. My question is for John, as it pertains to physical media. With the release of the MIG flash cart. What are your thoughts on it. My initial reaction was positive at its announcement, as it means not having to carry a bunch of carts around. But as I purchase a lot of my switch games used, the concern I have now is that the used cart market will be poisoned by duplicate cart ID's. When someone unscrupulous just copies and sells the used cart, Nintendo can just ban both consoles. Which really sucks for legitimate users. (and cynically Nintendo doesn't care).

astonish

Hi DF! When playing an old PC game on modern PC hardware at max settings, resolution can be increased to something far higher than what was possible at the game’s release. Despite diminishing returns, the net effect is increased visual quality from the overpowered GPU. In a similar way, should path and ray-traced games allow users to specify the number of rays-per-pixel and, to a limit, the number of bounces-per-ray? This seems like an impactful way to allow future generations of GPUs to increase many more aspects of visual quality when playing these titles down the road. Keep up the amazing work.

cardinalwhale

Hey DF! I bought Quest 3 recently thanks to John talking about it on Direct. And I do enjoy it quite a bit. So I have a couple of questions: 1. If VR game is multiplatform, what platform do you prefer? PCVR, PSVR2 or Meta Quest? 2. Do you feel like PCVR market is in a good place? I feel like new heavy hitters are usually either Quest or PSVR2 exclusive. In my eyes the only recent great development is UEVR stuff which is obviously only possible on PC. Is there more stuff coming for PCVR? Or is it doom and gloom? Thank you, as always, for your hard work!

Someguyperson

Regarding John's "John vs. Palworld" video, I have to ask a question: does John normally just punch all the friendly NPCs just to see what happens? Is it in John's nature to ignore what the big box of text in the HUD tells him to do? Or is all this connected to John not liking games in this genre? Is John the Darth Vader to Rich's Palpatine?

Someguyperson

On the topic of "Fluid Motion Frames": how is this feature any different than motion smoothing on a TV? AMD advertised this feature is enabled at the driver level and works with all DX11 & DX12 games, which tells me this simply works off the frame buffer with no motion vectors involved at all. Holding onto a frame longer to generate one in-between has to also increase the latency of everything substantially (particularly when AMD's Anti-Lag+ has serious issues). From what I've seen when it comes to the upscaling & frame generation techniques, everything comes down to how well motion vectors are implemented throughout the game and that the game looks "broken" most of the time an object/particle/sprite doesn't have motion vectors. Isn't basing an entire frame generation technique on data without motion vectors a fool's errand?

Cactoid Piñata

Recently, John mentioned that PC is now his primary platform. John, do you still buy physical games for current gen consoles? If so, are you extra picky about which ones? I love physical media, but it's starting to feel like a waste of space. With the condition of day one game releases and things like Xbox smart delivery discs only having the Xbox One version on them, do you feel like Steam and GOG are the way to go? I'd like to hear your current thoughts on this. Thanks DF, for all the great content!

VeryProfessionalDodo

Currently Steam is an accepted monopoly in the PC space, and they have gathered a lot of good will from consumers over the years. Attempts from other companies to bring competition through funding of exclusives (the classic console move) have been met with hostility and resistance. GOG’s DRM-free approach is appealing to some, but with its inability to innovate in the software (and hardware!) department at Valve’s current speed it severely lacks in features gamers now take for granted. Realistically, at this point in time, what do you think a company would have to do to disrupt the current ecosystem in a meaningful way?

1040STF

In theory, now that Steam OS has proven to be robust and capable of marvelous things thanks to Proton, could it be adapted for Mac equipped with Apple Silicon chips, as a dual boot option? And what would prevent that to happen in practice?

NailzMannz

Hey DF crew, What are the common traits between current gen releases that allow good HFR experiences or 40fps quality modes? Why don't we see more games with 120hz output options? Could we have seen FF16, Alan Wake 2 or Avatar with at least a 40fps quality mode?

musha68k

Salut DF! Apparently the Van Gogh APU in Valve's Steam Deck was originally designed through collaboration between Magic Leap and AMD for the "Magic Leap 2" AR glasses; as part of the connected "Compute Pack" which is supposed to be worn (on body) by the given professional user and in their respective professional AR context. So now, that Valve has integrated this nifty APU with their successful handheld: Could you foresee this coming full circle; where the Deck could get a complementary AR ? VR headset as an optional accessory? Tethered to it, becoming the gaming equivalent of the APU origin's “Compute Pack”? However bright John Carmack’s legacy at “Meta” may continue to shine with the Quest and beyond, I personally won’t be supporting that company with neither my precious money nor data. Yet, I’m still a big *PSVR1* fan, so I would be stoked to even play a *low Rez Infinite* as well as other AR ? VR indie titles through a relatively inexpensive, maybe even somewhat diminished consumer visor; again connecting straight to my Deck turned *cyber-ware*. Wouldn't Valve meet Facebook Oculus and - dare we dream it - Super Virtual Boy, heads-on with that? The historical / technical context should spell this out, what am I missing? Battery life versus under-clocked "Magic Leap 2"? Should we be afraid of early access titles in gut wrenching unstable / below 90 fps; bound to wait for Steam Deck 2 and / or a dedicated device after all? How would you like a potentially tacky / hacky "Compute Pack" vector for the current Deck? — Some beautiful Van Gogh pictures to show ;) Magic Leap references here btw: https://boilingsteam.com/an-in-depth-look-at-the-steam-deck-apu/ > Offloaded processing: The wired Compute Pack shifts the processor from your head to your hip, reducing weight and venting heat. Without sacrificing a bit of power. https://www.magicleap.com/magic-leap-2

PRiDE DK

Hello gents! Today Microsoft announced 1.900 layoffs in their gaming division affecting Activision, Bethesda, Blizzard and Xbox. Rumours on X says, that they have shut down whole departments dedicated to brining Xbox games to physical retail. Do you think this is the first step in the new direction Microsoft is going? Or is all this an expected exercise when merging such big companies as Activision and Blizzard into Microsoft? Thanks!

VeryProfessionalDodo

Hey there Digital Foundry! Recently acquired the Tomb Raider Legend trilogy from GOG and I’ve been having a blast on Steam Deck. While I was admiring the graceful clunkiness of the controls, I started wondering about physical media and game ownership. Isn’t GOG better than even physical media for game ownership and historical preservation, on a conceptual level? Even disregarding the inevitable degradation of CDs and cartridges, doesn’t the requirement for an original console to validate the data make the preservation and ownership angle less viable? Maybe follow-up question, what separates current physical media from a shareable license to access content? Thanks, and have a nice day!

sj33 (Jake)

Hi all. With Microsoft seemingly moving to adorably all-digital and Microsoft’s actions typically foreshadowing what Sony do later, we might be approaching the end of physical discs. Where does that leave physical-orientated outlets like Limited Run? It’s ironic but the PC could be the last bastion for physical games. The open nature of the platform means anybody can hook up a disc drive. In a world where even USB-C floppy disk drives exist, disc drives for PCs (and thus, physical PC discs) will always exist as long as somebody, somewhere makes them.

Xbox Ally Has Gone ROGue!

Just want to say so sorry to hear about all the layoff happened in the industry. Are we surely in the new video game crash now?

Treefinngers

Hey DF team! I'm contemplating an upgrade and hear me out. I have a 3080 and an IPS "HDR" 1440p monitor with absolute lackluster HDR. I'm trying to choose between the new QD-OLED 4k Alienware monitor or a 4080 Super. I want the DLSS3 Features and could still get a good return selling my 3080. If I go with the monitor first I'd be trying to drive a 4k monitor with a 3080. Thoughts? Thanks, as always, for the terrific content! You've kept me entertained since 2015

Vasyl Baran

Do you think that by trying to prevent PC users from using any kind of mods in their games (like in a recent Capcom/Enigma story) publishers actually incentivize piracy?

Kipters

It appears that according to the game page on the Game Pass app Hellblade 2 will be compatible with Xbox One, what's your opinion on this? EDIT: only the Android app (it also lets you pre-install the stub remotely), while the PC app only lists Series X|S and PC, correctly. Perhaps an error somewhere? I'm 1000 km away from my Xbox One X so I can't verify if the stub has been installed

Octolimar

How about a game of pick your poison: Poorly framepaced 30fps cap or an unlocked 30-40 fps? No anti aliasing or blurry and ghosty TAA? Shader stutter or streaming stutter? Go on lads

Artifact Comb

Hi DF! This one is probably more suited for John. 480i and PS2. After trying the “CRT simulation” effect on a Retrotink 4K with the right settings, I couldn’t help but giggle like a kid loading Gitaroo Man and other games that don’t work well with forced 480p: The effect was really convincing and gave that “higher res” feeling I could only see on my bulky CRT so far. For years now, I’ve been under the impression that the retro community has been more interested in “fixing” interlacing (via patches and a plethora of deinterlacing options) and thus are still chasing that “perfect” solution. But what about attempts to mimick the effect of 480i, flicker and all? Wouldn’t that be a more achievable solution? Or is it just pure nostalgia?

tod weitzel

Is it possible for Valve to bring Proton back to windows to aid in ongoing compatibility for the older titles that run better on SteamOS than Windows 11?

Never Ready Eddie

Hi DF Team, great work as always. Given the popularity of the Steam Deck and its fixed platform status, do you think game developers should start including a Steam Deck settings pre-set (or two - quality/performance) as seen on the consoles that ensures a reliably stable fixed framerate. Also bear in mind it has a fixed screen spec which consoles don't. Of course it being PC, users are free to fiddle about to their preference but many would love a pick up and play settings profile in games I feel. Maybe this could be part of the "Steam Deck Certified" thingy?

Never Ready Eddie

Hi DF Team, great work as always. I note in John's latest video on Tekken 8, he votes Epic's TSR as being the best of the many many upscalers in the game. This isn't the first time DF has picked TSR over DLSS (the longstanding champ). I wonder how it can beat NVIDIA's DLSS given their behemoth number of technical wizards and also more specifically, their use of AI and hardware to do the tricks? Surely Epic can't have the same resources behind its TSR development than NVIDIA has put into DLSS? How does Epic's TSR work compared to DLSS and its AI wizardry?

yogi

RTX Remix is in open beta now, are there any games you guys are excited to see get the Portal RTX treatment?

Osvaldo Doederlein

Hi DF! I loved John's video on Tekken 8 despite having zero interest in that genre. The most interesting finding for me was that UE5's TSR was best best upscaling option for that game, at limited rendering resolutions like the Steam Deck. Can we have a deep dive on TSR, like those DF made in the past for DLSS, FSR2 and XeSS?