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Call For Questions For DF Direct Weekly #149 (Patreon)

Published:
2024-02-08 16:22:55
Imported:
2026-06
Tags:
Q&A

Content

Wow, a busy day - I almost forgot to write up the call for questions for DF Direct Weekly #149, which we shall be filming tomorrow morning. Looks like it'll be Rich (ie me), John and Alex at the mics to discuss the latest gaming and technology news!

Inevitably, we'll be discussing the meltdown surrounding Microsoft's alleged multi-format plans and trying to get some idea of the pros and cons. We'd really like your thoughts on this - as well as your questions!

We'll also be discussing the release of Helldivers 2 (we did some co-op this afternoon!) and if we can find the time, we'll be looking at the Final Fantasy 7 Rebirth demo and the Starfield beta with XeSS and FSR3 support.

As usual, please do make use of the invitingly blank box below for your input into tomorrow's show!

Files

Comments

lord.frosty

Greetings to DF crew! Not really a question, but I would love to hear your opinions on the recently released Grounded documentary for The Last of Us Part 2. It provided plenty of details regarding the difficulties and complexity modern AAA development. Do you think that this amount of work is justified at the end? There is so much attention to detail in a grand game like The Last of Us Part 2, that I am afraid a lot it is not easily understood and noticed by the gaming community. Thanks for the weekly dose of tech talk!

Phazonmasher

Greetings DF crew, with the potential of MS going multiplatform, it got me thinking about the 3DO! It's highly unlikely, but can you see MS with future systems releasing a standard that hardware partners can then make their own. With the focus on game pass and less on hardware, can we one day see the Asus ROG Xbox? Thanks for all you do!

TheGamingCaveman

Hey Digital Foundry, with the advancements in Moonlight/Sunshine game streaming, I've been personally testing game streaming at 1440p 120Hz, and the delay and rendering time seem impressive on my S23 ultra. Have you had the chance to test it? and are there any plans to explore its capabilities, especially considering the new Steam Deck that John recently acquired?

Snorlax cat

if xbox becomes Microsoft games does the xbox trashcan series x all digital become the Microsoft series x? aka MS trashcan

AGSMA

Hi DF. After watching Oliver's Death Stranding video and look at the comparison shots between the PS4 and iPhone versions, a thought came to mind: "man, 16:9 sucks". What felt like a more cinematic aspect ratio 15 years ago, nowadays it's uninteresting seeing any piece of media, interactive or not, under those specifications. I'm aware that your work stations have ultrawide monitors and that's always a sight to be in awe, however, have you ever tried running modern games with other aspect ratios like 4:3 and see how well they hold up? Even funnier experience, if possible: have you considered running games with swapped resolutions, so that they look like they're running in Tate Mode? Fast-paced games like Doom Eternal might be hilariously unplayable that way.

bjorktribe

Let me just dust this question off from a month ago.... *blows on cartridge pins* Hmm... Needs some post launch updates: Regarding Xbox potentially bringing a bunch of exclusives to other consoles.... Microsoft dropping exclusivity... Who cares? Put games everywhere! Go Xbox, Go! Sega did it.

DennisKRQ

Hey DF gang! With all this talks of implosion and meltdown surrounding Xbox, I'm interested in your thought about what the purpose of an "exclusive game" really is? I've always heard it described as something to push console sales, but I think that only really rings true for Nintendo in the current era. For Sony and Microsoft, my impression is that it's the networking effect of big multiplayer titles like CoD and FIFA/EA Sports FC that end up moving machines - it's why I always thought Sony was so fervently against cross-play until quite recently. I honestly don't see significant value in exclusives (especially timed exclusives) at all, but that may be my PC-centric "I can wait for this thing to go on sale in 6 years" brain talking...

sj33 (Jake)

How long until the Series X gets replaced by a Game Pass streaming stick?!

Aaron Hughes

Huge fan of the podcast and the amazing content from the team! I have a question based on Alex's coverage of the DLSSG to FSR3 mod. It is amazing and has given my RTX 3080 a massive performance boost. I know this is using AMD technology, but do you think NVIDIA is purposefully limiting access to DLSS frame generation on older cards to increase sales of the 4000 series? If so, could you see NVIDIA adding native support for frame gen on older cards in the future?

1040STF

As Microsoft wants their games to be played by the most, do you think they should open the Xbox Series to other OS? Like SteamOS, Windows, linux, etcetera. It might sound like a far-fetched idea but it doesn't sound that far from their actual strategy. Just allowing Windows on Xbox would sell Windows keys. Steam would open the doors to even better cross-buy with PC. They could share the Steam cut if a game was sold through an Xbox. Of course it might mean the small death of the Xbox's Microsoft Store... but with their actual strategy, the Microsoft Store seems more and more just here for Gamepass. There might be flaws in this idea but I'm trying hard to find a way they could make the Xbox hardware still desirable, in case their games were going multiplateforme. And I think there's something to dig into the idea of opening Xbox to alternates OS.

Never Ready Eddie

Hi DF Crew. Where would I be on a Monday doing my work without DF Direct on my second screen? So FSR was not long ago introduced to the consoles and has been heavily used thus far to good and ill I think. Can you reflect on what games had to do before its introduction to maintain FPS, and do you think it has been a good thing or a bad thing it made it to consoles when compared to the image quality of the older methods? Lastly, why can't they use Intel's XESS given it is hardware agnostic like FSR and in many cases looks better than FSR?

Never Ready Eddie

Hi DF team, love your sterling work! I am a long time PC gamer who also dabbles with console gaming. One thing I love about the PS5 is its quick resume function so I can jump back into a game in seconds. So, what are the chances Windows PCs will ever replicate this functionality? The Linux based Steam deck has this right? Imagine all our games being up to date when we wake the PC and getting into a game we left paused without all the launchers messing us about? Is this just a pipe dream?

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. 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, much like a console. Maybe this could be part of the "Steam Deck Certified'' thingy?

DanCasual

Hey DF. Have you ever looked into doing something like a CGI or "rendering techniques" video on movies/TV? Understand it's totally different to games and harder to breakdown, but sometimes when watching a film I'll hear certain DF phrases rattle around my brain, especially mid-budget films.

Beth Stalvey

John! I just got a quest 3 and I’ve been loving it. Have you had a chance to try Nomai VR? It’s the outer wilds complete with full 6DOF and motion controls. Also there is EmuVR, basically a virtual room that recreates your childhood and you can play any games or watch old movies on various size CRTs, complete with scratches on the screen!

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

What version of UE5 is Richard's background rendering using?

Leftisthominid

What are the updates regarding the Radeon VII and Richard's notionally instant notifications? Have you put into any thought about doing the Radeon VII video in collaboration with Random Gaming in HD?

Pol Kallamata

If it turns out that Xbox placing their titles on rival platforms is the beginning of Microsoft exiting the console hardware space altogether, it would be the first time in 23 years (since Sega became a third party publisher) that a major competitor leaves the space. Also the first time in 23 years that a major competitor enters the console hardware space, with the original Xbox coming out the same year. Do you believe that at this point in time the console space is too mature, and the player bases too entrenched to make room for another competitor to enter the market and be successful? Or do you believe that there is a new opening now for someone enter the market and compete with Sony and Nintendo? If the latter, what players do you think have a shot at being successful?

AdorablyAllPhysical

Would love to know how the DF logo and animation were created. It’s really one of the best around. When it comes on in eye-searing brightness at the start of one of DF’s HDR videos it really is a site to behold.

Leftisthominid

When not KB/M gaming, what types of keyboard and mice do you like/use? For example, I swear by the 2020 model of the Microsoft Ergonomic Keyboard (though this series is now defunct as Microsoft left the KB/M business). This keyboard was truly next-level stuff.

DJ Hicks

Can you discuss the relationship between v-sync and g-sync? Should v-sync be disabled to enable g-sync? Should both settings be enabled? Thank you.

Octolimar

Hello DF! Today (the 8th) is my eighteenth birthday. This made me think, when you guys were all 18 years old, what new tech was coming out that really impressed you at the time? What games do you most fondly remember? Can't wait to join the work force as a Digital Founder (ps rich, my name is pronounced "all-imm-are", like the pikmin character :p)

Rich

Perhaps it's the console business itself that's a losing proposition and Microsoft simply recognizes this reality? Recent leaks suggest that Sony's AAA business model isn't as sucessful as it seems from the outside. Even worse, older leaks from the Microsoft/Activision case suggest that both consoles are held up by a relatively small number of major franchises, themselves essentially subscription software (Call of Duty, FIFA, Forntite). Could the console die?

Chrom

Hey DF team, First of all, thanks for all of the amazing content over the years. Been a patreon for years now and haven’t regretted it. Owning all platforms and systems myself, I’m actually seeing big advantages to MS potentially going multiplatform. One of my biggest pet peeves is that currently PlayStation, Xbox and PC games barely differ from each other, yet still we need to pay for a copy two or three times to play them on each platform. I’m hoping MS (and maybe other publishers) can finally drop the pretense, and just offer a game to be played anywhere. I buy a game on PlayStation and I can also play it on PC/Xbox. I buy a game on my mobile phone and can play it on Steam. Play games everywhere, and consider consoles more as distribution channels? It used to be that consoles would offer different kinds of gaming experiences. Now only Nintendo really does that. Consoles seem more about prohibiting access to content on other platforms than they actually offer new experiences. Do you think MS might also go down that path? Maybe even offer some kind of backwards compatibility (emulation) service for older games? Love to hear your thoughts on this.

Oli Jacobs

Hi Digital Lads, John a few directs ago brought up the concept of a more controller/steamOS like Windows distribution. With the adorably all digital future looming I am conscious that moving to PC would be the best bet when physical options run out, but I feel the full array of controls provided by the valve’s steamOS for image scaling, resolution, refresh rate as well as ensuring no funny business with games changing to windowed mode would be transformative for me if they were available in a windows gaming OS. Are there any features you adorably digital lads have made use of on the SteamDeck that you would love to see on windows? Or that you would like to see in the general gaming space on PC?

Someguyperson

I think a lot of people keep forgetting that Microsoft is a software company that just wants to make software. Microsoft going multi-platform is THE way to make more money on the same software investment, so it makes complete business sense to go all-in on multi-platform development. It reminds me a bit like Sega, only this time Microsoft is getting a head start on developing for every platform before the hardware sales completely go belly-up. Given how the market is today, I fully expect the next-gen Xbox to just be a Game(s)pass machine, since Sony is unlikely to support Game(s)pass on a PlayStation platform.

Alan

Hi Team DF! How can content for Xbox have been handled so badly, they have all these studios and the lack of exclusives to drive system sales is very telling, what have the dev's they own been doing, where are the games? The top corpos at MS have clearly had enough of pouring money into Xbox, buying ABK and going third party was the only way they could try to recoup the hundreds of billions they have invested over the years. PS. I cannot see them releasing a tenth-gen console, and all the games they release will be digital only!

Xbox Ally Has Gone ROGue!

Hi DF! What's your lower and upper bound estimation of Switch 2's power? What do you think to be the most likely spec comparison?

urethrocratic near-dog experience

will improvements in the fidelity of realtime / ray traced global illumination ever allow us to finally surpass the need for ambient occlusion? or am i misunderstanding the purpose of AO? i often find that even in "good" implementations of AO, it still looks somewhat unnatural, and feels more like a fancy outline shader than an actual simulation of light bounce. i understand that most rendering techniques are essentially shortcuts in lieu of more expensive simulations, but i'm personally ready to move on from this one in particular

gartenriese

In one of the recent directs, Alex mentioned that TAA got a bad rep because there are still many people sitting close to a 1080p monitor and there TAA can possibly look bad. That got me thinking that a certain resolution is not the same for everyone. Would it make more sense to instead of showing performance at 1080p, 1440p and 4k to show performance at 55" 4k TV at 3 meters, 27" 1440p monitor at 1 meter, and 24" 1080p monitor at 1 meter, calculated so that each setting has the same perceived image quality, e.g. by using a resolution scaler or different upscaling levels.

HBAO Max

With FSR 3 coming to Starfield, it made me question why AMD constantly needs Nvidia to pioneer new technologies only for them to catch up? I understand that it’s Nvidia’s nature and in their best interest (and R&D budget) to create proprietary technologies like Frame Generation or G-SYNC, only for AMD to follow up with an open-source, cheaper solution. So my question is why can’t AMD just develop these technologies ? i.e. FSR 3 (and now AFMF?) works on almost every GPU, why doesn’t AMD develop new technologies designed around an open-source, software-based nature considering their market position? Is it too costly for R&D which is why they need Nvidia to create the fancy black-box version first?

Allan Lindqvist

What are the odds xbox allowes back compat games to run on pc with all the digital only news we're hearing? They're already hyperV based so why not? (Licensing maybe)

Borja Lopez

Since everybody is making fun on John’s love for Sonic (love shared by me) I would love it if he could make some recommendations for the 3D era. I just played 1-2-3, Knucles, CD and Mania, and I am kind of lost on what should I play next and what should be skipped… Thanks a lot! Cheers from Spain!

Treefinngers

There's a rumor Microsoft is considering even allowing Gears of War to be ported to PS5. Critics (mostly big Xbox fans) say it's dangerous to the consoles' existence. But given that consoles actually live off software sales could this be a positive development? What are the thoughts of the DF team? Thanks as always for the excellent work you guys do!

Eric Benoit

if someone buys the possible agregiously all digital Xbox series X refresh or it's successor, does this mean any backwards compatible ogxbox,xbox360, or even Xbox One physical titles are basically stuck permanently on the current Xbox series X? Do you think those titles have to be purchased/rented again digitally? P.S Sorry John for playing Doom 3 on your discord Livestream, it was my first time on a Discord Livestream, won't happen again.

antonioni

Back to our favorite guessing game that is the Switch 2. John, I have to challenge one of your takes on the Switch's tabletop mode and joy cons as being not a reason for the Switch's success. I'd like to say that's it's really the opposite. Tabletop and the sharing of instant multiplayer through joy cons is undeniable with kids and families. It's honestly a smash hit and makes the family experience always within a thought's grasp. It's been present at every holiday with kids in my family and I know they also do this at school frequently. You can read often about young gamers growing up with it like that. If anything the Switch 2 will extend on this feature and the new gimmick I would bet is a further advanced take on this.

Someguyperson

I have a bit of a hot take this week; I think FSR2 is almost completely useless. In terms of quality, FSR2 is now behind DLSS, XeSS, and Unreal's TSR. Something like 75% of all new games will use Unreal 4 or 5, so all of them have the option to use TSR over FSR2. Of the remaining 25% of games, there are other engines with their own upscalers that work just as well, if not better than FSR2, like Insomniac's upscaler that would be better than FSR2. For games on the PC, DLSS & the DP4A path of XeSS provide better experiences than FSR2. The Switch 2 has access to DLSS over FSR2. That leaves the remaining ~10% of games on console that will either use an in-house solution, or FSR2. Since FSR2 is open source, devs can just use FSR2 as a base technology and then add their own special sauce on top. Given all this, why would anyone use plain old FSR2?

F to the G

Hey there lovely people! We are seeing a steady increase in game development times, especially in the triple A space for at least a decade now. But in recent times there also were some pretty impressive projects from studios with limited resources like the new RoboCop game. Do you think we are at a turning point regarding development times or will future console generations (in their 6-8 years lifespan) only be able to accommodate one big title for each of their exclusive IPs? Also how do the wizards from Insomniac games fit into all of this who seemingly can manipulate time and crank out 4 or more games each generation?

Mark Smith

Do you think, from the recent advertisement released by GameStop about their Xbox demo promotion coming up mentioning GamePass as "Microsoft Gamepass" and not calling it "Xbox Gamepass" that Microsoft is quietly rebranding the service to stand more on its own going forward?

Michael Pearn

With all of the rumours that Microsoft are potentially abandoning consoles, could you see them pivoting into the gaming PC space? Maybe an improved offering that also distributes shaders like the Steam Deck?

Samson

Hey DF Team With the release of the interesting mod "NvTrueHDR" based off NVIDIA's RTX Video HDR, which allows users to convert games from SDR to HDR. Do you guys think that NVIDIA will natively support it? And what will it take for video game developers to implement the use HGiG? Allan Wake 2 probably has the most amazing HDR. It's a shame that game developers hardly make use of the feature.

Ishraq

Hello folks. A few weeks ago, I contended that Microsoft's long-term strategy was moving out of the console business and turning Xbox into a device agnostic gaming platform. This was swiftly rejcted and perhaps rightly so. But I can't help but think my theory is getting increasingly closer to the truth given this new multi-platform rumour.

Kellan Sandifer

Should Next Gen consoles focus on having 32GB or 40GB of Ram to help with the growing demands of games and ray tracing in the future

bizzytrax

Xbox Gamespass on Switch /PS5 when?

ParaSupaman

With the recent Reddit discovery of the cause of the long standing stutter issue with Playstation Remote Play and only now hitting mainstream awareness because of Portal (which presumably uses the same streaming protocols), do you think the success of Portal will finally move Sony to address this long standing Remote Play streaming stutter issue? In a nutshell, PS5 is locked to outputting at 59.94 Hz/fps and any remote client (including Portal), not set to a screen refresh rate of 59.94 Hz exhibits a revolving stutter every 10 - 15 seconds, even with perfect network connectivity. Reddit discovery: https://www.reddit.com/r/PlaystationPortal/s/RjFDMbk39L

Jordan Spano

Hi DF, does the shift away from console exclusivity necessarily mean Microsoft will move away from hardware production or rather turn the Xbox into the quasi pc that’s been mentioned on previous directs. If you think they will cease making consoles is it likely then that Sony, lacking any competition in the space, might try to eat Nintendo’s lunch in the portable space again?

Visar

Hi DF, with Pathtracing starting to trickle into Games and Epic planning to introduce it in runtime with UE 5.4, do you think next gen consoles (PS6 & XBOX Z 720) may consider using it as a baseline for rendering, if RDNA 5 & 6 can reach NVidia’s current or Gen 50’s Tracing Performance? Thanks for the great content guys!

Dennis Löfgren

Hey DF crew! I'm assuming we're gonna have to wait a bit for a review on Helldivers 2 since they didn't seem to give out review codes in advance. But could you provide some impressions of the PC version since it seems to be quite problematic. Do you know of any actual fixes? Is it worth buying at this point or is it bad enough to wait until they patch it?