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[DF] The Medium PS5: Big Changes vs Xbox Series X + PC Comparisons

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
I know its off topic but when a gaming forum has people making comments like "what's psychonauts and who cares" when it's genuinely one of 6he best games of tge year is heartbreaking.

Instead we would rather talk about the medium and what company might get bought next...or 500 pages on what will be the next rumoured exclusive that might be getting made.
 

Black_Stride

do not tempt fate do not contrain Wonder Woman's thighs do not do not
I know its off topic but when a gaming forum has people making comments like "what's psychonauts and who cares" when it's genuinely one of 6he best games of tge year is heartbreaking.

Instead we would rather talk about the medium and what company might get bought next...or 500 pages on what will be the next rumoured exclusive that might be getting made.

The game is great but it doesnt need a tech deep dive.
It isnt doing much with UE4 that we havent seen before.
Probably a quick article but I dont think we really need a deep dive video.

P.S
Vs threads are the only threads that really move on this forum.
Even for games people dont actually like as long as their box of choice did better/worse they will be in the thread.
The current sticky is taking a whole lotta victims Digital Foundry needs to make more videos so we can clean this forum up.
 

Kenpachii

Member
With logic like that why would anybody care about Touryst? Pretty silly. Psychonauts 2 is an absolutely beautiful looking game and also is running at 120fps on Series X and Series S. It has some of the most impressive and inventive level design out there. It's an artistic and visual tour de force that is quite strong in the technical department as well. If there's a game that ever deserves a technical analysis it's this one. Not quite sure how 'The Medium' pushes hardware more to the edge than Psychonauts 2 does when it doesn't even at least use the low level storage APIs to improve load times and has no 60fps performance mode.

Psychonauts 2 runs on Series S at native 1620p at 60fps and 1080p at 120fps, both modes appear locked or near it.
Psychonauts 2 runs on Series X at native 4K with a locked 60fps and native 1440p at a locked 120fps.

It definitely deserves a look.

Touryst is 8k and 60fps. No other console game does 8k and 60 fps. Its the first one. Interesting to look at.

Medium pushes dual screen with RT in it. It's pushing PC's and consoles to the brink of disaster and its interesting to look at how hardware holds up and how patches can improve the game.

It's not about if a game is great fun or not, i bet psychonauts is more fun and a better game then both, it's about the tech.
 

StreetsofBeige

Gold Member
You guys know that The Medium (made by Bloober) is a second tier kind of game made by a dev who historically makes games in the 70-75 MC range right?
 
Touryst is 8k and 60fps. No other console game does 8k and 60 fps. Its the first one. Interesting to look at.

Medium pushes dual screen with RT in it. It's pushing PC's and consoles to the brink of disaster and its interesting to look at how hardware holds up and how patches can improve the game.

It's not about if a game is great fun or not, i bet psychonauts is more fun and a better game then both, it's about the tech.
We don't know about the tech on Psychonauts 2 because DF didn't do a deep dive. I think it's silly to think there are no technical achievements in that title. After playing the entire game I'm certain there are some interesting aspects to analyze.
 

Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
Lower ray tracing resolution, slightly lower quality shadows and different AO on the PS5 but higher resolution:

xaqC9XF.jpg


Both John and Alex seem to think the changes for the PS5 version are favourable in a lot of cases but as a whole the situation is subjective.

For framerate, 30fps on both. They've improved the frame pacing issues that were in the original Xbox Series version at launch, that problem is now mostly gone but there are some scenes where it will drop frames. The PS5 version has inherited the launch frame pacing bug from the Xbox version - Alex said Blooper need to address and fix that because it's actually a solid 30fps if not for the inconsistent frame pacing.

The load time problem for the PS5 version is still yet to be fixed - not using the available API's for loading.

Let the games begin.

dj khaled ciara GIF by AMAs
Dj Khaled GIF by AMAs
 
Is this the type of discourse this place has come to now?

I mean, you night as well break out the wojak memes.
I did say no offense, i was being sincere. Your conclusion, although i agree with it, makes me laugh because it appears that you are only able to accept these results when you comfort yourself by stating said conclusion. Aka cope. Not trying to fan flames just an observation.
 

DenchDeckard

Moderated wildly
The game is great but it doesnt need a tech deep dive.
It isnt doing much with UE4 that we havent seen before.
Probably a quick article but I dont think we really need a deep dive video.

P.S
Vs threads are the only threads that really move on this forum.
Even for games people dont actually like as long as their box of choice did better/worse they will be in the thread.
The current sticky is taking a whole lotta victims Digital Foundry needs to make more videos so we can clean this forum up.

Oh I'll be honest, I'm not too bothered if it gets a digital foundry. There's no point to do psychonauts 2 as a vs because there isn't a native ps5 version.

I was more commenting with underhanded comments like the game isn't important because it's only been played on game pass etc. Genuine sacrilege that a game with such good writing is not more successful.
 

martino

Member
You guys know that The Medium (made by Bloober) is a second tier kind of game made by a dev who historically makes games in the 70-75 MC range right?
exactly and this make this game more representative of effort that will be made for 90% of games on those consoles than 2-4 yealry exclusives or some big (not all) third party aaa.
 
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Hobbygaming

has been asked to post in 'Grounded' mode.
I would be surprised if it's used some beyond UE4 in it's original glory...
Yeah true it's mainly the 1P and 3P exclusives that will use the lower level access to abstract the most juice from the console. It's kinda surprising that 8K game is using it
 

Pallas

Member
Game looks like it’ll be pretty fun regardless of the platform, I’m downloading it right now on my newly acquired Series X, whenever I find a PS5 I may do the same.
 

GHG

Gold Member
Game looks like it’ll be pretty fun regardless of the platform, I’m downloading it right now on my newly acquired Series X, whenever I find a PS5 I may do the same.

"fun" is not a word I'd use to describe thus game... It takes itself very seriously and fails in a number of ways IMO. Anyway, try it for yourself and draw your own conclusions.
 
Well, choose your poison I guess. Resolution and fluidity vs effects and load time. In both cases, it still is a meh product, technically speaking. This does not bode well for the Silent Hill game...😐
 

FrankWza

Member
If they could sort the frame pacing, then probably the PS5 settings. Lower RT and shadows don’t look like they have too much an impact. I’d sacrifice them for higher res.
Is the frame pacing patch a given at this point or, based on the adjustment does it make it harder to implement on PS5? Did the X version lose anything when it was patched? Would the PS5 get a downgrade elsewhere. Otherwise, yes, if everything stayed the same AND PS5 gets the frame pace patch I guess those are the go to settings.
 

BigLee74

Member
Is the frame pacing patch a given at this point or, based on the adjustment does it make it harder to implement on PS5? Did the X version lose anything when it was patched? Would the PS5 get a downgrade elsewhere. Otherwise, yes, if everything stayed the same AND PS5 gets the frame pace patch I guess those are the go to settings.
Sorry too many questions. I’m pissed 😂😂. All I know is I played the game at its worst on the X, and havent looked at or thought about it since. It was decent enough, but I certainly wouldn’t have paid for it.

RT and shadows are close enough to not care about, so higher res wins. No doubt about it.
 

ethomaz

Banned
Game looks like it’ll be pretty fun regardless of the platform, I’m downloading it right now on my newly acquired Series X, whenever I find a PS5 I may do the same.
Well you indeed better try it because it is not really that fun but of course tastes matter… I loved Cross Edge because I had a lot of fun with the battle system and Capcom characters lol even the game wing shit tier… it is really that bad.
 
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yamaci17

Member
i remember playing this game on my gtx 1080 at 1080p med-high settings and final parts ran below 30 fps lmao

one of the worst optimized games i've ever seen with my 1080
 

FrankWza

Member
Sorry too many questions. I’m pissed 😂😂. All I know is I played the game at its worst on the X, and havent looked at or thought about it since. It was decent enough, but I certainly wouldn’t have paid for it.

RT and shadows are close enough to not care about, so higher res wins. No doubt about it.
I hear that. I won’t be buying it until it’s patched and discounted. My interest is mostly based on their silent hill game. More curiosity than anything.
 

Sosokrates

Report me if I continue to console war
.
I did say no offense, i was being sincere. Your conclusion, although i agree with it, makes me laugh because it appears that you are only able to accept these results when you comfort yourself by stating said conclusion. Aka cope. Not trying to fan flames just an observation.

The fact that you come to the conclusion of cope says more about you then it does about me. Are alex and John coping too, they also said its not about which machine is more powerful but choices by the developer.
 

scalman

Member
thats what i do on every pc game to gain some fps is to lower shadows ,couple other stuff, but i raise details , textures if i can . as shadows they really doesnt matter to me that much , so they made right choices there , and result is better overall picture.
rt doesnt matter in this game at all.
 
Some of these effects are so costly performance wise that I've found myself buying more games on PC even though I have a XSX and PS5. My PC isn't any stronger than the consoles but I can at least normally toggle stuff off to get nice performance (or toggle stuff on that has a minor performance impact but improves the image). Not talking brute forcing either just I spend a few minutes testing the big hitters performance wise and if I get 60fps+ I'm good to go.

Some people seem to hate having options in console games and want the dev to decide but this thread shows some people prefer A and some people B.

I know things have been getting better in terms of console graphical options but it would be nice to be able to choose more than performance or resolution and toggle specific things on and off. Some would argue that it defeats the purpose of a plug and play console and I can understand that for sure so definitely wouldn't argue that my way is right or ever expect it to be implemented more just wishful thinking on my part.

Lock the options behind a menu with a disclaimer that the performance hasn't been tested even.
 

tommib

Member
I know its off topic but when a gaming forum has people making comments like "what's psychonauts and who cares" when it's genuinely one of 6he best games of tge year is heartbreaking.

Instead we would rather talk about the medium and what company might get bought next...or 500 pages on what will be the next rumoured exclusive that might be getting made.
Or hundreds of pages talking about 1 frame rate drops and 4K resolution percentages.
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
It's not odd, it's just DF when you have VRR you didn't get any frame drops either.
You do get frame rate drops (and on many OLED panels you may get gamma/brightness flicker issues too), just the effect is the game moving a bit slower not stuttering badly or tearing visibly. VRR is a good addition, but you are making it to be magical.
What you do not get on on XSX is the frame pacing issues.

I am not convinced that Bloober could not have gotten the PS5 version running at the same lower resolution as XSX with essentially the same effects and effects quality settings as the XSX version, but they opted for a game wide rebalancing towards higher average resolution (which they could patch into the XSX version too… they are a small team… possibly with a bit more resources and time they could do quality and performance modes for both consoles, I do not think they are maxing the HW yet).
 

yamaci17

Member
- game is mediocre
- you dont need 60 fps at any platforms for this game, there's no action, nothing that can require the precision 60 fps can bring over 30 fps
- you wont even need the fluidity of the 60 fps in this title for the majority of the time because gameplay is completely formed from moving the character in a fixed location
 
You do get frame rate drops (and on many OLED panels you may get gamma/brightness flicker issues too), just the effect is the game moving a bit slower not stuttering badly or tearing visibly. VRR is a good addition, but you are making it to be magical.
What you do not get on on XSX is the frame pacing issues.

I am not convinced that Bloober could not have gotten the PS5 version running at the same lower resolution as XSX with essentially the same effects and effects quality settings as the XSX version, but they opted for a game wide rebalancing towards higher average resolution (which they could patch into the XSX version too… they are a small team… possibly with a bit more resources and time they could do quality and performance modes for both consoles, I do not think they are maxing the HW yet).
I have an LG CX and have seen nothing of the issues you talk of and since it's been patched the odd 1 or 2 dropped frames is easily counted with VRR. It's very odd for DF to say the slight increase in screen res makes up for the downgrade in effects
 

Panajev2001a

GAF's Pleasant Genius
I have an LG CX and have seen nothing of the issues you talk of
You might not be sensible, but they are there. Noticeable enough for LG to acknowledge it and offer on CX/C1 a setting to add a manual offset. Then again some people refuse to admit the 1080p UI is noticeable on a 4K screen (despite obvious blockiness/pixelation on elements… and the age old best practice of trying to use native resolution for the in game 2D UI even if the game itself was sub native).

and since it's been patched the odd 1 or 2 dropped frames is easily counted with VRR.
VRR does not counter it, it lessen its impact. VRR does not make, taking an extreme theoretical example, a 40 FPS game section feel like 60 FPS. You make it look like it is magic overselling it.

It's very odd for DF to say the slight increase in screen res makes up for the downgrade in effects
They even argue why they find it an improvement overall, given the look the game goes for and the frequent fast camera cuts that negate TAA, but sure they do say that ambient occlusion and RT AO / extra lights in some scenes are missed. As I said, I think that keeping the resolution the same as on XSX they could have achieved visual and performance parity more or less so this was intentional by the devs I think.
Loading times are a disappointment I hope they fix, like the odd graphical corruption happening at some random points on XSX|S.

Then again, I got it on XSX (purchased not GamePass’ed) and thanks to the good DualSense implementation and the pretty much very similar visuals I got it on PS5 too.
 
You might not be sensible, but they are there. Noticeable enough for LG to acknowledge it and offer on CX/C1 a setting to add a manual offset. Then again some people refuse to admit the 1080p UI is noticeable on a 4K screen (despite obvious blockiness/pixelation on elements… and the age old best practice of trying to use native resolution for the in game 2D UI even if the game itself was sub native).


VRR does not counter it, it lessen its impact. VRR does not make, taking an extreme theoretical example, a 40 FPS game section feel like 60 FPS. You make it look like it is magic overselling it.


They even argue why they find it an improvement overall, given the look the game goes for and the frequent fast camera cuts that negate TAA, but sure they do say that ambient occlusion and RT AO / extra lights in some scenes are missed. As I said, I think that keeping the resolution the same as on XSX they could have achieved visual and performance parity more or less so this was intentional by the devs I think.
Loading times are a disappointment I hope they fix, like the odd graphical corruption happening at some random points on XSX|S.

Then again, I got it on XSX (purchased not GamePass’ed) and thanks to the good DualSense implementation and the pretty much very similar visuals I got it on PS5 too.
Stop making stuff and putting words in people's mouths. Said nothing about VRR making a games frame rate raster, what VRR does is smooth out any dropped frames, so to the player, the game is completely smooth..
I find it very odd that DF says a game with fewer effects and a downgrade to RT looks better, that's all.
 
Xbox's lowest 720p vs Ps5 lowest 1620p.
Xbox's highest 1440p vs Ps5 highest 1728p.
Do the math, its not in the region of slightly increased in Res. It is Massive difference. And the difference is noticeable.
So it's resolution now that matters?
 
.


The fact that you come to the conclusion of cope says more about you then it does about me. Are alex and John coping too, they also said its not about which machine is more powerful but choices by the developer.
Dude im not going to continue this as its clearly bothering you. If you dont see how what you posted is cope the i dont know what to tell you, its the structure of your post. Again i said i agree with your conclusion.

Edit. I got an analogy for you. Its like you come over to my house an my dad is working out in the garage. Your like wholly fuck your dad is strong as shit, but then are like but but my dad is strong but he only does chest so whatever.
 
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What matters? I don't care bout what matters. I simply corrected the word you used. The difference in resolution was not slightly, but significantly and massively. It is noticeable. DF was not odd at all.
I have to bear that in mind. Resolution seemed to go out the window with the next-gen patches to Advenagers or Metro Ect.
 
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