-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Control PC: Ray Tracing's Killer App? Plus: Full Xbox One X vs PC Comparison! | Digital Foundry
- Thread starter Equanimity
- Start date
Sadly I would have to downgrade pretty much everything else to have it run with Raytracing and it just doesn't seem worth it overall.
I'm not liking the overall image quality in this game. It looks very fuzzy/blurry/muddy/smeary/noisy. Alan Wake and Quantum Break had these problems, but in Control they are far more pronounced, especially when enabling RTX and DLSS. There are so many graphical anomalies and artifacts. Weird fade-ins, texture pop-ins, various temporal artifacts around character's hair, etc. When you add all that together resulting presentation just isn't that good. There are some nice looking physics and particle effects in the game, though.
On a 27" 1440p monitor DLSS + RTX image quality looks barely passable. Performance isn't that great either. This is on a 2070 SUPER paired with 9900K. I'm constantly switching to native 1440p rendering with RTX off. I find that image looks way better and performance is improved, as well as gameplay fluidity.
So yeah, still not sold on RTX, mainly because of drastic performance drops and needing to rely on upscaling techniques like DLSS.
Quake 2 RTX so far is the most impressive demonstration, and maybe Minecraft RTX will be too, once that's released.
On a 27" 1440p monitor DLSS + RTX image quality looks barely passable. Performance isn't that great either. This is on a 2070 SUPER paired with 9900K. I'm constantly switching to native 1440p rendering with RTX off. I find that image looks way better and performance is improved, as well as gameplay fluidity.
So yeah, still not sold on RTX, mainly because of drastic performance drops and needing to rely on upscaling techniques like DLSS.
Quake 2 RTX so far is the most impressive demonstration, and maybe Minecraft RTX will be too, once that's released.
im playing at 1440p dlss using a 2080ti, the grain is sort of Remedy's style, even going back as far as max payne. The game is stunning i just hope they can fix the stutter. Luckily it seems to be random, ive played for long stretches without it then had it happen during non combat type scenes so maybe its something with the games engine??
I did the same combined with the nvidia sharpening filter and it think it looks pretty dang good.
Apart from the stutter that looks outrageously good. So good to see RT getting this kind of implementation already.
If this is the killer app of raytracing, then raytracing is definitively not for me. I just see more accurate glossy reflections on the floors and in the glass in this video and it doesn't seem as I'm losing anything important.
totally agree. df tries to sell it as amazing, but the hair is bad, animation bad, and everything just looks low res with poor iq. that's remedy. too be fair, they are not the highest budget studio by far.
the side by side, rt does look much better. but just viewed by itself, it's not that impressive vs other games.
scary how low the one x settings are, and that's by far the best console version! i guess it's time for a new gen.
So uh... what kind settings you running other than that or rocking that quad-2080Ti for passable FPS?
My 2080Ti chokes HARD on 3440 x 1440 without DLSS on and even with it FPS takes major knee at times when running RT.
Real time and basically real life accurate reflections, lightning etc. Who needs that?
Did e.g. AO face same "Doesn't add anything, pass" mentality in general?
Hu-what? I just finished a full playthrough and I don't think I ever saw a single one of those stutters shown at the 18minute mark. My CPU is an older Core i7-3770k, and the same GPU that they're showing with. If there's something going on it must be somewhat machine-specific.
Anyway, speaking of raytracing in Control, I can't help but share this experience I posted in the Control OT:
Anyway, speaking of raytracing in Control, I can't help but share this experience I posted in the Control OT:
Hah, just had a fun little gameplay moment with the raytracing. Had finished up a combat sequence but the combat music was still on. After about 30-40 seconds of some meandering, and looking for the guy...
...I manage to spot him sneaking up on me, with the window's reflection!
Probably the fact that the emmsive on and off flag for that specific texture was not passed on to RT - probably an asset oversight!Noticed small... flaw? in ray tracing within Control while hounding for screenshot spots. What would cause this disconnect and not have blinking reflected accurately, almost like crate is pre-baked into RT?
It's debatable how "accurate" these reflections really are. It's better than screen space, but RTX reflections have their own share of problems and limitations. For example reflection draw distance is very low. Enter a larger room and you'll notice that distant objects in reflection start fading into a white fog, which looks very jarring and completely breaks immersion.
Yes? Most people didn't use it until the performance cost fell to a pair of frames per second, which wasn't the case in the old gpus when it appeared.
Agreed, I find the game to look pretty noisy and sometimes outright bad. I'm using nvidias recommended settings for my 2080 and so many surfaces have distracting visual noise. Sharpening helped a little bit
I need to watch alex's Video but it hasn't been a great first impression of RTX imo
Are you certain this is true?
I asked Remedy in an interview and they said it covers the entire player view - view LOD is RT LOD.
Expanded view frustum for player view and then a (smaller) radius around the player for out of view objects.
Nuts how that was just a year ago. I remember at the time every thinking this stuff is next-next-gen tech and we'd maybe see it in like 5 years on PC. I guess the takeaway is when a lot of devs show a certain tech this far ahead along in development, expect it to show up somewhere soon.
As for the implementation in Control Remedy certainly set a high benchmark relatively early on. All of those effects together look incredible. I'm already thinking that the other titles that were announced with stuff like reflections only need to step it up. :D
I had a bunch of moments like that too. Raytracing for once is tech that actually has the potential to enhance gameplay.
Interesting to finally see some footage of the stutter people were talking about. I personally have not come across it yet, around 4-5 hours in.
For some options you really need to zoom in and look at it side by side, some others are more pronounced and add up to a overall great graphics. Image clarity though is not the best. But as with the graphics options that adds details mainly visible in comparison and still frames, it doesn't affect the experience while in motion and combat.
What does affects it, though, is the stutter. It puts me completely off and is SO much annoying and ruins the fluidity of combat almost entirely.
I hope Remedy and/or Nvidia will fix this; can't be soon enough.
What does affects it, though, is the stutter. It puts me completely off and is SO much annoying and ruins the fluidity of combat almost entirely.
I hope Remedy and/or Nvidia will fix this; can't be soon enough.
Same, but I'm on a 3700x and a 1080 Ti. Other than the menu transition stutter, I haven't encountered any other stutter yet in dx12 max settings. 60 - 80fps at 2560x1080 w/ 2x MSAA and 40 - 60fps at 3440x1440 no MSAA. I wonder if it's raytracing that's causing stuttering?
Good video and very detailed comparison of the effects that RTX gets you. But man, the performance hit, 2080 Ti @ 1440p can be as low as 40 fps with RTX High, 2070 can be under 30 fps, 2060 is a 1080p GPU, and then the stutters... yikes. This will be a really cool game to play on the next generation of RTX GPUs, I think?
Yes, you can see what I mean in one of larger hall-like areas that have office windows around it. I would take some sreenshots but on a different computer right now.
Alex can we not turn Global Reflections off when using Ray Traced Reflections?
I played same segment few days ago where you showed stutters. I didn't encounter any stutters like that. Weird.
Running:
i7 9700K
16GB
2080Ti with NV's latest driver
No article for this (at time of writing)?
Feels pointless not being able to intensely scan through comparisons.
Feels pointless not being able to intensely scan through comparisons.
Huh, weird. Hopefully it's something that can be easily fixed with a patch.
One strange thing I encountered yesterday though was the menu stutters went away completely for me briefly. Then after I alt-tabbed out and back into the game, the stutters came back.
Wow, this is a really a great step by step detailed analysis of what fills up scene after base rendering.
Seriously damn good stuff!
I don't even remember if I have seen anything on the lines of this analysis prior, really appreciate the effort.
Edit: Am I the only one who feels that the Digital Foundry is actually putting in extraordinary effort to showcase how Ray Tracing really benefits game visuals, much more than Nvidia which commercially brought the RT hardware in the first place. I somehow feel Digital Foundry is like lifting up the RT tech like lifting Simba in Lion King and saying "Gentlemen, this is what real time Ray Tracing is!".
Seriously damn good stuff!
I don't even remember if I have seen anything on the lines of this analysis prior, really appreciate the effort.
Edit: Am I the only one who feels that the Digital Foundry is actually putting in extraordinary effort to showcase how Ray Tracing really benefits game visuals, much more than Nvidia which commercially brought the RT hardware in the first place. I somehow feel Digital Foundry is like lifting up the RT tech like lifting Simba in Lion King and saying "Gentlemen, this is what real time Ray Tracing is!".
Last edited:
Where did you encounter this? I have never seen it anywhere!
The part that I like about ray tracing in the game is that it makes the world look more consistent. Given the choice between high 1080p normal rendering or DLSS+RTX, I chose the latter. The RT effects more than make up for decrease in resolution.
I wouldn't enable it in a multiplayer game where framerate and detail are more important, but it works very well in Control.
I wouldn't enable it in a multiplayer game where framerate and detail are more important, but it works very well in Control.
This stuff looks great, and that was an interesting video.
However, dropping resolutions significantly and still not achieving 60 fps unless without other cut backs even on the most expensive of video cards, I just don't know. I look forward to RTX in another generation or two of cards, but I just can't help but feel we're pushing this tech for general use a little too early for the tech. In the sense you mentioned that this is, "for the future", I definitely agree.
Would have been interested in seeing a bit more about the xbox one x vs pc comparison.
However, dropping resolutions significantly and still not achieving 60 fps unless without other cut backs even on the most expensive of video cards, I just don't know. I look forward to RTX in another generation or two of cards, but I just can't help but feel we're pushing this tech for general use a little too early for the tech. In the sense you mentioned that this is, "for the future", I definitely agree.
Would have been interested in seeing a bit more about the xbox one x vs pc comparison.
not sure how close we are, or if it'll ever go away any time soon, but i cannot wait for the end of screenspace reflections, ew.
The intro does a great job taking you through the evolution of lighting/shadow effects through the years. As you ramp up the effects the reflections really do come into focus. Really great work by Remedy and DF!
The only thing with this is that in the end result, it still looks very much like a game, particularly character animation. Not a complaint, just a checkpoint as to where we are and excitement for the future. There will be games in the future that will tie everything together for a transformative result. But for now, this is great for photo mode and the occasional gameplay emergent moment like the one posted above (off-screen info being shown on a surface on-screen). I hope to see more of them!
The only thing with this is that in the end result, it still looks very much like a game, particularly character animation. Not a complaint, just a checkpoint as to where we are and excitement for the future. There will be games in the future that will tie everything together for a transformative result. But for now, this is great for photo mode and the occasional gameplay emergent moment like the one posted above (off-screen info being shown on a surface on-screen). I hope to see more of them!
Is it even worth trying out raytracing on system with a 2070 Super, or is this basically a feature that will be mostly limited to 2080 TIs?
great video. this is one of those games like crysis that i'll be coming back to periodically as my hardware gets upgraded over the years.
Go for it, just don't enable all RT features in the game and don't be afraid to use DLSS with RT.
depends on your resolution, in the video the 2070s was hitting 80+ fps at 1080p with different RT settings combinations. watch the video, it's very informative.
Great video. Really breaks down what the evolution in lighting models has done for games in the last decade.
My setup is i7 7700k, RTX 2070, 16GB of ram and a 1080p freesync 144hz monitor. With DLSS+RTX on it runs above 60fps on high settings. I know that's not amazing, but it's smooth and it still looks amazing.
Completed the game with ray tracing on High. Incredible visual experience. I used the DLSS @ 1080p option while playing at 4k. It never dropped below 40 during the super intense parts, and was at 60 most of the time. My 4k monitor is gsync, and I think that helped a lot. Overall i was very pleased with the performance. Didn't experience any crashing.
Dictator I'm not sure how much you've been in the pc perf thread, but try the game with GPU OC off, if you have one. Once I did that the hitching for me completely went away.
Dictator I'm not sure how much you've been in the pc perf thread, but try the game with GPU OC off, if you have one. Once I did that the hitching for me completely went away.
Will do, I will tinker around. As long as it is hitting a stable 60 FPS without melting my GPU I'll be happy.
