-
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.
-
We have made minor adjustments to how the search bar works on ResetEra. You can read about the changes here.
Digital Foundry: Alien Isolation Switch Review, Image Quality better than PS4
- Thread starter MauroNL
- Start date
Nah, the Switch AA is superior. That is kind of how it works.
To be fair the console versions of this game were always very poor. Bad image quality, horrible input lag. Good to see a console version finally be where it needs to be some... 5 years after release :\
Right, but the textures look better on Switch. Look at the dirt on the bottom left part for instance. Much more visible on Switch.
I need to make time for it. I have it on ps4, hoping the sales get more people talking about it and entices them to patch it on Pro/1X.
Gosh, I totally forgot this was a cross-gen title entirely. I would have sworn it was PS4/XB1/PC, only.
That's actually good that they are improving the ports and not being shitty throwaways for switch. Hats off to the devs.
The other thing to note is that these early ps4 games were not well made to the point of taking full advantage of the system. The base console is still pretty good these days. I currently have a Pro but compared to early 2014 games that had jaggies to now most games lacking them is amazing.
The other thing to note is that these early ps4 games were not well made to the point of taking full advantage of the system. The base console is still pretty good these days. I currently have a Pro but compared to early 2014 games that had jaggies to now most games lacking them is amazing.
Probably a combination of both, plus Feral being really really good.
AA is more than just still images, it looks way better on Switch in motion which is all that matters really
The only thing I can think is that Isolation was a cross gen title when it was released on PS4 XB1 so maybe that held back implementation of some more advanced graphical features ?
Resolution is dynamic from 748 to 1080, but the anti aliasing solution is so good it often looks better than PS4 in actuality
Frame rate seems identical? Occasional dips?
You can't see resolution details if everything's dark ;)
(trying to make a pun with the original movie's advert)
See for yourself. Not a big generational leap.
I'm more the 'blast the aliens to bits' guy but I will make an exception for this.
Grid is soo fuckin awesome on switch.
Grid is soo fuckin awesome on switch.
If someone had told me the Switch would ever have a AAA game outperform a PS4 in image quality, I would have called you a mad man! Yet here we are. Unfortunately not buying it because I'm not insane and don't want to poo myself on the bus.
it's this. It's awesome the game is coming out with a strong port because the game is amazing, but Isolation was a cross gen title that ran/looked pretty rough at a lot of parts. I specifically remember the way the game controlled/looked was causing motion sickness in a lot of people. It's awesome that switch fans get a good port of it, but the title of this is going to make people overreact. If they did a remaster on ps4/xb1 it would smoke this port.
This has nothing to do with headroom available, cross gen nature of the game etc. TAA doesn't really cost a lot of resources.
All this does is just show that Alien Isolation didn't get in on the TAA bandwagon when other games were just starting to hop on. Back then outside of rare titles like Ryse and Infamous, console games were still primarily FXAA,SMAA with no temporal elements while PC versions had been on TAA train for a few years (be it via TXAA, or SMAAT2x). The PC version of Alien Isolation had a TAA mod released for it later on that did the same thing.
Isolation wasn't really pushing the consoles GPU wise anyway, the equivalent cards (to consoles) on PC could easily do 60FPS, it was locked to 30 due to the CPU. So if the devs had prioritised it, the game could've had TAA back then itself.
All this does is just show that Alien Isolation didn't get in on the TAA bandwagon when other games were just starting to hop on. Back then outside of rare titles like Ryse and Infamous, console games were still primarily FXAA,SMAA with no temporal elements while PC versions had been on TAA train for a few years (be it via TXAA, or SMAAT2x). The PC version of Alien Isolation had a TAA mod released for it later on that did the same thing.
Isolation wasn't really pushing the consoles GPU wise anyway, the equivalent cards (to consoles) on PC could easily do 60FPS, it was locked to 30 due to the CPU. So if the devs had prioritised it, the game could've had TAA back then itself.
Last edited:
One day lol funny part is I always drop it at the same point right when the alien is introduced. Truly the most terrifying game i've played this gen.
I played through this on launch and it was great, but the check pointing was a bit harsh. Has there been QOL changes to the game since then?
I'm proud to say I actually played well past the alien. I did it like I did with Silent hill 2 and 3. 15-20 minute at a time. :) Not finished it yet thou. I'm not that brave.
It's very cool they improved AA. I remember having a hell of a time trying to figure out how to improve image quality on the PC version back then- I believe a mod was eventually released that did just that. Anyway, maybe I'll buy this on the switch also. The extra effort deserves it.
The Switch port runs at a lower resolution but has a better anti-aliasing solution so in practice the image quality is far better than PS4. If you removed the logos I'd think that the PS4 version footage is of the Switch version. An excellent port by Feral Interactive.
Not really, and I think, minus some sections where the checkpoints are way to far in between, it's one of the best things of the game. The tension of being hunted by the alien while you're searching for a new saving point (hearing it in the distance, waiting those three seconds until you can finally use it) is frightening.
I disagree. What an exaggerating statement. Yes it uses a different form of AA/it uses some solution to solve the hard edges aliasing that the original versions had, but as a trade the resolution drops and that is clearly visible too, everywhere. So no, the image quality as a whole is, technically, worse.
Don't know how is the PS4, but a bit sad today. Even if I have a PC version, but I prefer to play on console.
Well, idk if dev could put a patch , but man the game is out 5 years ago
I'd love to, but I've read it's too long and overstays it's welcome. That's a big turn off for me. I don't want to run away and hide from a xeno for 20 hours.
Better is going to be a matter of preference. Do you prefer less jaggies or a less blurry image? Since the switch doesn't hold 1080 all the time, you'll end up with less jaggies like in the pic below, but also get the blurrier text. Either way, a great port.
The same can be seen in the image below. Much less aliasing at the expense of overall sharpness. This is reminding me a lot of Resident Evil 2, where the image was sharper on PS4 Pro, but had jaggies, and softer on X with less jaggies due to the TAA implementation. Personally, I preferred the Pro version because the blurrier look of the X made the game look flatter to me. I'm no fan of jaggies but I didn't think the trade off was worth it.
The same can be seen in the image below. Much less aliasing at the expense of overall sharpness. This is reminding me a lot of Resident Evil 2, where the image was sharper on PS4 Pro, but had jaggies, and softer on X with less jaggies due to the TAA implementation. Personally, I preferred the Pro version because the blurrier look of the X made the game look flatter to me. I'm no fan of jaggies but I didn't think the trade off was worth it.
Not officially, but there is a TAA mod that does just that and it's simple to install.
edit:š
As it's a TAA it also samples surfaces more than once, which can help text and other detail to be more readable, even though it's less sharp.Better is going to be a matter of preference. Do you prefer less jaggies or a less blurry image? Since the switch doesn't hold 1080 all the time, you'll end up with less jaggies like in the pic below, but also get the blurrier text. Either way, a great port.
In case of A:I the original aliasing is just horrible even at huge resolutions, art direction with straight lines and no AA which would handle sub-pixel information hits image quality really hard. (Tried 1440p with 4xDSR and quality was worse than with Alias:ISolation mod, and so was performance.)