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Digital Foundry | Gears 5 Analysis: A New Technological Standard For Xbox One?

jett

jett

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
44,663
Didn't realize the cutscenes were capped at 30fps even on Xbox One X (at least that's what it seems like in this video). Still really impressive. These are probably the best looking real-time cutscenes this side of Naughty Dog.

Looking forward to playing it on my PC when it's out on Steam. This will be the first Gears game I play since the very first. :p I wonder if it will be able to handle the cutscenes at 60fps.
 

Deleted member 4976

Banned
Oct 25, 2017
13,246
jett said:
Didn't realize the cutscenes were capped at 30fps even on Xbox One X (at least that's what it seems like in this video). Still really impressive. These are probably the best looking real-time cutscenes this side of Naughty Dog.

Looking forward to playing it on my PC when it's out on Steam. This will be the first Gears game I play since the very first. :p I wonder if it will be able to handle the cutscenes at 60fps.
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Cutscenes definitely are lower than 60 FPS on X, presumably due to the added effects in cutscenes vs game.
 
Ocean

Ocean

Member
Oct 25, 2017
3,692
scitek said:
This is only impressive through the lens of "a video game released in 2019." 50 years from now, it'll look laughably primitive.

/s
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Damn, almost fell for it lol. Was about to say it didn't even take 50 seconds for this post to be laughable but then I was burned by the /s
 
Dead Man Typing

Dead Man Typing

Member
Oct 27, 2017
5,860
Black_Stride said:
They are realtime....all of them. (cept the credits scene)
When you know exactly whats going to happen in the scene you can throw more effects at the game.
Some cinematic effects dont really work in gameplay and or are just not necessary.
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Oh yeah, I have no trouble with cutscenes applying extra effects or locking to 30fps. Halo 5 was similar with the extra power being thrown at 30fps cutscenes versus 60fps gameplay.

I'm just shocked at how good the real time cutscenes look. Camera work pans to show large scenes in the first act with tons of npc's on screen. Since Gears 4 per rendered so many scenes, I'd just assumed 5 was doing the same. (With a really impressive video codec) But clearly this isn't the case.

I'm even more impressed with how the game looks now.
 

walriii314

Member
Oct 28, 2017
344
The sound is NUTS in this game, I actually prefer my 7.2 channel dtx speakers over my dolby atmos headset, the bass is insane, simply understand how great this game sounds!!!!
 
TooBusyLookinGud

TooBusyLookinGud

Graphics Engineer
Verified
Oct 27, 2017
7,981
California
Hurting Bomb said:
I think we all just need to admit....this is the technical/graphical console highlight of this generation!
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It is. The fact that it's a steady 60fps is absolutely insane and should be taken into account; no matter if it's dynamic. To me that makes it the best looking console game I've played. The smoothness and what is takes to render at 60 fps is underappreciated by a lot.
 
Detective

Detective

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,853
What of this game was build for X only, no base Xbox, it would have looked even better right?
 
Dictator

Dictator

Digital Foundry
Verified
Oct 26, 2017
4,932
Berlin, 'SCHLAND
Septy said:
Those comparison tools that are in the face off articles.
Adds some nice interactivity and lets me see the visually see the differences between consoles. It's something to play with when the video is already very long.
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Ah you mean the "zoomer" image functionality. Yeah, it takes extra time and honestly we are not always too keen on preparing it after spending like 80 hours working on a video.

But I see your point.
 
Gowans

Gowans

Moderator
Oct 27, 2017
5,525
North East, UK
Love the way Dark1x takes us through he's findings.
Really helped bring a lot of info together.

It looks and feels so great to play, makes me really happy with my X and TV. (Interested to see how it looks on my PC & Laptop too).

Need to get through the campaign and keep getting pulled into multi.

Awesome to see how The Collation push it.

Edit: I also get the halo vibes from the Escape mode.
 
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Deleted member 18161

user requested account closure
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
4,805
SpartyCrunch said:
More importantly IMO, from a technical achievement perspective, is that it's not "twice as hard" to render 60fps vs. 30fps. It's more like 2.5-3x as hard.

At 30FPS, you have 33.3ms to render everything
At 60FPS, you have 16.6ms to render everything

But that 33.3ms or 16.6ms isn't entirely devoted to graphics rendering or animation. There is also a good chunk of that time devoted to other things which are constant regardless of frame rate.

So (just spitballing here), if that "other stuff" takes 7ms, then that leaves 26.3ms at 30FPS, or 9.6ms at 60fps.

So in that purely hypothetical / made up example, it would mean at 30FPS you have ~2.74x (26.3/9.6) the amount of time to render the frame compared to 60FPS.

Nothing is this simple to calculate of course, but this kind of math is what always impresses me about any developer who manages to achieve 60FPS games on console.
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I have dev friends and they all say that it's rarely the visuals or resolution fill rate that stops a 60fps target but rather everything else going on in the engine such as physics calculations, NPC behaviour etc. The CPU's are the main issue basically in hitting their target render time.

Hopefully next gen there's many, many, many more games that at least offer a 60fps option when resolution is the bottleneck at least but after the leak on here in the next gen thread about the game World that dwarfs the largest open Worlds we have this gen with incredible visuals and physics I doubt it.

I can't imagine the PC hardware we're going to need early next gen to get those sorts of games running at twice the framerate of extremely powerful consoles haha...
 
Calverz

Calverz

Member
Oct 28, 2017
2,586
Nephtes said:
I had intended to play when it first came out, but something else also came out at the time and I skipped it, and by the time I got around to playing, 1000 achievements became 4000 and I have this really specific kind of completionist OCD where I'd like to at least get most of the achievements out of a game... But 4000 is just daunting.
(I was really upset when they bloated up Killer Instinct and Halo MCC's achievement lists after release as well... I mean not really upset mostly like upset enough to shake my fist in the air and mutter quietly "oh you Microsoft!" One time and then forget about it till just now.)
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That sounds really dibilitating. What is your gamerscore out of interest?
 

Deleted member 17289

Account closed at user request
Banned
Oct 27, 2017
3,163
This game looks incredible on the X, crashed twice on me so i moved to the PC, holy shit, best looking game on any system as of now IMO.
 
cgpartlow

cgpartlow

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,006
Seattle, WA
Equanimity said:
Just read the written article for required info.

It's a shame that Gears 5 exhibits screen tearing at the top portion of your display but it only happens under heavy load.

Still, I absolutely hate tearing and hope they can alleviate this all together through a patch.
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Yeah it is a bummer, but I'm still blown away by how they got this running looking this good at that framerate. The xbox also supports FreeSync which would alleviate the tearing on newer monitors and TVs that support it.
 
Equanimity

Equanimity

Member
Oct 27, 2017
14,992
London
cgpartlow said:
Yeah it is a bummer, but I'm still blown away by how they got this running looking this good at that framerate. The xbox also supports FreeSync which would alleviate the tearing on newer monitors and TVs that support it.
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That's great. The TV in my living room supports FreeSync but I've got all my consoles hooked in the bedroom on a 32" 1080p Sony display.
 
Leo-Tyrant

Leo-Tyrant

Member
Jan 14, 2019
5,104
San Jose, Costa Rica
Nephtes said:
Man, this makes me want to play Gears 5 so bad, but I skipped Gears 4 due to it having something like 4000 achievement points I'll never be able to conceivably achieve just playing the story.

I wonder how bad it will be if I just jump in at 5...
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4 is actually very good and the start of this story arch.

Can you give more context as to why you didn't play it? I don't really understand the 4000 achievement comment, I didnt see any story blocker while playing regarding the achievements. I played the campaign (twice) and the game never blocked progress asking for achievements or something.

Am I missing something here?
 
J75

J75

Member
Sep 29, 2018
6,621
As someone that isn't interested in Gears at all, this video sold me fully on the game. Looking foward to jump into the series with 5.
 
J75

J75

Member
Sep 29, 2018
6,621
Detective said:
I suggest you play 4 before that.
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So the campaign won't make any sense for a newcomer? That's a shame... Gears 4 isn't even on steam and i really don't feel like dealing with the MS Store right now. It's also a significantly bigger download than 5 is right now and its a issue for me due to my shitty internet. And frankly i kind of wanted to play 5 since it's the new cutting edge hotness and the tech showcased in this video is a big part of what sold me on the game. I can't get enough of bleeding edge i guess.. heh. Oh well....
 
Nephtes

Nephtes

Member
Oct 27, 2017
4,550
Leo-Tyrant said:
4 is actually very good and the start of this story arch.

Can you give more context as to why you didn't play it? I don't really understand the 4000 achievement comment, I didnt see any story blocker while playing regarding the achievements. I played the campaign (twice) and the game never blocked progress asking for achievements or something.

Am I missing something here?
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Leo-Tyrant

Leo-Tyrant

Member
Jan 14, 2019
5,104
San Jose, Costa Rica
Nephtes said:
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Got it. Thanks for the context.

I thought you were referring to an actual game mechanic where achievements were needed to keep progressing the story (like story/checks/blockers that you needed to complete before advancing). It made no sense to me.

Its a shame you suffer from that disorder, Gears 4 was a fantastic experience both times I played it, giving good context to the Pendulum wars, E-Day, Marcus growth, as well as setting up everyhing in Gears 5. I wish you the best.
 
BIG J

BIG J

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,313
J75 said:
So the campaign won't make any sense for a newcomer? That's a shame... Gears 4 isn't even on steam and i really don't feel like dealing with the MS Store right now. It's also a significantly bigger download than 5 is right now and its a issue for me due to my shitty internet. And frankly i kind of wanted to play 5 since it's the new cutting edge hotness and the tech showcased in this video is a big part of what sold me on the game. I can't get enough of bleeding edge i guess.. heh. Oh well....
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theres a recap at the beginning. i never got through gears 4 campaign and no trouble so far
 
RedStep

RedStep

Avenger
Oct 27, 2017
2,652
J75 said:
So the campaign won't make any sense for a newcomer? That's a shame... Gears 4 isn't even on steam and i really don't feel like dealing with the MS Store right now. It's also a significantly bigger download than 5 is right now and its a issue for me due to my shitty internet. And frankly i kind of wanted to play 5 since it's the new cutting edge hotness and the tech showcased in this video is a big part of what sold me on the game. I can't get enough of bleeding edge i guess.. heh. Oh well....
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There are two recap videos, one that plays before the game (Previously on Gears) that recaps Gears 4, and one under Extras (State of the Universe) that covers Gears 1-3. You won't know all the characters but you'll be fine.
 
Detective

Detective

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,853
J75 said:
So the campaign won't make any sense for a newcomer? That's a shame... Gears 4 isn't even on steam and i really don't feel like dealing with the MS Store right now. It's also a significantly bigger download than 5 is right now and its a issue for me due to my shitty internet. And frankly i kind of wanted to play 5 since it's the new cutting edge hotness and the tech showcased in this video is a big part of what sold me on the game. I can't get enough of bleeding edge i guess.. heh. Oh well....
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Well there is a "previously on Gears" cutscenes.
You will get the most of it :)
 
swimming

swimming

Member
Oct 27, 2017
3,486
did they say anything about which hdr swttings to use? dont want to watch vid bc of location spoilers
 
Ushay

Ushay

Member
Oct 27, 2017
8,351
Game is truly a technical masterpiece of this generation. I can't think of ANY other that achieves these visuals at 60 frames.
Loving this game so far.

Also fantastic breakdown by DF guys, well done Dark1x and team.
 

ZSJ

Alt-Account
Banned
Jul 21, 2019
607
Not surprised. It runs so well at 4K for me on a 580 and 4670k.

If all PC games were this optimized I probably wouldn't even want another platform. It's glorious.
 
DocH1X1

DocH1X1

Banned
Apr 16, 2019
1,133
J75 said:
So the campaign won't make any sense for a newcomer? That's a shame... Gears 4 isn't even on steam and i really don't feel like dealing with the MS Store right now. It's also a significantly bigger download than 5 is right now and its a issue for me due to my shitty internet. And frankly i kind of wanted to play 5 since it's the new cutting edge hotness and the tech showcased in this video is a big part of what sold me on the game. I can't get enough of bleeding edge i guess.. heh. Oh well....
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The game LITERALLY starts with a previously on gears video summarizing 4.... literally....
 

Asriel

Member
Dec 7, 2017
2,458
Unreal that this is in 60fps. I can't remember the last time I've taken so many 4k screenshots. Just jaw-droppingly beautiful.
 
MaulerX

MaulerX

Member
Oct 30, 2017
2,693
Dictator said:
Actually targeting and hitting 60 fps at this fidelity is something The Coalition deserves huge props for.

I find it SO much more impressive than so many 30 fps titles for that reason. People tend to forget but 60 fps is so much more than input latency.

1. Animation fludity is markedly improved
2. Camera Pan stutter is markedly decreased (yes, I can see this through the toughest of motion blur even)
3. Display ghosting is decreased
4. Eliminates the half-refresh display ghost on a 60hz display
5. Improves edge quality as temporal AA samples are spatially closer
6. Vastly reduces temporal AA ghosting and artifacting
7. Improves the spatial and in-motion quality of any effect that uses temporal data (basically all effects in AAA games do that these days)

60 fps makes this game look as bonkers as it does.
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Amen.
 
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