Digital Foundry: Star Wars Jedi Fallen Order: Every Console Tested, Tech Problems Analysed

[Arkaign]

I doubt the stalls are just File I/O related btw. Obviously a weak HDD compounds the problem but the troubles here likely go deeper.

I'll just say there is a recent thread on tech-artist.org that touches on what I would expect to be the actual cause.

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I'd imagine you're correct. Probably I/O overhead interfering with CPU performance due to terrible Jag IPC while streaming/decompressing data on the fly. Probably easy to identify by testing some PC configs with advanced system monitors running on second display to see what's getting hit so hard on the hitching portions.

 

[Duderino]

This is why I kept it so generic. It's obviously not just related to drive speed, though it's part of it. The problem runs deeper clearly as you say.

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100%.

Not really directed at you, more to clear up an assumption that keeps resurfacing in performance discussions. Think it's a particularly relevant topic as the industry transitions to SSD.

 

[Shambala]

this is so strange. i have been playing the ps4pro in resolution (30fps) mode and i have a ton of framerate issues. in combat, when simply walking around, there are always some short pauses and the typical framerate issues on-top. it does not run like in the video (99% 30 fps). during some combat sections, the dips can be pretty extreme.

my console should be fine, since i have no issues while playing death stranding.

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My exact experience. It just feels off man. Constant hitches not smooth at all. After finishing death stranding and starting this it feels terrible to control

 

[S1kkZ]

My exact experience. It just feels off man. Constant hitches not smooth at all. After finishing death stranding and starting this it feels terrible to control

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but whats the reason for this? df shows no framedrops and almost no framerate issues. but for me (and you) its not even close to solid 30. i just tested it again: the first planet you travel to, during the fight against 3 "animals", the framerate stutters and drops heavily. broken console? faulty install? Dark1x any ideas?

 

[BeeDog]

Are all of you using the sleep or suspend mode on your console? I never use either because there have been a number of example over the years where using those features exacerbated issues like this.

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I literally never use the sleep/suspend mode, so it's probably not memory leak-related. More likely because of my HDD being almost full, or me having a copy of the Pro with a worse HDD.

 

[ss_lemonade]

When I first started the game on PC, I had these insane fps drops and stuttering and whenever it happened, my gpu usage percentage would drop down to single digits. Surprisingly, switching to a different controller (from bluetooth xbox one to my 8bitdo controller in bluetooth xinput mode) fixed the issue. No idea what that was about but I do know I've had random performance issues in the past somehow related to using an xbox one controller in bluetooth

 

[Hey Please]

The more of this thread I read, the more I get a sense of a lack of "polish" from this game, almost as if EA wanted this game out the door before Ep IX hit theaters without exception. Given the tolerance that consumers have been made accustomed to over the years for broken games at launch, this is not so surprising.

The only question is whether it is worth a playthrough in its current state at at least the quality/resolution setting on enhanced consoles or await an inevitable patch, or rather, patches prior to starting the game campaign.

 

[MAK11]

but whats the reason for this? df shows no framedrops and almost no framerate issues. but for me (and you) its not even close to solid 30. i just tested it again: the first planet you travel to, during the fight against 3 "animals", the framerate stutters and drops heavily. broken console? faulty install? Dark1x any ideas?

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Exactly the same issue on Xbox One X here. It clearly tanks even in resolution mode unlike what is seen in the DF videos. Lots of stuttering in both modes (game is installed on Internal HDD) . Not a single problem with any other game.

 

[S1kkZ]

Exactly the same issue on Xbox One X here. It clearly tanks even in resolution mode unlike what is seen in the DF videos. Lots of stuttering in both modes (game is installed on Internal HDD) . Not a single problem with any other game.

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thats just weird. could it be a bug that affects performance/loading? i also never use sleepmode/resume.

 

[leng jai]

Game looks like a mess on console, the performance modes especially are poor. Even on an high end PC there's a lot of stuttering issues even if the game isn't that demanding in terms of actual performance. I expected better from Respawn honestly.

 

[MAK11]

thats just weird. could it be a bug that affects performance/loading? i also never use sleepmode/resume.

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I don't use sleepmode/resume either. Resolution mode simply feels like shit especially with motionblur on. I fired up other 30fps games to compare and Fallen Order just doesn't look right at all (feels like it is well below 30fps). So I'm playing in performance mode which feels a lot smoother but does tank a lot too.
UE is & has always been a cluster-fuck of an engine (contrary to popular misinformed belief & Epic's PR/FUD) and especially always had issue with asset streaming. It has only been efficient & performant in AA/AAA games when the renderer has been heavily modified (Ie: Rocksteady Games, Mortal Kombat games, Claybook, Microsoft's internal branch used by Rare, The Coalition).

 

[pswii60]

Sad to hear it's performing so poorly on consoles, especially when you consider Titanfall 2 is one of the most impressive games of the generation in terms of console performance; with a locked 60 on X (and Pro?) using the Source engine and it looks and feels great to play. Didn't realise they were going UE4 for Fallen Order.

 

[MilesQ]

Game looks like a mess on console, the performance modes especially are poor. Even on an high end PC there's a lot of stuttering issues even if the game isn't that demanding in terms of actual performance. I expected better from Respawn honestly.

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Next gen port might be better?

 

[Elfotografoalocado]

Game looks like a mess on console, the performance modes especially are poor. Even on an high end PC there's a lot of stuttering issues even if the game isn't that demanding in terms of actual performance. I expected better from Respawn honestly.

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People are saying this is some sort of "next gen" game, but from what I see it's simply a very good looking game that is running quite poorly compared with other games out there in the market. It's not doing anything that other games like Modern Warfare or Gears 5 are not doing, but those run quite a bit better, without these crazy issues either. Maybe some more time in the oven would have made for a smoother launch.

 

[Fastidioso]

Ask yourself, if another bottleneck is taking resources away from I/O operations is File I/O realistically the root cause? No, staggered i/o would be just one possible symptom.

Yet for whatever reason whenever stalls like this happen the common assumption is, welp, must be the file I/O not keeping up. In reality these stutters may not even be a result of accessing data. Could be the cost of clearing memory before the next expected load, or asset spawning overhead, or memory leaks, or dependency tracking. etc. Even if I/O is the root cause it could have more to do with how the data is packaged. There are many, many other possible explanations.

The recommendation to not play from sleep is a telling sign that there is more at play here.

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It's just you who mislead the generic I/O issue reported to the others as an HDD I/O problem but no one has claimed that.

 

[Dark1x]

but whats the reason for this? df shows no framedrops and almost no framerate issues. but for me (and you) its not even close to solid 30. i just tested it again: the first planet you travel to, during the fight against 3 "animals", the framerate stutters and drops heavily. broken console? faulty install? Dark1x any ideas?

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Hard to say. Emma was getting massive drops to like 1fps and crazy freezing on Xbox One base but I'm wondering if there's something else going on resulting in a highly variable experience. It's a peculiar situation quite unlike anything I've seen recently. I suspect this can be patched, though.

 

[RingRang]

but whats the reason for this? df shows no framedrops and almost no framerate issues. but for me (and you) its not even close to solid 30. i just tested it again: the first planet you travel to, during the fight against 3 "animals", the framerate stutters and drops heavily. broken console? faulty install? Dark1x any ideas?

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Exactly the same issue on Xbox One X here. It clearly tanks even in resolution mode unlike what is seen in the DF videos. Lots of stuttering in both modes (game is installed on Internal HDD) . Not a single problem with any other game.

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Are your hard drives near full capacity? There has to be something going on there. Maybe try a database rebuild?

 

[MAK11]

Are your hard drives near full capacity? There has to be something going on there. Maybe try a database rebuild?

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There's no database rebuild functionality on the Xbox. Plenty of space left on the HDD too.

 

[S1kkZ]

There's no database rebuild functionality on the Xbox. Plenty of space left on the HDD too.

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300 gb left on my ps4pro. so not even close to full hdd.

 

[Trace]

Hard to say. Emma was getting massive drops to like 1fps and crazy freezing on Xbox One base but I'm wondering if there's something else going on resulting in a highly variable experience. It's a peculiar situation quite unlike anything I've seen recently. I suspect this can be patched, though.

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I'm getting full freezes for like a second or two and stuttering on a PC with a 980ti, 4670k installed on an SSD. Changing the settings makes no difference.

 

[SinkFla]

Playing on base PS4 and I'm very early on in the game, and yeah the stuttering is baaaaad. It's not constant but there's been a few moments where I swear it had to have dipped to 20 fps (and that's being generous).

 

[Hey Please]

I'm getting full freezes for like a second or two and stuttering on a PC with a 980ti, 4670k installed on an SSD. Changing the settings makes no difference.

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Playing on base PS4 and I'm very early on in the game, and yeah the stuttering is baaaaad. It's not constant but there's been a few moments where I swear it had to have dipped to 20 fps (and that's being generous).

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I am ruing pre-ordering this game (thankfully it was not a full price). I really hope Respawn can craft a proper performance patch sooner rather than later.

 

[th1nk]

It is just weird that games these days from experienced studios are still suffering from problems that should have been solved years ago. There should be some programming guidelines that prevent stuff like this from happening... but I guess time constraints are still the devil in everyones neck...

 

[Duderino]

It's just you who mislead the generic I/O issue reported to the others as an HDD I/O problem but no one has claimed that.

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Don't quite understand your point. My only claim was that file I/O collectively (which includes HDD) may not be the core issue here. As such, referring to the stalls on display as "the I/O issue" may not be entirety accurate.

 

[Deleted member 7148]

I do get stutters often in the XBX version. I'll try moving it to the local HDD and see if that helps.

 

[leng jai]

Stuttering is an issue with UE4 probably, even the PC version in high end SSDs suffer.

 

[Hey Please]

I remember there being an issue with stuttering even on PC with GeoW 5 due to functioning of the dynamic resolution solution. In addition, Duderino 's suggestion of not resuming the game session from a console's 'sleep' state makes me reminisce about memory leak issue.

 

[Prine]

Hmmm, I shall install the game on the X's internal drive then. Definitely noticing stutters a bit too often.

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Id imagine you can just copy it over in the Game's & App section? No need to install it again, unless that's what you meant.

 

[SinkFla]

I am ruing pre-ordering this game (thankfully it was not a full price). I really hope Respawn can craft a proper performance patch sooner rather than later.

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I'm really enjoying it far more than I thought I would but the stuttering can be kinda jarring. Like I said it isn't constant though so overall I'm enjoying the experience. I Redbox'd it though with a free rental. If I bought it I probably would still be happy with the game but yeah it definitely needs some fine tuning in a patch IMO. Especially coming from DS on a base PS4 where I never ran into any issues at all.

Also the load times can be complete ass. If you fall off a cliff or whatever it'll spawn you back up where you were, but if you die to enemies it'll kick you back to where you last meditated and if it's even a few platforms away I found myself waiting a good half minute to jump back in.

 

[Prine]

The more of this thread I read, the more I get a sense of a lack of "polish" from this game, almost as if EA wanted this game out the door before Ep IX hit theaters without exception. Given the tolerance that consumers have been made accustomed to over the years for broken games at launch, this is not so surprising.

The only question is whether it is worth a playthrough in its current state at at least the quality/resolution setting on enhanced consoles or await an inevitable patch, or rather, patches prior to starting the game campaign.

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Bingo. Make sure it's out for a month before Ep9 marketing blitz to feed off Disney's hype machine.

I'd happily put the game on hold of we got word of some type of update to improve performance.

 

[Hey Please]

I do get stutters often in the XBX version. I'll try moving it to the local HDD and see if that helps.

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Which mode are you playing in?

I'm really enjoying it far more than I thought I would but the stuttering can be kinda jarring. Like I said it isn't constant though so overall I'm enjoying the experience. I Redbox'd it though with a free rental. If I bought it I probably would still be happy with the game but yeah it definitely needs some fine tuning in a patch IMO. Especially coming from DS on a base PS4 where I never ran into any issues at all.

Also the load times can be complete ass. If you fall off a cliff or whatever it'll spawn you back up where you were, but if you die to enemies it'll kick you back to where you last meditated and if it's even a few platforms away I found myself waiting a good half minute to jump back in.

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Thank you. It looks like I will be spending some time with DS first and hopefully in that time Respawn can put out a rectifier patch.

 

[Ricker]

Really surprised that games still run at 720p sometimes,even on the vanilla consoles...weird...does the game really pauses 5 seconds like we see a few times in the video right in the middle of the action..? havent seen that in a while...waiting for a few patches but I will go quality mode on the Pro I guess.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

Really surprised that games still run at 720p sometimes,even on the vanilla consoles...weird...waiting for a few patches but I will go quality mode on the Pro I guess.

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I remember the time when 720p when forza horizon was praised for its 720p resolution and 4xmsaa, but now 720p is like PS1 graphics to ppl.
It strange how something can go from "great" to crap in just a few years.

 

[leng jai]

I remember the time when 720p when forza horizon was praised for its 720p resolution and 4xmsaa, but now 720p is like PS1 graphics to ppl.
It strange how something can go from "great" to crap in just a few years.

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Standards change. Horizon 1 was 7 years ago and was always considered one of the cleanest looking 720p games ever anyway. In 2012 a lot of people were using 40-50inch TVs with a native resolution of 720p/1080p as well and had never seen anything higher.

PS1 graphics is an obvious gross exaggeration but 720p absolutely looks poor on modern TVs, even worse on monitors.

 

[Rendering...]

Plz patch. I absolutely intend to play this, but I'm not putting it on my high priority list until some of the issues are sorted out.

This game seems like a great candidate for Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold. It's probably best to wait.

 

[leng jai]

Plz patch. I absolutely intend to play this, but I'm not putting it on my high priority list until some of the issues are sorted out.

This game seems like a great candidate for Game Pass or Xbox Live Gold. It's probably best to wait.

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Origin Premier for anyone on PC.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

Standards change. Horizon 1 was 7 years ago and was always considered one of the cleanest looking 720p games ever anyway. In 2012 a lot of people were using 40-50inch TVs with a native resolution of 720p/1080p as well and had never seen anything higher.

PS1 graphics is an obvious gross exaggeration but 720p absolutely looks poor on modern TVs, even worse on monitors.

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Yeah it does on my 50inch 4k, but on my 40 1080p set it still looks good.

 

[Deleted member 18161]

Shame, this is a really great game but it clearly could have used a few more months in the oven.

I guess that is what happens when you have a publisher like EA screaming down your neck.

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It's also what happens when a developer is asked to make five versions of the same game on a tight schedule.

It's going to be very interesting when there's 10 versions (PS4, PS4 Pro, PS5, XB1, XB1X, XB4, Switch, Switch Pro/2, PC and Stadia) of certain multi platform games in late 2020 / 2021.

 

[texhnolyze]

So, this game does run better than any of From Software's current gen games.

And yet people happily played those day 1, while for this one people would wait for a patch?

 

[ZSJ]

I'm glad I ended up going with PC. I experienced no notable technical issues, it loaded quickly and ran smooth as butter on the highest settings (I have a 2080). I only experienced one glitch.

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Why would you ever not go with PC with a $700 GPU?

 

[texhnolyze]

Why would you ever not go with PC with a $700 GPU?

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That's Era in a nutshell.

 

[Deleted member 7148]

Which mode are you playing?

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resolution

 

[SimpleCRIPPLE]

i'm curious, for people playing in HDR on Xbox One X, which brightness setting did you settle on?

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I stayed w/ the default. Even 1 tick lower and it seems like it started to crush some areas. 1 tick higher didn't do anything but wash out detail further.

I think the game was just mastered w/ more film-like blacks. Similar to the look Resident Evil 2 went for earlier this year.

 

[SinkFla]

Which mode are you playing in?



Thank you. It looks like I will be spending some time with DS first and hopefully in that time Respawn can put out a rectifier patch.

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YW! I'm not sure if you've played DS yet but fair warning: Episode 2 is a slog lol. Episode 3 and on game becomes amazing IMO. I beat the story and am still considering picking it up someday just to Platinum it.

As far as SW goes I highly recommend renting it to see if the performance is something you can live with.

 

[IamFlying]

You know the generation is struggling when a base ps4 is hitting 720p.

Imagine if the pro and x didn't come out. People would be screwing lol

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The games would probably much better optimized for base consoles. That was the fear many had when Pro and X was announced, that developers will not optimize for every system anymore.

Same will probably happen in a few years when PS5 Pro comes out.

 

[Anthony Hopkins]

The games would probably much better optimized for base consoles. That was the fear many had when Pro and X was announced, that developers will not optimize for every system anymore.

Same will probably happen in a few years when PS5 Pro comes out.

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It kinda don't make sense when the majority of customers are on the base.

 

[Deleted member 32822]

As soon as this game has had a few good patches, I'm in. I've been burned too many times by being an early adaptor who beat the game by the time it was polished with patches.

 

[Hyun Sai]

I'm glad I waited and saved my money. As most Devs don't optimize their games for the base PS4 anymore, I don't buy anything at launch anymore.

This sounds like a hard pass until next gen, I don't have a powerful enough PC to brute force this. Well, plenty of backlog anyway.

 

[Faenix1]

Is this the first time an external hdd isn't recommended? That's where 90% of my gaming is done from.

 

[giallo]

Played it bit more today (base PS4) after dropping it a couple of days ago. I heard that Zeffo performed much better than the swampy area, and it does, but the game feels like it's just barely keeping it all together. Honesty, for a AAA game, its performance is extremely poor on base consoles. Definitely wait until next generation if all you have is a base PS4 or X1.