Heads up PS4 owners, the frame rate is bad

Take a look at this before its pulled down, throughout the day a large number of reports are coming in that the ps4 version of fallout 4 (even after the day 1 patch) is experiencing significant frame rate drops, in some cases falling from 30 to 15-20. Bethesda has been pulling videos showing this evidence for most of the day, but I think people who have preordered the ps4 version need to know so they can either choose a different version or cancel their preorder. This video is ps4 version. This video is xbox one. This isn't the first time I recall of a sony console having a less than ideal version of a bethesda game, to the best of my knowledge I don't think Skyrim ever worked very well for most ps3 players, with that track record I believe that consumers need to know the state of the game before it releases on the 10th, embargos are not consumer friendly.

PSA: The comments on those videos are probably rife with spoilers. There is one I've seen as the top comment on a couple of them and have no idea if it is a spoilers or not. But it's pretty bad out there for that right now.

Anyway, I've got it pre-ordered for PS4. I'm gonna stick with it because I don't have another platform to play it on :P

So I'm hoping that whatever dips exist I can live with. For what it;s worth, my understanding is that not everyone is having these issues, and that it's often more noticeable in indoor areas with lots of lighting effects or enemies. Also one specific problem with scoping on weapons? I'm hoping that whatever it is isn't overly common or can be patched. I hope.

Either way I think it's a bit too soon to start pointing people towards buying the XBONE version over the PS4 version based on a few videos. Those consoles versions should run identically. I imagine Digital Foundry will do their usual comparison which is what people should wait for, along with the increase in opinions we get post-release, if they are concerned.

Ive been watching alot of ps4 streams and i havent seen anything wrong with the frame rate.Also,none of the streamers when asked about frame rate issues said they had any.One guy has played for over 20 hours and said that it ran great.Im seeing alot of "problems" being brought up about the game,and yet neither me or any of the streamers ive watched have seen or had any problems with it.Not saying its not possible for it to have issues,but im confident it will be ok based off the hours of footage ive watched.

Curious to hear what the guys have to say. That video did have some bad dips but it didn't look that bad.

I mean I don't think they're pulling vid's down because people are showing off some janky framerates, more likely pulling down because vid's shouldn't be out in the wild yet.

Let's see what tomorrow brings before marching en masse with pitchforks.

I'm one of the suckers that can't resist another Fallout and will just power through any technical difficulties the game has. This is really disappointing news though. Shame the PS4 version is the only way I can play it.

I saw one of them earlier today. I guess the camera movement was kinda choppy, but as long as it's not as bad as New Vegas on PS3, I can live with it.

Yeesh, those are some pretty frequent dips. I wonder how it actually performs in areas that are heavily populated.

I'll wait for it to get in the hands of the general public

You don't get the ps4 version of this and expect a perfect performance

99% of the big framerate debacles have been over exaggerated.

I think console owners should expect at least a stable 30 FPS. Although I wouldn't call 30 FPS "perfect" performance, I'm that guy who upgrades his video card when I can't run a game at a minimum of 1080p/60 with everything maxed out.

Sub 30 FPS is unacceptable.

@mike: and if it's constantly jittery and going to 15 fps then I'll agree.

I would just rather wait until a larger group gets their hands on it before I make any decision.

If things slow down a bit during something crazy every once a awhile it's really not a big deal IMO

Yeah this is what I was worried about. I hope the reviews will try to address this as much as they can since I do have the luxury of choice between Ps4 and Xbox One in this case (of course the PC version is optimal but my PC isn't good enough to take advantage of high settings). I'll probably wait until about Wednesday or so to decide.

I have already pre-ordered my copy for my PC and am hoping the difference between this version and the consoles will be as noticeable a difference as skyrim was between that PC version and the console. I have yet to see any proof of this but bethesda is one of the few companies I trust with it's consistency .

I hope they didn't do the same thing they did for PS3 with Skyrim. Last time nobody cared, but now is a different story. I can imagine because of the lengthy development that they might have banked on the possibility that xbox would remain as the overwhelming leading platform.

The potential good news is that they will have to fix it if it's indeed a problem this time. Fast, hopefully.

Did any of there games run at a smooth framerate on consoles? I remember fallout 3 running kinda crap

I've seen word that the framerate really only hitches up when inside interiors which, while still unacceptable, might be something that they can address. But we really won't know until the embargo lifts.

Why? I think that has only barely been the case for this generation so I don't see why we should expect that. Run well? Yes. But not exactly the same, especially when it comes to a game like this.

Anyway, I'm kinda shocked. The PS3 versions of Bethesda's games ran like crap because the PS3 never had developer friendly architecture, but the Xbox 360 did. This generation is kinda the opposite. That's a bummer the sony version once again is apparently the worse version. Good thing I have the Xbox One version pre-ordered.

Also a pretty steady 30 is NOT too much to ask for. That's what Witcher 3 runs at and that game looks ten times better than Fallout 4 visually. Also it has no load times when entering buildings.

I absolutely believe that sub 30 FPS is pretty much unacceptable, but if I played it on PC I'd have frame drops anyway, so I think I can deal with some interior drops now and again, especially since I was still fine with the Witcher 3.

Sub-30 is unacceptable? Where were you guys during PS3/360. I feel like people were always fine with shitty frame rates except me. Luckily, I have a PC now so I hope this game runs well there.

Also, someone says the Witcher 3 runs at a steady 30? Hell no it doesn't on Xbone. I played through about half of it there before switching to the PC version. It's night and day graphically and frame rate-wise. Especially in Skellige with the snow; the frame rate is steadily horrendous. I honestly didn't like the Witcher 3 until I played the PC version. A terrible frame rate really soured my experience with it when I tried playing it on console. I'd prefer devs do what they can to salvage a good frame rate over anything else. Halo 5, for instance, looks very good and runs perfectly.

I've only seen a video where if you aim through the scope the frame rate goes from 30 to around 15. Hopefully this is just a technical issue that can be fixed with a patch.

I remember playing Skyrim on PS3 . . . I'm not surprised

I have the game on PS4 (Stores in Germany have sold it early) and yeah, the framerate is not great.

In general it seems like it runs at 30 fps most of the time, but there are dips when enemies get up close or when you're entering VATS mode. Nothing gamebreaking so far, but still..

There are some pretty huge dips right in the intro though.. that could have been avoided on Bethesdas side. And I haven't gotten to the City yet.

The game plays okay. I would have liked lower resolution and a higher framerate.. but hey, maybe I'm gonna buy it on PC too.

Edit: I'm about 10 hours in and it has not crashed yet. A couple of minor quest related bugs, but other than that it was okay.

If it really is a mess again then I can only hope they will be taken to task for it in reviews unlike the past where they were great games, 9/10, unnnless you bought it on console then you're out of luck. But hey, these games are meant to be played on PC you dummies - or at least that seemed to be more or less the narrative.

It is a Bethesda game at launch, and especially on a Sony console, I am expecting sub 30 fps for the first few days to week and at least 1 crash to home screen in the first few hours of playing.

I've seen plenty of the game on Twitch streaming from PS4 and it looks good to me. It's never going to be as good as PC, but nothing I've seen looks unacceptable or crummy.

I can understand that the game is exciting and new and some people have been waiting for it for a long time. I still don't think it's a great idea to give the game the benefit of the doubt and buy it on release with problems already being reported. Who is that helping? You'll either get a game that works good or not. If you wait and the game is widely reported to run well, you can still go and buy it. If you buy it, open it, and it runs poorly, a lot of you are gonna be stuck with it. If this turns out to be a Skyrim on PS3 situation (because the issues got progressively worse over time on that console), then everyone is gonna be sorry they didn't wait.

Well I'm buying the game with the Xbox One bundle so I'm all good? That version is fine?

I wonder what the reason for it is. As I've understood it, the PS4 is supposed to be a lot easier to develop for than the ps3 was, so what could be the reason that it would be like this?

Another video showed long load times. ~30 seconds to enter and exit buildings. Hopefully it runs okay on PC. I have it installed to my SSD purely because of the load times to open doors.

@twinsun: I dunno how developing games works, but I would guess they just didn't care as much about the PS4 version? Bethesda has always been all about the Xbox since they started developing for consoles.

If you're worried about console performance I'd wait for Digital Foundry to put up some videos on YouTube. They're usually pretty quick and have them up within a few days of launch. If there's a problem with any version they'll get the word out about it. Might not be a bad idea to hold off on purchasing the game until we know for sure if you're worried.

As for it running bad on PS4... Bethesda games have always had a bad rap on the PS3. Fallout 3 was really rough and Skyrim was practically unplayable. I don't know how Fallout 4 runs on PS4 for sure, but I honestly wouldn't be surprised if there are problems.

Wait of you can!

@steadying: That just seems odd from a business standpoint, since the PS4 is outselling the xbox by quite a large margin, and has since the beginning.

People drawing inferences about performance based upon previous Bethesda games on PS3 should probably stop because the architecture of that system and current gen consoles aren't the same.

I am curious though if it came down to simple allocation of development assets or if there's something more fundamental to how Bethesda's engine handles the PS4 vs the Xbone.

Won't happen, which is bullshit but whatever.

There's a lot these games should be taken to task for, but they never are.

Well fuck, there go my hopes. Glad i didn't preorder or anything. Damnit Bethesda :(

There's a PS4 stability firmware update today, I wonder will that help anything.

Anyway, it's less than 3 hours from reviews and the quick look going live. I'm not expecting this game to come out without bugs or a rough start. The game I expect to come out flawlessly tomorrow is Starcraft 2: Legacy of the Void.

@kishinfoulux: In the thread alone you can see a lot of people seem to be ok with getting a broken game even though historically Bethesda is known for simply not fixing them if they don't feel like it. I'm not an FPS nazi that needs a steady 60 because anything else is subhuman and I get migraines otherwise, but there are certain minimum standards in this day and age that I think a developer is obligated to meet.

EDIT: I mean I think it's a little crazy that we've come to a point where people are mostly concerned whether a game will actually work properly, much less be a good game. Thats nuts.

I've played about 16 hours of the game so far (see the other thread) and I think the framerate is mostly okay. Yes, there are drops, especially when there are a lot of explosions or lots of laser weapons being fired, but overall it runs okay.

It's definitely the most stable launch of a Bethesda game I've seen so far (at least on consoles). I'd still love for them to do better, but oh well.

Having one incident of frame drops and saying that it's representative of the entire game is kinda ridiculous

It could be, but it's a pretty big leap.

@oursin_360 said:

I played Fallout 3 recently on the 360, and I think it runs fine (mind you, this is GOTY edition after tons of patches). There is some stuttering at places but frame rate seems constant. It is in no way comparable to smooth 60fps on the pc, but OK for slower game like FO3.

Hmm... this is a bummer to hear. Was planning on getting the PS4 version. Might get the XB1 one if I keep hearing negative stuff about this version.

Pretty sure the ps4s design specs were partly influenced by Bethesda's need for more ram. Skyrim being shit on ps3 was because of ps3s lack in ram, and its weird architecture. There is no excuse for bad performance on ps4. No fucking excuse. Not a day one buy for me anymore.

Well, this is a bummer. Especially when my options are PS4 or nothing. I certainly don't have the money for a new PC.

But, if I suffered through Skyrim on PS3, I can get through this. Not that that makes it any better. Just means...I don't know.

I really hope digital foundry have something up on this today. I kinda want to play a console version so I can play this on the couch. was planning on getting this on PS4 as its my go to this gen. But if the Xbox version is smoother I might have to get that. I wonder if both run t the same res.

Bethesda games are fucked up at launch. It's unacceptable. But it's also part of the experience.

Maybe it's another case like The Witcher 3, going for 1080p on PS4 over a more stable framerate and 900p.

Saw someone say that that specific area from the video has a bad frame rate but the rest of the game runs pretty much fine. I can believe that since the other ps4 videos people have been showing haven't looked that bad.

Bethestas games are known to be janky, on all platforms. That history is not gonna stop me from enjoying this on PC tonight. I would easily play this on 30 frames. Why watch streamers if you are getting it yourself? Also, how the hell can they stream this if its embargoed?

this is the issue. people take small tech issues and run with them so now anytime someone brings up this stuff I cant trust it anymore.

im not saying this game might not have issues but the specs gorup has to realize they may not be the majority.

the hyperbole doesn't help ether.

@paulkemp: Its embargoed for people who have been given it for free, like reviewers.