Time to wear your crazy person hat - XBONE vs. PS4 videos.

This website is a pretty great place to look at to get your first glimpses of an XBONE game vs. a PS4 game:

http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-battlefield-4-next-gen-vs-pc-face-off-preview

TL;DR is basically that both XBONE and PS4 versions of the game isn't as good as the PC on the highest setting. It's worth pointing out that it was captured using dev kits and the games at a near-finalized state. Also, XBONE is a couple of weeks outside of the PS4 release so who knows.

Battlefield 4's performance is almost perfectly handled in campaign mode, with the avoidance of full 1080p allowing both PS4 and Xbox One to deliver smooth 60fps playback with v-sync engaged. Exceptions are few and far between, with drops to 50fps seen in three cut-scenes here, and once down to 30fps during an explosive battle.

And also, PS4 multiplayer's Framerate drops a bit also, but there's not XBONE footage to compare it with.

I posted this in the reviews thread but might as well just copy it into here.

The comments on that are hilarious. All the crazy reactionary fanboy posts are way upvoted (for example: "Microsoft, you cunts" +8) and the only reasonable comments are downvoted to hell. ("It's a cross-generational LAUNCH game by a 3rd party dev. No surprise that there are differences. But no doubt, silly fanboys will draw "definitive" conclusions about console "power" from it because hey, console wars, man." -10)

INTERNET!

Gasp it looks better on PC.

Man, the differences between the three versions become strikingly apparent when using Digital Foundry's image comparison tool. I did expect differences but I definitely did not expect the Xbone version to exhibit such bad aliasing.

MOAR LIKE XBONED AMIRTE?

Huh. Yeah that xbox AA is pretty noticeable. Looks like someone fiddled around with the contrast on that video, or maybe the PS4 upscaler is wonky? PS4 version seems like it's comparable to PC on high settings to me though.

Something interesting: There seems to be a bit more pop to the colors on the XBONE edition. Or in comparison, the PC and PS4 looks a tad more washed out and/or subtle? Wonder how/why that happened?

So you're saying a PC game looks best on PC?

And developers might not yet have a full handle on how to best utilize the new consoles?

This is going to get mindbogglingly stupid mindbogglingly quick. Anyone who wants to join me in the fallout shelter, just ask.

This was briefly addressed in the article -

"Similar to the Xbox 360, Microsoft's new platform seems to enforce a colour push towards the lower end, leaving us with more saturated colours and deeper blacks."

Ya'll are crazy.

*waves his hand* I definitely need an invite, i will even bring some lovely K Rations!

In other news game played on PC with better hardware than consoles (still) looks best on PC! No WAI!

Look, I don't want to disparage anyone who cares about this stuff. I get it, you want to best looking version of the game.

But holy shit, looking through the GAF thread about this, some people are in-fucking-sane. There are people excusing Digital Foundry of removing the "crushed blacks" (whatever that means) from the Xbox One version. One guy is calling the difference between the PS4 and X1 versions "generational." Is anyone going to notice any of these differences when they're not staring at comparison GIFs that are 2 feet in front of their face?

Wow these 30fps youtube videos do an amazing job of demonstrating the amazing look and feel of 60fps first person shooter action!

Seriously loving all these reactionary threads. Remember guys, GUN was a launch game at one point, just keep that in the back of your mind and take this whole PCvPS4vXBO situation with a grain of salt, at least for the first couple of months or so.

At a guess the XBO is doing a limited range output and the PC/PS4 are doing full range and their capture gear isn't calibrated to match. Either that or the Chroma levels on the XBO's HDMI out have been punched through the ceiling for no discernible reason

@vinny_says: YouTube can display 1080p60 and higher with no problem.

digital foundry, a name I can trust. Really comprehensive work.

They are useful when shopping for console versions in the instances where the PC version is missing in action. I don't really do the multi player thing for most games so it's always good to find out where the best experience is between the 2 platforms.

Are you being sarcastic, or do you actually believe this? Sarcasm isn't the easiest point to get across on the internet, and that's especially true when it looks like you are disagreeing with the person that you're replying to.

Here we go guys. I bet certain parts of the internet are going crazy with these comparisons.

@mb: YouTube definitely locks at 30. Gamespot recently did a video talking about frame rate (and how their new player supports 60fps). They say if you're watching on YouTube that you won't notice a difference in the video

@themanwithnoplan: lol, It's madness over at Gaf, but I enjoy these sorts of things. I'm actually surprised at how quite it is over here,

More or less what I already knew/expected. Really though, look at the tiny part of the image they're zoomed in on. All 3 versions look pretty damn great.

Its really crazy that people get all upset over these kinds of things. PC version is probably going to look the best because its a pricier and more easily upgraded piece of hardware. Plus the new consoles aren't even out yet, the time that developers have had with them is very short. It takes time to learn how to utilize the hardware to its full potential.

Anyways, Despite having a PC that can run BF4 on max settings perfectly, I'll be getting the game for my PS4. Glad to know it looks pretty damn close to the PC version so I'm not missing out much on that end.

Eh, I don't really think it's that controversy worthy. It's pretty much what everyone expected, isn't it?. Ps4 version looks better and is technically superior to the XB1 version. PC version is better than both. Sorted.

Oh boy. This stuff is always interesting to watch from afar.

But yeah, the giant bomb community's usually pretty good about not completely devolving into madness and vitriolic turmoil in the same way other parts of the internet do.

@spaceinsomniac: @naru_joe93: Sorry, I was being sarcastic since I was recently discussing this in another thread. Should have been more clear.

Maybe I should reinstate a couple of recently banned fanboys to add more fuel to the fire?

On second thought...NO!

It's not surprising to me at all that a game being released simultaneously on five platforms is not really optimized all that well. Especially when you take into account that the game apparently went into cert for these next-gen systems before the software for the consoles was even finished. It'll take about a year for drivers to mature and developers to fully learn both platforms.

Why is everyone being so bloody... reasonable? Where's the giant fanboy cockfight?

@mb: Oh so you are a mod here, cool.

If Sony can fix the (upscaler/bloom/AA?) blur issue they may have a sizable lead on the Xbox. I'm surprised there's as much of a gap in raw processing power as this seams to indicate.

Give it another 12 hours :P

HitmanAgent47 would've be all over this shit.

@sinusoidal:This is Giant Bomb, son. We don't give a fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck.

I won't have you throwing around these outlandish and totally unreasonable statements.

@mb: I am disappointed at the reasoned discourse in this thread. This is not the Giant Bomb I signed up for. Do eet! ;)

@erinfizz: Ok...uhhh....

LOL @ M$!!!!! Stupid Xboned!

There.

...uh, they both look good? they still look like generic shooter #7 from EA, so.... congrats DICE! Just like the legions of Sony fanboys were happy with early games on PS3, legions of Xbox fans will be happy with the early Xone games.

Here's hoping that they prioritize framerate for the real nextgen games, and stop wasting my time with higher resolutions that drop frames every time you spin the camera (looking at you, Ubisoft).

@mb: YA ITS FUNNY HOW MUCH THEY KILLIN $ON¥

@mb: Dawww. Thanks . *swoon*

I wonder why PS games colors look more washed out.

But the article makes it seem like the PS4 vs Xbox One is hard to decide on because the upscaling on the PS4 to 1080p sucks ass. MS is doing something good and while the lower resolution makes aliasing more noticeable, textures and other visuals pop more on the Xbox. They dont seem to take advantage of the PS4s better hardware and games that are not in 1080p might look better on the Xbox because the upscaling on the PS4 is not that good. So the PS4 might definitely look better on a 720p tv.

Take a look at this IGN BF4 Comparison.

Honestly, the console versions look nearly identical.

It's crazy that there's this big of a difference this early. 720p with no AA or ambient occlusion vs. 900p with better framerate and HBAO. Watch the IGN comparisons as they seem to be the best. The multiplayer comparison looks especially bad for the xbox.

Eh not really, early cross platform PS3 stuff was pretty jacked as well (maybe not quite as significantly but was noticeable).

They used an on-location provided improperly set-up Elgato gear for this. It's not quite a right comparison. In-house tests will get us what we need.

e: UNLESS Full RGB HDMI (0-255) is forced ON for the Xbone

..in which case we have another 7-8 years of ugly-ass black crush footage from gamers and media to look forward to :(

Oh neogaf is going crazy, capture device settings, people that love saturation at 200, MP footage looking like it's the BF1942 PC version.

What I do get from this whole thing is that I am better off spending $500 on a new graphics card right now.

I got access to the consoles and ran my own tests of zoo tycoon. If you want to know more just PM me

IT will be several years at least until devs get optimal power and efficiency out of these machines, thats the way it always works. Looking forward to playing more PC game with my new rig though :)

@Cramsy do you have a newsletter I can subscribe to? ;)

This is really something people complain a long time about digital foundry. I don't know why they can not fix this. As for the rest the more serious matter here is really the framerate differences. Despite the resolution thingy the performance is really quite surprising. I wonder how it will look with COD. But man How could Gies not see any difference here?

You mean the guy from the company that got millions of dollars from Microsoft to make a documentary? Yeah no idea how he missed that. Follow The Money.

Other than that, whenever has a game been great when review scores where under embargo until release? All multi-platform titles for XB1 are later than that of PS4. I think that is telling in itself.

I don't really buy the whole "bought by MS" angle, I just don't trust Gies to get anything right. It's more likely incompetence than anything else.

Fortunately their complete lack of subtlety with the colour scheme has ensured that it looks equally ridiculous across all platforms. Impressive tech, but hideous aesthetically.