Unfinished: PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds (Xbox One) 12/12/17

I was surprised to learn about their threading strategy in that it's best optimized for 4 cores, and not 8 as in the Xbox One and X (video). I wonder if this is a UE4 limitation. I know doom/wolfenstein and uncharted/tlou engines uses task-based parallelism (aka job system) instead of dedicated threads for things in order make full use of all available cores (gdc talk by Naughty Dog if anyone is interested). So maybe it's not the CPU in the Xboxes that is weak, it's just that the game is not taking full advantage of it (yet).

@void: The rumbly triggers work! That's something, I guess.

Go figure a bad PC beta ported to console is still bad. Doesn't seem to run that much worse than say Fortnite on PS4 regular. I think regardless of mechanical or technical deficiencies gamers by nature love being wieners. But hey, Zeitgeist is a hell of a drug.

Spoiled or not, this performance is borderline unacceptable for a console game in 2017, beta or otherwise. Sounds like Jeff is concerned this sets a really negative impression for first timers.

The game runs at 10 fps but the DLC is ready to go.

You know, I actually like that they're trying new things with the control scheme. I'm a fan of the clicking sticks to lean if it were a toggle (not sure if it is or not). The left trigger hold and click functionality is actually also refreshing to me. I would totally be on board with that for third-person-shooters.

Sometimes we need to buck trends to iterate and improve upon standardized control schemes, even if attempts aren't always the best.

I guess we should have known this was going to be awful when we heard their target was 30FPS.

It's also slightly worrying that Microsoft would allow something that runs so awfully on their brand spanking new mini-pc, you'd think they'd be curating their store.

@dgtlty:

From Xbox Game Preview FAQ:

What is Xbox Game Preview?

Xbox Game Preview is a way for our fans to preview and purchase work-in-progress digital titles, participate in the development process and help developers make Xbox One games the best they can be.

All I'm saying it's WORK-IN-PROGRESS as in BETA. If you've tried other Game Preview titles before they were released, then you might have a better idea what Game Preview means. I think Elite Dangerous was in Game Preview for many, many months. It used to crash every 30-60 mins, playing with a friend was very hard to setup (If I recall correctly you had to restart the game and look at the last four server numbers in the main menu and join when it was same that your friend was on - or keep restarting the game until the number matched).

Console game in 2017? I'm sorry but at some point the restricting thing is hardware power (and developer experience). I'm sure they'll optimize and scale down the graphics in the coming months. They set a date, they didn't want to disappoint Microsoft or the gamers waiting. At least the game is playable, no matter what state it is in. As a console player people should have been accustomed to these problems. Also this might be the developer's first console title. It's always a learning progress, and I realize it would be nice if every developer would be expert at developing and porting for every platform, but the realities are quite different.

I don't know why I'm "defending" this, just my thoughts on the matter :)

Short version: Xbox port is not done yet, I'm sure they'll optimize in the coming months. Peace out!

@willyod: This game released in early access on the PC too, in a much better state than this version. It's almost like they're just rushing this version out for Microsoft's exclusivity period or something, player experience be damned.

My 8 year old PC can handle this but the most powerful console ever can't.

Sure it's pretty janky.. but it has great potential. I buy a decent amount of early access games, and i find the state of this one pretty standard.

The base game is there.. it just needs heavy optimization, some content, polish and a ton of bug crunching.

I do find it strange that they kept the pre-flight/fight lobby thing. That part always seems to run like shit no matter what rig you have. Trying to animate 100 people in a small space plus lag issues etc. -its just asking for trouble. Get rid of it. Group us in packs of 25 shooting cannons at the others groups castles.. or have us climbing a giant slippery cock. Anythings better than the 7fps punch fuck we have now.

@xbob42:

I feel like this could get a lot better. The biggest graphical issues I see here feel like bad Unreal Engine type issues and any networking issues can hopefully be worked on. Netcode can totally be improved over time and I'm sure Microsoft will help them all they want on that front.

I think the bigger story here is the way this was presented on stage and the extremely thin Xbox holiday lineup. If this was released after a strong Call of Duty and a Halo or something it would still be kind of a big deal but niche and everything could just be chalked up to early access. But with a bit more pressure and a new console to justify this year it's a little bit different.

Also, don't hate on potato computers.

At next year's E3 after show, if Phil Spencer is a guest, I would love to see Jeff ask Phil how this game could be "released" in this state.

This looks like a technical mess, and I say this as someone who loves the PUBG content on this site but who plays primarily console games.

That said, it's going to be really funny how salty people get when this takes home a top 3 spot at GOTY.

its not the first early access game on xbox, they've had this program for years and its been fine.

This seems like a pretty neat exploration and looting game. I did like how the guys get to just chat for the first 25 minutes until Jeff punches the air for a bit, hides, then dies. Game of the year.

@alybuckuys: I have an og xbox one, I am having fun, its certainly not perfect. I finished 5th tonight in a run and my heart was racing, this is a special game.

I agree with all the above, it's an early access game. Yes it need optimisation, yes the first 60 seconds of each game is a bit rough, but after that it's pretty smooth, but the best thing is, it's a level playing field again, no cheat mods, I can actually enjoy the game again.

The true battleground is love.

@willyod: I do t like using the word spoiled but, yah, that’s what of gaming on a higher end setup will do to you. I love console gaming for the ease of it but I also recently upgraded my PC and have been playing a lot of games there. Recently I decided on getting AC Origins on console so I have a game I can mess around with on the couch and I am a spoiled by PC performance quite a bit. The frame rate is all over the place and during combat it especially tends to dip well below 20FPS which just makes it a frustrating experience. Overall it’s fine and I have fun playing it but whenever I’m trying to parry attacks and the whole thing is slowing down to a crawl I do get annoyed thinking I could have been playing this a little less comfortably at my desk on my PC, but running at AT LEAST a locked 40 if not 60FPS throughout. Knowing you could be playing a better version of the same game can make you somewhat disappointed and bitter towards the one you’re stuck with.

@willyod: I don’t like using the word spoiled but, yah, that’s what of gaming on a higher end setup will do to you. I love console gaming for the ease of it but I also recently upgraded my PC and have been playing a lot of games there. Recently I decided on getting AC Origins on console so I have a game I can mess around with on the couch and I am a spoiled by PC performance quite a bit. The frame rate is all over the place and during combat it especially tends to dip well below 20FPS which just makes it a frustrating experience. Overall it’s fine and I have fun playing it but whenever I’m trying to parry attacks and the whole thing is slowing down to a crawl I do get annoyed thinking I could have been playing this a little less comfortably at my desk on my PC, but running at AT LEAST a locked 40 if not 60FPS throughout. Knowing you could be playing a better version of the same game can make you somewhat disappointed and bitter towards the one you’re stuck with.

@willyod: I don’t like using the word spoiled but, yah, that’s what gaming on a higher end setup will do to you. I love console gaming for the ease of it but I also recently upgraded my PC and have been playing a lot of games there. Recently I decided on getting AC Origins on console so I have a game I can mess around with on the couch and I am kinda spoiled by PC performance quite a bit. The frame rate is all over the place and during combat it especially tends to dip well below 20FPS which just makes it a frustrating experience. Overall it’s fine and I have fun playing it but whenever I’m trying to parry attacks and the whole thing is slowing down to a crawl I do get annoyed thinking I could have been playing this a little less comfortably at my desk on my PC, but running at AT LEAST a locked 40 if not 60FPS throughout. Knowing you could be playing a better version of the same game can make you somewhat disappointed and bitter towards the one you’re stuck with.

I genuinely had no idea so many people were so salty about PUBG. All this talk of mediocre devs and the PC version being ugly, it's ever so slightly surreal.

I have no feelings on this game because I've not played it on PC & don't have an Xbox One of any variety, but damn.

@humanity: Buy a Steam Link or, if you wait a while, they're bound to be giving them away free in cereal packets soon.

It doesn't turn your PC into a console but it's an extremely nifty peripheral to have when you fancy kicking back on your couch.

Generally, yes. They get short-changed a lot when it comes to performance. If all you've ever played is games capped at 30fps and under, that's what you are used to and this is no different. That being said, this is pretty rough even by console standards. The game doesn't run particularly well on PC as it is, but this is just horrible. This port came out waaaay to early.

@humanity: What console you are playing AC: Origins on? It's my first AC game and it runs supersmoothly with my PS4 Pro. (Great, great game by the way, I'm almost addicted, I highly recommended it even for people who have no interest in AC series but are interested in the ancient Egypt setting).

@richhurtz: Just watching Jeff and Jason play this is making me sick. I'm not sure if it's just me being hungover. Blech.

Wish I could love this game (or concept) like so many others. But they do nothing for me, tried this and Fortnite's Battle Royal and I just find them boring after a few rounds. It's a shame because everyone raves about it, probably be most peoples GOTY.

As for this, it looks like a below par Xbox 360 game.

To GB and all other streamers. Can we ditch the word "spicy" in 2018? It WAS fun for that month, but god awful now.

@murdoc_: Embrace the fluidity of the vernacular. Stay Thirsty My Friend!

FYI: Turning off Game DVR in your XBox settings makes things much more stable. Steady 30fps without the dips into the teens like I've been getting before. Means you can't save clips or screenshot, but it makes a huge difference in performance. Game is still capped at 30, but the only way to keep it at a stable 30 is to turn this off.

Settings > Preferences > Broadcast and Captures > turn off "Allow broadcast and capture".

I don't mean to bold my post, but I hope it stands out to helps others.

28 mins of looting 1 minute of shooting, the bg watching experience

A lot of the issues seem to have to do with texture streaming/quality, and that probably means they're having issues getting everything to fit into the console's memory.

Downgrading texture resolution is one of the easiest ways to save memory, and while Unreal's asset streaming system has always been somewhat problematic as far as texture and model LOD popping is concerned, it might be tuned to be more aggressive here than it would be for most games - meaning it uses lower-res versions at shorter distances from the player viewpoint, and swaps between low and high res versions more frequently than the typical Unreal game.

Assuming they've already addressed any really low-hanging fruit in terms of memory usage optimization, it's probably going to be an incremental process to find bits of memory savings here and there, and possibly re-work some of the assets so their full-resolution version is less expensive and can stay loaded more of the time.

Overall though, it's a difficult problem supporting that many characters at the same time, all with a wide variety of clothing and items that they can be holding. In theory, everyone could drop to the same general location on the map, and while you'd expect performance to be poor, you probably wouldn't expect the game to crash from running out of memory - so they have to be able to handle that worst-case scenario.

@flagsdev: Unreal's built-in replay recording leverages the networking code. When recording, the server saves the data it is sending out to the clients, along with a time stamp keeping track of when each packet of data was sent.

When presenting the replay, the game client plays back the previously-recorded server commands, and treats them as if they were coming in live. Most of the game's systems only care about what commands and data are coming in, and not where the data actually came from. So they respond to the playback data the same way as they would to live server data. That causes the recording playback to appear the same as it would have if if you were spectating the action live.

I don't know if they are using the stock Unreal replay recording, some modification of it - for example, maybe have the actual game server forward the replay data to the client continuously as it is being played back - or their own system entirely. But what I described above is a brief explanation of how the system that comes with the engine works for that purpose.

Jason is so nice.

I don't think people understand the state of this game on consoles. This game would not exist save for Xbox and game preview, period. Sony was never going to dedicate the resources necessary to bring this to console. The fact that this game, as it exists, is on console and is playable in a mostly coherent way is nothing short of a miracle. Yes, Sony can count their lucky stars that Microsoft is taking the burden upon themselves to do the work, because there is absolutely no way that PS4 was going to get this game if Xbox wasn't helping solve problems right now. (I mean maybe Epic could have stepped in and provided some technical expertise, but ha... haha.. right.)

I honestly don't think this is anywhere as big of a problem as people seem to be making it out to be. As Jeff says, this will undoubtedly get better. No one knows how much better it will get, but I will have some optimism haha. The decision to release on this date was made way earlier, and such are the realities of ongoing development. PC got better, so will Xbox, and I for one am happy that Bluehole is getting some help in this department. (Of course, I will personally wait a bit before jumping in :p)

@willyod: I'm playing it on a base PS4, so I guess the divide in game quality has begun between the regular launch units and the new Pro models.

It's in Preview for a reason. If 9 months from now it's still this bad then that'll be a talking discussion.

It's definitely buggy and has serious framerate issues. I've only spent 3 hours with it so far. The number of times I have to jam on the X button to pickup items or open a door is crazy. When it's working it is a fun game even though my stats are terrible. I read that the xbox version is 6 months behind in development compared to the PC. I'm hoping they catch up in a few weeks now that it is out in the wild.

It runs so rough I thought the video player was chugging on my end.

Runs rough, but in all fairness it is in the Games Preview program. I got my first kill yesterday in a punch fight and that was pretty awesome.

Another CrowbCat cherry picked video, pretty funny though.

Let's hope that once the PC version is updated, they can focus on this to prevent people getting sick. Eventually this will be a pretty neat release, but I feel like this is only available right now because of the holidays and not because the time is right.

good vault over that fence