Death Stranding on PC realizes the original vision of Kojima Productions - article
The technical director of Kojima Productions Akio Sakamoto speaks of the scalability options of the PC version compared to the PS4 version with an emphatic tone: "Higher frame-rates, obviously! We created the game at 60fps and I must emphasize that now I am possible. Of course it's not limited to 60fps, but depending on the hardware it can reach much higher frequencies. " According to our test of the game we can say that the work done by the studio is of quality, even from not so obvious points of view. Loading the game, the first surprise is that a graphics engine developed by Sony is running on PC using Microsoft's graphic APIs, DirectX 12. Keeping in mind that previous versions of the Decima Engine ran on PC (for development purposes only) under OpenGL, we expected to see Vulkans as APIs.
"our first goal as developers was not to do anything less than what is available on the PS4. Thinking about the API used on consoles, we realized that it would have been difficult to keep the same level of quality using DirectX 11," said Sakamoto. "For this we have taken into account both DirectX 12 and Vulkan. We talked with our partners, Nvidia and AMD, and collected information from various sources. Of course, we have also analyzed the market (asking how many users use Windows 10, how many of the DX12) and we also had to consider the window out of the PC version. At the end of this process we decided to use DX12. I have to say, though, that there were not a lot of information available on the Vulkan."
it Seems that the development of the engine Tithing is still in progress with Guerrilla, for production reasons. "As an instrument of development, we have already a PC version of the graphics engine, but on the front of the chart, to achieve performance comparable to that of the PS4, we had to develop in order to be able to take advantage of DirectX 12. When we were working there were not many information about this API, then I can say it was the most difficult part."
To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings The launch trailer of the PC version of Death Stranding.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel in Addition to the choice of which API to use, another factor that contributes to the success of this porting, we find him in the migration of the game to CPU architectures and more modern. According to what we have learned of the Tithe during the visits to the headquarters of the Guerrilla, the engine is based on updated frame every 30 seconds, then every cycle of CPU free every 33 milliseconds is spent for the predictive streaming environments. During our test, Death Stranding has exceeded the 120fps running on a Core i5 8400, with the exception of the footage shot with the game engine, unfortunately, limited to 60fps.
"How can we optimize the CPU? How can we improve performance?" asks Akio Sakamoto. "With these goals in mind we examined the best solutions. We have talked with Intel and AMD trying to optimize the most possible so that also users with machines less powerful than the PS4 could enjoy the best possible performance thanks to the new way in which threads are used."
The result is an engine that is optimized for a cluster in the 8-core AMD Jaguar low-power, capable of running on the CPU with the number of cores is less. The minimum specifications recommended by Kojima Productions talk about the Core i5 3470 or Ryzen 3 1200, both quad-core chip. The values of IPC are distinctly higher than those of the Jaguar, but the number of core bottom can cause problems as we have seen in other ported from the console like Red Dead Redemption 2, and Detroit Become Human. With a CPU that is more modern to reach the 60fps it should not be difficult: we managed without problems with Core i5 8400, to say. We have put to the test even a Ryzen 9 3900X, which fared decently, even if there were important alterations in the frame pacing at high frequencies.
To see this content please enable targeting cookies. Manage cookie settings in our analysis of Death Stranding based on the excellent version PS4 Pro.
Subscribe to our YouTube channel by Continuing to analyze the specific graphic on the front of the GPU, the RX 560 and the GTX 1050 3GB are recommended by the manufacturer to play at 720p and 30fps. Curiously, the RX 560 is more powerful than the chip used on the PS4 base but manages to run the game at 1080p native. In our tests, we found that the Radeon RX 580 ensures the 1080p at 60fps, and then let's imagine that the minimum specifications on the front of the GPU are in fact more extensive than those reported by svilluppatori. The AMD gives you an advantage of 12% compared to the GTX 1060, which occasionally drops below the threshold of sixty.
One thing to point out is that some older cards DX12 will not be able to run the game. We wanted to try and, Death Stranding with a R9 270X 4GB, for example, since it is the equivalent of the PC near the GPU of the PS4. Unfortunately, however, the game needs at least DX12 12_0, while the GPU of the first generation stopped at 11_1. According to Kojima Productions, the resources are guaranteed by the DX12 are used to improve the memory management of the graphics card.
Unfortunately, the mods are not supported, as it is not a function of cross play between PS4 and PC. The positive thing is that the versions of Steam and Epic Game Store using the same server.
In the next few days we will show you an analysis of super detailed (strangely enough, the embargo for the asset are registered by the game is different), but we can already say that the basic options of the game will give you an experience far closer to that encountered on the PlayStation 4, with the only difference in the filtering-anisotropic filtering here fixed at 16x instead of 4x, is used on the console. In addition to resolution and frame-rate, the scalability is limited: the dedicated setting to the detail of the models reduces the pop-in LOD moving it further away, by weighing very little about the performance. The shadows at high (and medium, saw that they look the same) are made at the level console, as well as any other setting. Really, besides the possibility to remove the pop-in of details, there is little to improve on the front of the chart.
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Increase the resolution significantly impacts performance, and in the case of Death Stranding, we find some innovative options. The contrast adaptive shading of AMD is rendered at 75% of the native resolution on both axes, and then increase the definition of the image with very low costs. The results are generally good, but decidedly inferior to support DLSS 2.0 of the Nvidia. There are two modes dedicated to performance and quality with upscaling via IA 50 and 67 percent, respectively. A RTX 2060 overclocked manages to achieve 4K at 60fps in performance mode, while the mode and quality results, so remarkable that Nvidia has decided to attach Death Stranding its GPU RTX.
"On the PC, Death Stranding supports DLSS but not the ray-tracing," said Akio Sakamoto. "We are of course interested in the technology and we put it to the test, but since we wanted to publish on the PC the first as possible, we decided not to work this time. We will keep it in consideration for the next games."
All this makes us reach the following conclusion: with the PC version of Death Stranding, Kojima Productions has produced a port that is free of the limitations of current-generation console and that runs beautifully on PC gaming much more efficient. According to us, the game is then sufficiently scalable to give us, in perspective, a great experience on the PlayStation 5.
"For now, our focus is on the PC version of Death Stranding, therefore we can not talk about PS5," said Akio Sakamoto. "When we have got your breath back after the release of the PC version, we will begin to evaluate it in depth for sure, and we hope to let you know as soon as possible when we have reached a decision."
