Digital Foundry Direct Weekly

John, Rich and Alex return for another Weekly, discussing the potential implications of Xbox going multi-platform on selected titles, what we should - and shouldn't - expect from Horizon Forbidden West on PC and John's surprise gaming purchase. Meanwhile, the team explains why Nvidia's G-Sync Pulsar technology is such a big deal - and the announcement of VRR support for GeForce Now seems set to make the best cloud streaming solution even better still.

0:00:58 News 01: Microsoft to go multiplatform on selected games?

0:22:41 News 02: Horizon Forbidden West gets PC trailer

0:40:38 News 03: Nvidia CES announcements

0:55:34 News 04: John’s surprise

1:10:35 Supporter Q1: Why is double-buffer vsync good in some circumstances and bad in others?

1:17:39 Supporter Q2: What are the specs of your editing rigs?

1:24:45 Supporter Q3: Do you think any TV manufacturers will start integrating nearest neighbour scaling?

1:32:47 Supporter Q4: Why is dynamic resolution not often used in PC games?

1:37:35 Supporter Q5: Are GPU makers’ resolution recommendations too conservative?

1:43:13 Supporter Q6: What videos are you excited to make this year?

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The Digital Foundry team re-assemble to kick off 2024 with a look at the excitement surrounding CES, the possibilities of PS5 Pro and Switch 2 this year, the reveal of the MSI Claw, plus all the new surrounding the RTX 40-Series 'Super' Refresh. Meanwhile, John shares his experiences with the potentially disruptive Unreal Engine VR injector, Alex talks about optimised settings and there's already an unhealthy focus on Crysis 4 - even though the chances of actually seeing it in 2024 are vanishingly tiny.

0:00:00 Introduction

0:01:24 News 01: 2024 Expectations : Upcoming displays

0:18:12 2024 Expectations: Games and gaming hardware

0:51:24 News 02: RTX 40 Super series to be announced

1:12:09 News 03: MSI Claw gaming handheld leaked

1:21:04 News 04: Unreal Engine VR injector released!

1:27:19 Supporter Q1: Has Alex changed his approach to optimized settings as games have gotten more demanding?

1:32:59 Supporter Q2: Could ray traced lighting become a key part of gameplay in current-gen titles?

1:38:26 Supporter Q3: What’s your biggest graphical pet peeve besides stuttering?

1:44:06 Supporter Q4: What are your hopes for Crysis 4?

1:50:47 Supporter Q5: Could CD Projekt Red open source their Red Engine tech?

1:52:48 Supporter Q6: If you could have an incredible version of Crysis 4, or get a 10/10 Turok remake, which would you choose?

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It's the last edition of DF Direct Weekly for the year that is 2023, and it kicks off with discussion surrounding Insomniac data hack. What sets this 'leak' apart from others that makes media think twice about publishing stories on it? How does it compare in scale to other leaks? It's a tricky one for sure. Meanwhile, rumours are starting to emerge that Xbox may be considering a 2026 release for its next-gen console, but how viable is that in the context of the information that emerged from the FTC leak? Finally, John reveals the results of his GT7 vs Forza Motorsport in-video quiz, while the DF Supporter Program's community awards are unveiled!

0:00:00 Introduction

0:00:50 News 01: Insomniac hacked

0:19:27 News 02: Valhalla DLC launches for God of War Ragnarök

0:27:51 News 03: PS5 outsells Xbox Series 3 to 1, next Xbox rumoured for 2026 launch

0:49:10 News 04: John’s Forza Motorsport vs. GT7 poll results!

0:54:09 News 05: DF Community Awards 2023!

1:06:25 Supporter Q1: Will 2024 be the year RT becomes pervasive?

1:09:00 Supporter Q2: How does Resident Evil 4 on Apple Silicon run?

1:11:50 Supporter Q3: When using an IPS panel, how can you reduce IPS glow?

1:21:18 Supporter Q4: Would John consider doing a DF Retro on fur or grass rendering in games?

1:23:40 Supporter Q5: When path tracing becomes more common in games, what will be left to critique visually?

1:28:43 Supporter Q6: What was your favourite Digital Foundry moment of the year?

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As is DF tradition, we round off the year with a look at the team's personal picks for the best game graphics of 2023. Covering off the very best in both PC and console rendering, Alex Battaglia, John Linneman and Oliver Mackenzie share their thoughts on the most impressive visuals of the year, leading to an open debate on which title did it best: Alan Wake 2, Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora or Cyberpunk 2077's RT Overdrive?

0:00:00 Overview

0:01:55 Honourable Mentions

0:16:14 Star Wars Jedi: Survivor

0:21:28 Final Fantasy 16

0:27:10 Robocop: Rogue City

0:32:56 Resident Evil 4

0:40:33 Hi-Fi Rush

0:45:45 Super Mario Bros. Wonder

0:49:45 Marvel’s Spider-Man 2

0:55:50 Cyberpunk 2077 RT Overdrive

1:02:57 Alan Wake 2

1:12:29 Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

1:22:43 Top Three Debate

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You'd think that the news would be drying up as we approach Chriastmas, but here we are again with another two hour DF Direct Weekly. John, Rich and Alex mull over the cancellation of The Last Of Us Online, while the team rake the coals of E3's demise. Meanwhile, John discusses the short-lived PC port of Link's Awakening, while Alex unearths what looks very much like Intel's innovative approach to frame generation. We've got good news about improvements to the Xbox Series version of Teardown, while the team discuss the reaction to the epic Gran Turismo 7 vs Forza Motorsport head-to-head.

0:00:00 Introduction

0:01:25 News 01: The Last of Us multiplayer project cancelled

0:21:21 News 02: E3 officially dead

0:36:08 News 03: Link’s Awakening ported to PC

0:43:22 News 04: Intel working on frame extrapolation

0:50:14 News 05: Teardown improved on consoles

0:53:56 DF Content Discussion: Forza Motorsport vs. Gran Turismo 7

1:24:16 Supporter Q1: Are there any older games with certain advanced effects that surpass modern games?

1:29:18 Supporter Q2: Should bad performance be a consideration when reviewing games?

1:35:41 Supporter Q3: Does running an RTX 4090 at PCIe Gen 4 x8 or x16 make a difference?

1:38:50 Supporter Q4: Why can’t Windows handhelds run SteamOS?

1:41:14 Supporter Q5: AMD has released the source code for FSR 3. Will this make console implementations of FSR 3 more common?

1:47:28 Supporter Q6: Should “Unobtanium” style extreme settings options be standard across all PC games?

1:51:55 Supporter Q7: Why do console games often use a mix of temporal reconstruction and bilinear scaling to reach a 4K output?

1:55:14 Supporter Q8: What gaming-related gift would you like to get for Christmas if money was no object?

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In the wake of the release of the Grand Theft Auto 6 trailer, we produced our initial reaction video, but it turns out that the community has a big bunch of questions about the game they'd like us to tackle - so Rich, Oliver and Alex came together to continue the discussion. Enjoy!

00:00 Introduction

01:20 How will GTA 6 run on Series S?

05:57 Can GTA 6 run at 60fps on current-gen consoles?

08:30 Supporter Q1: How far off is the GTA 6 PC port? Is a Switch 2 port possible?

14:43 Supporter Q2: How do studios like Rockstar keep their games current graphically over long development cycles?

18:53 Supporter Q3: Were the RT features on GTA 5 on current-gen a test for RT in GTA 6?

20:29 Supporter Q4: Given that the GTA 6 leaks showed the game running on 10 series Nvidia GPUs, will those GPUs be able to run the final game?

23:16 Supporter Q5: What improvements should we expect in the PC version of GTA 6?

27:11 Supporter Q6: Do you think the GTA 6 trailer was captured on PS5 Pro development hardware?

30:36 Supporter Q7: Could the PS5 Pro run GTA 6 at 60fps? What other enhancements could we expect?

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It's TGAs week and Alex, Rich and Oliver convene for this week's DF Direct to discuss the highlights of the Wurlde Prm'ears - and to wonder what on earth OD actually is! Hellblade 2 is looking phenomenally good, while No Rest for the Wicked also catches the team's eye. Meanwhile, the group compare notes on Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora, with Alex continuing to rave about the PC version while Rich and Oliver offer a warm welcome to the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series versions... and even Series S pulls off a good showing of this technologically advanced games.

0:00:00 Introduction

0:00:48 News 01: The Game Awards - Senua’s Saga: Hellblade 2

0:08:51 OD

0:17:48 No Rest for the Wicked, Monster Hunter Wilds

0:26:58 Marvel’s Blade, Light No Fire

0:39:13 Black Myth: Wukong, Persona 3 Reload, Metaphor Refantazio, Skull and Bones

0:51:58 News 02: Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora released!

1:01:58 Supporter Q1: How do you pixel count games with upsampling?

1:09:06 Supporter Q2: Do modern games avoid physics-based gameplay because of processing constraints or game design?

1:12:19 Supporter Q3: Does the addition of path tracing to Call of Duty’s lobbies suggest a wider implementation later on?

1:16:07 Supporter Q4: Should the console makers release jailbreak patches for older consoles?

1:19:38 Supporter Q5: Should GPU manufacturers introduce features from Special K into their drivers?

1:24:25 Supporter Q6: Can you pixel count The Game Awards?

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The first trailer for Grand Theft Auto 6 has 'dropped' and we have reacted by bringing together three contributors to comb over the circa 90 seconds of footage and extract as much technological information about the latest iteration of the RAGE engine as possible. Is what we've seen here viable on current-gen consoles in real-time? Is there any evidence of hardware-accelerated ray tracing effects? How do the characters and hair rendering look so good? And is 60fps on PS5/Series X and an Xbox Series S port actually viable?

00:00 Introduction

01:53 Is the trailer real-time?

07:13 Ray traced global illumination

11:10 Ray traced reflections

17:04 Shadows and hair

23:50 Character rendering

26:30 Could consoles hit 60fps?

30:50 Closing discussion

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Batman: Arkham Trilogy arrived on Nintendo Switch just before we started filming - but let's just say that it hardly requires a deep dive analysis to see that Arkham Knight is a complete disaster. There's better news from Alex as we look at the optimisation efforts in Baldur's Gate 3, while Rich gets to grips with Half-Life 2 - and the entirety of The Orange Box - running at 4K 60fps on Xbox Series X. There's Dragon's Dogma 2 tech talk, John's VR odyssey continues apace, while the team discuss the fascinating story behind Gran Turismo PSP cheat codes finally being discovered 14 years since the game launched!

0:00:00 Introduction

0:01:03 News 01: Arkham Knight on Switch is a disaster

0:15:46 News 02: Larian boosts Baldur’s Gate 3 performance

0:26:06 News 03: Half-Life 2, Portal unlocked to run at 60fps on Xbox Series consoles

0:37:56 News 04: Dragon’s Dogma 2 trailer released

0:49:05 News 05: Cheat codes discovered for Gran Turismo PSP

0:58:39 News 06: John’s VR odyssey continues!

1:09:25 News 07: Duke Nukem games released for Evercade

1:17:17 Supporter Q1: To play an older 360 game, is the best option original hardware plus a RetroTINK, or a Series X?

1:22:38 Supporter Q2: Have PC GPUs fallen behind in performance scaling relative to consoles over this generation?

1:28:28 Supporter Q3: Why do some UE5 titles skip over hardware Lumen, even on PC?

1:32:30 Supporter Q4: Could Sony improve the PS Portal with software updates?

1:41:29 Supporter Q5: Could frame generation be used to improve motion blur?

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In this week's DF Direct, the team catches up with the news about The Last of Us Part 2's remaster and wonders what the fuss is about, while Alex takes another look at Cyberpunk 2077 DLSS 3.5 Ray Reconstruction across its updates and via the Alan Wake 2 DLL. Rich finally gets his hands on a PlayStation 5 'Slim' and unboxes it for your viewing pleasure, and Half-Life's 25th anniversary is celebrated by the team. Also: what is actually going on with Xbox's console sales in Europe?

0:00:00 Introduction and DF merch store!

0:03:13 News 01: The Last of Us Part 2 Remastered announced

0:17:27 News 02: Cyberpunk 2077 gets Ultimate Edition

0:35:16 News 03: Xbox sales down in Europe

0:53:19 News 04: Half-Life hits 25th anniversary, documentary released

1:07:59 News 05: StarEngine graphics update video released

1:19:30 News 06: Rich unboxes a PS5 Slim!

1:33:56 DF Supporter Q1: Have you checked out the Portal port for N64?

1:41:59 DF Supporter Q2: I think TLOU Part 2 looks similar to path traced games, with better image clarity - what do you think?

1:47:44 DF Supporter Q3: Do you worry that you emphasize top-end graphics too much in your game coverage?

1:50:37 DF Supporter Q4: Is there a niche for a powerful, exclusively handheld system in today’s market?

1:57:26 DF Supporter Q5: What if the new Switch was actually two consoles - a portable console and a home console?

2:02:07 DF Supporter Q6: Happy Thanksgiving! Do the American expats at DF celebrate Thanksgiving in their new European homes?

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