Digital Foundry || Assassin’s Creed Odyssey + Origins - PS5/Xbox Series X/S Patch Analysis - Locked 60FPS for Next-Gen?

[ILikeFeet]

View: https://youtu.be/v3gqzwWPdho

Assassin's Creed Origins and Assassin's Creed Odyssey have both had 'next-gen' patches on PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S, unlocking the door to 60fps gameplay on these machines. A doubling of frame-rate from the original console releases requires significantly more horsepower, so how do the PS5 and Xbox Series machines hold up? Oliver Mackenzie investigates.

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Assassin's Creed Odyssey, Origins 60fps updates are transformative on PS5 and Series X/S

Digital Foundry's analysis of the 60fps 'next-gen' patches for Assassin's Creed Odyssey and Origins, tested on PS5, Xbox Series X and Xbox Series S.

www.eurogamer.net

• modern games are still beholden to rendering paradigm introduced around the time of these games
• games hold up to modern games
• all systems are pretty stable 60fps
• real time cutscenes drops a frame on camera cut
  • intentional to create a buffer for TAA
  • not perfect though
• opening cutscene drops a lot of frames (50-55)
• cloth physics, water normal maps in Origins are 30fps
• prerendered cutscenes are 30fps
  • some have really bad framepacing
• Odyssey's opening sequence drops frames
• Series S
  • Odyssey real time cutscenes are 30fps
  • Origins cutscenes are 60fps
• Series X
  • suffers drops more than other systems, mostly on cutscenes
• much more responsive, helps since there is no motion blur
• no resolution change
  • Series X is 1440p-2160p (1728p typical)
  • PS5 is 1152p-1620p (1440p typical)
  • Series S is 792p-1080p (900p typical)
• TAA upsampling in use

 

[AfterTheFall]

Seems a bit pointless. If they couldn't hit 60fps on those two games there would be a serious problem.

 

[The Shape]

Odyssey got so much better after the patch, put another 40 hours on it and finished all DLC. Still haven't been able to go back to Origins, but will do.

 

[digitalrelic]

• Series S, X, and PS5 maintain a perfect 60fps in most circumstances, but there are some exceptions on all 3 machines
• Series X tops out at 4k, with an average resolution of ~1728p
• PS5 tops out at 1620p, with an average resolution of 1440p or somewhat below
• Series S tops out at 1080p, with an average resolution of 900p-1080p
• Series X is clearly the most detailed console version of the game
• Real-time cutscenes have a slight stutter when the camera switches perspective. This also occurred on last-gen versions
• Opening cutscene in Origins hovers mostly in the 50-55fps range on PS5 and Series X
• Series S runs all real-time cutscenes at 30fps in Odyssey, 60fps in Origins
• Some of the cloth animations and water effects still run at 30fps
• The game's pre-encoded cutscenes are still at 30fps, often with bad framepacing.
• A few large combat sequences have drops to the 50s during gameplay
• Series X has a bit more performance drops than the other systems, but it's mostly relegated to cutscenes
• Outside of the upgrade to 60fps, there's little-to-no visual changes

 

[RisingStar]

I wonder if Ubisoft will ever go back to patch Black Flag, Unity, Syndicate, and Ezio Collection at this point, or if, ever. Unity particularly looks incredible on max settings on PC.

I highly doubt it but eh.

 

[Leo-Tyrant]

I played through Origins again, on the Series X, when the 60fps patch launched.

It was a much much improved experience. Yeah there are some blemishes but overall the gameplay and framerate hold up very well.

Fantastic game.

 

[breander]

I played through the atlantis dlc in odyssey on the series x with the 60fps patch and it had a lot of frame rate drops.

 

[Kromis]

I wonder if Ubisoft will ever go back to patch Black Flag, Unity, Syndicate, and Ezio Collection at this point, or if, ever. Unity particularly looks incredible on max settings on PC.

I highly doubt it but eh.

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Syndicate is still a bit messed up on PS5. If Ubisoft/Sony want to include it in PS+ at some point then Ubisoft's going to have to fix it I think. That might pave the way for an update.

 

[Kratos2098]

Syndicate is still a bit messed up on PS5. If Ubisoft/Sony want to include it in PS+ at some point then Ubisoft's going to have to fix it I think. That might pave the way for an update.

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Pretty sure Ubi tweeted recently that they were looking into the Syndicate issues on PS5. Hopefully they finally get fixed soon.

 

[Yuuber]

I was genuinely surprised how good Origin looks and plays on Series X, but I'm so burned out by these kinds of open-world games I couldn't progress much further than the intro.

 

[Xeonidus]

Started Origins earlier this year on PS5 then dropped it when they hinted at the next gen patch. Picked it up again to finish it and it was so much better. So much more responsive and smoother. On to Odyssey when I get some time!

 

[ciddative]

Can't remember any issues with Odyssey, but the cloth physics in Origins are distracting, unfortunately.

Got Valhalla for £15 last week and I do think it's a noticeable step up in fidelity from the prior 2

 

[Eoin]

Pretty sure Ubi tweeted recently that they were looking into the Syndicate issues on PS5. Hopefully they finally get fixed soon.

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They did, but then they deleted that Tweet. Since it was a Ubisoft support worker who made it, it's not clear whether that was because the Tweet was incorrect or because it gave out information that Ubisoft would prefer to announce properly.

I'm leaning towards thinking a patch is likely on the basis that Ubisoft will want to include the game on their own subscription service when that launches on consoles, but we'll have to wait and see.

 

[Buff Beefbroth]

Syndicate

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I "played" Syndicate at 4K on a PC at the time that was only up to the task of a few frames per second, but the amount of detail that leapt off the screen has made me wish and wish for a 4K update on Series X.

 

[Kratos2098]

They did, but then they deleted that Tweet. Since it was a Ubisoft support worker who made it, it's not clear whether that was because the Tweet was incorrect or because it gave out information that Ubisoft would prefer to announce properly.

I'm leaning towards thinking a patch is likely on the basis that Ubisoft will want to include the game on their own subscription service when that launches on consoles, but we'll have to wait and see.

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Oh damn didn't know they deleted it. Hopefully that doesn't mean it was a mistake.

 

[Cjdamon042]

I just finished playing through Origins and its DLC on PS5 after this patch and actually got the platinum on it which is something I rarely ever do. I had a great time.

I've had Origins on PC since it came out but my PC wasn't too great at the time so I put it off. I eventually upgraded but never went back to it, but did play through Odyssey and its DLC there. I tried going back to Origins recently but I was getting frustrated at my PC still stuttering with it so I switched to PS5 when the patch came out. Saw the same things mentioned here, some drops during cutscenes but otherwise a super smooth experience.

I did have an issue with the camera a few times though. When approaching certain areas (maybe for the first time) and panning the camera it looked like pretty bad frame rate drops, but I then realised it was just the camera being weird as everything else was still 60. I suppose that could be a thing that's been in the game since launch.

 

[thetrin]

I'm playing Origins right now on Xbox Series X, and I haven't encountered any frame rate issues. It looks great, and plays great. I haven't cracked open Odyssey yet, however.

 

[oni-link]

How do these compare to Valhalla

Curious how that runs on Series S

 

[vixolus]

How do these compare to Valhalla

Curious how that runs on Series S

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It's 1440p/30 and I think like 1080p?/60 perf mode

 

[Eoin]

How do these compare to Valhalla

Curious how that runs on Series S

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Like both Origins and Odyssey, Valhalla runs dynamic resolutions.

In performance mode targeting 60FPS, on Series S it runs with a lower bound of 720p and a typical resolution of ~800p. In quality mode targeting 30FPS it maxes at 1296p. That means it's lower resolution than both Origins and Odyssey (and that's true on all the current consoles, not just Series S). Valhalla does have some additional effects, most notably per-object motion blur, and a somewhat more involved weather system including things like improved snow deformation. If you put Origins, Odyssey and Valhalla side-by-side all running on Series S, in terms of pure graphical quality you'd probably struggle to pick a winner.

Valhalla does have one big disadvantage, which is that it tears frames often, though to be fair I should point out that I haven't played it in a while and it's possible that it has improved since then. Up to about a year ago, however, frame tearing was a regular issue inside any built-up area, including sections of your home village. VRR fixes this but it's not an option for everyone. Tearing was something that used to plague AC games on console up to (and including) Revelations, but they pretty much sorted it after that and it was disappointing to see it back in Valhalla.

When Valhalla launched I'd have said that by far the biggest advantage it had (on PS5 and Xbox Series) over Origins and Odyssey (on the PS4 Pro and Xbox One X) was 60FPS, and now that those games are 60FPS too, I think they're at least equivalent to Valhalla.

 

[PolskiGamer17]

I wonder if Ubisoft will ever go back to patch Black Flag, Unity, Syndicate, and Ezio Collection at this point, or if, ever. Unity particularly looks incredible on max settings on PC.

I highly doubt it but eh.

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Ezio collection has an FPS boost on Xbox Series

 

[MadMike]

These are great games. Definitely worth checking out, even if you were never into AC. Almost wish I hadn't gone back and Platinumed them before PS5 came out. It's never going to happen, but it would be so great if Unity got some love on PS5/SX.

 

[nexus]

Think I want to jump into odyssey. I already have it for ps5 though guess I'm going to lose out on crispness vs the Series X version. It's 11.99 on the series x though so might be nice to just have a digital copy so I don't have to swap the disc.