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[Digital Foundry] Grounded comes to PS5 and Switch - but performance is a problem
- Thread starter Bishop89
- Start date
Tom thinks it might be due to the higher LOD and shadow quality settings on PS5.
Pretty shocking just how ropey the game is on PS5, despite the lower average resolution. You'd think they'd be able to easily match the 60fps target on a lower bound for output, but the video shows it's basically almost always under the line, making it pretty necessary to play it on a VRR set if you want any kind of smoothness, with the tightness of how much it straddles that lines meaning it can and will crop up to see it jerk around in certain situations. Very surprising results, to say the least.
The Switch version seems pretty competent when considering all the cutbacks they made to get all the systems working on top of keeping largely to the 30fps target, but yeah, the cutbacks are a pretty severe to make it much more suitable for handheld play than docking it for TV play.
The Switch version seems pretty competent when considering all the cutbacks they made to get all the systems working on top of keeping largely to the 30fps target, but yeah, the cutbacks are a pretty severe to make it much more suitable for handheld play than docking it for TV play.
definitely not worth the lower resolution and lower fps since the shadow quality isn't always better thanks to shadow filtering and the higher LOD is barely noticeable
Higher LOD seems really weird for a game where you're almost always in areas where geographical density means you're not even able to see any difference with faraway objects, either. Weird thing to prioritize.
There's a slider for it in the settings. I can't remember if you can totally turn it off, but it can be turned down from it's default.
summary
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Summary :
- PS5 resolution 1920x1080 - 2160x1215
- Series X resolution 2688x1512 - 3840x2160 (4k), Series X has a noticeably sharper image compared to PS5
- Series S resolution 1920x1080 dynamic but rarely dropping from that upper bound
- One to one comparison shot between PS5 and Series X - Series X 1620p vs PS5 1250p
- PS5 frame rate 45-60 fps, "PS5 struggles to hit the top mark. These are more than the odd blip, and rather are fully sustained drops across segments of the garden"
- Series X is a solid 60 fps with occasional one frame drops and saving stutter that can also be found on PS5
- Seires S is the best performing of the three with a tighter lock to 60fps with less occasional one frame drops and less noticeable saving stutter
- PS5 has further draw distance on small pebbles than Series S/X
- PS5 has higher quality shadows but with bad shadow aliasing compared to Series X/S resulting in shadow jaggies on PS5
- Switch significantly cut back visually (1/3 download size, significantly cut back textures and draw in distance), same visual settings across docked and handheld with differing resolutions
- Switch has motion blur, depth of field, lighting shafts, character shadows and all volumetric effects removed entirely
- Switch has heavy pop-in across the whole game and frame rate is a decently solid 30 fps but frame times are all over the place including semi-regular traversal hitches
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oh i thought they just did the switch port
it's kind of important to making you feel small... the game looks really strange with it off
OP
OP
I feel like while PS5 version can't match series X on resolution, the performance and visuals seem fixable via patches.
Get it on PC if you can. The DoF on this game is atrocious but you can turn it off on PC
yea I played with it disabled through config files and it was much better
Yeah, I literally had my copy on my series x running while I messed with settings on my PS5. I went to the exact spot at the exact time of day (the shoe print cliff right near the start) and I couldn't get them to look identical. No matter what I did, the PS5 version had slight tearing or something that made it just not as clean.
Eventually I got over it, but those first two hours of messing with settings was annoying as fuck.
Its my favorite game so it didn't bother me much, but I can absolutely see how others would be iffy on it. That said, play the game and check it out, it's amazing to see bugs up close and how they just exist(even if the game is very stylized)
Eventually I got over it, but those first two hours of messing with settings was annoying as fuck.
Its my favorite game so it didn't bother me much, but I can absolutely see how others would be iffy on it. That said, play the game and check it out, it's amazing to see bugs up close and how they just exist(even if the game is very stylized)
They kind of can't win - if PS5 is performant then Xbox fans are mad, if they do a poor port then PS5 fans are mad.
EDIT: Is this the worst difference between the consoles of any game this gen? PS5 runs at a significantly lower resolution AND frame rate - I don't think any game thus far has had such a difference. Seems like a very poor port.
Cant comment on res but Alan Wake 2 had similar performance issues - where Xbox was almost a locked 60 while PS5 was basically a "never locked 60".
Im kinda disappointed, while I didnt care about the extra cloud or whatever Sea of Thieves got on PS5, I do have Grounded on PS5 (caved into the hype) and had I known the performance issues, Id have gone with the Series X version instead. Ah well, hopefully it wont annoy me too much.
I'm sure it'll be resolved over time, but mild bummer at a meaningful performance loss on the PS5 version. Switch is in better shape for launch than expected, to be honest. This game is in a constant state of improvement, so I don't think there's much to worry about in the near future.
They talked about the detrimental trade-offs more specifically in this video, but I was surprised there wasn't comment in the DF Sea of Thieves video re: how the PS5 version has what looks like a "higher" detail shadow setting, but shows more shadow flicker/aliasing in many situations. To the point where I'd personally rather have the better diffusion on the shadows, as-per the Xbox version.
They talked about the detrimental trade-offs more specifically in this video, but I was surprised there wasn't comment in the DF Sea of Thieves video re: how the PS5 version has what looks like a "higher" detail shadow setting, but shows more shadow flicker/aliasing in many situations. To the point where I'd personally rather have the better diffusion on the shadows, as-per the Xbox version.
You're kinda right since that's really what the game goes for. The environments are super off-putting and really capture what it would be like to get shrunk down to a hundredth your size.
Some games like Hitman 3 did have like a 30% resolution difference but generally, the PS5 version is only 10% lower in framerate/resolution. think the main reason for the big difference here is that you have a small team doing a port years after initial release. It's not worth investing much since most of the sales have already been made.
I think Ghostwire Tokyo was the same way when it eventually got ported to Xbox. The PS5 version actually had better performance. I guess games just make all their money in the first few months so even temporary platform exclusivity makes it hard to justify significant optimization effort.
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View: https://x.com/groundedthegame/status/1784987311282819294?s=46&t=gf8rfJgiXtRzEKTUzSF5Yw
New update mentions optimizations so maybe some things have been smoothed out
Been playing it with my partner, she's using a screen with VRR and it makes the world of difference on the PS5 version.
The frame rate/stutter wasn't fixed on the PS5 version.
Watch the camera smooth out when the camera pans around and gets to the area with the vertical brown leaf and knob labeled science. No idea what they fixed but they definitely didn't fix this problem. Also, the same issue is there with a brand new character in the exact same spot with nothing player created in the world.
Just to make it clear, the problem isn't this specific spot in the yard., Running around in the yard or stopping to pan the camera in the direction of the big tree or high level part of the yard the stutters/fps drops. It makes moving around the yard feel awful compared to my Steam version on epic settings on worse hardware than my PS5, on the same TV.
View: https://youtu.be/nvt9ERo2hjw?si=SJgMVf4-yeQiH7xY
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Disappointing, while I think I can still play it as in the vid you posted, that will probably really bother me in places... its more a shame that there's no real reason this should be running the way it does when the Series X version is already really solid...
Idk what the framerate readout for you may be but its worth noting that even on XSX/XSS with a rock solid 60 FPS there is lateral camera judder possibly from uneven camera updates. So even if PS5 was rock solid as well it'd prob still have that judder at times when panning the camera.
I no longer buy Xbox consoles so unfortunately I can't see that version first hand to compare them. The DF videos does show even on the Xbox X, there is slight judder there but in the video it's slowed way down and zoomed in and it's just barely noticeable. So, that specific judder if it's there on Xbox versions it may be subtle enough for me to not really notice.
As I said in my post, the stutter/frame rate issue happens just running in the direction of the high level side of the yard and big tree, not just in camera panning, standing still. Also, as I stated about the Steam PC version, this stutter doesn't exist for me. I tried recording a sample video on the PC but it came out horrible, I've been having recording/streaming issues for awhile now, I really should reinstall Windows.
Lastly, I wasn't gonna bring up the PS4 version being played on a PS5 but I guess I will now. Prior to this new patch the PS4 version being played on a PS5 does not have this frame rate//stutter issue on camera panning or running around the world that the PS5 version has.
The only things I noticed on the PS4 version was the stutter during an auto save and when you first load into the word. Swinging the camera 360 degrees after loading into the world will have a stutter the first time you do it.
Not sure why the beginning gets blurry for a moment but it clears up and excuse the lady bugs moving the grass around.
PS4 version played/recorded on PS5
View: https://youtu.be/SIAU_km4kyc?si=1yPudlTSSpEpi6_G
I've got a question for anyone playing on the Switch.
I linked the game to the wrong Microsoft account. How can I unlink that?
I linked the game to the wrong Microsoft account. How can I unlink that?
I don't get it, how did DF not use the original Xbox One version when comparing the game to the Switch version? IIRC, it also was 30fps when I tried it on EA years ago but maybe I'm wrong.
Anyone here have it on both of those and can actually give a more fair comparison please? Thanks!
Anyone here have it on both of those and can actually give a more fair comparison please? Thanks!
They say "Please be aware that you can only link one Microsoft/Xbox account to the game, so make sure it's the correct one." so.. I don't think you can.
Thanks! Somehow it worked out. The second switch that I signed on with never really took, so I was able to do it again to the correct MS account.
My son and I have started playing coop. We have it on our Switches, but I wanted to play from the xbox. Accidentally linked both switches to the same xbox account. The Switch port seems serviceable.