-
Ever wanted an RSS feed of all your favorite gaming news sites? Go check out our new Gaming Headlines feed! Read more about it here.
Digital Foundry: Tomb Raider Trilogy: Stadia's Most Impressive Ports? Full Xbox One X Comparisons!
- Thread starter chandoog
- Start date
OP
OP
Last edited:
Doubt it, but it might also have a learning curve for the developers to port stuff over to stadia? (maybe even have to make a transition to vulkan like destiny 2)
So the best Stadia has is slightly below Xbox One X? How on earth do they expect to be competitive this time next year?
Seems like this indicates that next gen won't be impressive.
The apparent 10TF of Stadia not comparing that much better than the One X.
Have Microsoft denied the Lockhart stuff? If they haven't done so, then the differentiator seems like it will be resolution/frame rate rather than features in next gen games.
It's disappointing.
The apparent 10TF of Stadia not comparing that much better than the One X.
Have Microsoft denied the Lockhart stuff? If they haven't done so, then the differentiator seems like it will be resolution/frame rate rather than features in next gen games.
It's disappointing.
Seems to be par for the course so far..again, I have absolutely no idea what the appeal of Stadia is or who it's supposed to be aimed at..
I just don't unerstand Stadia.
Isn't the whole point that it would always play at the best possible quality and performance?
Ie always the equivilent of a high end PC.
It seems that sometimes it can't even hold 1080p/60.
What sort of root vegetables are the pcs at Google?
Isn't the whole point that it would always play at the best possible quality and performance?
Ie always the equivilent of a high end PC.
It seems that sometimes it can't even hold 1080p/60.
What sort of root vegetables are the pcs at Google?
Isn't Stadia supposed to be on par with the next-gen machines? It should be able to surpass the Xbox One X at least. The selling point of Stadia for me was that I could play games at next-gen visuals and frame rate, but clearly Stadia has failed to live up to that promise.
Don't overthink it, PS5 and Scarlett will blow the doors off this shoddy platform.
Vega+Linux+Streaming was never going to be ideal, so "10TF" is misleading at best compared to much more optimized dev paths and RDNA Navi efficiency.
Shadow was excellent-looking even on base PS4 so I can understand that title has the most parity.
But these differences, even if they amount to being the most impressive for Stadia, I admit I don't get it. Especially after seeing so many of Dictator's videos on what settings it takes to put together pleasing image quality, even on local powerful hardware.
Is there some sort of future-proofing compensation I should be considering when evaluating Stadia as it is now? Do we have any insight as to who or what is dictating the compromises, and who is tasked with making them? To what levels are the streaming or server platforms necessitating the settings used?
But these differences, even if they amount to being the most impressive for Stadia, I admit I don't get it. Especially after seeing so many of Dictator's videos on what settings it takes to put together pleasing image quality, even on local powerful hardware.
Is there some sort of future-proofing compensation I should be considering when evaluating Stadia as it is now? Do we have any insight as to who or what is dictating the compromises, and who is tasked with making them? To what levels are the streaming or server platforms necessitating the settings used?
It is kind of interesting, because people could potentially argue that stadia will only get more powerful as time and tech progresses, but with it still being locked down in nature are any devs going to actually go back and beef up graphics presets on already released games? Performance could improve in games that have it, but the graphical presets will likely remain the same if I had to wager. This kind of negates the benefit of increasing power of stadia over time unless you include only the newest games, basically making it similar to something like the xbox one x (in that previously released games are usually supported and run better, but few if any get patches to improve asset or quality settings) and worse than a pc in this regard (which can be future proofed with high quality settings that are user adjustable).
Even then, it seems that a two year old console is already beating out stadia, so what is the benefit of gaming on stadia then?
Even then, it seems that a two year old console is already beating out stadia, so what is the benefit of gaming on stadia then?
Yeah, to me this seems to indicate the tools/development environment sucks. Or at least just a much larger curve to porting than people were assuming.
...or, not a very large curve, but no reason to bother at all with optimization given the small market?
Ok idk what this indicates, but I bet it's one of the above :)
It's doesn't touch the XB!X despite promising more. A lot seems to be stripped back in order to stream.
I think that is the big concern. Even if Stadia improves their tech, are these devs going to bother going back and patching up their games, especially if they didn't sell that well?
That's not how things work at all. The actually streaming is carried out by a dedicated piece of hardware, it doesn't care about graphical features being implemented.
What happened to the hardware powering Stadia? This seems pathetic compared to the regular PC versions.
So, what, Square had a new PC port of 2013 made utilizing the improvements from the console exclusive DE (improved Lara model, better optimized hair) for Stadia? Or did they straight port the PS4/XB1 version but have it running at a higher dynamic resolution? What on Earth.
Why is this being compared to a console?
I thought the whole point of Stadia is the power of Google or whatever.
This should be compared against a 2080ti and 64gb of ram and the fastest CPU out right now.
.... Not a fucking console lol.
I thought the whole point of Stadia is the power of Google or whatever.
This should be compared against a 2080ti and 64gb of ram and the fastest CPU out right now.
.... Not a fucking console lol.
When it can beat out the consoles then it can face off with PC.
Would love to see the Definitive Version of 2013 Tomb Raider on the PC with tesselation. Doubt it will happen, but this shows there's basically a 'PC version' of this out there.
I think aside from the texture downgrades (which I think is deliberate to save compression time), I think this is a reason for some of the quirks we're seeing. Stuff like Jonah's missing eyebrows are just bugs and will likely be cleared up. Everything I've heard from devs is that Vulkan is not exactly the easiest API to work with.
Yeah that's my question, 2013 with TressFX is still pretty demanding on the PC so that alone would interest me in a port of this, albeit unless they also port over the tessellation and other features most PC users would consider it a side-grade, if not downgrade. I doubt there's much opportunity to monetize it after so long either, Google could have partly funded the porting process (well perhaps a Trilogy Pack?).
There were definite upgrades in the lighting in some scenes from what I recall, even if it was just contrast. I remember the first area with the storm and the vegetation was much more animated in the console version vs the PC.
Lol, I don't know what is the problem of Stadia but the exact same configuration 4 cores 8 thread Intel 2.7 GHz, 16 GB HBM 2 and Vega 56 runs much better on PC.
The next-generation consoles will destroy Stadia. They have better specs than Stadia. Stadia is unable to compete or do much better than consoles with inferior specs like Xbox One X.
All three games already had Linux ports but the first game was opengl only whilst the latter two supported Vulkan. If the stadia version uses Vulkan, maybe they just didn't have enough time with it.
I am very curious to know what is the problem with Stadia. It runs worst than PC Version with the same hardware. I can understand if the difference was 10-30% performance with similar PC hardware difference because of Stadia and Linux but running with inferior effect to inferior hardware this is baffling.
Last edited:
Probably the former, it's on Google to give them the property tools. As it is a platform literally created from scratch it is not too surprising.
Why is it a difficult port? Why is it a port of the console versions and not just the PC versions running on a server? I am so confused at how stadia is designed.
A mistake in the article, it says Tomb Raider Definitive Edition doesn't have the two graphics modes, but it does, you can choose High Performance or High Definition. I assume high definition locks it at 4k/30, with no dynamic resolution.
But it should still easily be able to run these games at max quality 60fps, minus the recent addition of ray tracing.
Stadia isn't a PC, think of Stadia as a new game console stored in a server farm. It's literally designed as a game console, complete with hardware development kits they send to developers. It doesn't run Windows, doesn't support DirectX, doesn't have off the shelf PC parts.
But it should still easily be able to run these games at max quality 60fps, minus the recent addition of ray tracing.
This reminds me of when I tried to run 4k/60 with steamlink on my samsung tv (that supports that mode) There was a large performance impact just in having to do real time compression for the signal - I've heard the nvidia box has the same issue. In most cases I could run something at 4k 60fps native, but the streaming had to be set to 1440p to run the same. Remember compressing a 4k 60fps signal is 4x more intensive than 1080p or more. I figured this would be the case and google wouldn't have dedicated streaming hardware and would simply use the pc it's running off of - to reduce latency. I also heard somewhere some of the cores in the processor were dedicated to stadia, and maybe that's used for the real time compression, but also hurting performance particularly of games that utilize the CPU.
I bet DOF and Volumetric light shafts are creating a lot of artifacts when compressed, and that's why they are left out. Still doesn't explain all the other cutbacks.
You had one job. Isn't stadia's purpose was to stream from an all powerful ultra giga computer at the best possible setting possible in today's tech
Probably not enough time allocated. They get these ports up and running for a small audience. Also higher native resolutions and settings might cause a lot more delay in the render and encoding.
While I'm not a fan I think the main draw is ease of use, no downloading 100gb game and then installing, no game or system updates, no console/PC to be stolen or breakdown, much less clutter.
The marketing is aiming high, like the PS4 Pro and 4k, Netflix and so forth, we know the reality but most don't or not bothered too much as long as it sounds good.
While I'm not a fan I think the main draw is ease of use, no downloading 100gb game and then installing, no game or system updates, no console/PC to be stolen or breakdown, much less clutter.
The marketing is aiming high, like the PS4 Pro and 4k, Netflix and so forth, we know the reality but most don't or not bothered too much as long as it sounds good.
If the aim is more alongside the console space but with PC benefits, which is probably more for porting purposes, it's fine. I don't really see why Linux being in the mix is a bad thing, but okay.
I would guess the Stadia versions are based more on the Linux ports of the games and then they ported some fo the console stuff over while doing it.
BINGO
I'm not going to throw around "lazy dev" rhetoric because it's both terrible and stupid, but we don't know the actual time frame, doc or anything anyone received to do these or how they even went about it.
It should be compared to console because that's always been the mantra, PR, whatever: console with PC benefits (the best of both worlds, etc). TBH, I could see myself switching to playing D2 on Stadia more regularly for doing things with other people. As it is I use it when I'm playing solo and use the PS4 when playing with my wife or friends, it works that well.
Launch ports are historically low quality - this was true for console generations for a long time. It's just a lot of factors in one, time crunch, learning curve, immature software tooling, and games just not designed with different platforms in mind.
That being said, it doesn't really sound like these launch ports are low quality, just... Not the absolute best. Usually sitting in the upper middle pack of iq and performance (performance improvements being much more apparent in load times, for example).
That being said, it doesn't really sound like these launch ports are low quality, just... Not the absolute best. Usually sitting in the upper middle pack of iq and performance (performance improvements being much more apparent in load times, for example).
This would be more akin to launch ports being worse than the versions on the previous generation's hardware, at least going by what Stadia was promised to be.
As this is a veteran gaming site many people know this and just use the bad marketing by Google as a pass to shit up any discussion. It was the same for "online should be free" in every Xbox thread back in the day.
It's discouraging but what are you going to do?
I bounce between the fabricated negativity here to the exaggerated positivity on Reddit to keep my equilibrium : )
Actually I think Rich has learned this - but encoding in Stadia is done on a separate piece of dedicated silicon. It should not affect the performance of the server instance!
One thing to say here - SOTR is definitely not using close to PC's ultra settings. It has no HBAO+, no tessellation, no Screen Space shadows and definitely no Ray Traced shadows.
But thanks for the summary chandoog :)
Don't blame Linux, PS4 runs on the even more niche FreeBSD. It's something else.
Could be down to driver quality, could be developers not spending enough time optimizing their ports, or something entirely unrelated we will never know about due to NDAs. Maybe devs have to pay more if they want to run their games with more resources available, who knows.
