1080P Zealots Are Ruining Gaming

1080P Zealots are holding gaming back. What’s more important? Performance? Stable FPS? Innovation? or a Resolution number?

Since the launch of the next-gen consoles, we’ve constantly heard about how important 1080P is from a very vocal crowd of gamers. And anytime those resolutions aren’t hit, we begin to hear conspiracy theories that someone paid off another publisher. Or the developers simply don’t know how to develop.

But looking at recent games that have hit 1080P, it would seem that these gamers are begging developers to hit a certain resolution for the sake of performance in the games.

Here are some quotes from recent Digital Foundry articles comparing games on the PS4 & Xbox One.

Assassin’s Creed Unity:

Visually it appears identical on both consoles, but in the majority of scenarios that challenge the game’s 30fps cap, our tests reveal that it is the Xbox One that takes the lead.

Granted, AC Unity has had issues on multiple platforms – so this isn’t the best example. But this is the game that started #PS4NoParity. My question is: If the gamers who were carrying on the witchhunt got their wish and Unity devs had increased the resolution like they were demanding to 1080P. How well do you think they game would have run then?

Call of Duty Advanced Warfare:

The main, asset quality is identical between the two platforms. From the handling of shadow rendering to texture detail, there’s little to distinguish the Xbox One release from the PS4. But based on our indepth analysis, the larger disparity is in performance rather than in-game visuals.
The PS4 version’s constant 1080p output comes at a price. We catch dips between the 50-60fps lines during battles through Seoul’s streets – with drops to the high 40s caught when throwing the ‘threat’ grenades to scan the area for enemies. Even in perfectly matched scenes, the Xbox One’s performance tends to hold at a perfect 60fps by comparison.

So you have PS4 going with dynamic FPS to hit 1080P – and XBox One going dynamic resolution to hit 60fps.

Evolve:

Moving to PS4, Evolve gains an advantage from delivering sharper native 1080p presentation compared to the Xbox One game, but right now this has some drawbacks when it comes down to performance in demanding scenes: frame-rates simply aren’t as stable on Sony’s console when the engine is under load, and this leads to more noticeable stuttering on the platform compared to Xbox One.
The main issue here is that drops in performance are sustained for longer periods, and frame-rates often drop off more sharply too, which visibly draws attention to the variances in motion handling and controller response.

GTA V:

Both systems run at 1080P, and both games suffer at times with performance issues. In one scene driving down a crowded street, the PS4 hovered at 24FPS, while the Xbox was fine going down the same crowded street. But there were other points in the game where the Xbox suffered and the PS4 didn’t.

Dragon Age Inquisition:

Xbox One version that delivers the smoothest experience overall. Frame-rate drops are extremely rare, only appearing in the most extreme circumstances – for all intents and purposes we’re looking at a locked 30fps.
Unfortunately, the higher resolution on PS4 comes with a catch in the form of noticeable performance dips during strenuous sequences. frame-rates faltered sometimes during battle sequences and sometimes even traversal across the landscape.

Far Cry 4:

Overall, performance sticks closely to 30fps on both consoles, but the Xbox One comes out on top, displaying slightly higher frame-rates during intense shoot-outs and generally fewer dips elsewhere. It’s likely that the difference in resolution between the two versions is the cause here

Do you notice a trend here? 1080P comes at a cost. And for what? So you can brag about an in-game still shot?

The 1080P Zealots picked the wrong thing to start a witch hunt over. Why not complain about stable frames per second? Why not complain about action games shooting for 30FPS over 60FPS? Why not complain about more complicated AI and better effects on screen? Instead, we are left with the equivalent of a dick-waving contest where people are more concerned over a resolution number vs actual performance. Can anyone really tell the difference between CoD dynamic resolution and when its 1080P? Maybe if you’re looking at a side-by-side still image. But how often are you standing still in CoD or any game for that matter?

If I had to list the most important parts of a game, it would go something like this. Gameplay, Story, FPS, and Resolution would be the last thing i’m concerned about. But how many developers are going to be so concerned about hitting the magic PR number, that they leave other parts of the game to suffer. Is 1080P honestly worth it? I haven’t played one game on my 60 inch TV for the Xbox One that looks bad. Is 1080P really worth it?

Source: Digital Foundry

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