Returnal PC - DF Tech Review - Optimised Settings, PS5 vs PC Comparisons + More
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- Опубликовано: 30 июн 2024
- Join Alex Battaglia for a deep dive into the fascinating PC port of the PlayStation 5 masterpiece, Returnal. This is a PC version with so much to commend it, including enhanced RT features, big boosts to image quality and one of the best settings screens and benchmarks we've ever seen. It's a patch or two from greatness - but unless you have a high-end CPU, we can't recommend it for everyone in its current state.
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00:00:00 Introduction
00:00:40 Settings Menu, Shader Pre-Compilation and Ultrawide Support
00:05:26 What are the big improvements over PS5?
00:10:10 Sundry Improvements over PS5 and Optimised Settings
00:18:15 Ray Traced Audio Tests
00:20:24 Stuttering in Returnal on PC - How and Why
00:24:51 Conclusion 
Игры
The settings menu in this game made the PC gamer in me happy.
Agree they are really good.
Maaaaaan a options menu like this makes me miss hearing totalbiscuit’s analysis
@@Chitown-zf4gs oh man, I thought about him too. He sure is missed
when i saw that settings menu, i knew alex would be happy
To think that this game was a PS5 exclusive published by Sony and yet it has better PC settings than many third-party games...
FYI from today's patch notes: "We’re already hard at work on the next patch which will include performance improvements and a fix to correctly display at 3840x1600 resolution."
So it looks like the 21:10 issue you pointed out will be fixed shortly
Awesome! Great to know
Current state of the game is such a shame.
I usually have ~100 fps with DLSS Quality and everything maxed but without raytracing in WQHD but the game has a ton of stutters and weirdly every now and then drops to ~15 fps for like 10 seconds.
They need to fix the stutters they are ruining this excellent game. They arent fps drops they are just horrific stutters.
@@frankylampard3931 a heads up but a ssd or 16gb of ram is needed for this game. it was designed around the one in the PS5. so aim for 5.5gb/s if u can itll help bro.
You know you did the graphical options tab right when you got Alex saying "This is some next-level sh*t!" 👏🏼
I really appreciate the focus on the 2060 super as the GPU target when looking at performance and settings. Given most people are on budget systems, and the fact that the impact scales to higher GPUs, I feel like this is a great way to benefit the most people. Great video.
And its clearly the gpu pf the ps5
@@Eramy_shorts Since the PS5 has been out for a while now and there's been plenty of comparisons (though it's an AMD card), the Nvidia equivalent is more somewhere between 2070 and 2080 Super. Leaning more to 2080 side for the Rasterization performance and the fact games are better able to be optimized and developed for the single system config compared to 10 billion+ possible configurations for PC. They just need to improve their raytracing and FSR features to better close the gap with PC
@@Phreaksy well even if its more close to an rtx 3060 there is still nvidia better features that's makes her lower (ray tracing dlss)that's why i think she is more like an 2060 super if the game support rt and dlss wich is support for pretty much all next gen games
I had a lot of fun with God of War, Horizon, Demons Souls, GT7...... but my best PS5 experience is still Returnal. A perfect symbiosis of gameplay sound and visualization. Hopefully it gets the attention and recognition it deserves on PC too
Definitely the best exclusive on ps5.
I'm glad more people get to play it now, it's so worth it!
Agree
Yes indeed! In a sea of mostly-identical genre games, Returnal looks, sounds and (most importantly) plays like nothing else.
it already was, even before it was released in PC since its a roguelite genre, genre well known for PC. not like the PS playerbase forced the dev to change the game's visions.
@@Guil_P in retrospect it is cus it was it's only, also a new experience😁
One of the better Benchmarks in games right now. It is actually showing metrics per game affects that is being rendered in realtime.
I love this game so much! Gameplay driven experience, fantastic combat, moody atmosphere. Housemarque is one of the most underrated studios IMO. Alienation and Nex Machina are still one of my favorites of theirs.
I enjoyed almost everything on PS5, but the story disappointed. Great gameplay though. Not quite as repayable as something like Hades due to the length though.
Cool, I didn't realize it was the same studio that developed Nex Machina (Robotron / Smash T.V. inspired shooter).
Underrated for a reason, the game is pretty but games like Hades and Dead Cells are way better in all other aspects and cost $20 and not $80.
@@ThomasVvV Firstly - I said studio is underrated. Not that any specific game is underrated.
Secondly - All previous games of Housemarque were also around 20/30USD on release
and finally... Here Returnal on PC costs 40EUR so I have no idea where you live that you have to pay 80USD for it...
And finally... It's YOUR opinion mate. Hades is fantastic but I coudn't stand Dead Cells (not saying it's a bad game - It's just totally not for me)
@@ThomasVvV says the internet rando who’s clearly never played the game. 🤡
I've only had time for a single play session of Returnal so far. I was surprised when the game booted up to be greeted by one of the best system onboarding experiences I have ever had on a PC port. Where most games would have me pause and interrupt the beginning to tweak settings or go in blind, Returnal gave me the opportunity to configure the game and test it against a fantastic benchmark with impressive diagnostic tools. I felt like I was in good hands so much so that it stood out in my mind. And as Alex points out, Returnal takes the time to have in-game settings update live, which is very nice (and should be standard). Sure, I soon encountered some mildly annoying stutter. But in the current field of games, Returnal feels well seated in a short list of exemplars for handling settings and settings-onboarding. It feels a little off to be rewarded for that effort with a "good but not great" intro/thumbnail and "wait until patch" verdict, but I see why. And at least in the meat of the video kudos were given.
PC gamers hate themselves at this point and they have no standards. "Sure, I soon encountered some mildly annoying stutter." Literally pathetic, accepting stutter and trying to normalize it in your games is just schizophrenic.
@@snchez2106
I agree that we should be pushing back harder on devs that release games with stutter like that, but thats not what schizophrenic means, bro. Also, not worth calling people pathetic over.
I would love to see games add a Digital Foundry QC in their promotional material. I feel likes games would sell if it was known Alex approved the quality of the PC version.
I mean maybe... A little over a million subs to DF and blockbuster games sell many tens of millions of copies.
I think most people won't know what the badge means, and anyone who cares about DFs opinion will have watched the video for it.
If anything I think it would be more of a promo for DF than the other way around.
I know I definitely lend a lot of credence to DF review of games and have certainly used their reviews to inform purchasing decisions. They are an incredibly valuable entity in the gaming community. I would (and do) personally ascribe good value to a DF "seal of approval," but I don't know if there would be real value to an actual stamp on the game's promo material. Plus it would be difficult to set thresholds for an official pass/fail system versus them just informally stating it in a video.
Yeah like the Official Nintendo Seal
I could see df quotes on the back of the box for goty editions but nobody buys boxes anymore
Accept rhe guy is too scared too do Hogwarts Legacy , but whatever these guys know how too go too deepdive into the tech used in gaming.
It could look like one of Alex's shrines around the boxart.
There's already a new patch that specifically mentions the "Epic" particle grass draw in. So refreshing to see a dev jumping on issues this fast!
Agreed, but i hope they don't take too long on the stutter fix. Having a high end system and still having stutters on a game like this is very frustrating. Luckily we're not exactly short on other games to play this month lol.
RT audio is pretty cool. I'd like something like that in VR for sure
any one remember , wasn't this done on the og hexen or quake or something. way back
no idea how
Yea DF didn't give this setting the credit it deserves at 18:14. The PS5 gets this at no fps cost thanks to its Tempest 3D audio chip. Using headphones, everyone that's heard it knows it sounds amazing. Demon's Souls Remake is another shining example of this. Highly recommend with headphones, but not well described by DF here playing on little speakers on a RUclips video. It's an amazing feature at times.
Thank you for pointing out the 21x10 aspect ratio behavior. I really appreciate how in depth your PC analysis video are!
Looks like there's now a new Feb 17, 2023 Returnal patch that has this fix: "Fix for certain Ultrawide monitor setups not being detected in Full Screen", I wonder if that addresses the issue.
I wonder if housemarque would go back and take out their old upscaling solution on PS5 in favor of FSR2. Might significantly help image quality
Will that work on PC 🤔
Pc has an fsr2.0 option. I would like to see it updated for the ps5 too. TAAU on UE4 is very basic. I don’t blame house marque though. This was their first go at a AAA game. Still looks and runs great on ps5, but future titles should see much improvement after they learn the hardware and now that they’re first party.
Never in my playthrough on ps5 was I thinking about image quality. It's one of those games that would look just as good to your brain in 480p
@@wizzenberry That's actually how all upscaling (ideally) works. It's why a 1080p image upscaled to 4K for example (Using DLSS, FSR2, TAAU, etc) is not exactly going to perform like a straight native 1080p image. Upscaling when done right should actually perform a bit worse than the internal resolution. Not every game does that correctly though. Dead Space Remake didn't use a correctly tuned negative LOD bias for textures when upscaling, for example.
That or TSR would both be a big improvement likely. I'd wish they'd fix VRR on PS5 too. It was enabled at launch, but they disabled it with a patch for some reason, and it's a game that would benefit from it greatly.
Glad to see this! It's a shame people are getting hit by the stutter but the benchmark tool is EXCELLENT. This was my favourite game of the year for 2021 and honestly one of the best games I've ever played, feels GREAT to have it on PC!
The way the narrative was delivered in this game hooked me more than I thought it would. Quite the game, hope it gains more traction now that it's available to more people.
This game is amazing for Ultrawide, I really hope developers begin doing this more because having Ultrawide specific options isn’t something I’ve experienced before lol I hope they smooth out the stutter but regardless the game looks crazy in 32:9
You play on the G9? How is the fps
Horizon Zero Dawn also has Ultrawide specific settings like blurred sides to cutscenes. Another Sony port that I really like
I'll be playing at 3440x1440 175h on an OLED :)
Can confirm it does look amazing. Very happy and luckily didn't have stutter issues with this one unlike dead space remake.
I grabbed the 34" Alienwere qd oled monitor last night it looks awesome on it.
Phenomenal game. A rare instance of a Developer prioritizing gameplay and fun over elaborate cutscenes.
That's only rare in the western AAA industry. Check out indie games as well as Japanese developed games, including but not limited to From Software.
@@steel5897agreed. I'm all about that.
@@steel5897 That really depends on the specific games in question. The Yakuza series I would argue is one of the most quintessentially Japanese franchises, and they're very heavy on elaborate cutscenes and traditional video game storytelling.
@@steel5897 Japanese video games ? Their AAA industry is as bad as western AAA industry.
Square Enix is a good exemple.
Separating Western devs and Japanese devs like it’s two totally opposite entities is dumb.
Once again, a wonderful overview. Thank you for the hard work!
Great job! Thanks Alex!
felt like a proper, in-depth PC tweak video, what I would expect from DF, AWESOME VIDEO
No spoilers.
Absolutely amazing game and soundtrack. I played this game when it came out and finished one or two weeks later.
The Biomes (levels) are amazing and breathtaking, the soundtrack and enemy design jawtroping.
The story is actually crazy and sad at the same time. But you have to put it together yourself and probably only 10% of the player can do.
But it doesn't matter, the gameplay is so amazing and unique that even without understanding the why and how the game is a 10/10
I had runs in this game over 3 Biomes long without even getting hit a single time including the Boss fights and with 3 extralifes
But it took me a week to even overcome the first one. The feeling of beating the first Biome and entering the 2nd one for the first time is why we play games
🙂
For some. I got bored pretty quick of the grind despite beating the first boss within 5? hours or so. Gets really repetitive with the deaths and lack of story or exploration. Never finished biome 2. Lucky it was on PS Plus so didn’t waste money on it
@@NameName-ll2yx Sure it’s not for everyone. I would give another go if I were you. Story can be ambiguous, but I guess that’s what made it so interesting to me. Something important that I learned is that there’s no need to really grind that much once you get past a biome. If you use the shortcuts to the next biome there should be a blue proficiency upgrade at the start of each subsequent biome basically making it so that you don’t realllly need to complete it over and over agin. And after that all you need to do is loot from the chests and get a better gun.
One of my favorite games of all time.
@digitalfoundry
What's with there being no coverage on Hogwarts Legacy?
Great work as always!
Great video, really quick too!
Great job as always Alex! Amazing how stuttering is just part of PC gaming now. I have a 4090 and that still doesn't change.
It’s awful. Gaming is going down the pooper last few years.
Always has been, but these high refresh rate displays are making it bleeding obvious. PC ports must improve.
@@richardhunter9779 exactly
Same on my 3080
Turn off Ray Tracing = no Stutter.
17:57 Optimised settings
Great video as always!
omg THANK YOU FOR ADRESSING THE AUDIO, keep it up pls, audio needs more attention
stutters remained and they are HUGE, it's August 31st 2023, no patch, just abandoned the game
Great video. Whilst a decent enough release I will wait for patches to clean up the stutters. This is my most wanted game this year and I'm happy to wait for the best possible experience, hopefully Housemarque can deliver.
Its worth the wait, incredible game
Amazing game, please give it a shot after a few months of patches. If it even slightly interests you then when you play it, you'll be sucked in :-)
@@spoonermcgee I will definitely be buying the game once its patched up. I really enjoyed Nex Machina on PS4 and whilst Returnal is very different it carries over quite a few of the gameplay mechanics and bullet hell arcade gameplay i love.
Props for the FOV + Ultrawide resolution side-by-side (top-and-bottom). I'd like to see this in more videos including super ultrawide!
I turned up volume on my headphones for the RT audio test. It's so good!!!
I was blown away by the audio settings, probably the best implementation in any PC game ever alongside Battlefield 1and Hellblade.
Dolby Atmos, good open ended headphones and RT sound...my goodness, it's so precise.
Wish more developers focused on the audio side more, for me it really makes 50% of the overall experience.
Totally agree. Best audio experience I had in a game 👌
Don't forza horizon use rt sound also.
Probably they put so much effort in audio quality because of the tempest audio of ps 5, it was one of points in the marketing campaigne of the console
Are we going to get optimized settings video for Hogwarts Legacy? Please
Optimised settings for Hogwarts Legacy:
- Dye hair blue
- Complete gender studies 101
- Protest about something
- Scream when losing any argument
Damn, Alex, this is excellent work. Great job.
Amazing video, thanks!!
My first and only rogue type game I have ever finished. Such a great experience. While the PC version looks great, I still think the PS5 version looks really good.
You finished it? Wow..how so fast
@@mindrover777 Roguelites aren't long. Returnal is longer than most, but when you've gotten things down and find the good stuff it takes just a few hours to beat.
@@mindrover777 Have it on PS5.
@@LN.2233 It can take quite a bit longer if you plan to get to the true ending though
Try Inscryption!!
this game is awesome! as a pc gamer, i was conflicted if i should use mouse and kb, but man, the dual sense controller feels amazing in this game. the haptic feedback and adaptive triggers add another dimension to where i think it's actually better than the accuracy you would get using mouse and kb. just immerse yourself in the game, it's great!
thank you for the 4K vids!
You know what else is an excellent benchmark that others should strive to emulate? Alex's tech reviews. The amount of work put into optimizing settings, image comparison and even testing games with completely different PCs is amazing, all packaged nicely into a well-presented video that's not too long. Just superb quality content.
looks great. Don't understand the water though. is it really substantially harder to make it transparent relative to the fresnel (view angle) of the surface? it ends up looking like the metal from terminator 2, not water
Where is the hogwart legacy optimisation df
Really would be great if, in these type of videos, the optimized settings list was in the same order as in the actual game menu. Stellar work aside from that and the PC settings for this game are masterclass.
Thank you very much for this review. The optimised settings helped a lot.
awesome tech review ! the only thing i really dont like is the draw distance of some objects, thats just way too close.
Amazing video for an excellent game. Looks like Housemarque have really knocked it out the park! I can't wait to see what they do next in future.
Great job as usual alex.
Alex, 3840x1600 is not a 21:10 resolution, as it is actually wider than other 21:9 monitors (2560x1080 and 3440x1440). It's actually a 24:10 monitor which is exactly the aspect ratio of regular 35mm (2.4:1) movies, and 4K Blu Ray movies in this aspect ratio have this exact resolution.
no one cares about these meme resolutions.
@@aweigh1010 Yet you cared enough to leave a comment about not caring, proving once and for all that in fact, you are an absolute idiot.
Had been waiting for this, man I'll have to wait to double dip on something I already beat on my ps5. But if they fix all these issues I'm in for sure. This is hands down the first game I played I felt like it was a Next Generation experience.
Asset streaming/traversal stutter has been a plague on Unreal Engine PC ports for ages now. It’s a real shame and I hope at some point this gets addressed. It’s been nice to see some effort going into shader stutter so the next step has definitely gotta be fixing asset stream hitching which just sucks to experience.
Is it fixed in UE5?
@Transistor Jump I really hope so :(
@@teddyholiday8038 Apparently not.
Brilliant job Alex.
I would love to see future "Updated Optimised Settings" videos if the developers fix issues/ improve performance through patches.
Hogwarts Legacy on PC is going to give Alex a stroke
One of my favorite games of all time all gameplay with little filler 💯 🔥 🔥 🔥
One of the most addictive game play and controls I've experienced. With a great atmosphere and audioscape. Love i!.
First John's PS3 1080p video, now Alex's Returnal PC video, I'm glad that Chad Warden is canon in the Digital Foundry Cinematic Universe
Amazing video! Really interested in this game, but holding out until patches are out and maybe a follow up video is coming.
But the game looks amazing nonetheless. Especially the reflections of the lasers on the floor. Just a bit weird that the water ripples even when the character is standing stil.
The eternal stutter struggle continues
Man, one can't say enough words praising the excellent work of DF. Thank you guys.
Great video thanks
Amazing job
I've been waiting so long for Ray Traced Audio. I had this idea in my head that ray tracing + audio is a genius idea, and finally it seems like it's a thing now
It was done 2 years ago in FH 5 on Xbox
Next we need ray traced gameplay
This is the first PlayStation pc port I have seen truly look substantially better than the PlayStation version
The most impressive thing that immediately caught my eye is the rain. Wow, it looks great!
3:16 The amount of edge Alex oozed here is understated.
Now here’s a game worthy of a purchase. If only we saw this kind of effort in other titles.
So glad more players are going to be able to experience this gem! Tried it on PS+ Extra and got HOOKED. Now I'm going for the 100%!
Good luck and happy dying PC players. You're in for a brutal treat!
happy dying?😅
@Michael Myer Haha, if you haven't played before, you'll find out! 🙃🫣😉
I wouldnt play this game if they devs would pay me for it.
@@His0ka Your loss
@@His0ka L
Nice job!
When Alex says "Bravo", then you know you did you shit right.
Curious if you experience any of the "Fatal Error" that seems to be effecting a lot of players. Additionally I had extremely confusing bugs when using a controller on my PC that would lock the game while holding down specific buttons until the controller was turned off.
Alex must have missed the fatal error bug. I played many hours before it happened and then at times the game is nearly unplayable due to the frequency of crashing. And you can forget about multiplayer.
Extremely disappointing, and I wish Alex would have caught on before releasing his video.
@@harryarmstrong5728 try locking the frame rate, I haven't crashed since I did that.
I'd love to see a Steam Deck video on this, some footage I've seen makes it seem like a 30FPS target may be possible.
To quote the INMORTAL CHAD WARDEN... BALLIN' 🤣I laughed so hard.
I bought it. I want the traversal stutter fixed. Thank you for your work.
When are you guys doing the Hogwarts Legacy analysis? That's the only one that I and many others really care about seeing.
I wish there was a way to adjust the brightness of the water reflections. The environments are all pretty dark and the new water stands out too much even if it's reflections are more accurate.
Something in-between the two would be perfect.
I knew they were something special after playing Super StarDust on the PS3, especially after the stereoscopic 3D patch came out. It's still amazing to see that runnin on a 3D display... if you can locate one! :P Then I also loved their work on Dead Nation. A friend of mine in California (I'm in NY) played through it together and it ran perfectly, unlike many other games of that time. Then Resogun -- love those VOXEL-SPOLISIONS! I hope they are working on a PSVR 2 title next, or even a PSVR 2 update for Returnal.
For the difference between Ray Traced Audio sample you shared to have a more effective impact to your audience I believe listening to the Non-ray traced audio 1st then Ray Traced Audio 2nd would work better. Though to me after several listens the difference was minimal but maybe the people that implemented the feature for the game would be able to show some areas where the feature's effect is better demonstrated.
Probably harder to tell on a stereo youtube video as well. Might be slightly more noticeable in person through surround sound.
@@Funkymonk004 absolutely correct, in certain situation RT audio sounds great but youtube compression doesnt do it juistice
People on Steam forums are saying the game installs Epic spyware in the background without your consent and the store page doesn't mention it. What's that about?
I've seen various complaints about that as well. I haven't bought the game for that reason.
epic servers are used for the multiplayer
@Somnia:3 What if I don't want to play multiplayer? Which I don't. Back in the day, even multiplayer services like GameSpy would prompt you an option to install. Nothing should be installed without your permission. On top of that, even after you uninstall the game, the Epic spyware remains lol. Apparently, someone found a workaround to prevent it from being installed.
@@thiagovidal6137 I've read that uninstalling EGO is the workaround but you can play with Steam users. It's pretty bad from Steam/Valves point of view that this information isn't included in the store listing. Then again, the developers and publishers will know that the game won't sell if the listing mentions it.
great video
Thanks Alex, really good video. My favourite part was 12:35 lol!
This is a very good port. Not perfect, but still a very good job.
I'll get this a bit later when I have a spot to play. Release schedule is too crowded now.
Um abraço aos amigos tugas que acompanham em primeira mão o trabalho da DF 🙏
Thanks!
thank you Alex, thank you DF
Definitely going to wait on this one, as recommended by Alex. It's good to hear the devs are going to address the stutter issues in a patch. Clear communication on the goals of future patches is nice to see, though it really would have been better if they launched the game without the stutters out of the gate, even if it meant a delayed release.
This looks amazing on the PS5, regardless of resolution etc, its just got good art direction .
Obviously the pc version should look better at ultra settings, but considering the type of pc to get it to that level ways exceeds the price of a Ps5.
Will be good when there are more ps5 native games that actually push the hardware, as i dont think many have yet.
The price of a PS5 compared to PC is more complex than that. PC games are generally much cheaper than consoles and that £350 online tax over 7 years isn't there on PC. There are plenty of free games also given away on stores like Epic and Amazon Prime, there is competition from stores which is great not some Apple like control of everything . Also PC hardware will drop in price through hardware cycles, consoles generally don't , PS5 is more expensive than it was 2 years ago when launched, an RTX 30 series card is cheaper now than it was on release. That extra money for better performance is great but that extra money for that open garden is even better, worth every penny just to get yourself through the door and then it is much cheaper than console gaming.
Such a great Video from Alex. Thanks brother. You are doing god's work.
CHAD WARDEN
Man, what a time on YT that was! Great video, Alex!!
Very nice cover of this game on PC
Do a Hogwarts legacy optimized graphics video please!!!!! Great video
Glad to be watching this video in the here and now.
I literally waited two days for this
PlayStation really out here showing how ports should be done.
I love how the controller haptics react but damn do I die a lot, had to switch to mnk to sweat a little
Please do another optimized settings video but for the Harry Potter game, there's clearly a huge demand for it!
wtffffffff surface bounced audio is awesome! :O
Turned the volume up on my Fidelio X2HR's for the audio comparison - The ray traced audio definitely sounded better and seemed to suit the environment more.
Ah yes, “Break Your Controller Simulator” but in 4k 120fps
This isn’t fifa
Did someone say rocket league?
4k 120 fps is not possible
@@melu0o 🤓
When are you guys gonna do the Hogwarts Legacy tech review?
Thank you DF 👍
Thanks again for another detailed and very excellent review. Exactly what us PC gamers need to help make an informed decision.
You guys don't boycotting Hogwart's Legacy, right? Because it passed some time since premiere and you still didn't make a DF Tech review of this game, while this game is a pretty big deal. In fact your review of this game is what I am waiting for right now the most.