Product: Battlefield 2042
Platform:PlayStation 5
Please specify your platform model. Sony PlayStation 5
Are you using any software with an overlay? No
Which part of the game is the issue happening in? Multiplayer
Which part of the mode? Conquest
Please select your region Europe
On which server did this happen? All
When did this happen? (dd.mm.yy hh:mm)
Summarize your bug Graphical downgrades were unnecessary on the next gen consoles when compared to the BETA, since there was no significant difference in performance between BETA and launch and minimum frame rate was only affected by CPU limiting moments in game (128 players clustered or high player count combat). My extensive findings are explained below. Pleas read the provided description and see picture/video.
How often does the bug occur? Every time (100%)
Steps: How can we find the bug ourselves? By comparing the the graphics fidelity and performance of the BETA with launch on next gen consoles. You won’t find significant differences in performance between BETA and launch, but graphical fidelity was significantly reduced at launch on the PS5 and Series X.
What happens when the bug occurs? Good optimization: - Reduced internal resolution at launch when compared to BETA on PS5 and Series X (but this is no big problem, and could benefit the systems) Unnecessary optimizations: - Reduced Mesh quality at launch on PS5 and Series X at launch when compared to BETA. - Reduced Undergrowth quality on PS5 and Series X at launch when compared to BETA. - Reduced Shadow quality on PS5 and Series X at launch when compared to BETA.
What should be happening instead? Same graphical fidelity as in the BETA should be used on next gen consoles (mostly equivalent to PC ULTRA). Only resolution should be adjusted for GPU limiting moments. Most frame drops are CPU limiting anyway. Thus by adjusting the graphical fidelity no significant performance was gained on the next gen consoles.
Material and Methods:
By performing extensive testing on performance and graphical comparisons on both the Series X PlayStation 5 and PC (5950X RTX3090 64GB 3800mhz DDR4), we were able to compare the early access launch to the BETA. To determine the average performance between the launch and BETA, all comparisons were performed in Orbital with 128 players for 20 min for a total of 3 times per system (3*20min).
Results and Conclusion:
Using side by side pictures, we have found that the graphical fidelity, including internal rendering resolution is significantly reduced on both Series X and PS5 when compared to the BETA. This includes downgraded internal rendering resolution (avg 1872P BETA to avg 1536P launch), MESH quality, Shadow and Undergrowth quality (see figures and video, for illustration I have uploaded to PS5 results, but it’s the same for Series X).
However, average performance between the BETA and early access launch was statistically insignificant (independent sample t-test, Sig 0.05). An example of PS5 performance is shown below.
- BETA performance PS5 Orbital 20 min capture 128 players: Max: 60, Lowest: 52, Avg 59.3
- Launch performance PS5 Orbital 20 min capture 128 players: Max: 60, Lowest: 53, Avg: 59.8.
All frame drops were related to areas with high player count clustered together. In order to understand this behavior, using a high end PC (5950X RTX3090) we found that the majority of frame drops could be related to CPU taxing moment in game due to 128 players. Therefore this behavior could also be explain on next gen consoles. We also found that reducing the graphical fidelity using PC will NOT help to increase the minimal frame rate in those high player count combats. Thus by decreasing the graphical fidelity on the next gen console did NOT result in higher performance when comparing launch to BETA. In short, we can conclude that that by changing GPU related graphical features will not result in higher performance on PC, PS5 and Series X due to CPU limiting moments that determine the minimum frame rate on the systems.
Our wish to DICE:
Please use the same graphical fidelity on the next-gen consoles as used in the BETA. This will make the game look better and won’t affect performance at all. For performance optimization, just play around with the dynamic resolution or use a more aggressive curve. But by reducing LOD (Mesh), shadow and undergrowth quality, it feels like there is circle around the player where foliage and objects are constantly popping in. This breaks the immersion of the world while it doesn’t affect performance at all.
Thank you for understanding and hopefully this will be fixed in the near future. Additionally, DICE could add one 60fps high graphics mode and one solid 60fps stability mode for the next gen console. Many other titles also give player options.
PICTURES ARE ILLUSTRATED BELOW (only
PS5 results are uploaded as illustration)
- Reduced internal rendering resolution between Launch and BETA (Launch looks softer and blurrier, while beta was 1872P on average)
- Reduced Mesh and Undergrowth quality between Launch and BETA (this results in lots of pop-in and breaks the immersion of the world):
- Reduced Shadow quality and draw distance (probably related to Mesh quality)
