Chernobylite just got its big next-gen update, and it's safe to say we're pretty impressed by what developer The Farm 51 has done with it. The bump up to 60fps is a real treat, however, there are some big graphical upgrades too, although one in particular was dropped on Xbox Series S.
Yep, it's ray tracing support once again. Microsoft's budget, digital-only machine doesn't seem powerful enough to deliver consistent ray tracing in next-gen games, and The Farm 51 echoes that sentiment with its work on Chernobylite. Here's what the team said about Xbox Series S in a recent interview with TrueAchievements:
"[Ray tracing] didn't work so well. We knew that reflections are easy to do on consoles, but things like water caustic effects were probably not going to make it."
"[Unreal Engine] has all of the tools and toggles that we can enable on console, profile the game, see how it performs in real life, and then decide what can make it into the game or not."
Well, it seems like Series S just couldn't quite deliver the ray tracing effects that Chernobylite employs. Thankfully, the Series S version does hit 60fps in its performance mode, albeit at a lower overall resolution than its Series X counterpart.
Series S missing out on more ray tracing is disappointing to see but ultimately unsurprising, given the system's overall power. Having said that, performance is just as important, so we hope developers can continue to bring 60fps titles to the console.
What do you think of this? Is it understandable that Series S will miss out on some features? Let us know in the comments.
[source trueachievements.com]
Comments 7
It's a shame that they couldn't implement a 30fps mode with ray tracing, but as long as 60fps modes aren't skipped on the XSS then I am okish with this.
I personally don’t mind this at all.
My kids have Series S consoles hooked up to 1080p displays. All I really expect is 1080p and hopefully 60fps on most games (although even that’s a stretch sometimes).
Our Xbox Series X is on the main 4K TV downstairs. That’s where we expect the magic to happen.
Who else bought Series S thinking it will perform the same as Series X, just with lower resolution and storage space?
Hardly surprising. The Series S delivers exactly what I expected it would. Looking at the specs it is essentially a One X with new SSD technology in a smaller package.
Why do people think a $250 machine should be able to output 4k60fps with ray tracing..? (Yes, I’m exaggerating).
As much as many will berate Ubisoft for their copy and paste ethos across titles they certainly have one of the best game engines in regards to optimisation. Watch dogs Legion is able to implement RT at 30fps or without at a solid 60fps on a Series S at around 1080p. If other developers can’t achieve that then it’s on their game engine and not the system. The Series S has the capabilities to run RT at a lower fps and resolution and game developers will learn how to really tap into the software just like they would have done with the previous generation and mid gen refreshes
If devs could target 1440p/60hz on series s or at least 1080p/60+hz, I'd appreciate that, thanks. If I wanted my games and console to have ray tracing, I'm sure I'd play it on the series x or ps5.
RT is being used as a 'Visual' enhancement in these games and still have fall-backs in their game using up resources too. Its not as if these games were built around RT.
Just because you don't get the RT reflections, you still get the 'fall back' option. Its not as if the 'visual' look is severely hampered by the lack of RT.
Its like having the 'highest' quality Shadows, reflections etc on the 'most powerful' system but having to use 'medium' settings on a less powerful system.
Therefore the Series S is still delivering exactly what it was meant to do. Its still playing the same games at a 'lower' visual quality due to having a 'weaker and smaller' GPU. It is essentially 1/3rd that of the Series X so its 'obvious' to me that the Visual quality would have to be 'lower'. Resolution is one way to reduce the amount of work, but also reducing 'elements' (like Resolution quality, shadow quality, draw distance etc etc) can be used to hit their target frame rate.
4TF's means that a GPU can process up to 4TF of instructions per second, yet in that time, they may have to draw 60 images - that means each frame can't exceed 67GF compared to 200GF for each frame on a Series X. Also the Series X has a LOT more Cores to run RT on.(52 vs 20) If RT takes up say 20GF per frame or occupies 10cores of the GPU, that's a 'much' bigger chunk of the Series S for a 'small' visual gain. Like I said, its no different from being able to turn the Reflection quality 'up' on Series X/High End PC and having to settle for lower settings on a Series S/equivalent PC.
Its not as if the game is 'unplayable' without RT and its just at a 'lower' visual quality - which is exactly what the Series S promised
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