patches

Krychek Wrote:I just sat down with a good programmer friend of mine (who has been through the PS4 Pro patch routine) and barraged him with questions.


Notable findings:

- Games with 30fps caps WILL run closer to their cap.

- Games with 60fps caps WILL run closer to their cap.

- Games with unlocked frame rates WILL run faster, but, as with those capped games, various V-sync solutions may determine stability and frame pacing integrity.

- Some adaptive V-sync schemes will work seamlessly and simply show less tearing under stress.

- Some adaptive LoD schemes are 'uncapped' and will simply show less stuttering under stress with the increase to raw bandwidth.

- Depending on programming, Boost mode could also improve basic loading times or asynchronous loading schemes thanks to faster decompression via the upclock. Not a huge increase though.

- Boost mode will harness: increased CPU clock speeds, increased GPU clock speeds, increased VRAM/memory system bandwidth.

- Boost mode will NOT magically allow a game to properly use additional CUs/stream units. Games are specifically programmed to those elements. Unless the game engine is programmed to automate tasks to any available CUs. 'Uncapped' automation, if you will. Some physics implementations are happy to do this. That's in a smaller minority on console. Most are fine-tuned.

- Some games will be able to consume all those extra resources in Boost mode.

- Boost mode will not magically add or enable visual settings like anti/supersampling/anisotropic/draw distance/effects density/resolution or texture upgrades, etc. Clearly those are specifically programmed or inserted.

- However, many implementations of AA will see less of a performance impact under Boost.

- Adding to the previous, says to remember Pro patches very specifically FLAG the game to Pro mode. You cannot combine Boost mode with Pro patch, because they are booting into two entirely different code flags ("pass through" compatibility OR Pro patch).

- So then, Boost is pass-through but with Sony's defined global clock unlocks/bandwidth increases.

- Defined? Like, not totally unlocked? He's not sure. There's also stuff like chipset/system temps/power draw to consider. With a Pro patch you can safely work within the tools to determine relative system load/stress. The Boost unlocks may be significantly higher but placed within a slightly lower 'safe range' for baseline system stability and stress considerations.

- A few games will be too unstable/unreliable to play in Boost mode. Players will probably call upon those developers to patch, in those cases. Ironic, for games that developers had absolutely no intention of Pro patching.

- Worst case, a few games may actually freeze or crash to the front end under Boost mode. That's very possible he says. It all depends on coding and what the vanilla client is expecting or wants to see in the spec. There are failsafes.

- Could Boost help much smaller teams, like 2-3 man indie teams, that can't devote resources to preparing Pro patches? Yes of course, it's hands-off (duh, dumb question).

- Could this allow smaller teams to prepare easier "micro-patches" for Pro? In theory, of course. But again, if the team is already going through the motions of Pro mode, they're getting access to the full spectrum of the hardware - so they might as well take advantage.

- Besides, he clarifies, at that stage they're enabling the full Pro flag regardless, so the point is moot.

- (paraphrasing) "But yes, if players start to really like the Boost mode it may encourage developers to revisit much older games and add quick Pro support. To at minimum revise compatibility and stability for the clocks. That's something you can do in a day."

- Notably, in Pro development the tools are essentially giving access to a Boost mode up front to allow compatibility testing when preparing Pro patches. This gives developers what he calls an "easy mode" for taking a lazy approach to Pro patches. It lets them harness the bare minimum clock/memory bandwidth increases and test and apply basic timing/calls and frame tweaks to ensure stability.

- Again, this requires basic code alterations and thus falls into the Pro flag enabled category. (paraphrasing) "Remember some of these 'ninja' Pro patches that were slipped into shipping games or vanilla patches without announcement? I bet you most of them started using this easy method before getting updated."

- If developers see that users don't mind uncapped frame rates with fairly large fluctuations in Boost, that could be an easy feature to add via Pro patch. But he says Sony is really encouraging devs to use 4K-friendly modes or superior settings at 1080p for official patches, and stability. That's kind of the reputation of Pro. So they may not encourage such simple patches.

- That's probably why they're advancing this "hands off/guilt free/at your own risk" Boost mode, and doing it some months after the Pro release so instability controversies didn't cloud the launch.

- I think that's very, very important to keep in mind.

- Obviously that could have been bad PR. For all those saying "Why didn't they do this from the start?"

- (as well as any perceived multiplayer advantages - a point of contention for some that will still come up because of this. Prepare for the angst).

- Doing it now gives them another bone to throw to an already established Pro base hungry for any and all Pro benefits. The timing is right.

- A perceived "blanket" improvement to all PS4 games also steals some of the thunder from the competition's future offerings, getting some people off the fence in terms of Pro interest.

- We agreed it's a great move, even if it pisses off some vanilla owners. This is what most users wanted from the Pro. Meanwhile, Pro patches provide the full range of enhancements with full developer control.

- Why could Boost mode 'break' some games? Because some games have their AI, logic, loading schemes, etc. specifically tied to a defined performance profile. Optimized and tested to that range. These games are attached to those expected settings and programmed specifically to function within those expected performance parameters. That's console development.

- How about games using dynamic/adaptive resolution scaling schemes? Depends on the engine and optimization range. A good DRS engine will absolutely benefit from Boost mode "out of the box" -- in other words, maintain higher resolution averages towards the target frame rate.

- Others will be more confined to ranges specifically programmed to vanilla PS4 specs and would need a mandatory Pro patch to add enhanced support and change the defined range/parameters. Boost mode won't magically rewrite that code.



And... get back to work.