Dragon's Dogma 2 - Patch Test

[HiddenX]

Digital Foundry checked out the patched version of Dragon's Dogma 2:

Dragon's Dogma 2: Does The New Patch Fix The Game? All Systems Tested

Thanks Couchpotato!

More information.

 

[HiddenX]

Fextralife explains even more of Dragon's Dogma 2.

 

[Redglyph]

It's focused on consoles except a very short test on PC (here), and for this test, they don't mention if RT or movement blur are now an option (perhaps they already were?). No real improvement, apparently.

And NPCs appearing at the last minute or being still invisible when the main character collides with them isn't impressive.

 

[JDR13]

I'm still waiting for that demo they promised.

 

[Shagnak]

It's focused on consoles except a very short test on PC (here), and for this test, they don't mention if RT or movement blur are now an option (perhaps they already were?). No real improvement, apparently.

And NPCs appearing at the last minute or being still invisible when the main character collides with them isn't impressive.

RT was already in the options, but if I turn it on I don't see any difference. Possibly because my 6600xt is below the min recs for RT? (works in other games like Cyberpunk though, even if the performance is dismal). Possibly I should try it again in case that was a bug.
Movement blur was already an option. It's one of those things I turn off immediately.

That NPCs fading into existence does remove immersion a bit. There was the same issue in the early days of Cyberpunk. Hopefully it gets fixed because it looks fkn dumb.

 

[Morrandir]

That NPCs fading into existence does remove immersion a bit. There was the same issue in the early days of Cyberpunk. Hopefully it gets fixed because it looks fkn dumb.

The absolutely aweful at 03:19 and 09:13. When you can't see anyone until they're 3m away from you, that not only removes immersion a bit, but totally kills it (for me).
Is that actually how it currently is in the game? I almost can't believe that a game is shipped with this shitty drawing distance.
I vaguely remember this problem from CP77, but the distance was a lot greater, right?

 

[Stingray]

Wow that's ridiculously bad, especially for an RPG, where people tend to wander around and look for people to talk to. Not gonna head towards a place that appears completely empty.

 

[Shagnak]

Is that actually how it currently is in the game? I almost can't believe that a game is shipped with this shitty drawing distance.
I vaguely remember this problem from CP77, but the distance was a lot greater, right?

It doesn't always happen. I find it mostly happens in towns (i.e., where there are more people), and when I'm running through them. It's like the system does a bad job of estimating how far away you are from where they about to generate foot traffic and how quickly you're going to get there. Sometimes it's far away, sometimes it's right on top of you. Doesn't really happen when you meet people out and about.
I remember it being pretty bad in CP at first release, just as close sometimes, but not as frequent as in this game.

 

[Redglyph]

I remember it being pretty bad in CP at first release, just as close sometimes, but not as frequent as in this game.

Fortunately for me, I played it much later and never saw that, but there were rare t-shaped NPCs for a few seconds before their mind was uploaded to them.

 

[JDR13]

Are you sure it's not hardware dependent? Like maybe it's scaling the draw distance based whatever CPU/GPU the game detects? Probably not, but just a thought.

 

[JFarrell71]

I never saw an NPC pop in next to me on the PS5 (in DD2). They were always fully formed and animated, all the way across the fields and down the trails.

 

[Shagnak]

I never saw an NPC pop in next to me on the PS5 (in DD2). They were always fully formed and animated, all the way across the fields and down the trails.

On PC that's the same, I.e. in fields and out of towns you can see them in the distance. It seems to be when you're in a large town etc and the game is dynamically bulking up the population while you're moving through it.

 

[JFarrell71]

On PC that's the same, I.e. in fields and out of towns you can see them in the distance. It seems to be when you're in a large town etc and the game is dynamically bulking up the population while you're moving through it.

I didn't notice any pop-up in Venworth (is that the name?) either. But because of buildings, nothing was ever particularly far away from me. I could see people walking around across the town square.

 

[Shagnak]

Are you sure it's not hardware dependent? Like maybe it's scaling the draw distance based whatever CPU/GPU the game detects? Probably not, but just a thought.

That would make sense, but I've been browsing Reddit looking at how pervasive the issue is and even people with stonking computers report it. Seems like it's by design.

Edit: To clarify, you can see NPCs in the distance etc, in bigger towns, the pop ins are like extra NPCs to make the place more populated. They're not essential NPCs.

 

[Shagnak]

I didn't notice any pop-up in Venworth (is that the name?) either. But because of buildings, nothing was ever particularly far away from me. I could see people walking around across the town square.

Yeah, Vernworth. That's the worst case on PC. PS5 for the win?

 

[Vaelith]

The absolutely aweful at 03:19 and 09:13. When you can't see anyone until they're 3m away from you, that not only removes immersion a bit, but totally kills it (for me).
Is that actually how it currently is in the game? I almost can't believe that a game is shipped with this shitty drawing distance.
I vaguely remember this problem from CP77, but the distance was a lot greater, right?

That has never once happened to me while playing on max/ultra settings on PC. Feels like a console thing due to their limited specs, I couldn't tell, but the processing /rendering distance in my game felt virtually infinite. There were times I was on a high hill that allowed to see far in the distance, and I could see a griphon fly into the horizon, or a dragon have a random brawl match with a cyclops in a far away valley.

As a side note, in general (nothing to do with the quoted post), if anyone needs to look for excuses to not like the game, I don't feel like it's necessary to try so hard. Just don't play it, it's fine honestly - there's plenty of other games out there with pixel graphics that won't have slight FPS drop issues or less than ultrarealistic shade degradation in indoor conditions when lighted by an oil lamp, and so far I don't know of any country that has enacted a law that categorizes not liking or playing Dragon's Dogma 2 as a criminal offence. You should be mostly fine.

 

[JFarrell71]

Yeah, Vernworth. That's the worst case on PC. PS5 for the win?

Maybe! Can't underestimate how much easier it is to optimize a game for a system that always has the same components.

 

[Morrandir]

That has never once happened to me while playing on max/ultra settings on PC. Feels like a console thing due to their limited specs,

Ah, that could of course explain it. Perhaps console users are used to this and that's because there weren't huge complaints?

There were times I was on a high hill that allowed to see far in the distance, and I could see a griphon fly into the horizon, or a dragon have a random brawl match with a cyclops in a far away valley.

That's cool!
The difference is that not seeing these creatures in the distance doesn't contradict a living, authentic game world. But not seeing persons in a city does.