okay then so first news story of the
0:04
week uh the day before we recorded this
0:06
direct Bethesda game studios quote
0:09
unquote dropped the Next Generation Well
0:12
current generation upgrade for Fallout 4
0:15
Tom's been checking it out and what we
0:17
have here in the direct are our first
0:19
impressions but I'm actually re-shooting
0:21
this info um so this is future Rich
0:24
talking here um because on Sunday uh the
0:28
publisher put out a tweet that directly
0:30
contradicts what we're going to be
0:32
talking about in this segment um so to
0:35
be clear the PlayStation 5 version of
0:37
Fallout 4's Next Generation upgrade has
0:40
all of the quality and performance modes
0:42
mentioned in the patch notes but weirdly
0:45
Xbox does not um we think that Xbox
0:48
series X is actually stuck on
0:51
performance mode regardless of the
0:53
option you chose in game while the tweet
0:56
from Bethesda says that quality mode
0:58
works fine and and um targets 60 frames
1:01
per second in both quality and
1:03
performance modes but to illustrate the
1:05
point that we think something is a bit a
1:08
miss here right this is a shot of the
1:10
Xbox series X version in its quality
1:13
mode performance mode disabled and it
1:15
runs at 60 frames per second however if
1:18
we swap in the PlayStation 5 version in
1:21
the exact same spot in its 4K 30 quality
1:24
mode you can clearly see a richer image
1:28
uh improved lods and F it's pretty
1:30
blatant right now cycle between them and
1:33
it's clear that when Xbox is set to its
1:36
quality mode you don't seem to be
1:38
getting the quality mode settings um it
1:41
seems to suggest that the Xbox series
1:44
X's quality mode is not functioning as
1:46
we'll discuss further on um and to sort
1:50
of illustrate the point still further
1:52
we've got the exact same spot captured
1:55
from before the Next Generation upgrade
1:57
so this is effectively the Xbox 1X X
2:00
version running under back compat on
2:02
series X cycle between these two images
2:05
here and you can see that once again um
2:07
the new version has significantly paired
2:10
back detail in terms of those lods and
2:13
foliage and whatnot um so we really do
2:16
think something is a miss here uh
2:18
regardless of the tweet that went out
2:20
from Bethesda and hopefully it will get
2:22
fixed um but at this point future Rich
2:25
me is going to bow out and we're going
2:26
to return to the original recording and
2:29
Tom will continue the discussion uh I
2:32
got a little bit unlucky actually uh I
2:34
was telling you to earlier but the Xbox
2:36
consoles were my kind of picked platform
2:38
this time to show like okay I've got my
2:41
all my saves lined up before the patch
2:43
using you know the 4K 30 FPS mode that
2:47
we had with the last gen you know 1X
2:50
version that we were playing on series X
2:52
and I thought okay well that that what
2:54
works and then we'll upgrade to the Xbox
2:56
version uh with the latest nextg patch
2:59
did didn't realize that the uh patch
3:01
would actually be bugged and that the
3:04
mode selection toggle that is
3:06
included but there's to call it a
3:08
quality and performance mode uh switch
3:11
but it's just performance mode on and
3:13
off in the menu so uh a bit of labeling
3:16
issue there but it just doesn't work on
3:18
Xbox in my experience I've tried
3:20
everything I've tried literally re like
3:22
I've tried signing signing in as a new
3:24
user uh reinstalling the whole game just
3:27
nothing worked and uh then I got home
3:31
after doing all the FPS testing with the
3:32
Xbox machines and uh gave it a run on my
3:35
PS5 and that works so I guess from the
3:38
top shall I go through some of the patch
3:39
notes stuff because this is quite
3:41
interesting okay yeah but just before
3:43
you begin basically what you're saying
3:44
on Xbox is that the quality performance
3:47
toggle doesn't work and it's just
3:49
performance all the time performance all
3:51
the time yeah okay so what happens is
3:55
you have uh 60 FPS 4K mode and you swap
4:00
it off you turn it off and you'd assume
4:03
you'd get 30 FPS but it just stays at 60
4:06
stays running at 4K and uh yeah that's
4:09
kind of where it is M kind of uh
4:13
befuddling yes but how's it looking
4:16
anyway oh well you know I guess a bit of
4:20
a sort of primer on where we came from
4:23
we just came from running the last gen
4:25
version at 4K 30 or 1080p60 if you have
4:28
FPS boost enabled being a lastar gen
4:30
game you got the compatibility options
4:32
in the menus on the Xbox to make it run
4:35
at 60 kind of force it into the uh I
4:38
think it was like the last gen Xbox One
4:40
code path because it runs at 10p Max but
4:43
the problem is if you do FPS boost you
4:46
run at 10p Max which is a bit of a
4:48
downer but also the volumetric effects
4:51
also run at Xbox One settings so they
4:53
look terrible they look awful um I will
4:57
say as a caveat there's the whole world
4:59
of mods on Fallout which solve a huge
5:03
range of issues and we've looked into
5:04
this Rich uh with uh a combined effort
5:07
on bethesda's FPS um bethesda's hacks
5:11
and mods and there was a way to get it
5:13
to run at 4K 60 with big performance
5:15
drops uh it didn't quite pan out
5:18
perfectly but it was playable enough
5:20
mostly uh so bring us today and we have
5:25
the official solution which is Bethesda
5:28
giving us 4K and 60 FPS at the same time
5:31
with vo metrics improved massively the
5:34
um game looks and runs better than it
5:38
has ever done officially uh without a
5:41
mod and I think yeah I you know we we
5:45
were all really hoping to play this game
5:47
at 60 anyway so losing the 30 FPS mode
5:50
wasn't such a big tragedy for me but in
5:54
the mix when we look at the patch notes
5:57
it turns out there's a bit more than
5:59
just a 6030 split um there's actually a
6:04
uh a 40 FPS mode if you have a 120 HZ
6:09
display connected which is just like
6:12
great I love that and uh that 40 HZ mode
6:15
gives you Ultra preset settings for uh
6:18
LEDs on foliage and um a range of other
6:22
settings as well so if you're willing to
6:25
running it 40 run at 40 FPS you get 4k
6:27
and you get um Ultra settings so there's
6:31
there's a bun lot going on
6:33
there okay and um how I mean obviously
6:36
you're looking at the series X version
6:37
at the moment which is buged so you
6:39
can't access those quality modes um but
6:42
but what is the outlook on series X at
6:44
the moment uh you know what uh it's
6:48
absolutely it runs great except for one
6:51
area remember the core Vega Factory yeah
6:53
that's the classic stress test really
6:55
it's basically a huge view over the
6:57
whole Wasteland really yeah sure is it's
7:00
uh it's kind of like an interior area
7:02
which tanked the old consoles and we
7:03
love to use that to to show you know
7:06
whether it's in improved performance or
7:07
not but you get to the rooftop and even
7:10
these next gen consoles are still kind
7:12
of having a bit of a rough time of it so
7:14
they actually don't run at a perfect 60
7:19
uh so in I think we're going to do a
7:20
full video on this aren't we so uh we'll
7:23
see the COA Factory rooftop come up
7:25
quite a bit in the uh when it comes to
7:27
showing off does actually deliver so
7:29
series X does drop to like 55 FPS or so
7:32
on top of the COA Factory in the 4K 60
7:35
performance mode okay and um well that's
7:38
quite heartening isn't it because that
7:40
that was an area that just collapsed if
7:41
you use the mod on the Xbox uh 1 X
7:44
version running on series X that's true
7:47
so there's there's obviously clear
7:49
improvements here big Improvement yeah
7:52
I'm going to be interested to see how
7:53
this 1440p mode plays out yeah I was
7:55
just thinking about that whe it seems a
7:57
bit odd to have to set your conso to
7:59
1440p to access a particular mode why
8:03
not just have like a you know an ultra
8:05
mode or whatever has a slight hit to
8:08
resolution there's there's all manner of
8:10
weirdness that I'm kind of seeing here
8:12
but it is is quite odd did you take a
8:14
look at Series S as well I did all the
8:17
consoles um so Series S runs at 10 no it
8:21
doesn't it runs at 1440p that's a big
8:23
upgrade and a huge win um obviously
8:27
output at 4k on Series S you get 4 40p
8:29
native uh it drops the 1080p lowest on
8:32
the Cora Factory rooftop you test that
8:35
basically by getting the um drop to 55
8:37
FPS looking down over the whole area and
8:41
um you can see the lower bounds so 1080p
8:43
to 1440p upgrade which is an upgrade
8:46
over the uh flat 10p we had before vo
8:49
metrics are improved it's all great and
8:52
dandy yeah really really impressed with
8:54
Series S runs very well MH that's quite
8:58
interesting because you did have FB s
8:59
boost on Series S but you couldn't use
9:02
the mod to uh to to uh to access 60 FPS
9:06
without a huge uh sort of bizarre
9:09
windowing effect happening there yes uh
9:12
which wasn't great um okay so well
9:15
obviously I guess the proof of the
9:17
printing would likely be an a patched
9:19
Xbox version because I just don't
9:21
understand how a massive high-profile
9:23
release like this can ship with uh the
9:26
performance uh the quality modes rather
9:28
not working exactly you know I'm a
9:30
little bit wary of uh a few reports of
9:32
the PS5 version saying their version
9:35
their playthrough also doesn't change
9:37
with the mode selection so I'm wondering
9:39
if there are some Xbox players who do
9:40
have it working somehow um right but uh
9:44
yeah I'll leave that to the comments I
9:46
guess uh but okay yeah bit bit of a pava
9:50
the fact that it doesn't work on a like
9:52
a console is supposed to be a one size
9:54
fits all solution it's supposed to work
9:56
everywhere the fact that it doesn't
9:57
apparently work on all machines points
9:59
to a pretty serious issue I would say um
10:02
exactly so I mean I'm I'm actually
10:04
pretty interested in this I'm also
10:05
interested in that 1440p mode like rich
10:08
said because uh its existence uh
10:12
implies uh both that like you can't
10:15
Target these higher settings at a higher
10:18
res uh that is dynamic in the current
10:21
performance mode uh so I'm curious about
10:24
the lower bound resolution of the
10:26
current performance mode on series X and
10:28
PS5 live uh I'm a little bit curious
10:31
about what those ultra settings do like
10:34
just visually I think it's probably
10:35
going to see it you're see it mostly in
10:37
the lods uh based on this type of game
10:39
and the Shadows um yes for sure and uh
10:42
yeah I'm curious about those things uh
10:45
and also I guess since you did mention
10:47
it like is there a performance
10:49
difference between PS5 and Xbox series X
10:52
in this core Vega area that you
10:55
described earlier which is like the
10:57
typical uh Benchmark a good question
11:00
yeah I I think that there is um but I'm
11:03
going by ey I had the FPS tools at the
11:06
office where I did the Xbox testing and
11:08
they dropped to like low 50s 55 FPS on
11:10
the ca test then over the PS5 I'm just
11:13
scanning by eye are there any dips uh
11:16
there's none so far but you know what I
11:19
will get 100% confirmation on on that so
11:22
it is looking like potentially PS5 does
11:25
have a a win here in performance which
11:28
um going by sort of recent Trends um
11:32
wouldn't wow you know there's been a few
11:35
inexplicable cases where PS5 suddenly is
11:38
has a better performance than series X
11:40
and I'm just like okay I'm accepting it
11:41
at this point yeah I mean um for this
11:44
game I wouldn't be too surprised by it
11:46
by just one aspect is this game had some
11:48
really funky volumetric effects back in
11:50
the day um it did yeah uh like funky
11:54
volumetrics the reason they don't use
11:56
the normal like uh the like typical Way
11:58
games do it it was like a Nvidia
12:00
sponsored effect that happened to also
12:02
run on the console versions and it uses
12:05
tessellation actually to do the the
12:07
volumetrics which is a pretty weird way
12:09
to do it and uh that like higher clock
12:13
front end on the PS5 might actually be a
12:17
winning Factor here because it used to
12:18
be pretty heavy on AMD gpus back in the
12:21
day in fact they sucked at it um
12:24
so so if if you had a higher clocked
12:27
front end it could and it was a big part
12:29
of the frame time it could actually help
12:30
quite a
12:32
bit let's talk about the PC version
12:35
which we haven't looked at firsthand yet
12:38
um but Alex a couple of weeks ago you
12:41
did like a laundry list of everything
12:43
that you hope will be fixed uh you could
12:47
also consider them to be uh quote
12:49
unquote fat Falls if they did make their
12:51
way into right into the next gen version
12:54
and lo and behold it's like uh it's well
12:59
what could I say it's just like almost
13:00
every single point you raised has not
13:02
been I enjoyed this this PC Gamer
13:05
article by the way thank you for uh
13:07
whoever wrote that I'm sorry um forget
13:10
off the top of my head but uh wonderful
13:12
that I like I remember going through in
13:14
the DF direct like these L list pointed
13:15
list of all these things that I think
13:17
they need to fix and none of them are
13:19
none of the big ones I wanted them to
13:21
fix are there so the game um I think
13:25
this is bad just because uh these are
13:28
things that should be fixed specifically
13:30
the the game crashing when you use the
13:32
RTX sorry not RTX the physx debris
13:36
option that is in there um this is a
13:39
pretty classic problem uh for the game
13:42
and it just like was left that way after
13:44
RTX gpus came out which wasn't you know
13:47
it's a couple years after the release
13:49
but you know things like Fallout 76 you
13:50
think they might want to go back and fix
13:52
it up either way um that is still an
13:55
issue in this current version of the
13:56
game very curious about how they did the
13:59
testing for this patch on PC
14:01
considering uh they're definitely going
14:03
to be testing this on RTX gpus I'm
14:05
pretty sure they're going to want to
14:06
test all those settings I'm hoping they
14:09
would have noticed that the game is
14:11
crashing when you turn on a setting um
14:15
so yeah that's really sucks um I I
14:20
another thing that I'm looking at this
14:22
with this PC gaming article PC Gamer
14:25
article is that they mentioned that the
14:26
the widescreen support that is there the
14:28
ultra wide screen support excuse me uh
14:32
doesn't have like properly configured
14:35
HUD for it it's just stretching the HUD
14:37
and now that's usually um a no no for
14:41
these kind of modes at all because well
14:44
you you kind of get like this really
14:46
ugly looking appearance of the HUD and
14:49
takes away from wanting to use the mode
14:51
altogether especially in a semi UI heavy
14:54
game like this one is yeah so uh yeah I
14:58
mean like the whole Base building aspect
15:00
is all UI driven right yes uh so
15:05
yeah I don't know and they didn't well
15:08
actually let's I'm just looking at that
15:10
PC Gamer article there Alex it's by Ted
15:12
Lichfield thank you Ted uh yeah thanks
15:15
Ted it's good article um basically um
15:18
the issues he himself uh noticed or
15:22
others are complaining about um issues
15:26
loading modded saves and using non-cre
15:29
Club mods at all including the essential
15:31
Fallout for Crypt script rather extender
15:35
the next gem patch does not introduce
15:37
any graphical improvements yeah not so
15:40
the new Ultra support has a poorly
15:42
stretched UI that will require a user
15:45
made patch basically the same solution
15:47
ultrawide Gamers we're using before the
15:49
update Fallout Force iteration of
15:51
creation engine still doesn't support
15:53
fade rates over 60 FPS that's one of
15:55
those Prat fors that I was talking about
15:57
that you were talking about weeks ago
15:59
which is hold on a bit this game just
16:01
doesn't run over 60 FPS surely if you're
16:03
going to Future proof it for you know
16:05
modern play it should be supporting
16:07
arbitrary frame rates above that it
16:09
doesn't yeah and yes the uh the weapon
16:12
debris graphic setting which you pointed
16:14
out um yes doesn't it crashes on all RTX
16:18
cards yeah an issue that has been
16:20
present since RTX cards were introduced
16:23
so that's like six years now it's yeah
16:25
it's a really old issue um yeah and you
16:28
think you know to make it cuz the thing
16:30
is most people who play this game are
16:32
going to be playing it on an RTX GPU
16:35
like the vast majority are going to be
16:37
so especially those returning now all
16:40
these years later you're not going to be
16:41
returning with your vintage 2015 PC
16:44
you're going to be playing it on a
16:46
modern one I would like to see uh at
16:48
least three of these things fixed uh I
16:50
don't think they're ever going to fix
16:52
the 60fps thing because it probably
16:54
requires work on a level that they don't
16:57
feel is worth it uh but I think the
17:01
having the the debris option the weapon
17:03
debris the physics debris option work
17:06
without crashing I think that's
17:08
completely
17:09
fixable and I also would like to see um
17:13
you know just use the mod then you know
17:16
at that point in time there's already a
17:17
mod out there that gets better HUD for
17:20
the game and ultrawide than what the
17:22
official implementation has then just
17:24
bring that in you know just bring that
17:26
yeah yeah very very much agree
17:29
there's also reports that the game has
17:31
received steam deck verification but
17:33
that implementation on Steam deck just
17:35
seems to be to not show the launcher
17:38
where you set your graphics
17:40
options yeah yes I had heard that that
17:42
is pretty um pretty poor yeah you can
17:46
get around it by uh adding a launch
17:49
parameter that basically says you aren't
17:51
running this on a steam deck and you get
17:52
the launcher back and then you can tweak
17:54
settings again so I can only assume that
17:56
maybe there's some sort of curated
17:58
series of settings that uh Bethesda has
18:01
introduced that allows for steam deck uh
18:04
verification but even so that's just not
18:07
not great I'm still unclear about what
18:10
um deck verified actually
18:12
means in the broader scheme of things um
18:16
so yes I mean I don't know what to say
18:18
about this um because to launch a major
18:23
project like this with
18:24
bugs is just like almost
18:27
incomprehensible when you consider the
18:28
scale of the game um the reputation of
18:31
the studio well I guess that could go
18:33
both ways right um and you know just the
18:36
concept that this is so eagerly awaited
18:39
and the fact that I think this game
18:40
deserves to have a properly implemented
18:43
Next Generation implementation that will
18:45
future proof it across the ages I think
18:48
you know that's actually really valuable
18:49
work but the concept that you're not
18:51
really getting any of this stuff um
18:54
rankles to say the least it does look as
18:56
though a lot more effort has gone into
18:58
the console versions at least with the
18:59
implementation of those various modes
19:01
which does actually exercise more of the
19:04
uh of the GPU and CPU but um the concept
19:08
that we can't get a performance SL
19:11
quality toggle working on an Xbox from
19:14
an Xbox
19:15
studio um what's going on there that
19:18
just doesn't make sense right it's it's
19:20
baffling but it does work does work on
19:23
Playstation um it does seem that there
19:25
some effort has gone into those console
19:27
versions at least but the concept that
19:29
you can't actually reap the benefits of
19:31
the work on you know the first party
19:34
platform so weird it's just kind of
19:35
mind-blowing yeah it's very very weird
19:38
um yes but this is just basically
19:40
initial work we are going to have a full
19:42
video on it maybe they'll fix this um
19:45
XBox issue During the period you you'd
19:47
hope so right surely it must have been
19:49
working at some point yeah yeah I
19:52
mean it I mean yeah maybe maybe we'll
19:55
hang back till it arrives it can't be
19:57
that far off


summarize these