How SP improved game performance for Infamous: First Light

DriedMangoes

DriedMangoes

We The North 🦖🍁
Sep 12, 2013
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http://www.eurogamer.net/articles/d...punch-explains-infamous-dlc-frame-rate-boosts

In our recent inFamous First Light performance analysis, we made an interesting discovery - the standalone DLC runs noticeably faster than Second Son, with an overall 12 per cent boost in frame-rates in the like-for-like test we've reproduced below.

First LightSecond Son
Lowest Frame-Rate33fps28fps
Highest Frame-Rate49fps45fps
Average Frame-Rate40.36fps35.92fps

So do the enhancements to First Light benefit the gameplay experience compared to Second Son? Well, overall, the impact of a 5fps boost when the game is running with an unlocked frame-rate isn't immediately apparent owing to the inherently variable update. Where we really felt it most was in the areas where the engine is under load - First Light drops under 30fps less frequently than its predecessor. It's also apparent when you play with the optional 30fps lock in place - the action feels more consistent than in Second Son.

Overall, the effect may be fairly subtle but it is significant, and demonstrates amply how much of an impact engine optimisations can have on performance, not to mention how quickly talented developers are extracting more from the fledgling PS4 hardware.
 
Hmmmm.. It may just be that the particular set of assets in the pevel are just less taxing. It doesn't mean they necessarily did anything to actually improve the performance.
 
Kassen said:
Hmmmm.. It may just be that the particular set of assets in the pevel are just less taxing. It doesn't mean they necessarily did anything to actually improve the performance.
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"For First Light, we made some optimisations in our shaders that did accelerate things," the developer replied. "The two most notable improvements were made in our water ripple compute shader, and the way we encode/decode normals in the g-buffer. In addition, the absence of the heavy DUP fortifications from Second Son has a measurable impact."

inFamous on PS4 utilises a physically-based deferred rendering solution for lighting, where various components of the scene - including material properties and how they interact with light - are packed into the geometry buffer as textures before being rendered out. It seems that the optimisations here result in a significant boost to performance: while the lack of DUP fortifications undeniably helps increase frame-rate, in the video we still see substantial boosts to performance where those elements are not present.
 
DriedMangoes said:
"For First Light, we made some optimisations in our shaders that did accelerate things," the developer replied. "The two most notable improvements were made in our water ripple compute shader, and the way we encode/decode normals in the g-buffer. In addition, the absence of the heavy DUP fortifications from Second Son has a measurable impact."

inFamous on PS4 utilises a physically-based deferred rendering solution for lighting, where various components of the scene - including material properties and how they interact with light - are packed into the geometry buffer as textures before being rendered out. It seems that the optimisations here result in a significant boost to performance: while the lack of DUP fortifications undeniably helps increase frame-rate, in the video we still see substantial boosts to performance where those elements are not present.
Click to expand...
Hey, I definitely read the article. Maybe I should have not took light of what I read after that little bidbit calling 12% being a significant boost, but there is still no telling if those nifty tricks are the cause of this very modest performance boost. How a level is built always has a great effect on performance and can easily offset the framerate.
 
Kassen said:
Hey, I definitely read the article. Maybe I should have not took light of what I read after that little bidbit calling 12% being a significant boost, but there is still no telling if those nifty tricks are the cause of this very modest performance boost. How a level is built always has a great effect on performance and can easily offset the framerate.
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The article reports that both play a factor in the FPS / performance boosts.
 
DriedMangoes said:
The article reports that both play a factor in the FPS / performance boosts.
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What are you meaning by "both?" I was talking about the assets being less taxing, not the effects and other stuff.
 
Kassen said:
What are you meaning by "both?" I was talking about the assets being less taxing, not the effects and other stuff.
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SP optimized the code more resulting in fps and performance boosts. First Light also doesn't have DUP fortifications resulting in less taxing assets (as you previously mentioned). The final result is boosts in all aspects.
 
DriedMangoes said:
SP optimized the code more resulting in fps and performance boosts. First Light also doesn't have DUP fortifications resulting in less taxing assets (as you previously mentioned). The final result is boosts in all aspects.
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The article never says that. You are just parroting what you read and adding in your own guesswork. Seriously, I don't see anywhere where Suckerpunch or the author of the article say the assets are less taxing.
 
Kassen said:
The article never says that. You are just parroting what you read and adding in your own guesswork. Seriously, I don't see anywhere where Suckerpunch or the author of the article say the assets are less taxing.
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"while the lack of DUP fortifications undeniably helps increase frame-rate, in the video we still see substantial boosts to performance where those elements are not present."

Doesn't this infer that some asset aspects of First Light is less taxing resulting in performance boosts?
 
DriedMangoes said:
"while the lack of DUP fortifications undeniably helps increase frame-rate, in the video we still see substantial boosts to performance where those elements are not present."

Doesn't this infer that some asset aspects of First Light is less taxing resulting in performance boosts?
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But how can you say that if you don't even know what DUP fortifications are? Even I don't have no idea what those are.
 
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Kassen said:
But how can you say that if you don't even know what DUP fortifications are? Even I don't have no idea what those are.
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Have you played Infamous SS? DUP fortifications are those heavily fortified bases around the city showing that the DUP controls that part of the city. Destroying those fortresses frees up that part of the city.
 
DriedMangoes said:
Have you played Infamous SS? DUP fortifications are those heavily fortified bases around the city showing that the DUP controls that part of the city. Destroying those fortresses frees up that part of the city.
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Ohhh. I see. My bad on getting all weird and stupid. "DUP fortifications" really had me flipped.

And yeah, I haven't played it yet. But I do plan on getting that standalone DLC.
 
Kassen said:
Ohhh. I see. My bad on getting all weird and stupid. "DUP fortifications" really had me flipped.

And yeah, I haven't played it yet. But I do plan on getting that standalone DLC.
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Hah, ha! You were thinking it was a technical term :D ? It's all good, but that actually supports your argument that they could have fewer taxing assets in scene, lol.

inFamous on PS4 utilises a physically-based deferred rendering solution for lighting, where various components of the scene - including material properties and how they interact with light - are packed into the geometry buffer as textures before being rendered out. It seems that the optimisations here result in a significant boost to performance: while the lack of DUP fortifications undeniably helps increase frame-rate, in the video we still see substantial boosts to performance where those elements are not present.
Click to expand...

So, a fancy way of saying they baked the lighting for certain things. Makes sense, as not everything needs to be dynamic, and good for performance boosting.
 
Frozpot said:
So, a fancy way of saying they baked the lighting for certain things. Makes sense, as not everything needs to be dynamic, and good for performance boosting.
Click to expand...

Yeah, I believe SP themselves said they used a combination of baked and dynamic lighting for some scenes in Second Son.
 
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