Ragtag Can't Commit to Ray's The Dead Running At 1080p/60FPS, Bigger Studios Also Having a Hard Time

"The war over video game resolutions and frame rates rages on. We recently had a chance to talk to Ragtag Studio's co-founder Chris Cobb, who is working on the PS4 version of Ray's The Dead, an action-stealth-puzzler where you command your own zombie army."

[darthv72]

Im torn on this subject. having been gaming since pong/2600 days I have grown with the times and the changing conditions of gaming. Seen it blossom from the low res/color output to the HD era and to me it was never about the graphics.

I would rather have a game that is fun and plays well than the visual fidelity being more important. Having a blend of visuals with gameplay is ideal but if studios are having to make a choice then i certainly hope they go with the fun factor over anything else.

[Mikelarry]

i agree that not all games are about resolutions and would want devs to not sacrifice intuitive controls and fun gameplay just so a game can run at 60 frames on 1080p resolutions.i would like them to take whatever tech they have and try and use it as best as they can because a we all know some devs can just be lazy.

[pete007]

we mustnt forget that last gen was running games on old ps2/xbox engines and tech software, single threaded and way less complex, in 2007 cryengine 2 was build on a dual core format when xbox 360/ps3 were begging for multithreaded multicore optimisations implemented later starting for real with dice´s frostbyte2 scalable to a quad core or more if available, codemasters also did on dirt2 and so on.

now we have octacores, in fact are two blocs of 4 cores each, fully programable and if a developper doesnt have the right skills, or the best tools will have a real hard time reaching max optimisation level, its like having 8 hi-powered machines working on different tasks and beeing able to spot the slight stall or slow down on each one!!
the key will be mastering those new breed cpu in order to maximise draw calls, the more the better, gpu´s will do fine because they are closed architectures and locked to 720/1080p
whatever.
and just to finnish those games really built on new technology just arent there.even first parties are coding and learning at the same time, in order to pass to others specific tricks on each platform.
true is that we´ll see impressive titles in the future
ps... me either!! i´m from the zx spectrum 48k when i was 5, passing to commodore 64, amiga, then consoles, pc, the moon, the sun, breff

[Soc5]

I'm confused about this devs are lazy stereotype
I don't think devs are lazy at all they probably work harder than most and at crunchtime you hear all these stories of how the wives of developers have to try to intervene to get their husbands home from work and they complain to the media. I think the real issue is the deadlines publishers make them stick to aren't really fair and they have to push out games that aren't ready to meet a deadline due to money concerns from the publisher.

[Bigpappy]

I like gamers being vocal and having reasonable consensus as to what should be acceptable and not acceptable from industry.

But I think you guys need to be very careful not to over step. Because if you pigeon hold developers to certain expectations, they might get the message that those things are important above all else. Developers always have to make concessions, no matter how powerful you think your system is. So you could force them to cut something that they thought would be really cool in favor of a higher resolution or frame rate.

[DeadRabbits]

Im from the same era, yet kids these days will look back on 1080p 60fps with misty eyes full of nostalgia also.

I think we are just entering the Golden era of gaming!

[Software_Lover]

Sorry, but the golden era was before the internet.

[ThatArtGuy]

The golden age of arcade gaming seems so long ago, but feels just like yesterday.

[cell989]

is it too much to want both great visuals and great gameplay, like some games have actually achieved. Its been done before, so there shouldnt be an excuse as to sacrificing one thing over the other. Its more like not all devs have the right resources and the right talent

[PoSTedUP]

i dont look for 1080p/60fps in an indie game like this. but i do look for it in devlopers who have the money and talent. i bought a 1080 tv for a reason seven years ago for exactly that, i want 1080p resolution in my games.

[Neonridr]

hook it up to your PC then, that's what I did..

It's fun trying out games from my PC playing with a wireless keyboard and mouse in front of my 55".

[PoSTedUP]

my pc isnt used for gaming nor would it preform as good as it should on a 55" like it does for a pc monitor designed for a pc, my cuzzes rig didnt look as good hooked up to his 32"samsung as it did his pc monitor, same when hooked up to my 40" bravia at the time. the same game on ps3 just looked better (but not as good as on his monitor). it might have something to do with certain kind of hdtvs, aspect ratio, resolution output, and just the way the grahics card is designed.

[NateCole]

Gaming since Atari and believe it or not graphics is one of the main reason why i upgrade consoles and buy new iterations of franchise games.

My point. I always want all. Not just graphics but also gameplay,story,music etc.

People can try and downplay graphics all they want but the truth is it is important.

[creatchee]

@NateCole

"People can try and downplay graphics all they want but the truth is it is important."

Graphics ARE important, but a crappy game with amazing graphics is still a crappy game, while an amazing game with crappy graphics is still an amazing game. You can have both, but the game is more important than how it looks.

[Ashby_JC]

I think about games like socom or rainbow six Vegas...had great fun with those games!!

played rainbow six recently...played for five minutes. the visuals were pretty bad and clunky. but at the time it was new it was great!!!

the point for me is...as systems get better...so does the gameplay and gfx.

[stuna1]

My question is it coming to other consoles!? If so, there's your answer.

[TheTwelve]

Games also didn't cost $60 during the pong days. With prices as they are, the expectations are high.

[Neonridr]

Games were way more expensive 15 years ago then they were now. Nintendo 64 games were usually close to $100 sometimes.

I remember paying $75-80 for NES games back in the day too.

[PsylentKiller]

Some games cost that much, Everquest and Mario Paint come to mind. Most games were $50 for NES and even Atari games, which was a lot of money back then. To put that in perspective, minimum wage in 1995 was $4.80 per hour. Minimum wage now is about $8.00 per hour. Gas was $1.25 per gallon. Game prices also weren't regulated like they are now. That's why some games cost $100 and so e $30.
Expectations are high because of the ability to access information so easily. Reviews from gamers came from the guy at the local game store or your friends. Journalist reviews came once a month I. Your SEGA magazine or Nintendo Power. That and graphics back then were like a 2 year olds drawing. There wasn't much to expect.

[callahan09]

In 1981 a copy of Asteroids for the Atari 2600 was about 30 bucks, new. But when you consider inflation, 30 dollars is equivalent to about 80 dollars today. So if you really think about, games are actually about as inexpensive right now as they have ever been. That $50 they charged for a game in 2000 after the PS2 came out, is worth nearly $70 in today's dollars.

[NukaCola]

MK on Genesis was $90.

I also didn't get the N64 for a whole year because games where $75 to $100 a pop.

[Dread]

I completely agree with you.
But i find it funny that if you had made this exact comment in a xbox one article about not being able to achieve 1080p in a game,you would have about 100 disagrees.

But since it is the other way around....(ill let the # of agrees make my point)

[starchild]

The biggest problem I see with this obsession is that on fixed hardware like the PS4 and XB1 it's only going to result in games being less advanced overall.

Achieving 1080p and a solid 60fps takes an enormous amount of hardware grunt. In reality what we are going to get are a bunch of games that feel LESS smooth than last gen games, simply because devs will be shooting for 60fps but in practice it will end up being more like 40 to 60fps which will introduce stutter/judder.

I'm already seeing it in games like BF4 and KZSF. This isn't a good thing. Just because it makes a nice bullet point on the back of the box where they claim 60fps doesn't mean that that is the experience we will actually get. A solid 60fps requires that the framerate be higher than 60fps all of the time, with 60fps only being the minimum frame rate.

I don't think a game with a frame rate that varies between 40 and 60fps can fairly be called a 60fps game, when it actually has an average framerate in the 40s or 50s. What's worse is that such a framerate doesn't sync with the refresh rate of our TVs and the uneven frame intervals will result in significant judder.

[johny5]

I have to disagree! The Pc games I play that do get around 40-60 looks way smoother then games locked at 30FPS

and I only notest choppy frames when it goes below 28FPS.

[Omegasyde]

@darth

Same here. But it depends on the genre of the game.

Example

Racing: graphics and content > gameplay

Platform - No sense in playing a beautiful game that you can't control right.

FPS- All about immersion and gameplay/repetition.

Fighting game - Gameplay all day with controls.

RPG - Content and story over graphics.

When you look at it, this is what seperates a gamer from a "casual gamer". Casual gamers could give a flying f##k about graphics or innovative features. They rather have fun. But as a gamer, you want graphics and gameplay to evolve.

If we didn't care for better graphics and features, we would all be playing solitaire or miesweeper.

[Morgue]

Don't know why you got disagrees on this but it's true. I'm 43 and while games with pimp graphics and sound are great. I still can't forget the era I grew up in and how fun those games were.

[GribbleGrunger]

Give me 1080p/30fps or 900p/60fps but do not give me 720p/60fps.

[lets_go_gunners]

What....60 fps trumps 30 any day. 720p 60fps is gorgeous.

[cell989]

it WAS gorgeous 5 years ago, not by today standards

[GribbleGrunger]

You think that 720p/60fps is better than 1080p/60fps? Really? If they can manage 1080p/60fps then GREAT! What I'm saying above is IF they have to compromise then those are my choices: 1080p/30fps or 900p/60fps but not 720p/60fps. I didn't invest in a 1080p TV so that I could play 720p games.

All those Youtubers who are giving commentary on this issue whilst playing a game on their PC are not playing their PCs at 720p, regardless of what they say about there not being a noticeable difference. Consider that.

[Neonridr]

Go play a racing game at 1080p/30fps and then go play it at 720p/60fps. You'll notice a huge difference in how smooth the game feels...

It really depends on how far you sit from your TV to answer if it matters or not.

On a Standard 55" HDTV if you sit more than 11' from the TV, the visual difference between 720/1080 is not noticeable to your eye. For a 42" TV that distance drops to about 8'

So it may matter to you in your heart, but in the end you could be wishing for something you wouldn't even be able to see anyways..

[Convas]

I will gladly take any and all of that.

Just no 720p30.

[Magicite]

give me milk and cookies and Ill make you any eF Pee eS

[WeAreLegion]

Don't sacrifice game play for graphics. That's all I ask.

[PSN-JeRzYzFyNeSt]

exactly….

[GTgamer]

Im pretty sure they will achieve it but at least their honest about it.

[amnalehu]

COD will be 1080p as will Killzone. They should be able to get there.

[Deadpoolio]

The only difference with Killzone is that the SP is 1080p 45-60fps and the MP is 1080p locked 60fps

[GW212]

Again, you're talking about an indie developer with limited resources. This isn't ND or GG. You can't expect an indie developer with a tiny budget to output games with the same quality as the games that had multi-million dollar budgets?

Doesn't work that way

[amnalehu]

My point in bringing up the bigger devs was that this indie developer stated that the big devs were having a hard time getting 1080p on the pS4 which obviously is not the case.

[Whitey2k]

I cant see how this game cant get 1080p/60fps look at Resogun that has like 200,000 vortex cubes and that's 1080p/60fps look at bigger studio's ok bf4 is 900p but u still got the likes of CoD 1080p/60fps and you have GG 1080p/60fps and driveclub might be 30fps but still achieves 1080p

[GW212]

I think you answered your own question when you said "look at bigger studios..."

This is not GG, this is an indie developer with far fewer resources than the big guys. It has nothing to do with the hardware and everything to do with the game itself and its associated resource budget.

[amnalehu]

great point!

[sigfredod]

for the gameplay have seen from ray's dead i think they should achieve it

[Ripsta7th]

Lmao see how it all backfires? Sony fanboys making fun of KI not running 1080p 60fps

[GmIsOnPt360]

If this was a article headed by xbox one not achieving 1080p 60 fps it would be NEGATIVE comments galore.

[Dread]

yep.

But since its sony
all we read in the coomments are justifications and excuses.
It is a double standard, but we all know N4G is a Sony dedicated site. Nothing new.

[Hicken]

Probably has something to do with the fact that we know it's possible on PS4, with many games proving it.

Also likely has to do with the fact that this is a smaller indie dev, as opposed to, say, Infnity Ward.

I know you'd really like to call the people in here accepting this hypocrites, but it's not gonna work this time.

[ruefrak]

But does a game like Rays the Dead really need to be 1080p/60fps? For a game like this, 30fps is fine. And even if a small studio put out a game at 720p should be ok. Games like Battlefield and COD are aiming to have the most beautiful graphics so for them it is important. Rays the Dead is not going for the more graphically intense game here

[ELCUCO]

Sooo...1080p/60fps confirmed? ;)

[Dread]

I dont get it

Sony's Playstation 4 allegedly has 50% more power, and yet it is having trouble with 1080p. According to the sony fanatics it should have no trouble running games at 2160p...what si going on?

this is so strange.

[TwistingWords]

Looks like the console gamers have turned into resolution snobs.

Pretty sure they used to mock PC gamers for being the same.

[Neonridr]

PC Gamers

Happily gaming in 1080p since what.... 2005?

[syne49]

And yet Resogun is native 1080P at 60FPS with all sorts of advanced effects going on all at once. I really don't see what is so taxing about this game that they can't achieve the goal. Its going to be an interesting gen for sure.

[GW212]

It's not about the game being taxing on the hardware.

It's an indie developer that simply doesn't have the budget nor resources to output a game with quality equal to the big-name developers.

His comment about bigger studios having difficulty is because those games are indeed taxing on the hardware (at this point in the generation). Kind of silly to compare his game to BF4.

[Jaqen_Hghar]

A man doesn't need 60fps as long as there aren't any severe dips from 30 like in some games this gen. 1080p however is a nice way to show the generation gap after a gen where most games were either 720p or lower.

[windblowsagain]

For a game like that. 60fps and 1080p should not really be a problem.

[PersonMan]

I'm fine with 30fps. Some of this generation's best games only ran at 30fps.

Uncharted 2
Uncharted 3
The Last of Us
GTA V
Beyond Two Souls