Hands On: Fallout 4: Far Harbor Removes Fog to Boost PS4 Framerate

Push Square: "We're happy to report that Fallout 4 fans can rest easy for now – well, kind of. Fallout 4: Far Harbor, the game's first "real" expansion, ran very poorly on PlayStation 4 when it released. The add-on's island location was covered in thick fog, and this effect, combined with detailed lighting techniques, resulted in a shockingly low framerate when traversing most of the island. In short, the expansion was, in our opinion, a chore to play because of the frame rate issues – something that we heavily criticised Far Harbor for in our review."

[ILostMyMind]

So if we remove the trees and the characters we could have the game at 60fps? Great solution, Bethesda.

[joab777]

That's the problem. They still don't give a fuck about Playstation. 40 million sold would incentivize me to make them a priority, but what do I know? You know nothing!!

[Majin-vegeta]

Thats why i dont buy bethesda crap.Its obvious they have a freaking agenda with PS systems.There games always run like crap on them.

[zeuanimals]

Agenda? Nah, they just suck. Just look at the Xbox One version, sometimes it hits 0 FPS. Unless they have an anti-console agenda.

[Pogmathoin]

Wtf are you talking about zanimal? No excuse for not simply optimizing it...... It runs fine on xbox one... You can play it fine...

[Bruh]

Its not about incentive to sell, their games will sell regardless. Hence why they don't give a shit, the reason the One version runs better is cause Gamebryo is far easier to code and optimize for a Direct X based machine over an Open GL one.

[TwoForce]

Seriously, Bethesada ?

[Omnisonne]

Especially considering the Fog plays a major role in the DLC.. this doesn't make any sense. I'll have to try it myself but if there's no fog left at all, it kills the story and setting

[Oreic]

Yeah, weak fix. Just get a new engine Bethesda...

[letsgopal]

Why they should get a new engine? It works fine on PC's Maybe you should stop being a console peasant.

[Jman2]

People keep saying this and everyone that does obviously doesn't know what there talking about, answer the question why do they need a new engine ? What would a new engine fix?

[SoulMikeY]

Ask yourself instead, why is The Witcher 3 bigger, more detailed, better graphics, more fluid combat, less buggy, better soundtrack, better story... nevermind. The point is, a new, better optimized engine, would immensely increase the quality of any Bethesda game. It should be able to look as good as the Witcher on consoles.

[Bruh]

@Jman2

Bro Gamebryo is outdated garbage lol..Bethesda has the toolkit and development team for iD Tech 6, though its not designed for open-world games. I'm sure a modified version of that engine is the way to go for future Skyrim/ Fallout titles.

[wellard]

Because a new engine designed to run on new systems would work better than an old engine constantly upgraded to cope on new systems. It really isn't that hard to figure out. Just use some common sense.

[Sm00thNinja]

Glad I bought this on XBONE WTF BETHESDA?!

[Aenea]

That does make me wonder tho, did they only remove it on the PS4 version or also X1?

I mean: pushsquare is a PlayStation site so they might not know, I've seen plenty articles like "xxx released today on Xbox One" or "xxxx free now on Xbox One" or "xxx yyy on Xbox One" even tho the same was true about the PS4 but it was reported by an Xbox only site...

Anyhoo, if it's only removed on the PS4 version that is rather ehmm, surprising...

[Omnisonne]

Yeah they really don't have the excuse of PS4 being difficult to code for anymore. So I wonder what drove this decision

[Sm00thNinja]

I'm playing it RIGHT NOW ON XBONE there has been no fog removal. Also the freezing issues seem to have been cleared up. Everyone reported the PS4 version was ganked but the Xbone version originally was also unplayable. Fix one, neuter another strange decision

[ColonelHugh]

They didn't remove the fog entirely on PS4, it seems to be at about 50% volume, which is absurd, but it did take CD Projekt Red a long time to fix its frame rate in Velen's volumetric fog on PS4 through optimization alone.

Considering this isn't a mandatory official patch, but a stealth reupload of Far Harbor, my guess is it will be awhile, if ever, before they turn the effect back up.

Xbox One almost certainly hasn't changed at all yet, and even if it did, this would only be on new downloads, so don't delete it if this worries you.

[PygmelionHunter]

*slow clap*

[Herpofderpopol]

Still lags while running through the forest at times too, not as bad but noticable still

[TheColbertinator]

Poor show Bethesda. Charging 25 to take away features on the PS4 version is just insulting

[opinionated]

Yeah really... I didn't get far into it but the fog was center to the gameplay at the start lol. How are you going to remove a mission objective to stabilize framerate? Lol sounds lazy as hell.

[TheColbertinator]

I didn't get Far Harbor on PS4 but Bethesda could have handled it better than this. I thought they learned their lesson from last gen.

[JamesBroski]

"It just works"

[killer_goat]

Well at least it doesn't drop to 0fps. Like the xbone does on the main game

[Immorals]

Never experienced that in my playthrough..

[Yetter]

smh

That wasn't a framerate drop it was a bug, and its been fixed. It happened at the exact same place everytime, now it doesn't

[DLConspiracy]

Your Sodium levels are rising over this news. You'll live.

[killer_goat]

It's a fact that the xbone version hits 0fps. Check out digital foundry. Also I have gotten fallout on the xbone so my so called sodium levels are just fine. Unlike your trolling attempts.

[DLConspiracy]

So you arent? Ok.. I play F4 on PC and you don't see me throwing that in people's faces. You guys and your "I have to have the best" in your face comments suck.

[Chapter11]

I've never understood Bethesda's hatred of Playstation. This is your solution, really? Why was it ever a problem to begin with? It runs fin on the One, but it struggles on the more advanced PS4? Really?

[Testfire]

I don't have an X1 or PS4 yet, and am not one for conspiracy theories, but with the PS3 's cell architecture I could excuse poor performance but with the PS4's x86 architecture there is no more excuses.

Fallout 4 will be the last Bethesda game I pre-order and buy Day 1. If we could buy PC games used I'd do that, but sadly I can't. I've seriously had enough of them, they must be the laziest big name dev out there. Too many other devs are pumping out quality games to give Bethesda passes any longer.

[Braxmapoutras]

Same for me....I got burned by pre-ordering this steaming pile of trash.....70€ and 40hours I'll never get back....but it was a good lesson...as I never pre-order any game with few exceptions like cdproject red,guerilla,naughty dog and up until fallout 4 came out Bethesda....but this game is just lazy....it has lazy written all over it....they could replace all the dialogues wich are shit and replace them with everyone saying lazy lazy lazy over and over again and the game would be the same level of quality....garbage....pitty from the awesomeness of Skyrim to the pit of shit in Fallout.....not interesting environment not interesting story mediocre combat Borderlandesque loot system and non existent rpg elements from a lazy rpg game developer.....Shame on you Bethesda shame on you....you just lost one of your loyal customers.....

[Bruh]

Bethesda's Gamebryo engine is far easier to code and optimize for a Direct X based machine, the engine itself has old code that doesn't match the scaling ability of newer engines ( iD Tech 6, Frostbite 3 etc.). Thus when you're making it on an Open GL platform it really doesn't take advantage of the hardware. Not to mention the actual difference in the hardware is marginal and thats if you code on GNM

[NotanotherReboot]

Open world games are made for pc

[killer_goat]

Yeah pc is really pushing the boundaries on uncharted 4

[NotanotherReboot]

Uncharted 4 isn't open world LMAO

[Braxmapoutras]

No just lazily developed and unpolished shitty optimized games from Bethesda are surely better there as you can beef your PC and play these 2012 graphics,mechanics on a 2015-16 PC....which is a bullshit.... I mean look at witcher 3 on consoles....it runs perfectly smooth and you get almost identical experience to any PC(minus 60frames).... While Bethesda not even 30 FPS for a 2010 game engine with shitty looking graphics in year 2015.....just go and play stalker games and even that which came so many years ago is better than fallout 4...hell even fallout new Vegas is better...their previous title....

[s45gr32]

Weak console only on PC it can handle anything including fog lol.

[arkard]

I called it
http://n4g.com/news/1911503...
Downgrades were incoming.
Poor solution Bethesda.

[Yetter]

Been playing this on XB1 for awhile now and have had next to no issues. Its kinda baffling why this game has so much trouble on the PS4

[Immorals]

Probably developed on xbox one and ported to ps4, lazy port like ps3 Bethesda games!

[Sciurus_vulgaris]

The fog issue may have been due to draw calls, which the xb1 can handle a bit better than the PS4 due to having a stronger CPU. But I think Bethesda's dated engine is the likely culprit . There are more graphically demanding open world games on the PS4/XB1, that look and perform much better than Fallout 4.

[Silly gameAr]

Because Bethesda.

[joeorc]

Because Their Engine is made for Windows Is devices 1st over other Eco systems game engines and Api's

They would have to tweak their engine to take advantage of the PS4 graphics Api of GNMX.

To fix this in the Future Sony would more than likely have to Make Vulkan a Priority Graphics Api on Playstation from here on out to add to be included for developers to use on Playstation..

I mean it already is , but invest into making Vulkan an offered Graphics Api tool included within the kit.

[ajax17]

I really don't think it was that bad

[clevernickname]

This is utterly ironic considering that fog was a technique used in early 3D games to compensate for draw distance limitations.

[ColonelHugh]

There you go, Bethesda could lower the LOD and draw distance in Far Harbor on consoles, nobody would ever know, and everybody is happy.

[PistolsAtDawn]

Wow, I had no idea the PS4 version was having an issue. Hopefully this is just a temporary thing and they will find a way to get the fog back and running smoothly...after all the Fog is even a plot device.

[Spurg]

isnt the fog a big part of the story

[Chaosdreams]

I've never been fond of removing features as a way of solving a problem. It's sort of, pathetic. Hopefully this is simply a temporary fix so the game runs, and in the meantime they find a proper solution with all the features being implemented. If they can't figure it out however, well then they really are just a mid level studio in terms of optimizaiton.

[mogwaii]

Well i wont be buying that then, bethesda can stick it.

[Dragonopolis]

Bethesda is a perfect example of great technicality and efficiency...... Bethesda is not known for artistry...... In other words... don't expect Uncharted or Last of Us beauty and artistry..... It doesn't matter if the game is running on console or the PC.... The PC version was ok graphically even on high settings but why it was impressive was the balance between how big the open world was compared to the graphic quality of the games at the time...

Bethesda also does a pretty good job with the way they incorporate the rpg and mmo elements into their action elements of the game. Bethesda almost openly shows that they only put in the minimum amount of effort needed to make a game people will buy and are willing to make graphical sacrifices to do so...... Bethesda supports the modding community but this is because it supports their philosophy in only giving the most minimum and efficiently made game possible and forget all the fluff (artistry)... The modding community has shown over and over again that Bethesda's graphic engines are flexible and can produce amazing visuals but Betheda won't put in the time and effort nor has Bethesda shown the passion to push their artistry to the next level.... To this day you can Mod Oblivion, Older Fallout series, Skyrim and produce beautiful worlds that compete easily with Newer games that rely on newer engines.... It isn't that Bethesda graphic engines are bad.... Its just that Bethesda just doesn't feel the need to put in the time to make the game "Look" better.... Its sad when you see one person or a very small group (with little to no money) spend a few months putting out high resolution textures for the game or fix simple bugs that really only took them a few months to do. I'm sure Bethesda could have done this and perhaps even take less time doing it but that would "not" be in Bethesda nature..... " Let the Mod community do it " seems to be their motto

[Realms]

Bethesda is out of their mind first they over price their DLC pass and now they deliver a sub par product on the PS4 they ain't getting none of my money. CDPR has improved their game and offered way more than Bethesda why can't they do the same they don't get a pass from me and they most certainly won't get my money.

[Antifan]

Poor Bethesda, look at all these dollars I WON'T give you. Instead, they'll be going to CDPR.