Ratchet and Clank PS5 Patch - A Practically Flawless 60FPS Upgrade

Digital Foundry : Ratchet and Clank 2016 has been updated to support 60 frames per second on PlayStation 5! It's a welcome boost for an absolutely beautiful game - and it means that the series has come full circle. Ratchet games on both PS2 and PS3 targeted 60fps before Insomniac shifted strategy to 30fps gaming instead - a situation that looks set to change for the generation ahead! Rich has the full story.

[darthv72]

Hot Damn... kind of bummed they didn't uncap the pro version as well. I don't know when I will get a 5 but I have a perfectly good Pro and free copy of this to tide me over for now..

[RonsonPL]

Look at the amount of geometry on screen. PS4 Jaguar CPU is way too slow to sustain 60 in this game. Notice the only games which run at 60fps compared to non-Pro PS4, are the games with corridor-like levels (The Surge) or games which were designed mainly for PS4pro and Xbox X (Onrush) with maybe one or two exceptions with games less rich in geometric detail. The huge pop-up in games like Battlefront is there on PS4pro for the same reason. The Jaguar CPU is total crap, no way around it. They didn't make 60fps option for PS4pro in 2016 Ratchet game cause it would have to look worse on static screenshots than PS4 30fps version, with severe pop-in and possibly other cuts here and there. This is also why you have no 120fps mode on PS5. The PS5 CPU couldn't handle it as it's not 4x as fast as PS4 in single threaded, latency dependant calculations, which are usually the problem in games when you reach for higher framerates

[darthv72]

God of War has a performance mode on pro that improves framerate. It's not perfect but that is what I was hoping would happen with this game.

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

The PS5 would be able to run a native port of this at 120fps but only in the 1080p-1440p range. Borderlands 3 would be a good comparison here being a heavier, more open and less optimized game. The PS4 Pro was likely was able to run this in the 45-50fps range.

[bouzebbal]

Darth

Sony is promoting their new console.. It's normal.

[RonsonPL]

@LucasRuinedChildhood

It can be even 100p or 240p and when CPU single threaded performance is lacking, it won't help.

@darthv72
Oh, so you meant "up to" which is either extremely different from stable 60fps, or not much different unless it goes into low 40ies. Depends what display you're using for playing, if there's an option to disable the motion blur in game and lastly, if you can accept the compromise of having bad flicker (at 60Hz, not a problem at 90Hz and above). For me, it's crucial to have stable and constant 60fps and PS4pro's version of God of War was "broken" just like 30fps PS4 version in my eyes, as I really value normal gaming, without any blurs when something (or camera) moves fast.

@bouzebbal
No, not really. The technology advancement has really slowed down since 2006. To make a game run at double the framerate, you need additional 110-130% of single threaded CPU performance.
Also, it's not Sony but the devs or publishers who make the mistake of putting sales and marketing above user experience, and opting for lower framerate is exactly that - better marketing as static visuals look better, but worse gameplay (true for 30->60fps and still true for 60->120fps)
I don't think they are deliberately blocking 60fps version on PS4 consoles. They might ignore the old platforms, sure, but again, this is more on publisher/dev side, not console manufacturer's.

@LucasRuinedChildhood The amount of optimizations and the talent of the dev team won't help at some point, you simply have to get more performance. I really don't think PS5 could offer stable 120fps in 2016's Ratchet. Why? Because Insomiac was focused on 30fps from the very start of development process for this game, so they were targetting the PS4 CPU performance at 30fps, so it is very likely there's no headroom left there. And PS5's CPU performance is around 2x of the PS4. It's much more only in other type of calculations which are not the topic of this discussion, so those are irrelevant.

[aaronaton]

Although this game is free for a short time, it's also permanently free to download on PS Now.

[RonsonPL]

Yeah. Flawless. They are calling themselves "experts" and they completely ignored the flaw which was right before their eyes.
You
cannot
disable
the damn
MOTION BLUR

Way to go!
- no one can enjoy the details while panning the camera which takes 80% of the fun from exploration, and makes it impossible to admire details, models in battles.
- no one will ever be able to run it in frame interpolated 60->120fps - this is for people who cannot stand the serious flicker of 60Hz mode (required to actually see details in fast motion). I'm pretty sure either TVs in the future will have such a thing as standard or PS6 will. And it won't work cause people were too dumb to add MB ON/OFF switch in game. Double Cpt. Picard facepalm.

Digital Foundry is a well known channel. Yet their lack of professionalism sometimes is simply jaw dropping.
They are doing some progress, maybe in a few years they will wise up and stop saying 30fps is OK, after this video with "once you get used to 60, you can't go back". That's the first step. The problem is, they are pros, they should be at the finish line, not among the newbies who are not aware what clear motion offers. They do have CRTs, FFS, how can they be this ignorant.

Well anyway. I was so happy when I heared this game gets 60fps patch. Now I'm angry and sad, as by the real life practice, I know the series is boring for me if it has no clear motion. I actually played through a game and then switched to a display which was worse in static image (colors, contrast, size) but was capable of clear motion (although with sever flickering) and guess what? First walk through: boring. 4/10. second: fun, 8/10.
Now I'm seriously concerned about 60fps mode in Rift Apart.

This can become a plague. 60fps games without motion blur toggle. And our only hope was Digital Foundry as no one else will draw enough attention to the problem. And it should NOT be a problem. Adding a toggle costs like 10 seconds of one employee in the dev team.
sadly, DF failed :(

[LucasRuinedChildhood]

Can you provide an example in this video where this is an issue? Insomniac's per-object motion blur is really nice, and their camera motion blur isn't noticeable at all to me. I looked back at the footage, and I don't see the issue.

I feel sorry for people who feel unwell because of even just minor motion blur, but tbh man, I don't think this is something that would bother 99% of people. R&C 2016 was easily one of the most fun games to play on the PS4.

[RonsonPL]

Camera blur is noticeable all the time. Just not on your display and/or display settings.
hint: check this website and read articles and learn about the nature of blur in games.

https://blurbusters.com/

I game since the 80's and I value crystal clear image in motion. I hate motion blur in games cause I can understand what it takes away. Reading the articles might help you understand it too, but I'm afraid this topic is very tricky and it really takes hours of direct comparison and analysis, to understand . Not to notice, mind you,as the opinion is biased because of how human mind was shaped by evolution. You don't think about what you're missing and you fall into one of many traps set for you by your own brain. The only way to understand it is to place two displays and start learning what happens when you switch from one to another. For hours. Months, possibly.
Let's hope the guys at Digital Foundry reach the finish line of this learning/understandning process one day. It really is tricky, trust me, I've spent hundreds of hours being fascinated by even me falling into the psychology traps, even when I thought I'm already immune to mistakes, cause I know the traps. But it only takes a few days of playing on a blury display and you THINK it's not a big deal. But as I was proven by facts a thousand of times - only up until you get back to the blur-free gaming. Then you know. You not only see the difference, you also feel the difference in amount of fun you get from playing. That's COMPLETELY ignoring the other, different topic, of responsivness, lags, smoothness. I'm only solely talking about motion clarity in games here.
And since I was always a fan of high quality platform games with worlds which make exploration fun and are a treat for the eyes, I obviously went through all the R&C games on PS2. Then I bought PS3 and R&C:ToD. I finished it on a normal 24" LCD, and thought I simply got too bored with the series. I would describe the amount of fun I had for about 4/10 maybe 5/10. Then guess what. I bought a good VGA BOX and connected a 24" CRT (22" visible so a smalelr screen with lowest brightness!) and out of curiosity I started playing the game. The difference was so big, that I went through the whole game again, from the start, to the end of QfB DLC, and despite it being my second run through the game just after I finished it, I was having fun at 8/10 9/10, just like I had on PS2. Why? Because the chaos of destruction was now enjoyable much more thanks to the ability to see everything in motion, but most important was the exploration: I am turning the camera while I run forward, to look for hiddent secrets, to admire the worlds in game. And this was the most imporant part in gameplay for me, as I am a veteran in this genre and lots of mechanics unfortunately got a bit boring by now. RC 2016 is just a remake with inferior music to me. Without clear motion I won't even want to play it. But if there's ever a patch allowing to disable this crap, I will surely have fun playing the game again, although I've finished it on PS2 twice and the 2 and 3 games were long enough to get me a bit bored, so it won't be nearly as good fun as I had back in early 2000s. Still, a high end AAA tier 3D platform game. A rarity nowadays.

Well, let's hope there's an option for that in Rift Apart.

[RazzerRedux]

All that over motion blur? lol....ok

[buffig]

All flat panels blur with horizontal motion. Not something which old CRT screens suffer from. Just go on a game now without motion blur and give it a try. Your argument about motion blur males no sense

[RonsonPL]

Not sure who you were replying to. To RazzerRedux or me?
In case you wrote that in response to my comment, I'll reply too:

Go and learn here:
https://blurbusters.com/

The guy there made a few really good articles, photos, videos and explains the topic.
For me: Only 90-120Hz with matching framerate (120Hz=120fps) can be called "normal", but I'd rather choose not to play at all if I can't get clear motion and I'd rather play the game with a break after each 15 minutes if I can't play it above 60Hz, than play it in sample-and-hold (blurry) display mode. Just play a game like Pure, Nail'd, NFS:Hot Pursuit (2010) on sample-and-hold display and then compare to low persistence. I hate the flicker just like everyone else, but I've finished the game twice despite 60Hz flicker (some idiot made the 2010 PC game port with 60fps framerate cap, so I had no other choice and I'm too big of a fan of Burnout series to skip such a great game as this NFS:HP was.

Low persistence modes have flaws, at 60Hz the flaws are drastic:
- severe flicker
- a huge brightness drop

but if you ask anyone who knows the topic well, someone who actually compared properly (you cannot judge the low persistence mode on a display which doesn't handle it well, just like you cannot judge the quality of colors on a black&white vintage TV), you'll see it is a big deal. Not only for me.
I think 60fps should take the place of 30fps as "barely acceptable, preferably avoided" and 90-120+fps should be the new norm. One day humanity will play on MicroLED displays or something nextgen, allowing for blur-free gaming without the flaws of low persistence. 1000fps for example. When the day comes, people will be able to upsample 60fps games to non-flickery 1000fps modes, with crystal clear image in motion. But not if the game doesn't allow the ON/OFF toggle for motion blur. I understand that majority of people play on displays which are either bad in low persistence modes (sadly, most of TVs and LCDs are, and that's about the ones which even have the feature, and majority and especially cheaper ones, don't offer this at all). I understand some people want to play in the middle of the day in a bright sunny day without anything blocking the sunlight. I understand if you play from 2m away from your 70" TV, the flicker can be a pain in the ass. So I do understand why mainstream doesn't care.
I just cannot comprehend how Digital Foundry can be doing such a huge mistake/ommision. They should've known better, really.

[spirited]

I wish they give spiderman the same treatment for those who only want 60fps.I know there is a paid remastered available but u have to spend 70$ to play that.

[Kane22]

spiderman remastered can be bought by itself for $40

[Damrock]

"Practically Flawless" 2 words that don't go together.

Practically means nearly & Flawless means perfect

Reminds me of when you buy something off eBay that's been used a few times and it's listed as "Brand New"

[Bathyj]

So it's nearly perfect. Not perfect but close. What's the issue? It's not like he said a little bit pregnant.

[Damrock]

Just the point that it's not flawless.

You go out to buy a brand new car, Only to find it's actually "Practically Brand new". No, it's just a used car.

[Magog]

Fairly annoying that they are doing more videos than stories now. I would prefer just to read the analysis.