The release of patch 1.16 for Horizon Forbidden West finally fixed the visual issues in 60fps game mode, making it our new recommended way to play on PS5 over the 30fps mode we preferred at launch. To find out exactly what changes have been made behind the scenes, we spoke to Guerrilla Games, who gave us some fascinating details about the anti-aliasing solution adopted for the game and how it has changed since launch days.
What were the initial complaints about the image quality of the 60fps mode featured at the dayone? In short, this mode gave a lot of objects too shiny a look, while even the higher fidelity 30fps mode showed another kind of shimmer evident in the foliage. Patch 1.07 included “vegetation changes to improve image quality in performance mode”, but the impact on the final presentation quality was minimal and everyone was dissatisfied with the result.
Fortunately, Guerrilla’s second 1.16 patch produced much better results. Observing the moss and the vegetation that in the launch version showed annoying phenomena of shimmering, the problem seems to have been completely solved. The image is steady and clean in motion, with virtually all glitters eliminated. The situation is similar when looking at the problematic red fog, with obvious visual aberrations in the launch code and a much more consistent look in version 1.16. However, it appears that the red mist is no longer visible at great distances – it now appears only in close proximity to Aloy. Ultimately, though, the improvements are remarkable: what exactly has changed beneath the surface?
Guerrilla Games senior principal tech programmer Giliam de Carpentier was generous enough to provide us with a very detailed description of the process: “The new anti-aliasing technique we have adopted allows us to render the game world using the same alternating checkerboard pattern. but employing a different way to reuse historical data: the old system used only the current raw rendering and the old one as input to the AA to complete a native 1800p output in two frames, while the new system uses the current raw rendering and the previous AA output as input to the new frame’s AA. This means it continues to stabilize at the output resolution in two frames, but can now also continue to reuse the older frame data for a longer period, not only adding more stability in motion but also accumulating more sub-pixel detail in the process. ”
“This concept itself is not new but it is complicated to implement and often involves a number of artifacts, such as ghosting, which were inherently prevented in our previous implementation due to limited reuse of history, even if this allowed pixels to ‘ ‘shimmer’ more when moving. In particular, the previous implementation allowed us to cleanly run all effects before switching to checkerboard resolution without introducing ghosting artifacts whatsoever. ”
“Moving to a new AA technique that reuses history for a longer period has resulted in the need to develop a new set of tricks that will allow us to continue to do this cleanly and robustly, even for effects such as flowering. and depth of field, for example. This involved improving and further processing the motion vectors themselves, as well as finding new ways to better dispose of all outdated history and reproject the actual, pixel-thin geometry. more safely and correctly for longer periods. In addition, we have introduced a sharper custom reprojection kernel and output sharpening that changes based on dynamic resolution, which helps to show resolved details more clearly and to combat more effectively visual differences in dynamic resolution “.
To sum up, Horizon Forbidden West still uses a checkerboard rendering solution to produce an image at 3200×1800 resolution. The anti-aliasing pass relies on incoming frame data to construct the final image, and in early versions, only the current and previous (prior to reconstruction) rendered raw frames were used as input to produce the final frame. With the new patch, phase AA now combines the current raw frame with the previous full anti-aliased frame. The final output is still stabilized in just two frames but can now leverage image data from previous frames for a longer period, which helps reduce shimmering and retain more sub-pixel detail. As mentioned, this is not a new technique and involves a trade-off: the more data is used from previous frames, the greater the possibility of introducing ghost frames, which require the use of additional tools by the developer.
In the era of “next generation” upscaling techniques, there has been some confusion as to why Guerrilla continued to use checkerboard rendering, and the studio was happy to provide some rationale.
“DLSS 2.0, FSR 2.0 and checkerboard rendering are all different ways to render fewer pixels per frame than the actual output, and then rebuild a higher resolution result over time,” explains Giliam de Carpentier. “This means that the distance between the rendered pixels will always be greater than the distance between the output pixels. But with checkerboard rendering, the distance between the rows and columns of the rendered image and the resolved image will remain the same, the which means that most of the edges (which are generally mostly horizontal or vertical) will not be able to ‘go unnoticed’ as easily and therefore cannot be completely missed in one frame and then be visible again in the next. ”
“This results in data that has the potential to keep thin edges more stable more reliably but is also more complex to use optimally. The new custom AA resolution represents a decisive step forward in exploiting this potential, distinguishing in much more reliable way between data that can be reused (to reduce shimmering) and data that has become too different (to avoid ghosting). All this is still paired with our checkerboard compatible version of FXAA, to get the most out of it. even from single frame data “.
We were really impressed with the changes Guerrilla made but it’s worth pointing out that the new anti-aliasing technique is also used in the 4K quality mode and to be honest we’re not sure we prefer the new look. It is true that the shimmering effect is gone but the new presentation lacks the accuracy of the previous version. In light of this, when compared to the solid improvements made to the 60fps mode, the latter is now the game mode that we feel we can recommend.
So here’s what changed with this update and why it required significant additional development. By reconstructing the image with additional frames of data, there is simply more information to work with to produce the final output but it is clear that the amount of engineering required to make and test these changes has been substantial.
In addition to these graphical changes, the developers have made numerous bug fixes and also some important changes to the introductory sequence of the game that sees Aloy set off on his long journey. In this case, the camera work has been adjusted, the position and intensity of the lighting have been changed, and the color gradation has also changed. These changes aren’t limited to the introduction – many of the scenes we used for side-by-side testing show differences beyond anti-aliasing improvements.
Beyond the artistic changes we’ve noticed, Guerrilla has also been busy optimizing the game significantly since launch, as Giliam de Carpentier reveals: “The team has also spent a long time after the game’s release studying how to get better. performance from PS5, especially in regards to the dynamic resolution system, to give us the possibility to improve both the quality and the actual resolution and prepare the way for this update. Some of these optimizations had already been introduced in previous patches and also in this new patches have been introduced. ”
It’s rare to see such a massive overhaul of a game after launch, so the Guerrilla team can be credited with addressing user concerns. The studio could have left the game as it is, but instead took the time to work on a new solution that drastically improves the situation and introduces other improvements across the board. Guerrilla even said they are working on adding VRR support and a 40fps mode which should represent a middle ground between the sharpness of the 30fps mode and the responsiveness of the 60fps one and this could be another big step forward for. a game that is already one of the most beautiful titles of the current console generation.
#Horizon #Forbidden #Wests #improved #performance #mode #play