So, I want to try something a little different as I have so many threads on here, it can be a little difficult to keep up with them all. This thread is going to be a single thread where I address many of my concerns that I will attempt to keep updated regularly. With a little bit of luck I will be able to pull up any note worthy responses and add them to the main post also so a decent discussion can happen. However, all that said, this is a forum so it could and most likely will go horribly wrong and quickly, so wish me luck.
ISSUE #1 - Performance
First off let me say I understand that not every game engine was born equal and every game has different functions, mechanics and features that tax hardware in different ways. Unfortunately the majority of players don’t seem to understand this and even us that do, find ourselves frustrated regardless and its hard not to. Once you have played a game like Battlefield 4 at ultra settings on huge maps with 64 players with a blistering 120fps stable and visuals that make your eyes water (in the good way) it becomes really hard to accept less.
A few months ago I could have claimed that the FPS was fine and the only real problem was the inconsistency with frame times causing stutter. Back then I was able to hold 144fps the vast majority of the time on ultra settings and even though I believe my system should be capable of much more when you compare my specs to the graphical fidelity of Dirty Bomb, I would have been accepting of it. I could have simply just turned the graphics down when playing seriously and still recorded at max settings for when doing videos and casting. However recently, that became virtually impossible. My fps has gone from that stable count of 144fps all the way down to an average of around 60-80fps on ultra settings. The stutter has increased across all graphical settings and the 60-80fps with one frame interval makes the input lag unbearable.
For comparison here is a video that was recorded back in January 2015 when the closed beta went live. You can see the frame rate on the right of the screen and understand this is while recording and while running on ultra settings…
Sure the stutter was still there but I am pretty sure that Splash Damage would have been able to find the cause and minimize them as much as possible. Now, it feels like the dream of decent performance is completely dead. The only thread of hope that I have is that we have had decent performance in the past so it may be salvageable.
I want to also quickly touch on why the Performance is so important right now…
[ol]
[li]Competitive play… When playing a game at a high level certain things become very important. Skill is obviously one of the most important factors but so is the tactics you employ and consistency. When you have these what seem like random stutters happening all the time, the consistency goes right out the window. I can only imagine how upset I would be if I was to stutter at a critical point of a match, especially when money is on the line.
[/li][li]The Future… Gaming computers are at some kind of fork in the road right now. Evidence is pointing towards more cores at lower speeds instead of the path they have been following over the past 10 years of pure clock speeds. If performance is low now and one of the factors is the fact that the Unreal Engine is so reliant on super quick cores and DX9, there is a very good chance that as people upgrade their systems they will start seeing a dip in performance rather than gains.
[/li][li]Player Numbers… Dirty Bomb is a game that relies very heavily on player accuracy. Higher frame rates and low input latency matter much more than they do in other slower games. Not only are people on even mid range struggling to get good visuals for the performance but the lower spec systems out their are struggling to get the game running at a decent frame rate at all.
[/li][/ol]
Sorry to say that expecting people to play on settings that make the game look worse than quake live is simply not going to cut it here. While the game looks good from a style point of view there is no denying that the fidelity of the graphics has been pulled kicking and screaming from 5 years ago in the past. Now I cannot claim that this has a huge impact on peoples decision to leave the game and uninstall in the first few hours of play but I can claim that its one of the most frequently blamed issue for longer term players dropping off. Again, I cannot overstate how important a smooth and stable frame rate is to the more hardcore members of the player base and Dirty Bomb is simply not delivering. Not only that but many of us are seeing the stutter trend heading in the wrong direction and getting worse rather than slowly improving.
