4K, ray tracing, performance and much more discussed by the team.
Following the surprise ‘crash’ of the Resident Evil Village ‘Maiden’ demo for PlayStation 5 last night, the Digital Foundry team sat down to talk about their impressions of the new demo. John Linneman and Alex Battaglia are joined by series expert Alex Aniel, author of Itchy, Tasty: An Unofficial of Resident Evil. The result? The video embedded in this page!
Image quality contributes to a good part of the discussion, where the PlayStation 5 offers a complete 3840×2160, with Capcom deploying RE Engine’s excellent grid-style image reconstruction technology to render from a lower base resolution. It is one of the most impressive implementations, looking very, very close to the actual native rendering. The material handling and evidence-rich geometry in the demonstration are also impressive, as is the HDR solution. In fact, the game doesn’t have the same impact seen in the standard SDR – blacks are as black as you think they should be, while HDR mode makes a big difference here. The only noticeable problem seems to be the low resolution textures, when certain parts of the environment are seen up close.
The Digital Foundry team presents their first thoughts on the RE Village demo ‘Maiden’.
Also interesting is that similar to Devil May Cry 5 Special Edition, Capcom also appears to be using the console’s ray tracing hardware for RT reflections. The actual effect is very subtle and the reflections themselves are low resolution, but it is definitely a step above the more typical RE Engine screen space reflections that have historically not looked very good in previous RE Engine titles. The impact of lightning streak on performance is unclear, but while aiming at 60 frames per second, the game cannot sustain it: large open areas can cause small problems while the frame rate drops significantly in the attack sequences. It will be interesting to see how performance continues in the expansive outdoor areas – parts of the game that we’ve only seen so far in promotional material.
Of course, this is an initial demonstration and not necessarily representative of the final performance, but we will certainly be interested to see how Resident Evil Village unfolds – particularly since it is another cross-generation console game, with PS4 and Xbox One versions of the title taking his place alongside his brilliant next generation peers. Regardless, first impressions are certainly favorable and if you have the means, we recommend checking out this demo. We will be sure to follow the progress of Resident Evil Village until launch and after.