Released this Tuesday, November 20, STALKER 2: Heart of Chornobyl seems to have many qualities, but unfortunately also suffers from numerous technical glitches, whether on PC or on Xbox Series X|S, as mentioned by numerous press tests. Digital Foundry looked into the matter, and here are the experts' thoughts on the subject.
A visually impressive game on PC, but with flaws
Digital Foundry begins its analysis by praising the graphic qualities of the title, and in particular its vegetation, its light management and its textures on PC, generally very well highlighted thanks to Unreal Engine 5 and its features such as Nanite. The expert also highlights the different weather events that occur in-game, while the animations and faces of the NPCs are also praised.
Everything is obviously not perfect, and Digital Foundry also points out problems with the casting of shadows as well as problems with Lumen, the Unreal Engine 5 engine tool managing light, used here in software.
The game suffers in particular from harmful effects on its reflections with disappointments linked to SSR such as visual artifacts, sometimes inconsistent shadows and light leaks. The expert states that he would have preferred a solution of hardware ray tracingand hope this will happen in future updates.
Xbox Series X|S versions detailed
Regarding the Xbox Series X version, however, graphic compromises aimed at offering satisfactory performance on consoles are detailed.
On Xbox Series performance as well as a mode loyalty. In the mode performancethe game runs at a visibly dynamic resolution ranging from 864p to 1152p, with a final image reconstructed in 4K via TSR, but which is not necessarily very qualitative. Digital Foundry claims that these relatively low figures can be explained by the fact that the Unreal Engine 5 is very demanding and that it is therefore difficult to offer all its graphic features as well as such a high density of vegetation at 60 FPS.
The mode loyalty offers better image quality, generally in 1440p, then reconstructed in 4K via the TSR for a result considered very good, but at 30 FPS.
It is also specified that the implementation of Lumen is simplified on consoles, with reduced internal resolution and precision of global lighting calculations. This is particularly true for the mode performancewhile the mode loyalty closer to the PC.
The Xbox Series S, for its part, offers a single graphics mode which runs at 30 FPS, with a dynamic resolution between 648p and 864p, and a final image reconstructed in 1080p via TSR.
Compared to the Xbox Series
Checkered performance and major frametime issues
What particularly stood out in the STALKER 2 tests was undoubtedly its inconsistent performance on all platforms. Digital Foundry specifies that the analysis here takes into account all the updates released to date, and that these have made it possible to significantly improve the experience.
Despite everything, there remain several big problems, whether on PC or Xbox, in particular because the game is very demanding on the CPU, and particularly when there are a lot of characters on the screen.
In the mode performance on Xbox Series Therefore, the expert does not recommend this mode on screens that are not VRR compatible.
It also highlights major frame time problems due to CPU load, with sometimes freezes of 6 seconds on Xbox Series X, a “brutal” phenomenon which requires urgent correction according to the expert.
Therefore, Digital Foundry recommends the mode more loyalty at 30 FPS, which offers a much more stable experience on Xbox Series X, despite motion blur which is missing during gameplay phases.
Below you will find the full analysis from Digital Foundry to know all the details of the different graphics modes and the comparison between the Xbox and PC versions.
Available exclusively on Xbox Series If you have played the game, obviously do not hesitate to let us know your opinion on the title and in particular its technique on Xbox.
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