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Update 18.5: Download size heads up + graphical improvements explained!

[DE]Steve

By [DE]Steve,
in Developer Workshops

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Varacal

Varacal

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im mostly excited because you guys said that the rhino palatine icon would be included in the update, also it would be nice if there ever as like a "manual patch" sort of thing, something we can download before the update, and we'll just run that when the game is up to install the latest stuffs

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Bouldershoulder

Bouldershoulder

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Will the launcher clear everything old and unneeded after the update is downloaded, or is it better to simply reinstall the game?

Over a year ago, when I introduced the game to my friend, I noticed that a fresh install weighed nearly 2Gb less than my multiple times updated one..

Edited by Bouldershoulder
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AEP8FlyBoy

AEP8FlyBoy

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1 minute ago, Bouldershoulder said:

Will the launcher clear everything old and unneeded after the update is downloaded, or is it better to simply reinstall the game?

Over a year ago, when I introduced the game to my friend, I noticed that a fresh install weighed nearly 2Gb less than my multiple times updated one..

I think Steve said earlier that the 4GB of download is mostly replacment data. I'm not sure if you have to re-optimize the download cache afterwards though. I guess we will see.

But yeah, Warframe's local hard disk size may only increase by 1-2 GB roughly. Maybe even less than that.

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MillbrookWest

MillbrookWest

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15 minutes ago, Incursum said:

Performance comes to mind when low-overhead APIs that also sport better multi-threading come into play. And in Vulkan's case, portability to platforms beyond Windows, PS4 and XB1. Sticking to DirectX is fine, but severely limiting if they ever decide to move on to DX12 as that's Windows 10 and XB1-only.

DX12 and Vulkan get their performance from being able to flood GPU with workloads. Each core submitting draw calls, shader compiling etc. 

The issue with Warframe isn't based on it's graphics pipeline. Warframe's issue is rooted in it's game logic - The thing that governs the 'world' of Warframe; How things react, how things move. How things know when they're dead, when they're shot. How much health something has. How many bullets you have, where you are shooting etc.

Basically, DX12 improves system X, but Warframe is bogged down by system Y. System X, and System Y work in different ways. So, no sense working on X if Y will always limit you.
System X (the visuals) don't really matter. You don't care if 'Grineer Z' gets drawn before 'Grineer A' as long as both grineer get drawn. System Y can't tell an enemy it is dead, before you have made it so. Nor can it tell you you've run out of ammo when you still have 200 rounds remaining. You can't shoot 'Grineer Z' and have 'Grineer A' die. This is what @taiiat was pointing out - The difference in System X vs System Y.

Granted, the stuff that System Y governs can be run on multiple cores, and many games do this, but regardless the 'begin' and 'end' results must always be synced - Which will usually be done on the main game thread.

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taiiat

taiiat

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1 hour ago, Incursum said:

Performance comes to mind when low-overhead APIs that also sport better multi-threading come into play. And in Vulkan's case, portability to platforms beyond Windows, PS4 and XB1. Sticking to DirectX is fine, but severely limiting if they ever decide to move on to DX12 as that's Windows 10 and XB1-only.

again, Warframe's bottlenecks aren't those, so you'd see no actual runtime benefit.
and what other Platforms? there aren't any. other one off Consoles that have even less resources to work with than Gen8 Consoles?

sure, 'safe for the future' - but that's an incredibly high amount of work for 'just incase something in the future happens that is desired'.

 

26 minutes ago, Bouldershoulder said:

Over a year ago, when I introduced the game to my friend, I noticed that a fresh install weighed nearly 2Gb less than my multiple times updated one..

 

use the 'Optimize' Launcher option. it will process and delete all unnecessary data.
you can do this any time, as often as you'd like.

very big updates also often force you to do it.

19 minutes ago, MillbrookWest said:

This is what @taiiat was pointing out - The difference in System X vs System Y.

Granted, the stuff that System Y governs can be run on multiple cores, and many games do this

pretty much, yes. it's great stuff, but not very relevant for Warframe.
(and besides, for compatibility, games will be supporting DirectX 11 for atleast another 5 or 7 years, those that still support DirectX 9 perhaps for another couple - why? because the vast majority of the market share is located there. fancy new features are great and all, but DirectX 11 is where all of your paying customers are.)

some of the biggest offenders can't be Threaded - atleast not yet. the world has yet to figure out how to successfully Multi-Thread things like AI, and that's a huge offender.

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CaterHowlett16

CaterHowlett16

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5 hours ago, DE_Steve said:

Tenno,

If you haven't heard, Sands of Inaros is coming soon! Check out the Hub here: https://warframe.com/18-5-hub

In order to best prepare you for the Update, we wanted to give a quick heads up on it's approximate download size: 4+ GB.

Why so big?

The short answer: Warframe has received months of technical graphics improvements, putting an extra layer of detail on every single graphical element of the game. When released, players on all platforms should notice a substantial increase in detail across all of Warframe’s game modes, weapons, characters and tilesets.

The long answer (that also makes up the past 2 months of my life):

With Inaros, the sands of old have been swept away from U18 Warframe leaving behind a newer, more vibrant U18.5 Warframe. In many respects, 18.5 is a remastered, more HD version of Warframe with months of technical graphical improvements and artistic relighting of many parts of the game (and more to come in subsequent updates). These changes sweep across lighting, materials, collision, so the 18.5 update is expected to be a larger-than-usual download – again, we're talking 4+ GB. On top of these changes are across the board rendering performance improvements we hope you'll enjoy, keep in mind that your particular hardware may benefit more and benefit less depending on your GPU, resolution and preferred graphics settings. All of these upgrades in 18.5 are cross-platform - yes! PC, PS4, and Xbox One Tenno will see these improvements as they are released.  Here's some results you may notice as a result of these sweeping graphical changes:

 

  • Lighting textures have been reengineered to reduce square compression artifacts and ugly color banding. You may have seen me point this out on past Devstreams.
  • All PBR materials have been recompressed with a more accurate format, new and subtle details are visible on your PBR'd Warframes, gear and in the environment.
  • Reflection Probes have been built through many areas of the game, grounding PBR materials with more accurate lighting.
  • Character and weapon lighting includes more accurate 'dual specular' lighting which means metallic surfaces are more realistic and fancy looking.
  • HDR rendering has been switched to a compact 32bit format which has improved HDR rendering performance for a wide range of GPUs.
  • Tonemapping has been adjusted to use more of the range of lighting content in the game, images have more detail, particularly richer in the darks.
  • Motion Blur and Depth of Field have been re-engineered to run faster and look better, fast moving and defocused objects no longer appear 'cut out' on their silhouettes.
  • Draw order optimizations have been applied to every object in the game, which improves overall performance, particularly in worst-case scenarios.
  • Atmospheric fog effects are now rendering in a separate lighting pass, allowing richer particle effects at distance without being 'erased' by atmosphere.
  • Particle lighting has been improved to more accurately represent the local lighting environment.
  • Wind force modelling on many particle systems increase realism as various environmental particles now respond to explosive forces and Warframe powers – you've also probably seen us showcase this in our most recent Devstream.
  • Bloom system has been softened and made more seated in the scene. The burnt-out look is replaced with a more subtle and gentle sci-fi glow.
  • Physics collision, performance and stability have all been improved, as a long-awaited upgrade of Warframe PhysX libraries has been completed.

PC Minimum spec remains unchanged. Combined with the optimizations mentioned, our tests are showing 18.5 as a better looking Warframe with 18.0 or better performance on an array of toasters and beastly GPUs!

So there you have it, Tenno. 4+ GB of content explained, and now it's time for me to go back to the team and bring this Update across the finish line to come out on PC soon.

 

 

 

18pzn7cijvuvigif.gif I'm just gonna assume you guys know what you're doing.

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CaterHowlett16

CaterHowlett16

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4 minutes ago, AdunSaveMe said:

Game look better. Good performance. Big download. Ooga.

 If I wanted a game for it's graphics, I would have played destiny. What can be expected in terms of content? That's all I really care about.

Edited by CaterHowlett16
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AEP8FlyBoy

AEP8FlyBoy

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7 minutes ago, CaterHowlett16 said:

 If I wanted a game for it's graphics, I would have played destiny. What can be expected in terms of content? That's all I really care about.

Good point here, actually.

Not really sure if there is much more planned besides the quest for the new wWarframe... (Still waiting for user-generated quests though... That would be awesome)

Edited by AEP8FlyBoy
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PrVonTuckIII

PrVonTuckIII

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8 minutes ago, CaterHowlett16 said:

 If I wanted a game for it's graphics, I would have played destiny. What can be expected in terms of content? That's all I really care about.

While understandable, I think we all would welcome and enjoy better graphics, as well as tons of lighting fixes. Plus, there is enough content to keep you happy. Keep your shirt on.

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CaterHowlett16

CaterHowlett16

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4 minutes ago, PrVonTuckIII said:

While understandable, I think we all would welcome and enjoy better graphics, as well as tons of lighting fixes. Plus, there is enough content to keep you happy. Keep your shirt on.

(Why does everybody assume I'm angry whenever I post?) Don't get me wrong new graphics are great, but if graphics and game content were falling off a bridge and I only had the time to save one.......

*edit* You know what I'm really hyped about? that sabotage rework. That sounds AWESOME!

Edited by CaterHowlett16
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PrVonTuckIII

PrVonTuckIII

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Just now, CaterHowlett16 said:

(Why does everybody assume I'm angry whenever I post?) Don't get me wrong new graphics are great, but if graphics and game content were falling off a bridge and I only had the time to save one.......

I didn't assume anything. Keep your pants on. :P

I understand what you mean completely. I just wanted to point out that graphics are a large chunk of this update.

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