Forza horizon pc servers
We'll have more on Forza Horizon 5's cross-platform scalability soon - but here's a comparison gallery covering off all six console variations.
That leads us onto the other aspect of FH5 on Xbox One that emphasises quality - the 30fps target frame-rate barely budges. In fact, Playground deploys what it calls 'DRS Plus', dropping back fidelity on cube-map reflections and shadow updates before lowering resolution. Dynamic resolution scaling to 810p is there (DRS being a first for Forza titles as far as I'm aware) but it's a tool of last resort as opposed to a core element of the visual make-up.
Forza horizon pc servers 1080p#
It also helps that the developer has retained 1080p resolution and 4x MSAA anti-aliasing: Forza titles have always looked pristine in this regard and FH5 is no exception. Because it's content complete, because the key features are all included and because the result has been tailored by Playground to mask as many of the limitations as possible, it's still a worthy sequel. In fact, most of my initial play-testing was on the base Xbox One, simply because I wanted to see how Playground did it. It's not so much of an issue in closed-circuit racing but it's in the open world that the limitations of the console start to bite.
Forza horizon pc servers full#
Actual in-world detail takes a significant hit with level of detail transitions more evident - barrelling over the open world at high speed, the pop-in is obvious and sometimes it seems that the 2D 'imposters' for world detail never get to transition to full 3D, and if they do, shading seems minimal. The ground has far fewer layers to it compared to the other consoles, looking rather flat at slow speeds (it's far less noticeable in the thick of gameplay, however). Closer to the player, that's where the cuts are more evident. Far-off detail is still rendered to an impressive degree, and as it's a persistent aspect of the scene's visual make-up, it has to be - it sells the scale of the open world.
Forza horizon pc servers series#
Probably the most noticeable difference at the core system level is foliage lighting: Playground developed a new system to simulate how light passes through vegetation and it's present on all systems, except Xbox One.Ī key aspect of Forza Horizon 5's visual appeal is its sheer density and its massive vistas, something Xbox One cannot hope to deliver to the same level of fidelity as its Series counterparts. The brand new surfel-based global illumination system - that's there too. It's of a much higher resolution on Series X, but it's still there on Xbox One - with an added post-process pass to eliminate low res artefacts. Proper volumetric lighting is added, for example. The core technologies developed for Forza Horizon 5 look phenomenal on Series X but almost all of them are present in a lower precision form on the base Xbox One. Essentially and perhaps not surprisingly, it's all about scalability.
The set-up I saw is testament to the time and effort Playground has put into ensuring a decent experience for every console. Xbox One X? I didn't see that but I needn't have worried, it's a fitting send-off for the Microsoft's first 4K console. From there, moving from left to right, I could see how each console delivered the scene: Xbox Series X quality and performance, Series S equivalents, then finally, the base Xbox One. Using one controller and a network of Xbox consoles, I was able to see the demanding jungle stage of the intro drive playing out in real-time across five of the six iterations of the game, with the debug camera used to zero in on the various rendering techniques Playground had developed for the game. Quite how Playground would deliver this was always the crucial question and it was very satisfying to visit the studio a few weeks back to see exactly how it was done, my tour kicking off with a look at a remarkable cross-platform comparison system the studio developed. Admittedly, we were sceptical about its chances but Playground Games was always optimistic - and having put every version through its paces, the studio has delivered. However, this is a cross-gen release: somehow, Forza Horizon 5 has to run on last-gen machines and still live up to the expectations of quality expected from a first-party studio production. We called it an Xbox Series X masterpiece and that isn't hyperbole - Playground Games has delivered a phenomenal game and a sensational audio-visual experience for its flagship console.