What does "optimization" really mean in terms of console hardware and games?

[williamharvey]

From what I know so far, some settings in console versions like shadows, resolution, antialiasing are turned down. On the algorithm side, smarter features like Dynamic resolution scaling, SMAA / TXAA, are what come to mind when trying to hit 60 fps on consoles.
I don't see how developers could extract any more performance out of hardware besides these kinds of methods (reducing costly effects and more efficient algorithms)

 

[Vya Domus]

These day ? Nothing in particular. There used to be a time when consoles had vastly different hardware where you had to optimize code in a specific way to get the most out of the hardware (Cell and it's SIMD architecture, vertex/pixel shaders vs unified architecture, etc) but ever since PS4/Xbox One have been released you're looking at the same x86/AMD architecture including on PC. If you write an optimal shader for PS4 it's going to be optimal for PC and Xbox as well to a large extent.

I'm sure the different APIs add some variability but the bulk of the code will be the same algorithmically.

 

[jayseearr]

I'm not really understanding your question here. yes of course if you're playing on console certain graphic features are "scaled down" in order to help the machine hit target frames of 60fps in modern titles, that has been a thing for quite a while now. When i think "optimization" in terms of console hardware i think about AMD and their improvements on integrated graphics chips. I could be mistaken here but I'm pretty sure AMD has been dominating the console market for the last couple generations and i think it's no secret that is because of their constant advancements with their APU's. I briefly looked at some of the specs on the new xbox and they are actually quite promising. They are definitely narrowing the gap in performance between console and your average p.c gamer. What I'm really curious about is to see what price point it comes in at. If it is anywhere in the 3-4 hundred dollar range US$ then i think it's a viable option. Anything 500$ or more is where they start to lose me...I'd rather spend that kind of money on a machine with a dedicated GPU

Sorry I guess i could have extrapolated a little bit better from the game/developer standpoint... New graphics chips are great but ultimately some responsibility lies in the hands of the dev's of games and how they implement and accommodate new hardware and optimize their game engines. If you saw something on a developer or tech website about hardware optimization for consoles my GUESS would be that the big time AAA and proactive titles are testing and getting their game/engine ready and optimized for the configuration of the next generation of consoles. I could be wrong, just speculating.

 

[Deleted member 193792]

Just a few examples of console-specific optimization:

Taming the Jaguar: x86 Optimization at Insomniac Games

In this session the low-level optimizations in the AMD Jaguar CPU used in PS4 and XBOX ONE will be analyzed. Optimizing for the out of order Jaguar CPU is very different from previous console CPUs, and in this session a few key optimization...

www.gdcvault.com

Taming the Jaguar: x86 Optimization at Insomniac Games

In this session the low-level optimizations in the AMD Jaguar CPU used in PS4 and XBOX ONE will be analyzed. Optimizing for the out of order Jaguar CPU is very different from previous console CPUs, and in this session a few key optimization...

www.gdcvault.com

"Taming the Jaguar x86 Optimization at Insomniac Games" Notes

"Taming the Jaguar x86 Optimization at Insomniac Games" Notes - jaguar_optimization_notes.md

gist.github.com

https://twitter.com/x/status/911777965381505024

https://twitter.com/x/status/923912126368018432

https://twitter.com/x/status/913947204146073601

https://twitter.com/x/status/1243386905300877314

https://twitter.com/x/status/926144468570529792

https://twitter.com/idSoftwareTiago/status/924473881460690945

TL;DR: it's not just about turning graphical settings down, like many people think in the PC scene.

There's also custom-tailored coding that may or may not translate well in a PC port.

For example, Async Compute didn't run well on Maxwell/Pascal (and that's why it was recommended to turn it off), but it runs pretty well on Polaris and Turing/Volta cards.

There are also some console-specific things, such as zero copy (due to having a unified memory), zero latency to the GPGPU for compute (vs PCIe on discrete GPUs, hence why you need the CPU FPU on PCs sometimes) and overall a more efficient software stack (DX12 is still considered beta on PCs, devs like Ubisoft still avoid it).

Next-gen consoles will also utilize NVMe SSDs more efficiently because of this:

The backbone of the Xbox Series X’s ultra-fast storage technology is coming to Windows

Microsoft confirms that DirectStorage, part of the Xbox Series X Velocity Architecture, will arrive on Windows 10 gaming PCs in the future.

www.pcworld.com

GPUDirect Storage: A Direct Path Between Storage and GPU Memory | NVIDIA Technical Blog

As AI and HPC datasets continue to increase in size, the time spent loading data for a given application begins to place a strain on the total application’s performance. When considering end-to-end…

devblogs.nvidia.com