Lost Planet Performance and DX10 @ [H]

[FrgMstr]

The first game to support DirectX 10 out of the box is on the shelves. We will take a quick look at GPU performance scaling as well as DX9 versus DX10 image quality with screenshot comparisons. Is it time to upgrade to Vista for DX10?

The one major advantage this game does have is the “High” shadow option in DX10, but no video card currently is able to render it fast enough unless you sacrifice other image quality options. As for the Radeon HD 2900 XT; current performance in Lost Planet’s DX10 mode is not encouraging. And to be succinct, Lost Planet and its DX10 implementation is not encouraging any way you look at it. Blah.

PLEASE DIGG TO SHARE! Thanks for the support.

 

[tvdang7]

that sucks. trasition to dx9 wasnt this bad in my opinion.

 

[debello_64]

that sucks. trasition to dx9 wasnt this bad in my opinion.

There wasnt a OS change required to go from DX8 to DX9, just a video card. Also all the heavy hitting DX9 games where delayed, until we where in to the second and almost third generation of DX9 video cards.

 

[markt435]

crysis should be a better test of this...but that sucks regardless lol

 

[Hypernova]

Is it me or does the snow around the leg in this shot look absolutely horrible?

http://enthusiast.hardocp.com/image.html?image=MTE4NTc1NjU2NVl6TWtIU2lIZExfNV8xMV9sLnBuZw==

 

[RoBo]

That gets the award of FAIL.

 

[Frosteh]

I can't believe [H] just used this game for a DX10 comparison...I'm quite frankly shocked

This game was written not only for the Xbox360 platform but also the for DX9 API, it's been badly ported and "upgraded" (and I use the term losely).

This should come as no surpise to the average forum goer much less people who are supposed to be in the "know" about this stuff.

I'll be honest here, a fair chunk of my respect for [H] just curled up and died.

 

[Nenu]

I can't believe [H] just used this game for a DX10 comparison...I'm quite frankly shocked

This game was written not only for the Xbox360 platform but also the for DX9 API, it's been badly ported and "upgraded" (and I use the term losely).

This should come as no surpise to the average forum goer much less people who are supposed to be in the "know" about this stuff.

I'll be honest here, a fair chunk of my respect for [H] just curled up and died.

umm would you rather he didnt post the review??
Its a DX10 game that can run in DX9 mode as well. Its bizarre you dont find an evaluation of this useful.
Whats with all the negativity, I dont see you buying the game and providing test results.
Some are hard to please.

 

[debello_64]

umm would you rather he didnt post the review??
Its a DX10 game that can run in DX9 mode as well. Its bizarre you dont find an evaluation of this useful.
Whats with all the negativity, I dont see you buying the game and providing test results.
Some are hard to please.

Agreed, no matter how you review a game you cant get roses if the code and drivers are made of shit. And LP and CoJ are shit, fun games but shit.
Here is another write up on the game from Gforce3d, which shows the exact same results but has some SLI benchmarks also.

 

[Frosteh]

umm would you rather he didnt post the review??
Its a DX10 game that can run in DX9 mode as well. Its bizarre you dont find an evaluation of this useful.

It's a ported console game which had DX10 support added as an afterthought, it's just about the worst kind of example you can use for DX9 vs DX10 performance. I would rather the review clearly state that this is a ported game and was not built from the ground up to support DX10 and as such is not a good measuring stick to gauge future DX10 performance.

Whats with all the negativity, I dont see you buying the game and providing test results.

Interesting you should say that actually, I spent most of last night benchmarking the DX10 lost planet demo, along with CoJ DX10 demo and various other games to measure the difference between frame rates before and after the beta Vista patches which have been leaked onto the net (which are supposd to address certain performance issues in Vista) then posting the results on the Guru3d and NVnews forums.

 

[Nenu]

It's a ported console game which had DX10 support added as an afterthought, it's just about the worst kind of example you can use for DX9 vs DX10 performance. I would rather the review clearly state that this is a ported game and was not built from the ground up to support DX10 and as such is not a good measuring stick to gauge future DX10 performance.


Interesting you should say that actually, I spent most of last night benchmarking the DX10 lost planet demo, along with CoJ DX10 demo and various other games to measure the difference between frame rates before and after the beta Vista patches which have been leaked onto the net (which are supposd to address certain performance issues in Vista) then posting the results on the Guru3d and NVnews forums.

Why should it matter if the game is ported?
It seems to me you are looking for a title to extol the virtues of DX10 at its best.
Does this mean nobody should review and show DX9/DX10 differences for games that have been ported over?

As you are a reviewer, surely you should know better than to make such posts!

 

[MrSteel74]

I tell you no matter what the guys here at the [H]ard do in their reviews they get critized. They review video cards and people cry we need more or newer games they add new games and people still aren't happy. People cry we want reviews using Vista they do and people aren't happy. They do a review of one of the only DX10 games available port or otherwise and they get bashed. Can't please all of the people all of the time and even fewer of the people some of the time at any rate nice review guys hopefully showing the same settings across multiple cards will help quiet down all the favoritism claims.

 

[Mega2]

I tried lost planet on vista 64x amd64 x2, 8800gts at 1920x1080 set to high, no aa, and shadows set to low I get around 38-40 fps average. Its a port not sure how good its optimized for 8800s but pretty nice game.

 

[Trimlock]

I can't believe [H] just used this game for a DX10 comparison...I'm quite frankly shocked

This game was written not only for the Xbox360 platform but also the for DX9 API, it's been badly ported and "upgraded" (and I use the term losely).

This should come as no surpise to the average forum goer much less people who are supposed to be in the "know" about this stuff.

I'll be honest here, a fair chunk of my respect for [H] just curled up and died.

Umm... where are you getting that this is [H]'s article to show off DX10 performance as a whole? the title of the review is ... "Lost Planet Performance and DX10 @ [H] " !

as in they are showing off the benefits and performance of DX10 in Lost Planet, and ... why are you loosing respect for them? because they benched a bad port that apparently spent alot of time porting it and failed? Honestly whats the issue here, they never even slandered DX10.

 

[RoBo]

I tell you no matter what the guys here at the [H]ard do in their reviews they get critized.

Completely false, they create the best reviews on the interent IMO.

 

[Rambo]

I liked reading the review purely from a video card performance based standpoint. I liked seeing my $290 8800GTS 640Mb beating the 2900.

So, hater, are you expecting DX10 to perform better or worse than this review shows?

Nice review [H]ard. Nice.

 

[Gregor7777]

Completely false, they create the best reviews on the interent IMO.

Reading comprehension FTL.

He didn't say that [H] reviews were bad. Quite the opposite. The point he was making was that bad or good, they get criticized.

 

[InorganicMatter]

Disappointing, in both the performance and IQ departments. Looks like my X1950Pro is good for one more generation! I shall be holding off until G90, R700, Crysis, UT3, and ID's next game.

 

[Frosteh]

Why should it matter if the game is ported?
It seems to me you are looking for a title to extol the virtues of DX10 at its best.
Does this mean nobody should review and show DX9/DX10 differences for games that have been ported over?

As you are a reviewer, surely you should know better than to make such posts!

Because ported games have a long history of running like complete crap on PC's and this is no exception. The majorety of future titles on the PC will not be ports but will be built from the ground up for the PC and so this is not a good example of what is to come.

Those people taking a passive stance and saying that this is just a review of performance for this game and thats where it ends, I'm sorry but that's just not true, for example their "Our focus" section clearly states that:

Also, a lot of readers have been curious to know if the likes of the 320 MB GeForce 8800 GTS and Radeon HD 2900 XT will be powerful enough for DX10 and we will find out.

This clearly shows that the meaning (or partial meaning) behind the article is not just to review performance in this one specific game but also judge performance of DX10 in general.

Furthermore direct conclusions about DX10 are drawn at the end of the review:

The fact that DirectX 10 is causing all the video cards in this evaluation to lose performance, when no major image quality enhancements are being made, is quite disappointing.

What is lost in translation here is that it's the games implementation of DX10 thats slowing the game down, and that this is not necessarily indicative of DX10 performance when implimented into a game specifically designed for the PC platform, or in a similar manner a game built from the ground up to support DX10 rather than just bolting on DX10 support as an after thought.

What does that say for the future of DX10 gaming? Well, this is just one game, but if the trend continues it could mean we will need faster video cards to experience DX10 the way it should be seen.

What can I say? It's a bad starting point for any trend because it's not indicative of the majorety of games we will see for the platform, console ports are far rarer than games built specifically for the PC and are well known for their performance issues.

 

[Silus]

I can't believe [H] just used this game for a DX10 comparison...I'm quite frankly shocked

This game was written not only for the Xbox360 platform but also the for DX9 API, it's been badly ported and "upgraded" (and I use the term losely).

This should come as no surpise to the average forum goer much less people who are supposed to be in the "know" about this stuff.

I'll be honest here, a fair chunk of my respect for [H] just curled up and died.

At this point, it doesn't matter. Lost Planet is the only game that offers DX10 support, without it being a patch. So even though it's a port and has all the shortcomings from it, right now, it's the only real indicator of what a game that takes advantage of DX10, is.

 

[Missile Maker]

Ought to repeat the test with SLI and XFire. You'll find the game significantly more playable with settings maxed including high shadows in DX10. Then you'll prove that the very best game performance is for those lucky enough to be able to afford '2' expensive high end video cards, which is just the way AMD/ATI and nVidia want it. And watch Crysis come along and add fuel to the fire. Once reviewers do comparisons and show how glorious it looks in DX10 with high end SLI or XFire, high end video card sales will go up.

"You didn't think you were living in a democracy, did you buddy? It's a free market system...capitalism at it's finest." - Gordon Gekko

 

[pxc]

A console port with DX10 tacked on probably isn't a good indicator of future DX10 PC titles.

 

[slacker6]

Bleh, the shadow difference is minimal to me at best. This article ensures that my next machine will be dual boot with XP and Vista.

The overall image quality difference just isn't there for DX10, not to mention the performance hit.

Basically, that article says that today's BEST vid cards can just barely run this on max settings. That's disappointing because the coding is either horrible or the cards just aren't strong enough and you shouldn't have that problem with a $550 vid card.

 

[Cyant]

right now, it's the only real indicator of what a game that takes advantage of DX10, is.

You probably didn't follow the thread because it's not indicative of what DX10 games will be like. For the reasons stated previously. It's just a ported game with DX10 lightning effects stacked on top of it.

A lot of DX10 features are a better way to handle the 3d models, texture, particles etc... That actually speed up the rendering quite a bit that is why there is so much improvements in graphics they can add a lot of elements and details. Lost Planet don't use those improvements to the engine. They simply add DX10 effects on top of the a Console to DX9 ported engine.

 

[Silus]

Because ported games have a long history of running like complete crap on PC's and this is no exception. The majorety of future titles on the PC will not be ports but will be built from the ground up for the PC and so this is not a good example of what is to come.

True and that remains the same, after this evaluation. But, as I mentioned in my earlier post, Lost Planet is the only game that offers DX10 support, without it being a patch.

Those people taking a passive stance and saying that this is just a review of performance for this game and thats where it ends, I'm sorry but that's just not true, for example their "Our focus" section clearly states that:
...

This clearly shows that the meaning (or partial meaning) behind the article is not just to review performance in this one specific game but also judge performance of DX10 in general.

No. This is just for this specific game. Evaluations are centered on the game/games used to produce it. This is no different. It judges the capabilities of current hardware to run Lost Planet. Asking if the current cards "will be powerful enough for DX10", does not imply "DX10 in general", but rather DX10 in this game, which right now, is the only game to offer "direct" DX10 support

Furthermore direct conclusions about DX10 are drawn at the end of the review:
...

What is lost in translation here is that it's the games implementation of DX10 thats slowing the game down, and that this is not necessarily indicative of DX10 performance when implimented into a game specifically designed for the PC platform, or in a similar manner a game built from the ground up to support DX10 rather than just bolting on DX10 support as an after thought.

It's not lost in translation. This is an evaluation of performance of current cards, using the only game that offers "direct" DX10 support. That's it. It does NOT reflect DX10 performance across the board. And that is pretty much summed up, in the conclusion.

And to be succinct, Lost Planet and its DX10 implementation is not encouraging any way you look at it. Blah.

Clearly mentions Lost Planet's specific DX10 implementation, which is exactly the point of this review.

 

[Silus]

You probably didn't follow the thread because it's not indicative of what DX10 games will be like. For the reasons stated previously. It's just a ported game with DX10 lightning effects stacked on top of it.

A lot of DX10 features are a better way to handle the 3d models, texture, particles etc... That actually speed up the rendering quite a bit that is why there is so much improvements in graphics they can add a lot of elements and details. Lost Planet don't use those improvements to the engine. They simply add DX10 effects on top of the a Console to DX9 ported engine.

You didn't read what I said. I didn't say games will be like this. I said that, right now, it's the only real indicator of what a DX10 game, is. It's the difference between present and future. I'm talking about present: Lost Planet. You are refering to future: Crysis, UT3, Bioshock, whatever. But that's not what's being evaluated here (and couldn't be anyway).

 

[ChristO]

Im notice that at 1920 x 1200 vista 64 the game runs great as long as the shadows are set to medium in DX10 if I put it up to High the game turns to crap! and my 8800 seems to keep more consistant FPS when there is alot of stuff going on compared to the 2900

 

[elektronisch]

I just bought a 8800GTS 640 with the intentions of moving to Vista x64. I must say the results of your findings are disappointing to say the least. Is my 600 dollar video and psu upgrade really worth what I'm seeing here?

 

[Cyant]

You didn't read what I said. I didn't say games will be like this. I said that, right now, it's the only real indicator of what a DX10 game, is. It's the difference between present and future. I'm talking about present: Lost Planet. You are refering to future: Crysis, UT3, Bioshock, whatever. But that's not what's being evaluated here (and couldn't be anyway).

Sigh... But it's NOT a "real indicator of what a DX10 game, is." because it's not a real DX10 game.

It's more akin to an SNES emulator using OpenGL to do full screen filtering. In that case it's just a DX9 game using DX10 functions to lightning and shadows pases. To represent a real DX10 game, the engine would have to handle the particles, physics, textures, objects etc like DX10 would handle them.

 

[Bada-Bing!]

There was a typo: "manor" should be "manner".

Also, I would have liked to see a comparison between DX9 on Vista and DX9 on XP for this game. I guess there have been enough XP/Vista comparsions done already. The review did answer my main question, which is: Will the game run okay at 1280x1024 with a 8800 GTS 320MB on Windows XP?

 

[Silus]

Sigh... But it's NOT a "real indicator of what a DX10 game, is." because it's not a real DX10 game.

It's more akin to an SNES emulator using OpenGL to do full screen filtering. In that case it's just a DX9 game using DX10 functions to lightning and shadows pases. To represent a real DX10 game, the engine would have to handle the particles, physics, textures, objects etc like DX10 would handle them.

But it is. Is it a poor one, that probably doesn't really take advantage of the new stuff that DX10 brings to the table, plus it's a port ? You bet.
But are there others, that allow us to do this type of evaluation ? No.
So again, this is what a DX10 game offers us right now: Present. Of course, future games will use DX10, much better than this. But that can only be evaluated, when those games are released.

 

[JMke]

crysis should be a better test of this...but that sucks regardless lol

remind me; is Crysis out yet?.

 

[ivan_gromov]

Is it me or do the images of DX10 vs DX9 look almost the same? Unless other games can prove otherwise, I do not think it is currently worth running, performance on dx10 is not up to par as of yet and the screenies look almost as good in dx9 mode.

 

[RoBo]

Is it me or do the images of DX10 vs DX9 look almost the same? Unless other games can prove otherwise, I do not think it is currently worth running, performance on dx10 is not up to par as of yet and the screenies look almost as good in dx9 mode.

The DX10 ones look slightly better but don't justify the performance drop.

 

[markt435]

remind me; is Crysis out yet?.

obviously not...but when it comes out i'm sure there will be another test just like this where they can actually judge a REAL DX10 game lol.

 

[RoBo]

obviously not...but when it comes out i'm sure there will be another test just like this where they can actually judge a REAL DX10 game lol.

Exacly, we should wait until games come out that have been properly designed for DX10 from the start.

 

[Frosteh]

I just bought a 8800GTS 640 with the intentions of moving to Vista x64. I must say the results of your findings are disappointing to say the least. Is my 600 dollar video and psu upgrade really worth what I'm seeing here?

See now this is the sort of thing I'm talking about, anyone not savvy enough to know that this is a console port and that on average its performance is going to be a lot worse is going to start making assumptions about future performance.

[H] is not responsible for other peoples assumptions and they're usualy quite clear with what they write, BUT they have to realise that people will make assumptions based on what they do write and it's important that an article is written in the right context to minimise this. In this case they should have been clearer that because it's a port that performance is unlikely to match that of a game developed specifically for the PC.

 

[ivan_gromov]

obviously not...but when it comes out i'm sure there will be another test just like this where they can actually judge a REAL DX10 game lol.

You guys are trying to justify buying an 8800gtx for DX10 games. We can see that performance is not up to par, you are trying to sound it like bad coding has been done. There hasn't been a beta out for Crysis yet, we can't tell how good/bad it will perform in dx10.

Have you ever stopped and concidered the fact that the problem might be with the fact that the hardware is not up to par as of yet? Sure, we will not know up until we see "true" DX10 games, but every other game in DX10 by far was pretty shitty performance wise. Do you honestly think that everybody has been screwing up on the code this bad lately? Maybe so. but i do not think so.

 

[Silus]

Exacly, we should wait until games come out that have been properly designed for DX10 from the start.

Which is exactly why these evaluations are useful. They tell us, and especially those that do not follow the tech world on a daily basis, that right now, games that offer DX10 support, really do not justify the "hassle" of buying a DX10 card and installing Vista.

 

[Silus]

You guys are trying to justify buying an 8800gtx for DX10 games. We can see that performance is not up to par, you are trying to sound it like bad coding has been done. There hasn't been a beta out for Crysis yet, we can't tell how good/bad it will perform in dx10.

Have you ever stopped and concidered the fact that the problem might be with the fact that the hardware is not up to par as of yet? Sure, we will not know up until we see "true" DX10 games, but every other game in DX10 by far was pretty shitty performance wise. Do you honestly think that everybody has been screwing up on the code this bad lately? Maybe so. but i do not think so.

We know that's not true. It's been said a number of times, by Crytek people, that a single 8800 GTX will run Crysis, at max settings, very smoothly. I just don't remember if they mentioned the resolution. So yes, as of now, this is strickly a problem of implementation, not the hadrware.

Also, you don't buy a 8800 GTX for DX10 games, because there are but a few that take advantage of it. You buy it, for the superb performance it offers, in the huge amount of DX9 games out there. Remember that when G80 was out, there was absolutely no DX10 game (not even in patch form) out yet. And that situation didn't change much, 8 months later, since IIRC, only 3 games support DX10 and 2 of them, through a patch.