Cutscenes are pre-rendered, so the game looks the same as PS5

[Monterossa]

Really really great job there, Square Enix. PC players can't really benefit any upgraded graphics because cutscenes are pre-rendered FMVs so it will look the same as the PS5 version.

Only on the field and in battle that you can have better graphics. But half of this game is all about the cutscenes... so we're being limited by the PS5.

And because of the cutscenes were pre-rendered in 16:9, I guess that's why you don't get ultrawide support.

What a mess. The Sony exclusivity backfired so hard.

[rat_in_the_bat FIN]

I wonder why people would nag about some FMV cutscenes. The cutscenes are high quality and sometimes you can't even notice it's an FMV, untill you see that for some reason clothing looks more detailed in them.
If some cutscenes takes away your motivation to play the game then go ahead and don't buy it. Literally nitpicking
i accept nagging if the gameplay runs 30 with 4090, but cutscenes? Really?

[Laguna]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von rat_in_the_bat FIN:

I wonder why people would nag about some FMV cutscenes. The cutscenes are high quality and sometimes you can't even notice it's an FMV, untill you see that for some reason clothing looks more detailed in them.
If some cutscenes takes away your motivation to play the game then go ahead and don't buy it. Literally nitpicking :lunar2019crylaughingpig:
i accept nagging if the gameplay runs 30 with 4090, but cutscenes? Really?

I don't have a problem with the cutscenes, but some people may find it jarring when it constantly switches from 30fps to whatever variable framerate the real time stuff is. It ends up looking weird almost like the game is speeding up and down.

[Haseo8]

No pre-rendered, just capped at 30 for some reason. But they are, in fact, in real time. You'll know when they switch to pre-render because it'll either look nicer, or his weapon or clothes if you changed them will change to default.

[BinaryJay]

It's crazy how these days the prerendered cutscenes look WORSE than the real-time rendered parts of games if you have a good machine. They could have at least re-rendered the cutscenes at a higher framerate (and a better bitrate, I don't care how big the download is).

Not all of the cutscenes are prerendered, the ones that aren't at least can easily be fixed with the framerate unlocker mod.

I get why they are the way they are on PS5, they're meant to match the poor quality and framerate of the game itself so they blend in there but they do stick out like a sore thumb on the PC version.

At any rate it's not going to stop me from enjoying the game, but it's disappointing. Anybody that isn't bothered by the prerendered cutscenes in this is playing on a slow PC I guess.

[MightyMonte88]

So.....i was really excited for this game but from what im reading on this post, this might be one of the titles worth skipping....

[Xengre]

Most of this game's cutscenes are NOT pre-rendered.

The developer has stated this in an interview that only around 5% are fully pre-rendered, and the rest are real time in-engine though some of the more heavy cutscenes may feature some pre-rendered elements/effects within the cutscene.

Further, there exists a mod to remove the 30 FPS cap but be warned... unless your GPU is very powerful or you are willing to lower settings some cutscenes will be very demanding which is likely part of the reason for the cap.

To give an example, a RTX 4090 will see around 40-50% usuage (usually 40% but I've seen spikes up to 50% in some cases... and the main game may have even more demanding scenes at times for all I know) when playing at 4K DLSS Quality max settings. This means most cards under a RTX 4080 tier aren't going to handle above 30 FPS well (if at all) at such high settings.

This could explain why they locked it as the game is really cutscene / story heavy because it can avoid fluctuating FPS/stutter in cutscenes by doing this since cutscenes don't benefit as heavily from higher frame rate compared to gameplay proper with faster moving camera, input latency, reaction time elements, etc unlike a controlled cinematic scene. Before anyone argues note that almost every existing TV show and movie to date runs at less than 30 FPS (real movies are almost always 24 FPS, while TV is usually 24 - 30 FPS depending, and live broadcast 30 FPS).

Another potential explanation could be that some of those scenes that feature pre-rendered elements within some of those real-time scenes may not play as well at above 30 FPS (Guess we will see when the game launches if the FPS unlock mod causes issues in some).

[Alt Cunningham]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Monterossa:

Really really great job there, Square Enix. PC players can't really benefit any upgraded graphics because cutscenes are pre-rendered FMVs so it will look the same as the PS5 version.

Only on the field and in battle that you can have better graphics. But half of this game is all about the cutscenes... so we're being limited by the PS5.

And because of the cutscenes were pre-rendered in 16:9, I guess that's why you don't get ultrawide support.

What a mess. The Sony exclusivity backfired so hard.

Having played the demo, having pre-rendered cut scenes for a PC game in 2024 should be a crime.

[Alt Cunningham]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Xengre:

Most of this game's cutscenes are NOT pre-rendered.

The developer has stated this in an interview that only around 5% are fully pre-rendered, and the rest are real time in-engine though some of the more heavy cutscenes may feature some pre-rendered elements/effects within the cutscene.

Further, there exists a mod to remove the 30 FPS cap but be warned... unless your GPU is very powerful or you are willing to lower settings some cutscenes will be very demanding which is likely part of the reason for the cap.

To give an example, a RTX 4090 will see around 40-50% usuage (usually 40% but I've seen spikes up to 50% in some cases... and the main game may have even more demanding scenes at times for all I know) when playing at 4K DLSS Quality max settings. This means most cards under a RTX 4080 tier aren't going to handle above 30 FPS well (if at all) at such high settings.

This could explain why they locked it as the game is really cutscene / story heavy because it can avoid fluctuating FPS/stutter in cutscenes by doing this since cutscenes don't benefit as heavily from higher frame rate compared to gameplay proper with faster moving camera, input latency, reaction time elements, etc unlike a controlled cinematic scene. Before anyone argues note that almost every existing TV show and movie to date runs at less than 30 FPS (real movies are almost always 24 FPS, while TV is usually 24 - 30 FPS depending, and live broadcast 30 FPS).

Another potential explanation could be that some of those scenes that feature pre-rendered elements within some of those real-time scenes may not play as well at above 30 FPS (Guess we will see when the game launches if the FPS unlock mod causes issues in some).

Compare FF16 cutscenes to the cutscenes from Wukong. Cutscenes whether pre-rendered or re-rendered using their own ingame engine looks terrible in FF16, and we shouldn't have to use a mod to make the cutscenes better. It just flat out looks terrible and I love cutscenes as it usually is where a lot of the story is told, but i'll probably still buy the game because the demo wasn't that bad gameplay wise

[Xengre]

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Alt Cunningham:

Ursprünglich geschrieben von Xengre:

Most of this game's cutscenes are NOT pre-rendered.

The developer has stated this in an interview that only around 5% are fully pre-rendered, and the rest are real time in-engine though some of the more heavy cutscenes may feature some pre-rendered elements/effects within the cutscene.

Further, there exists a mod to remove the 30 FPS cap but be warned... unless your GPU is very powerful or you are willing to lower settings some cutscenes will be very demanding which is likely part of the reason for the cap.

To give an example, a RTX 4090 will see around 40-50% usuage (usually 40% but I've seen spikes up to 50% in some cases... and the main game may have even more demanding scenes at times for all I know) when playing at 4K DLSS Quality max settings. This means most cards under a RTX 4080 tier aren't going to handle above 30 FPS well (if at all) at such high settings.

This could explain why they locked it as the game is really cutscene / story heavy because it can avoid fluctuating FPS/stutter in cutscenes by doing this since cutscenes don't benefit as heavily from higher frame rate compared to gameplay proper with faster moving camera, input latency, reaction time elements, etc unlike a controlled cinematic scene. Before anyone argues note that almost every existing TV show and movie to date runs at less than 30 FPS (real movies are almost always 24 FPS, while TV is usually 24 - 30 FPS depending, and live broadcast 30 FPS).

Another potential explanation could be that some of those scenes that feature pre-rendered elements within some of those real-time scenes may not play as well at above 30 FPS (Guess we will see when the game launches if the FPS unlock mod causes issues in some).

Compare FF16 cutscenes to the cutscenes from Wukong. Cutscenes whether pre-rendered or re-rendered using their own ingame engine looks terrible in FF16, and we shouldn't have to use a mod to make the cutscenes better. It just flat out looks terrible and I love cutscenes as it usually is where a lot of the story is told, but i'll probably still buy the game because the demo wasn't that bad gameplay wise

Wukong is using a next gen engine (UE5) and some of the most cutting edge ray tracing we've seen in a game to date. Wukong also has a different more realistic visual style where FFXVI intentionally does not use a realistic style, and was developed for PC simultaneously with console (but PC was Wukong's primary target from the very first trailer/announcement while FFXVI released only with PS5 in mind originally).

As for the rest of your comment about the needing the mod and it looking bad... No, and I break down why not an issue and why it was most likely done in the very post you quoted...

To add to that FFXVI cutscenes often take place at larger scale and with way more on-screen than Wukong's which typically are smaller areas / close ups, except a few spots and usually feature Wukong + 1 person much of the time. There are a few exceptions like the start but that could arguably pale compared to even the opening of this game like the various scenes with armies fighting and then Elkons show up and fight at large scale, and more, with visually intense scenes.