Remedy’s Control has a special place in the collective heart of Digital Foundry. Not only is it one of the best games in 2019, but the revised Northlight engine is also an absolute example of the latest technology delivery techniques, which also happens to include one of the best implementations we’ve seen with hardware accelerated beam tracking. . Somehow the developer manages to push the core experience (bar RT) into the latest generation hardware, but now owners of the next generation consoles can see how Northlight stretches its legs: control on PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series consoles are a pleasure.
The basic principles of the upgrade are: already out there, courtesy of Remedy PR. There is a feature parity between PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X with Control version at an original 1440p resolution, with temporary upsampling up to 4K. Two modes are offered – a 30 fps experience with limited reflections (including transparencies) and a 60 fps execution mode without RT features. Meanwhile, Xbox Series S has no RT features, which means that a performance mode is the standard originally rendered at 900p, with a 1080p output. The scale of dynamic resolution is not implemented in this game.
But before we consider the details, I feel it’s important to summarize why this is an important game. From my perspective, Control was a glimpse into the future of delivery technology – and even the next generation of game. Even with the emission of ray tracing, Control does quite a bit behind the scenes. Take the destruction system, where almost every object can be broken up into its constituent parts. Then there is the enormous wealth of objects in a given scene – an overall firefight with the physical system in full is an astonishing spectacle. Then there is the liquid reproduction simulation for the Hiss smoke: when objects or enemies cross through this semi-transparent liquid, there is visible turbulence – a dazzling dance of color with waves.
Everything you need to know about Control Ultimate Edition, with PlayStation 5 as our focus.
And even without hardware RT, Control still uses some form of ray tracing on all systems: signed distance fields are used to deliver rough but accurate reflections to magnify the standard screen space effect. If screen space data is not available, the reflections are reflected in a simplified game scene. It’s a lot of technology that’s seen regularly on last generation consoles, and it’s born on last generation systems where PS4 Pro ran at original 1080p, while One X was at 1440p. Meanwhile, the feeling was that the old Jaguar CPU core points had been pushed to breaking point – performance in Control had improved through spots, but overall consistency was still an issue.
On next-generation consoles, PS5 delivers 1.8 times the pixel density of PS4 Pro and does so with double the frame rate or hardware-accelerated beam tracking – a specification similar to Series X. There will be a lot of discussion about whether to use RT play or to run at 60 fps, but Control is an action-packed game and sometimes requires quick input, so for sheer playability, the performance mode will be hard to top. Nevertheless, all modes benefit from extra enhancement and quality of life – charging times are dramatically improved to where PS5 can drive data even faster than a Core i9 10900K, coupled with a fast 3.5GB / s NVMe SSD. This is a night and day improvement compared to the last generation consoles.
We will talk specifically about performing another piece. So far, we have only played PS5 the first day, but we have been looking at Xbox Series consoles with gold headline. On PlayStation 5, the 60fps mode is mostly solid, with slowdown only manifesting itself in the worst effects, where the screen is filled with tax effects. Meanwhile, at a limited 30 fps, the RT mode is consistent, properly on the frame rides and sticks to the goal for the vast majority of the game with only minor deviations. Xbox series consoles are similar, but sometimes look like an I / O stutter, seen in last generation versions (and also on a computer). We will discuss this in more depth in a separate piece with more detailed analysis.
But if 60 fps is preferred to play, Control’s 30 fps RT mode is dazzling. The RT horsepower in the new consoles is not enough to track down the full range of computer features, but you get the best money with RT reflections on opaque surfaces – such as marble, metals and everything in the distance – as well as transparent reflections for glass. I suggest looking at the video at the top of the page for a more detailed breakdown of the amazing benefits that real-time hardware-accelerated beam tracking brings to the table, but in essence we are talking about accuracy, precision and an often transforming visual effect. Simply put, the choice of materials in Control’s environments and objects, not to mention the overall design, is a perfect match for the technology. With the improvement of the environment as well as the night and day down to the intricate details in the smallest objects, the 30fps RT mode is still a great way to play the game.
My favorite part of the reflections on PS5 is how it stabilizes the image. In a third-person perspective game, it is very common for your character model to obscure a relatively large amount of screen, so that reflections from the screen space no longer work properly – the character simply closes off too much of the visible area, which creates large visible errors in SSR effects. With RT reflections in quality mode it is completely denied and the image is much more stable, moreover more realistic. The 30fps tracking is perhaps too much for some to swallow, and I can only hope that a lower resolution 60fps RT mode can make the point at some point in the future. The drop to 900p in Series S for its performance mode is obvious, but it’s a trade I would be willing to make if I could get the RT reflections back as part of the compromise on the more capable consoles.
Overall, I think Control Ultimate Edition on PlayStation 5 is excellent. Whether you get RT reflections at 30 fps, or run the game flat at 60 fps, you’re one step closer to seeing Remedy’s vision deliver at its best – and the upgrade over the last generation is profound. The only way to improve it is via the existing PC game used on high quality hardware, preferably with an Nvidia RTX card: you get more effects on beam detection, higher precision rasterization settings and one of the best implementations of Nvidia’s DLSS AI scaling, opens the door to 4K 60fps with all RT effects enabled on RTX 2080 Ti, and RTX 3070 or better. Lowering the resolution and less capable RTX cards can still provide a fantastic experience.
Our original Control PC exhibit from 2019. Since then, DLSS 2.0 has drastically improved the image quality to the point where AI scaling can exceed the original version.
In the video at the top of this page, you will see how the next generation of console versions directly compares to the computer, although the new console version is based on a revised version of the Northlight engine with two major differences. The first is the implementation of ray tracing, where consoles use a chessboard resolution (for reflections only) versus native on a computer. The other custom setting refers to the detail distance, which works differently under the new engine version running on PlayStation 5. In practice, this new LOD sorting has usually been found to have an effect lower than the computer’s lowest setting. It is worth pointing out that it is quite small in terms of the overall presentation.
Eventually, Control moved nicely to the next generation of machines. This is clearly a big step towards the latest versions of the game – even on PS4 Pro and Xbox One X. The radiation track effects are beautiful, while playing Control at 60 fps takes the game to another level . It’s also nice to see the sleek, smooth transformation in experience on all the new machines, even the budget-oriented Xbox series S. Remedy itself mentioned that this is just the beginning of their efforts to embrace the next generation console. hardware and that there will be many more in the future – and based on what the team has managed to pull out of the last generation of hardware, the possibilities are overwhelming. We will take a closer look at game performance and comparisons in all next generation systems as soon as possible. After choosing the full version of the PlayStation 5 version of the game, the idea of giving away this excellent conversion for free with PlayStation Plus may be one of the best setups we’ve seen from the service.