Aliens Vs. Predator: DirectX 11 Game Performance Analyzed

[cleeve]

Aliens vs. Predator is the latest DirectX 11-enabled first-person shooter/stalker. But whereas DirectX 11 cost us performance in DiRT2, this title is said to run faster in DX11 mode. We evaluate performance and image quality to answer: what gives?

Aliens Vs. Predator: DirectX 11 Game Performance Analyzed : Read more

 

[Kelavarus]

The thing is, same with DirectX 10, you aren't going to see considerable difference unless it's coded specifically for that API. I have seen some absolutely amazing things done with DirectX 10, but only because the engine was purely for DirectX 10, and to my knowledge, no one has even attempted that with DirectX 11 yet anyway.

To reach the broader audience, games are coded with DirectX 9 in mind then have DX10/11 tacked on with a few features.

We're not going to see much of a jump until DX9 is dropped completely, and especially with consoles running around DX9-ish, it's not going to happen till they upgrade, probably. Just my 2c.

 

[Annisman]

I will say one thing, DX11 is a new api, and though the differences in screenshots is minute, it's great to see no performance loss going with DX11. I think it took a whole year or more to actually see performance increases with DX10 vs. DX 9.

So that is one thing you can take out of this.

 

[haplo602]

"Rebellion Gets A Third Swing At AvP" I thing that should be second swing, as AvP 2 was done by Monolith. Or swing at the third installment

Anyway, the original AvP was the best single and multiplayer pure FPS I ever played. The Alien was the king there, incredibly fast and agile and if done right, one hit killing anything in the game except a marine with a smartgun and head on (or predator with plasma guns in the same situation) ...

The second AvP failed miserably in all aspects maybe except story telling ... I have to have a look at the current one still ... but from your description, I guess I won't like it. Marine with melee against Aliens ? W T H !!!!

 

[matt87_50]

[citation][nom]Kelavarus[/nom]The thing is, same with DirectX 10, you aren't going to see considerable difference unless it's coded specifically for that API. I have seen some absolutely amazing things done with DirectX 10, but only because the engine was purely for DirectX 10, and to my knowledge, no one has even attempted that with DirectX 11 yet anyway.To reach the broader audience, games are coded with DirectX 9 in mind then have DX10/11 tacked on with a few features. We're not going to see much of a jump until DX9 is dropped completely, and especially with consoles running around DX9-ish, it's not going to happen till they upgrade, probably. Just my 2c.[/citation]

good points, all true.

the biggest thing with DX10 was that it was vista only, no XP. as people flock to win7 with dx11 built in, that won't be such a big problem. also, dx11 doesn't really add much, it just kinda improves on dx10 and adds a couple of really useful things that should actually make life easier for everyone (kinda like win7 compared to vista I suppose) it adds proper multi threading in the drivers and allows the rendering engines to be multi threaded now. this is just a software thing too, so its not really hardware dependant (you don't need dx11 hardware to benefit) the other really useful feature added is tessellation. which is something that devs already do manually, and painfully in dx9 games. if anything its probably better for developers production times than it is for the end user! no complex art pipelines or engines, automatic performance scaling (the card knows how fast it is and can dynamically allocate the right proportion of triangles to every object in order to reach an exact total frame poly budget). it also adds compute shader. all of these things don't really add anything new, we had tessellation on GPGPU before, but it was all third party and more convoluted, so its more about ease of development than new stuff. don't take that the wrong way though. ease of development should lead to much bigger leaps and bounds in graphics than new features that everyone was too scared to use anyway.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

Sounds like the new avp faces the same problem borderlands does - it's too easy! I compare borderlands with fallout 3 as they feel about the same. But in borderlands you've got this constant pointer to exactly where you're supposed to go - which makes you not even try to read the actually mission briefings - and when you've just downed a boss you stop and think 'what ? this easy?'
Dumbing down's been seen in wow since burning crusade too. I suppose developers are just broadening their potential customer base by making the games so simple that any 10 year old can play them sufficiently well.

 

[XxOsurfer3xX]

Depends on how you play borderlands, if you go to misions over your level is not that easy..

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]XxOsurfer3xX[/nom]Depends on how you play borderlands, if you go to misions over your level is not that easy..[/citation]
Yes it is.
Sure 3 levels over you, and you do next to no damage - but you don't die, you simply run out of ammo!
I solved the difficulty level problem by running a lan game and have two other of my chars join. Now there's a feeling of difficulty in playthough 2, but given the directions you're still just following pointers and aren't really immersed in the plot at any rate. You don't have to think, just shoot. Could's well play cs or some other shooter

 

[Tridec]

I really can't understand why you didn't use the older ATI 48xx series cards in your review. It would seem logical to do so as there are a lot of your readers with previous gen cards that are thinking about upgrading. You guys did use the Nvidia 260 and even the older Nvidia 9800 GT, but not the "populair" Ati cards.

 

[Tomtompiper]

Third swipe, the first AvP was for the Atari Jaguar, by Rebellion and was a cracker.

 

[ssddx]

Don Woligroski, I must say that is a very nicely written article! I've only been seeing your name more recently; are you new to Toms?

As for the games themselves: I would have to disagree on the second avp being a failure. The game packs everything you state the first one got right. I would also have to say that the multiplayer is(was) excellent. Theres nothing quite like dropping 150 feet as an alien onto some poor guys head (and the things he would say too!)

Do people still play AVP2 online? If so I might have to get myself into a match for a quick fix.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]ssddx[/nom]Don Woligroski, I must say that is a very nicely written article! I've only been seeing your name more recently; are you new to Toms?[/citation]

Maybe you just didn't pay attention?
He's the guy writing all the best graphics and best cpu for gaming every month.... and he's writing all the articles on new directx and most new gpu architecture articles ... basicly he is tom's grahpics expert.
He's by no means new to toms.

 

[Reynod]

Well done again Don.

The cpu utilisation bit at the end was also an interesting addon ... and of interest to those with lower end PC's ... they can buy a game like this with confidence providing they have a quality graphics card.

The AMD Phenom box @ 2Ghz also outperformed the i7 @ 3Ghz ... chuckle ... 2 , 3, and 4 cores active.

 

[we_san]

[citation][nom]Tridec[/nom]I really can't understand why you didn't use the older ATI 48xx series cards in your review. It would seem logical to do so as there are a lot of your readers with previous gen cards that are thinking about upgrading. You guys did use the Nvidia 260 and even the older Nvidia 9800 GT, but not the "populair" Ati cards.[/citation]
Like you never know, Tom Is Always Towards Nvidia, perhaps ATi 48xx series beat Nvidia 260 and 9800GT in this game.

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]we_san[/nom]Like you never know, Tom Is Always Towards Nvidia, perhaps ATi 48xx series beat Nvidia 260 and 9800GT in this game.[/citation]
Prove it! toms is as neutral as can be!

 

[ati2ndbest]

ATIdiots, trolls get a grip. Your 5 series tested in DX9 is the same as the 4 series would give. Your 5 series is a rebrand of the 4 series with eyefinity, grey screening and monitor flickering thrown in for good measure. rofl

 

[we_san]

[citation][nom]ATI2ndbest[/nom]ATIdiots, trolls get a grip. Your 5 series tested in DX9 is the same as the 4 series would give. Your 5 series is a rebrand of the 4 series with eyefinity, grey screening and monitor flickering thrown in for good measure. rofl[/citation]
Nvidiots are made first. So find another. Why just Nvidia can't make GTS250, GT220, GT240, (9 series also rebrand) support dx11.

 

[kikireeki]

I really don't get it! you have said that enabling DX11 features in this game has no down effect on the performance, but when the VERY UNIQUE ddx11 exclusive AA is enabled the frames dropped to the half, and in some cases the game became unplayable!
So I think that this review proves that DX11 is still a concept!
and AFAIK "Tessellation" is meant to make the game perform better, not to look better!

 

[neiroatopelcc]

[citation][nom]kikireeki[/nom]I really don't get it! you have said that enabling DX11 features in this game has no down effect on the performance, but when the VERY UNIQUE ddx11 exclusive AA is enabled the frames dropped to the half, and in some cases the game became unplayable!So I think that this review proves that DX11 is still a concept! and AFAIK "Tessellation" is meant to make the game perform better, not to look better![/citation]
DX11 has no appearent visual improvement in store, it merely makes the game run a tad faster. On top of that the developers decided to not allow AA options in dx9 - which has nothing to do with directx, but everything with the developers.
Did you read the article?

Besides, the framerates only drop if you enable AA - which they would've done if it was available in dx9 as well.

 

[we_san]

[citation][nom]kikireeki[/nom]I really don't get it! you have said that enabling DX11 features in this game has no down effect on the performance, but when the VERY UNIQUE ddx11 exclusive AA is enabled the frames dropped to the half, and in some cases the game became unplayable!So I think that this review proves that DX11 is still a concept! and AFAIK "Tessellation" is meant to make the game perform better, not to look better![/citation]
AFAIK, Tessellation is meant to adding more polygons (to look better) but without putting much more load to the GPU (low impact on performance). I think Neiro is right that AA is the cause of the frames drop.

 

[ScoobyJooby-Jew]

there was a massive change in fps when going from a 5750 to a 5770 whilst in dx11. 10 fps across all the benches. Man, its not playable on a 5750 in dx11. Dx11 is a bummer for me then.

 

[cleeve]

[citation][nom]kikireeki[/nom]and AFAIK "Tessellation" is meant to make the game perform better, not to look better![/citation]

No. You don't add shedloads of geometry to a 3d model to make it perform better. That's the opposite of what you'd do. The only possible point to adding more geometry is making it look smoother.

You should do some research into tessellation. I think you might have picked up a misconception about it.

 

[Tridec]

[citation][nom]we_san[/nom]Like you never know, Tom Is Always Towards Nvidia, perhaps ATi 48xx series beat Nvidia 260 and 9800GT in this game.[/citation]

I don't think you understood what I meant

[citation][nom]ATI2ndbest[/nom]ATIdiots, trolls get a grip. Your 5 series tested in DX9 is the same as the 4 series would give. Your 5 series is a rebrand of the 4 series with eyefinity, grey screening and monitor flickering thrown in for good measure. rofl[/citation]

You mean that the Ati 5xxx series has the same architecture as the Ati 4xxx series? WOW what are you on? Please educate yourself before posting your stupidity on the internet.

 

[2shea]

Dx 11 makes the games or visual usage of it run better and especially scale better. Things far away are less detailed and can be done without much effort thanks to tesselation. It is yet to be used large scale and needs some working on both soft and hardware to get the most of it.
As said dx9 won't dissappear unless consoles go to dx11 for coding.

the game itself is beautifull buts utterly lacks good gameplay, needs to loose the melee crap, give the predator more power against aliens, make the guns shoot a bit better for the 'rines and make them slightly stronger.

Aliens should be able to kill with one hit and without that trophy kill nonsense that adds frustration, isn't interesting after 2 times and takes the whole speed out of the game.
The only kills that can stay would be stealth kills because you don't need to do them fast often. Also make the 'rines somewhat smarter than a 2 month old baby; using distraction, killing the first marine, then using the same method on the other one who saw you kill the first one... come on that's freaking ridiculous!!
Hopefully the real nexgen games will be dx11 only and will use the whole api instead of little bits.

 

[kikireeki]

[citation][nom]neiroatopelcc[/nom]DX11 has no appearent visual improvement in store, it merely makes the game run a tad faster. On top of that the developers decided to not allow AA options in dx9 - which has nothing to do with directx, but everything with the developers.Did you read the article? Besides, the framerates only drop if you enable AA - which they would've done if it was available in dx9 as well.[/citation]

Did you read the article?
"Of course, there's another factor to consider when talking about the new Aliens vs. Predator: DirectX 11 enhancements. The game will take advantage of new-generation Radeon and GeForce cards to enhance the experience with tessellation effects, shadows, and DirectX 11-exclusive anti-aliasing (AA)."

What kind of enhancement and exclusivity is he talking about when it performed the same if not worse?

My point is: In the beginning of the article he wowed about the advantages of using dx11 especially the very new AA, but at the end he just concluded the opposite!