The summary of ‘The Last Of Us Part 1: Has Naughty Dog Fixed The PC Port?’

This summary of the video was created by an AI. It might contain some inaccuracies.

00:00:0000:14:38

The video provides a thorough examination of the technical evolution and current performance of "The Last of Us Part 1" on PC, emphasizing ongoing issues and improvements post-launch. Initially, the game suffered from poor optimization, particularly in shader pre-compilation and in-game loading times, requiring extensive wait periods and resulting in stutters during gameplay, even on high-end CPUs. Subsequent patches reduced shader pre-compilation times and improved texture quality and VRAM efficiency, making the game more accessible for 8 GB GPUs and resembling PlayStation 5 performance. Despite these advancements, problems like shader compilation stutters, erratic frame times, and frame rate dips remain persistent, predominantly due to the game's threading model affecting various CPUs, including Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel's 12900K. New settings for NPC density and animation quality offer minor performance boosts but fail to resolve core performance issues. Additionally, RTX 2070 Super’s performance shows slight improvements, yet falls short compared to PlayStation 5 benchmarks. The video concludes with a call for continued optimizations and future updates for other titles, suggesting a need for further enhancements to meet performance expectations fully.

00:00:00

In this part of the video, the speaker discusses the initial poor quality of “The Last of Us Part 1” PC port, which led to an unconventional review by Digital Foundry focusing on the game’s numerous issues. The video then highlights improvements made through patches, focusing on the shader pre-compilation time, which initially forced users with mid-range CPUs to wait upwards of 30 minutes. As of patch 1.05, this time has been reduced significantly from 41 minutes to 25 minutes on a Ryzen 5 3600, with additional time for DLC. However, this reduction in pre-compilation has caused some shader variants to be missed, leading to new in-game stutters not present before. Loading times from the main menu and during in-game transitions have also improved, halving from one minute to 30 seconds, and chapter loading times reduced from 27 to less than 12 seconds. Despite these improvements, some new issues like shader compilation stutters during critical game moments have emerged.

00:03:00

In this segment of the video, the speaker discusses Shader compilation stutter issues experienced during gameplay, highlighting that they happen even on high-end CPUs like the 12900k and deems such stutters unacceptable for a cinematic game produced by a major publisher. The speaker then notes significant improvements made in the latest patch, particularly regarding texture quality and VRAM efficiency. The updated patch has made medium textures look much better and use less memory, while high settings retain their quality but also consume less VRAM. This enhancement allows 8 GB GPUs to handle the game well, even using high texture settings equivalent to the PlayStation 5 version. The improvements in texture handling showcase effective PC gaming scaling and question the outdated notion of certain VRAM capacities.

00:06:00

In this part of the video, the discussion revolves around changes in texture mapping and streaming in a game. There are newer, more detailed medium textures that might have undergone an art revision. Additionally, the game introduces a new in-game option called “texture streaming rate,” which allows finer control over texture streaming based on the GPU in the user’s PC. This setting helps manage VRAM usage and improve texture loading times, particularly reducing texture pop-in during rapid camera movements. Fast and Fastest settings consume more VRAM to minimize streaming issues.

The segment also addresses CPU performance improvements. Initially, certain game areas demanded high CPU resources, notably affecting frame rates. The latest patch has improved CPU performance by approximately 10% in these areas, but issues with frame rate dips and stuttering when entering new areas remain. The game still experiences occasional frame time lurches as new elements load, and cut scene animations continue to be CPU-bound, though there have been minor improvements across patches.

00:09:00

In this segment of the video, the speaker discusses the performance improvements and remaining issues after a new patch release. They note that although there is a slight performance boost of about 3%, major frame time spikes and frame rate swings are still apparent. Two new settings were introduced to control NPC density and animation quality, which improved frame rates by 7-8%, but did not significantly resolve the core performance issues.

The speaker highlights specific testing on different CPUs, including the Ryzen 5 3600 and Intel’s 12900K. The Ryzen 5 3600 still experiences erratic frame times and stuttering during certain game cutscenes. With Intel’s 12900K, enabling hyper-threading eliminates significant stuttering, while without hyper-threading, noticeable performance drops occur. These issues suggest problems with the game’s threading model, affecting CPUs across the board.

They also discuss that the GPU-side changes are minimal, with the RTX 2070 Super performing around 5% better on patch 1.05 compared to the launch code, but overall, the GPU performance still falls short of expectations. The video suggests more optimizations, potentially involving DirectStorage, could help address these lingering issues.

00:12:00

In this segment, the video discusses the performance and issues of “The Last of Us Part One” on PC. The PlayStation 5 version at high settings and 1440p runs significantly faster than a 2070 Super GPU, nearly 50% faster. The video notes that DLSS and FSR impact shadow map quality, and bugs are still present, such as a soft lock issue with key spawns under corpses. Improvements include much better texture quality, quicker loading times, and better CPU and GPU performance, but Shader compilation stutter is a new drawback. The video suggests more optimizations are needed, especially for mid-range hardware. The segment concludes by mentioning future updates for other titles like Jedi Survivor, Dead Space, and Redfall, and encourages viewers to like, subscribe, and support on Patreon.

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