Engine assigns input geometry samples from 4xMSAA rendering into shaded clusters in order to maximize covered geometry while keeping the performance on acceptable level by reducing expensive shaded samples.
If your resolution is set to 1080p, the game temporally reconstructs the image (except UI) from four 720p buffers rendered with 4xMSAA, just like on Xbox One.
The Windows 10 version of Quantum Break uses the same reconstruction method as on Xbox One. Here’s what Remedy had to say about the render technique and resolution back in April. The upscaling option is the one I’ve been dreading talking about. (Also, that white marker on the board is part of the UI it’s meant to be there.) I’m going to guess you can tell which one is Ultra and which one is Low. There is one exception, which is the upscaling: it’s turned on in the Ultra, but turned off in Low, because I hadn’t quite thought that through yet. It’s fair to say that things have improved since then.įor what it’s worth, here are some comparison screenshots with everything shunted up to the absolute maximum, and everything dropped to the bare minimum. Hell, apparently, there wasn’t even an option to go back to the main menu from within the game. Back when Quantum Break got its ill-fated start on the Windows Store, there was no option to turn off the film grain, and it looks like there wasn’t any sort of V-sync option either. I sigh.įrom what I’ve dug up, some of this has been stuff that was added after the initial launch. Also, no option to turn off the bloody motion blur. If there’s one mild annoyance it’s that Anti-Aliasing is basically stuck with “on” and “off” rather than FXAA, MSAA and the like, but this appears to be a limitation of the engine that we’ll get to shortly. The 30FPS lock is thankfully disabled by default, and the rest offer everything from texture quality to SSAO to shadow filtering, as well as more generic options like “subtitles”. In any case it’s a good set of tweakables, and they’re (mostly) neatly explained courtesy of tooltips on the right. Oddly, Ultra doesn’t actually set everything to maximum – it sets Texture Resolution to maximum, but bits and pieces like shadow resolution are left on High rather than Ultra. The settings themselves mostly range from Medium to Ultra, with Low apparently a dirty word for this release. It defaulted to Medium presets, although I suspect that’s by default rather than by any automatic benchmarking. I’ll also quickly add that the controls do indeed properly support mouse and keyboard, with things like “the mouse wheel can be used to swap weapons” fully present and correct.ĭisplay is likely what you’re probably more interested in, though: For starters, there’s the “Disable copyrighted music” setting, so that your stream or YouTube video doesn’t get flagged or silenced for copyright. I’m not going to bother showing the Gameplay, Controls, and Audio settings because they’re largely what you’d expect – mouse sensitivity, rebindable keys, volume settings – although I will note a few specific ones that I rather like. No, there doesn’t appear to be a way to turn off motion blur, unless it’s part of “Effects Quality.”įirst up, the options. Either way, I didn’t play the initial release, so I can’t directly compare the two.
Whether that’s because it was reportedly a clusterfuck of staggering proportions, or if it’s just because the Windows Store doesn’t make giving out code easy (I don’t believe we’ve ever received code for a game via that service), I don’t know. I’ll point out, again, that we did not receive code for the initial Windows Store release. After freeing up nearly 70GB of space, that is. Have the extra few months helped Quantum Break reboot its chances at a second first impression? Let’s find out. For some reason, we didn’t get code.)įittingly for a game all about time, though, the Remedy-developed shooter/TV show hybrid is getting a second chance through the magic of a Steam release.
For starters, it was limited to the commercial limbo that is the Windows Store for another thing, it was apparently broken beyond all recognition with absurdly low framerates, ridiculous input lag, and such a lack of polish it could probably be described as something that looked like it had been anti-polished. Quantum Break did not have the most auspicious of PC launches.