Digital foundry have multiple videos showing how they do their work and how there are imperfections with various aspects of it, especially when something like a resolution scaler is in place, as 34big things say their scale does bring the game down to "the lower one of 1920×1080" you know, that's 1080p so for periods of the analysis they can stop, take a frame and it will be exactly 1080p.

If a game is 4k on a menu or when nothing is happening but 1080p as soon as action begins then it's not the analyses fault to say that where they looked at the game it was 1080p, because it is, and crying legal action because a self professed flawed youtube channel talked badly about your game is fucking pathetic simple as that.

Use the Alexa rating of them so, they come in around the 340,000th rank

to put that in perspective

Fox news is at 260

Vgchartz is at 18k

aye, the Major News site is less important than this website by a factor of 17 in the metric of importance of Alexa ranking, the system used to measure website traffic and visitors.

Guess we better start to actually proof read the articles on the front page here, since we're 17x more popular than a Major News site!

Considering the type of graphics indies push, 4k without any framedrop would be expectable on X1X... so this seems much more the dev trying to defending their shortcomings (not lazyness)

Why trust a developer that can't even do basic math:

we managed to scale the resolution between 90% and 50% of native 4k, which means the resolution goes from the upper limit of 3456×1944 to the lower one of 1920×1080

That's scaling between 81% to 25% of native 4K.... And then it still drops to 45fps after cutting the resolution to 25% of the target? Then blame someone else for being incompetent? Funny.

Nobody is suing anyone.
34BigThings is trying to protect themselves and their employees by issuing a corporate level threat to DigitalFoundry.
Think of it like a parent threatening to not buy their screaming toddler sweets.

DigitalFoundry attempts to position themselves as an outlet who delivers absolute facts.
Through hard work and commitment, DF has by now become the defacto single source of video game technical analysis.

It is often the case where the public's perception of a product: can be more important than the factual truth.
With video games, and with resolution especially (something most consumers seem to struggle to be able to accurately quantify): the public perception can become the effective truth.

Think of it like a dictionary:
If enough people start to believe and enforce a definition of a given word, then the dictionary becomes out-of-date.
If we all said tomorrow, that the word "orange" defined a ball of nails: the world's dictionaries would need to be modified to reflect this new reality.

Back to resolution:
Being something that is not easily quantifiable by the average consumer, it is subject to a similar kind of distortion.
DigitalFoundry is the defacto sole source for a console game's rendering resolution, meaning: if left unchecked they can effectively alter the public's reality.

Now that all sounds more or less like crazy talk, and yeah.
But whatever.

What is important to keep in mind is:
DigitalFoundry holds a special position as a truth teller.
People don't really have the ability to definitively quantify a game's pixel count (though I still maintain my position that resolution does matter).
DigitalFoundry can: either accidentally, or purposely write or overwrite a consumer's perception of a title's rendering resolution.
Mass perception is effectively the same thing, as a physical truth.

Taken all I have just written, and the events that has transpired.
34BigThings, threatening to sue DF: is in essence, what we need.
We need something to keep the balance between perception and reality, else we lose sight of it.

Given that, 34BigThings has little choice but to take drastic action, else: their product, their reputation, their livelihood and the livelihoods of their employees.
Are all at risk.

Don't worry we are not a major news outlet.
Our newspaper sales are pathetic.
We barely sell any copies.

You are arguing that DigitalFoundry is not a major news site because they don't have a high Alexa rating.
That is a very short sighted approach.

DigitalFoundry is a part of Eurogamer who, if we go by Alexa ratings is a one the world's top websites.
Global Rank: 1,953
US Rank: 1,146
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/eurogamer.net

DigitalFoundry, even if they are not a major news outlet themselves, are a branch of the largest gaming news sites around.
Hell, they are a branch of one of the largest sites around.
If we go by Alexa rankings.

Now, I threw out the post, but you brought up a comparison between DigitalFoundry and ReviewTechUSA.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC__Oy3QdB3d9_FHO_XG1PZg
Listening to some videos whilst writing this, and wow.
Man, you are making it hard to avoid insulting you.

I am not going to debate you on DigitalFoundry vs ReviewTechUSA, but I am sure my position is clear, .

DigitalFoundry is a respected outlet who is both: respected and quoted, by other, larger, outlets.
Fact.
But again, I am not going to debate you, so I am not going to present evidence, .

Redout: from my experience a game that makes use the GPU to create a highly complicated image, for a video game.
It mixes a low poly art style, with GPU busting effects.

Redout has a lot of post processing effects that obscure edges, at least: on max setting, on PC.

That isn't a very healthy attitude to have.
Just because the title and studio is indie, does not necessarily mean that they are any less capable.
Or has less access to the machine's power.

An indie dev, assuming they know what they are doing could create a scene with a single, simple, object in it.
They could have that scene render at 1080p on the XxX, and still be using the device's full power.
Games today are graphically, very simple.

Looking at the title objectively: Uncharted 4, a game which I have seen been called"next gen", is graphically and visually simple.
Now, that isn't to say it looks bad, Naughty Dog's artists slaved over that game, and it shows.
UC4 looks great because of visual polish, rather than actual graphical complexity (you can only make a game so complex on such weak hardware).
And, I guess I should add that UC4 does have some nice graphical features too (for the current generation), but that is beyond the point.

Redout's visuals are pretty complex (but not incredible), if you look past the low-ploy artstyle.
In short I believe the XxX is more or less being used within 80% of its max.
Sure the developers could probably optimise the code a bit, but the title does look to be pushing hardware pretty hard.

No, sorry.
A 50% scale of 4k is 1080p.
You need to scale by 50% on both the x and y axes.

1080p has a fourth of the pixels, but it is a 50% scale.
According to pretty much all game engines at the very least.

https://image.ibb.co/mS8Qrb/Redout_Screenshot_2018.png
The game at max settings, on PC.
4k90 - 4k100
Using a GTX 1080Ti.

Redout is pretty neat, but it is no F-Zero.

No, sorry.
A 50% scale of 4k is 1080p.
You need to scale by 50% on both the x and y axes.

1080p has a fourth of the pixels, but it is a 50% scale.
According to pretty much all game engines at the very least.

https://image.ibb.co/mS8Qrb/Redout_Screenshot_2018.png
The game at max settings, on PC.
4k90 - 4k100
Using a GTX 1080Ti.

Redout is pretty neat, but it is no F-Zero.

I don't see a problem with the bolded. Not familiar with what goes on on reddit.

Anyone can sue anyone, but the real question is can they win? 

In this case, no, 34bigthings cannot.  To win, they would need to prove that DF had malice when they published the review.  Without malice you can not sue a publication for their mistake.  DF only needs to retract the story once they become aware of the false information; which they have done.

That makes more sense talking about scaling. However if it looks like that picture with that heavy motion blur, I can't tell either if it's 4K or 480p. Why bother rendering it at 3456×1944 if you're going to smear everything out like that :) I guess you can tell by the dithering or whatever the dot patterns are from when you look up close. They definitely should have prioritized fps.

Indeed :)


Anyway all this begs the question, what's the benefit of going to 81% (or 90%) of 4K if even DF didn't notice the difference after all those years staring at pixels on screens.

What Barkley said. Hopefully this is a lesson to Digital Foundry who have pretty much become the standard for technical analysis of games; it is their responsibility to show great due diligence when reporting on these games, as they really can influence perceptions and sales.

I hope now that they've pulled it both sides drop the issue, as I'm pretty sure most people who care about this sort of thing have since learned of the error. If this has hurt anyone at this point, it's likely the trust viewers have in Digital Foundry.

I still love the channel though, and I imagine going forward they'll be even more prudent about avoiding editorializing in favor of accurate technical analysis.

Nobody is suing anyone.
34BigThings is trying to protect themselves and their employees by issuing a corporate level threat to DigitalFoundry.
Think of it like a parent threatening to not buy their screaming toddler sweets.

DigitalFoundry attempts to position themselves as an outlet who delivers absolute facts.
Through hard work and commitment, DF has by now become the defacto single source of video game technical analysis.

It is often the case where the public's perception of a product: can be more important than the factual truth.
With video games, and with resolution especially (something most consumers seem to struggle to be able to accurately quantify): the public perception can become the effective truth.

Think of it like a dictionary:
If enough people start to believe and enforce a definition of a given word, then the dictionary becomes out-of-date.
If we all said tomorrow, that the word "orange" defined a ball of nails: the world's dictionaries would need to be modified to reflect this new reality.

Back to resolution:
Being something that is not easily quantifiable by the average consumer, it is subject to a similar kind of distortion.
DigitalFoundry is the defacto sole source for a console game's rendering resolution, meaning: if left unchecked they can effectively alter the public's reality.

Now that all sounds more or less like crazy talk, and yeah.
But whatever.

What is important to keep in mind is:
DigitalFoundry holds a special position as a truth teller.
People don't really have the ability to definitively quantify a game's pixel count (though I still maintain my position that resolution does matter).
DigitalFoundry can: either accidentally, or purposely write or overwrite a consumer's perception of a title's rendering resolution.
Mass perception is effectively the same thing, as a physical truth.

Taken all I have just written, and the events that has transpired.
34BigThings, threatening to sue DF: is in essence, what we need.
We need something to keep the balance between perception and reality, else we lose sight of it.

Given that, 34BigThings has little choice but to take drastic action, else: their product, their reputation, their livelihood and the livelihoods of their employees.
Are all at risk.

Don't worry we are not a major news outlet.
Our newspaper sales are pathetic.
We barely sell any copies.

You are arguing that DigitalFoundry is not a major news site because they don't have a high Alexa rating.
That is a very short sighted approach.

DigitalFoundry is a part of Eurogamer who, if we go by Alexa ratings is a one the world's top websites.
Global Rank: 1,953
US Rank: 1,146
https://www.alexa.com/siteinfo/eurogamer.net

DigitalFoundry, even if they are not a major news outlet themselves, are a branch of the largest gaming news sites around.
Hell, they are a branch of one of the largest sites around.
If we go by Alexa rankings.

Now, I threw out the post, but you brought up a comparison between DigitalFoundry and ReviewTechUSA.
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC__Oy3QdB3d9_FHO_XG1PZg
Listening to some videos whilst writing this, and wow.
Man, you are making it hard to avoid insulting you.

I am not going to debate you on DigitalFoundry vs ReviewTechUSA, but I am sure my position is clear, [insult goes here].

DigitalFoundry is a respected outlet who is both: respected and quoted, by other, larger, outlets.
Fact.
But again, I am not going to debate you, so I am not going to present evidence, [insult goes here].

Redout: from my experience a game that makes use the GPU to create a highly complicated image, for a video game.
It mixes a low poly art style, with GPU busting effects.

Redout has a lot of post processing effects that obscure edges, at least: on max setting, on PC.

That isn't a very healthy attitude to have.
Just because the title and studio is indie, does not necessarily mean that they are any less capable.
Or has less access to the machine's power.

An indie dev, assuming they know what they are doing could create a scene with a single, simple, object in it.
They could have that scene render at 1080p on the XxX, and still be using the device's full power.
Games today are graphically, very simple.

Looking at the title objectively: Uncharted 4, a game which I have seen been called"next gen", is graphically and visually simple.
Now, that isn't to say it looks bad, Naughty Dog's artists slaved over that game, and it shows.
UC4 looks great because of visual polish, rather than actual graphical complexity (you can only make a game so complex on such weak hardware).
And, I guess I should add that UC4 does have some nice graphical features too (for the current generation), but that is beyond the point.

Redout's visuals are pretty complex (but not incredible), if you look past the low-ploy artstyle.
In short I believe the XxX is more or less being used within 80% of its max.
Sure the developers could probably optimise the code a bit, but the title does look to be pushing hardware pretty hard.

No, sorry.
A 50% scale of 4k is 1080p.
You need to scale by 50% on both the x and y axes.

1080p has a fourth of the pixels, but it is a 50% scale.
According to pretty much all game engines at the very least.

https://image.ibb.co/mS8Qrb/Redout_Screenshot_2018.png
The game at max settings, on PC.
4k90 - 4k100
Using a GTX 1080Ti.

Redout is pretty neat, but it is no F-Zero.

I haven't said that because they are Indie they are bad. I said (and there isn't still any case otherwise) that graphical performance is lesser than AAA, because in fact you need a lot of manpower to put great graphics.

And I haven't seem any complexity, pretty, polish or what else on the game... no problem you love it, but doesn't seem to have any reason to justify running at sub 60fps on X1X when doing basically 1080p and eventually rising to 81% of 4k.