This week's role-playing game “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” is a sequel to “Dragon Age: Inquisition” released in 2014 and relies on the current Frostbite technology. In this sense, the new excursion into the fantasy world benefits from the use of modern graphic features such as ray tracing as well as an improved representation of dynamic environments.
After the general Reviews of “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” published this week, an analysis from Digital Foundry takes a look at the technical aspect.
Graphics modes, resolutions and ray tracing effects
Digital Foundry points out that “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” is a “great looking game,” with “really beautiful environments complete with lush foliage and attractive lighting.” However: In terms of reflections or diffuse global lighting quality, the BioWare RPG “cannot necessarily” keep up with the leaders of this generation, but the overall picture is impressive.
Players choose between two graphics modes on the PS5 and Xbox Series The performance mode of “Dragon Age: The Veilguard”, on the other hand, allows a smoother 60 FPS with a dynamically adjusted resolution of around 720p (lowest value was 504p). Players have to do without ray tracing here.
In the performance test, Fidelity mode impressed with a stable 30 FPS without any frame pacing problems. The performance mode usually achieves a stable 60 FPS, but has occasional drops – slightly more common under load on the Xbox Series X, where increased screen tearing was also observed.
Digital Foundry ultimately recommends performance mode, where the image quality is generally okay despite the frame rate of 60 FPS.
A good result on the Xbox Series S, albeit slimmed down
On the Xbox Series S, “Dragon Age: The Veilguard” is somewhat reduced graphically: ray tracing is not available, and the internal resolution is lower (648p in Fidelity mode and 432p in Performance mode), resulting in a softer image.
Details of the hair engine are also slimmed down to maintain performance. However, in Fidelity mode the frame rate remains solid at 30 FPS, while in Performance mode there are occasional fluctuations when traversing environments and watching cutscenes. Here the values are often below 60 FPS.
Another point of analysis is dedicated to the character editor. According to Digital Foundry, it offers “lots of character design options without being overwhelming.” The exaggerated features would also ensure that the characters do not become… “Uncanny Valley” slip off.
In conclusion, Digital Foundry emphasizes: “I don't think Dragon Age fans will be disappointed with Veilguard. And I don't think console gamers will be disappointed either. BioWare's latest RPG looks and plays great. It offers a solid technical experience on current console hardware.”
Digital Foundry's full report on Dragon Age: The Veilguard's technical performance you can find it here.
Further news about “Dragon Age: The Veilguard”:
“Dragon Age: The Veilguard” will be released on October 31, 2024 for PC, PS5 and Xbox Series X/S. According to the developers, players can look forward to an extensive role-playing experience that should last around 40 hours if only the main story is followed.
Further news about Dragon Age: The Veilguard.
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