I have KEF speakers so have the Uni-Q point-source driver setup which works miracles for surround sound stereo imaging in games like this. Those whispers sound surreal and immersive. I have planar headphones but they are currently sat on my desk with some epoxy curing as I modded the headband...
Using DLDSR at 5160x2160 the 4090 really gets a workout. At max settings it's 56fps using DLAA, with DLSS Quality it rises to 85fps average with the high 90s in other areas. That's with frame gen off. I notice that with the mouse I can tell there's input latency when using either frame gen so...
It's not a huge issue once you use DLAA for example but in cutscenes it's always there, and there seem to be many cutscenes lol. In gameplay it can easily be ignored (so far).
Played the first 45 mins and just reached Castle Kenada. Very very impressive, the combat is actually intuitive once you do the tutorial section and learn the parry/doge and other bits of sword smithery.
I may not refund this after all lol.
Technical observations:
ALL rendering methods...
Endgame XM2we here and it's awesome, lightweight and the battery lasts ages. No need to install companion apps but there is a utility that doesn't t run in the BG, useful for setting the DI range etc.
Best of all, it's not an expensive mouse....
Bit of a rabbit hole since my last post, now have a dedicated headphones amp, and bought the HiFiMAN Sundara, then returned them and got the Ananda Nano and oh man, the soundstage and imaging of this is a dream. That and the low bass extension of planars of this size, and I don't mean that...
Reinstall windows? Good joke.
The traversal hitching is now completely gone as of the latest patch and nvidia driver update which triggered a new full shader recompilation on launch of the game.
Normal is harder than most games on hard, so no, very hard is going to give even gaming vets a challenge from what I've seen. Even playing on easy you are likely to die a few times when met with a horde of different classed machines lol.
Frame hitching is evident more and more later in the game as you progress past 20% I've found. Before this is was basically hitch-free.
Here's what I mean, it's traversal stutter basically as you can repeat it simply back tracking the same area where the hitches happen...
1 hour of gameplay at the start at 5160x2160 flicking between DLAA and DLSS Quality:
https://youtu.be/_rdeh23BDFE
But I think I prefer 3440x1440 DLAA/DLSS as the base framerate is obviously higher so panning camera motion is smoother:
https://youtu.be/cXr9mmcYWz0
Not unheard of. QUite a few modern games look better with DLSS than native due to how DLSS works (specifically the output stage where image reconstruction is done and the detail sharpening). Cyberpunk is the same for example.