Love these casual interviews directly to people involved in the tech. DF always brings questions that are deeper than surface level and then you get some awesome responses from the devs!
These interviews with the engine developers and those with insights into how the game technically functions are my favorite! I don’t know of any other outlets where we get this perspective. Thanks to DF and Mike here for a great interview!
You would probably like the Game Maker's Notebook which is often hosted by the founder and president of Insomniac, Ted Price funnily enough. It's a podcast where they interview a game developer about a game they worked on.
With the state of some recent releases I don't know if the devs would agree to it, but it would be awesome. There's probably so much that could be unpacked in an interview with someone from Jedi Survivor, or Redfall. I bet it would it actually help user appreciation of games with technical difficulties to see this sort of breakdown of areas in those games where they had technical success as well as any info into the difficulties. Whether it came down to time and budget, or some other technical compromises that had to be made, it would be cool to here more about the how/why.
@@Ko5m0 It's clear from JS having the same issues as J:FO and then some that no one at Respawn making engine decisions even watches DF, much less would agree to an interview.
@@Ko5m0I would LOVE to hear directly from some devs on those disaster games. And stuff like Immortals of Aveum, where it's not exact a disaster but still a highly controversial release because of how heavy it is to run.
@TheDarksideFNothing Immortals of Aveum most certainly does not look good enough to warrant the hardware needed. The only UE5 game that looks good is Lords of the Fallen.
Playstation Studios games are really more like AAAA rather than standard triple-A. The quality of the product is most of the times on a league of its own. This is what dedication and proper optimization on closed hardware can create. This is true coding. Not throwing stuff and hoping hardware will brute force any performance issues that may arise.
30:00 To hear him talk about creative ways their team comes up with to take advantage of the PS5 and this game to the next level is incredible. Insomniac has some of the best talent in the business and you can feel and see that craft and creativity in their games, especially now with Spider-Man 2, what a great interview John.
Please keep these types of interviews with the studios and GPU architects coming. Great info and always fun to see how many of the folks being interviewed look back to DF for your analysis on their games. 🖤
How can one person have so much professional knowledge in so many different aspects of a game? Amazing interview I love listening to technical deep dives like this !
Insomniac might be technically the most skilled game dev around in this day and age. To get that amount of graphical fidelity and performance out of PS5 is quite staggering.
@@Miguel_NoetherI'm sure you mean Guerilla Games that created the Horizon games? 😊. And yes Forbidden West is absolutely drop dead gorgeous, one if not the most insane game I've ever seen ♥️. Sony definitely have mega talented developers. Like Santa Monica Studio to mention another one ♥️. But what Insomniac Games created with Spider-Man on PS4 and now Miles Morales, Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart (which felt like playing an actual animated game, just wow) on PS5 is also absolutely insane on every level given the specs they have to play with. But it's exactly what I want from this generation of games and I'm so glad I get to experience this ♥️.
Last of Us and Horizon Forbidden West exist too, fact is Sony has very talented studios under them, they are all the best out there, and this is what will edge out Playstation over Xbox.
@@ep1cn3ss2 Yeah, and the new God of War games are made with single continuous shot (of course there are hidden loading screens between transitions, etc. but still). But I would say that what Insomniac is doing with for example 60fps ray tracing modes and with fast transitions on the in-game map or seamlessly between different worlds etc, is quite remarkable.
I love this type of video. I wish you could do it more often with devs. To really get an understanding of how they did things is really neat for a person who has no clue about that sort of stuff.
@@90lancaster The don’t watch them. When the interviews over inside into tech, they are completely relevant. Watch the video about Ori 2 and how the devs managed to make it run and look as good as it does on Switch. Amazing insight into, guess what, tech. If you only want tech news and reviews, then watch those. There are people who are interested in tech that want a deeper dive.
It's really wild the sheer amount of effort they put into making things like pop-in virtually unnoticeable here with incredible detail everywhere you look. Meanwhile Sonic Frontiers came out last year and seemingly didn't even bother having imposters or low res versions of floating structures. They would just completely disappear and reappear in plain sight at fairly short distances.
Shimmering and shader aliasing of the Xbox One/PS4 generation and 360/PS3 was my most detested "feature." TAA was a godsend, though it has it's faults like blurriness and ghosting. But pop in is a near 2nd. Some games are worst than others, and sometimes it's tolerable, especially in older games. But I don't get it in a modern title. So many tricks at this point.@@Tanzu15
It turned out the reason for this was because they kept the values the same across all platforms. It was using the Switch as a base for pop-in and such
The simple concept of having much more dynamic and responsive data streaming is kinda insane. That can be a game changer for basically every single fast paced game out there lol Such a simple idea and implementation and yet it feels so innovative and transformative lol Loved hearing that part!
The idea of having "more dynamic and responsive" data streaming isn't some new concept/game changer, that's literally been the goal of advancing data streaming since computers have been around
Watching this 6 months after the game launch, finished the game yesterday. I have found a new level of appreciation for Insomniac Games. Good job guys!
As a software engineer, developing data science and testing tools, this video was extremely interesting! I see alot of similarities f.e. with the character animations. We use similar tricks for database row comparisons. We develop tools that have to compare data rows with each other really fast. The kind of thinking to solve our problems is really similar how a game programmer would have to think to solve problems.
John, I love this new approach. DF getting away from console wars and getting the player closer to the developer is a great format! You did it with starfield, forza and now Spider-Man! Keep it going. It’s become disgusting and disrespectful at how under appreciative the users have become in the name of console warring. All focus on “bugs” instead of celebrating achievements and gaming in general.
Legit me bro. I've never played a Batman game(tried them but just couldn't get into them) also I don't watch marvel or DC superhero stuff but as soon as I saw the 2018 Spiderman I knew I had to get my hands on it and having finished both now I wanna get my hands on this so bad but I don't own a PS5. There's something about Spiderman that tickles my senses😂
It's great to hear these interviews, thanks for making these happen as it's great to get an insight on the kind of things dev's do to create these magical experiences we get to play. Bravo!
really enjoyed hearing from mike last go around for ratchet and it's great to hear what's new in spiderman 2! can't wait to hear from him when wolverine comes out!
As someone who lives in a Manhattan hi-rise....if you look in different windows across from you, it is not much variation especially to layouts. Insomniac did a great job with the interior solution to windows. 32 variations is more than enough lol.
The detail improvement between the pre-release trailer and the final game is shocking. I remember seeing the trailer and noticing that it wasn't clean but Insomniac cut no corners...
I love that instead of saying they "couldn't" do something they found creative ways to get it done and push the technology at the same time. Major props, especially when these days devs aren't optimizing and are relying soley on upscalers for performance increases.
That “devs are using upscaling instead of optimising” mantra is getting old. I would hope that people watching DF content know that there is more nuance to the issue.
I have bad news op, Spider Man uses upscaling to help optimize, the same as every game these days. Upscaling is here to stay. It doesn't matter if the studio is held in high regard or not.
@@ArielCleirighXbox Series X is just as RT capable as PS5. Stop this fanboy nonsense. Both are good pieces of hardware and to be honest they’re mostly the same thing.
I love how involved and knowledgeable Mike seems to be about the inner workings of the game. This is how it sounds when they have the time and budget to get basically everything done right.
This was a wonderful interview, very insightful! I have one little nit-pick (I'm so sorry!) I feel like when videos do comparisons side by side they usually put the inferior version on the left and the better version on the right, because we naturally read from left to right, but it pickled my brain a little bit when it was the other way round in this vid! Anyway, as I said, great video, thank you very much :)
Great interview. Insomniac and Remedy are two companies that are really pushing current gen hard and showing that these systems can do a hell of a lot more than just last gen titles in high res/refresh mode.
@@robfhonestly, in-house seems to be the way to go for quality looking at how shit UE5 has been on console and PC. Even Space Marine 2 looks to have that wow factor and it falls in the proprietary category too.
@robf EXPENSIVE and HARD AS FUCK. Like you said, it's a feather in the cap of the devs going that route. Honestly, Mike strikes me as incredibly humble considering the mountains they've moved to make some of this tech work at playable levels. I'm incredibly excited to see what they accomplish in Wolverine. UE5 has legitimate issues in the coding. It is going to take an incredibly skilled development team to rewrite those portions of the engine and squeeze out a title that can move past its shortcomings. That, or Epic, need to quit adding features and focus on cleaning up. It could be amazing, but it's rough around the edges where it stands.
One of the things i really arpeciate is how much they also care for photo mode and trying to make the game look as good as possible for your pictures. One of the interesting things that i noticed happening since Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales and specially in Spider-Man 2 is that certain graphic options and toggles are set for the performance mode, because you want more frames, but for a picture that is static you'd want the ones from fidelity, things like hair model, reflections, all of those and more get an extra toggle in quality once you go into photo mode and to do all that on the fly considering the player can just press a button and the game needs to show all those extra things at that instant is really cool. Props to all those who have made this game be what it is today and the people currently working on the improvements and fixes! Don't know if any insomniac dev will read this since its a couple of weeks old but: You're the real heroes!
During nightime when you climb up to the highest point possible and look down on the city, it looks absolutely insane with every building windows light up.
Insomniac are so good their "bullshots" are worse than the actual game. This is exactly the opposite of the industry standard. Games normally never look as good as the trailer...
I really like these types of interviews if developers are able to give them! It is helpful to hear from different industry professionals how they are implementing new technologies. Great video!
Me either but I’m okay waiting a few years for it so it’s finished. Cause they are really only starting to now put real focus on it. I think it’s gonna be linear so with how efficient insomniac are I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s released late 2024. Insomniac really seems to be going for quality over quantity but with doing that are able to keep putting out bangers pretty much every year.
Wolverine might be the best case for RTGI, lots of roughness and non reflective surfaces is to be expected with the bit of rain and water here and there. Very cool, always exciting to hear approaches to the problems, the build interiors might be my favorite. Great showcase for Ray Tracing outside from the typical headline stuff, no wasted rays.
Lmao I smell you, until they reach a 3080-3090 with 5800X (hopingly V-cache) its gonna be a point of constant choosing to remain quality and performant all-round. 3080 level RT/Raster is my avg target for all features turned-on with good resolution and 60fps. I'm usually right about these things, track recording looking almost flawless. Hardware age of course but there comes a point where you can do most things just fine like ending of PS4-Gen. Now RT knocks on the door to reset It for PS5 @spaghebbio
@@ItsAkile not happening on an AMD apu anytime soon, the 7900XTX is power hungry as hell and just barely matches a 3080 in RT. No way that gets boiled down into a console anytime in the next 2 years.
@spaghebbio Unless a PS5 pro triples performance it isn't happening. After playing Spiderman 2 It's very apparent the sacrifices they had to make in order to get character/hero detail up to par. The games great lighting and RT covers a lot of it up but if you really pay attention you can see the limitations of the hardware very clearly. it's even worse in performance mode as even with reduced quality the game requires HEAVY AI upsampling to get 60 fps. Insomniac did an incredible job up against the very limits of the console hardware. They are a classy team.
I loved how the rain is rendered in this game, droplets being properly lit by different sources and seemingly changing their speed and direction as you swing around. Looks terrific. Wish there were more raining segments where I could just freeroam.
I hope we get some day and night cycle for the game with some weather effects. The Snow in Miles Morales was awesome! Spiderman 2 on a technology standpoint its amazing for what it can achieve on the PS5. Hope this comes to PC also!
Awesome interview. I'm not a tech-savvy person, but when there's passionate studios always pushing the envelope, it's great to hear the coverage to get more studios inspired and hopefully deliver good games.
Awesome interview, love how the discussions were weaved in and out of the core tech/features of the game. Kudos to Insomniac's teams for such a wonderfully crafted technical beast of a game!
Amazing video. All of John’s stuff is always great, but props to Mike for letting us non-devs get a bit of a peek behind the curtain, it was fascinating. I never would’ve imagined that animation streaming was a thing.
This is truly impeccable content. This is as good or even better than a behind-the-scenes interview with the ILM team behind a big blockbuster in the 90s. I'm in awe and so interested in how they pulled this off.
Imagine the feeling you would get after finishing a monumental game like Marvels Spider-Man 2 and FINALLY being able to talk about it to the public. Must be a huge high and relief at the same time
Love how proud he is of his team it’s incredible how much effort from so many brilliant people it takes to build this tech. I am so excited about other games coming out on this engine
Since I’ve only got a series x, pc will be my only potential alternative. But huge kudos to insomniac and there smart pipeline delivery on this game. Truly an accomplishment and a reminder to other studios that if they can achieve this then similar hardware should be capable of this. Awesome interview
I think many companies care about quality, but that usually takes too long and nothing gets shipped. Insomniac does BOTH, ship a lot of games and all of them have great quality. This is what makes them so valueable for Sony. Just think about how Sony 1st party PS5 output would look without Insomniac...
Do one with the folks at remedy when AW2 releases! Really interested in their view on series s and the 60fps mode on consoles since it appears to be extremely demanding.
The 40 fps mode with the open VRR framerate is sooo good ,bravo insomniac. Insane graphics with minimal popin . I wish more studios would offer the 40 fps modes . The PS5 at its finest for sure 👌
It's been a long time since the last breakdown of Star Citizen, we need a new breakdown on the shiny new Star Engine that was demoed at Citizen Con 2023! that thing is just gorgeous
So.. 2 graphical modes (fidelity ,performance) X 2 120 hz modes (on/off) X 3 VRR modes (smooth,uncapped,off) = 12 modes, all with RT Another game (which we shall not say its name) - single 30fps mode, no RT, because of "creative choice"
To be fair, spider-man in 2018 and Ratchet and Clank in 2021 both had upgrades from their initial showing. So it's unusual from the rest of the industry, but is familiar ground with Insomniac
that tech for interiors is insane. Mindblowing how they are able to do that on top of raytraced reflections + secondary reflections at 60 FPS on a console
Yes. I’m glad y’all did this I’ve been looking forward to something like this since demon souls remake. Y’all should do this for all the big game releases. It’s just as interesting as the performance and graphic evaluations you do
John brought up the custom Atmos mastering they did and yeah they really outdid themselves in this department (on top of everything else that they did so well). Last night I played through the encounter with the Lizard in the sewers and the whole sequence was just a master class in positional audio. Those with ceiling speakers (or even floor to ceiling firing setups) are gonna be in for a treat.
They really did great with the positional audio when it comes to atmos. Even if it's a static mix they really utilised the tempest in the best possible way and really set a benchmark on how tempest should be used in mastering. Sadly, the LFE is really lacking. With almost no content under about 35hz. I made a peak measure of the whole beginning section with Sandman with REW EQ and umik-1 and found that after 35hz it dropped like a stone... Nevertheless. Other audio stuff is top notch.
Oh man this was great! Would love to hear from more devs on these advanced next gen games. Project RED devs are on my wishlist lol. Remedy would be awesome too.
Sacrificing the owner of Spiderman's inventor rights The character thief makes him Exclusive, basically this superhero is the superhero of a million people
I love content like this, it'd be great to hear more developers explain how things work as it gives a much deeper appreciation for what a monumental acheivement games like this really are. I'm really pleased that John made a point to focus on the audio rendering on this one too. I only very recently reconfigured my AVR and home cinema from 7.1 to a 5.1.2 Atmos setup after the last PS5 system update that added Atmos output from it's Tempest Engine, and I have to say, this game blew me away with the sound placement. I'm the kind of player that spends as much time standing around and appreciating the artistry as I do blazing through the environment as fast as I can. One scene that stood out to me particularly was the Coney Island section. The soundscape of that scene is phenomenally immersive from what's happening all around, but with fireworks and rides above the character to, I could hear things going on above me. 3D audio through headphones is alright, but a full on surround sound system with discrete audio channels and Atmos decoding is incredible. I've spent years building up my dream home cinema system (on a budget) and it's been worth it to see and experience openworld games like Spider-Man 2 and Horizon Forbidden West in their full majesty. I feel like we're finally getting to see what current gen is capable of now the shackles of PS4 are being thrown off.
Love these casual interviews directly to people involved in the tech. DF always brings questions that are deeper than surface level and then you get some awesome responses from the devs!
if only they would keep their personal preferences out of the objective data *cough*alex*cough*
Sub-surface. With scattering
Does this video have any spoilers? Really want to watch this as I'm very interested in the tech in this game.
I hope they have a interview with the diversity synchronization commissars next! *fingers crossed
Totally, love DF interviews with tech folk. Hate when random popular TH-camr gets an interview and asks dumb questions
These interviews with the engine developers and those with insights into how the game technically functions are my favorite! I don’t know of any other outlets where we get this perspective. Thanks to DF and Mike here for a great interview!
You would probably like the Game Maker's Notebook which is often hosted by the founder and president of Insomniac, Ted Price funnily enough. It's a podcast where they interview a game developer about a game they worked on.
@@lukep98thank you for bringing this to my attention!
Skillups channel also did this with one of their developers.
Would love to see more dev interview for releases always enjoy the peek behind the curtain
With the state of some recent releases I don't know if the devs would agree to it, but it would be awesome. There's probably so much that could be unpacked in an interview with someone from Jedi Survivor, or Redfall. I bet it would it actually help user appreciation of games with technical difficulties to see this sort of breakdown of areas in those games where they had technical success as well as any info into the difficulties. Whether it came down to time and budget, or some other technical compromises that had to be made, it would be cool to here more about the how/why.
@@Ko5m0 It's clear from JS having the same issues as J:FO and then some that no one at Respawn making engine decisions even watches DF, much less would agree to an interview.
@@Ko5m0After DF tore both games apart for being so buggy and unoptimized, I doubt the developers would accept an interview with them.
@@Ko5m0I would LOVE to hear directly from some devs on those disaster games.
And stuff like Immortals of Aveum, where it's not exact a disaster but still a highly controversial release because of how heavy it is to run.
@TheDarksideFNothing
Immortals of Aveum most certainly does not look good enough to warrant the hardware needed. The only UE5 game that looks good is Lords of the Fallen.
Playstation Studios games are really more like AAAA rather than standard triple-A. The quality of the product is most of the times on a league of its own. This is what dedication and proper optimization on closed hardware can create. This is true coding. Not throwing stuff and hoping hardware will brute force any performance issues that may arise.
True ❤
30:00 To hear him talk about creative ways their team comes up with to take advantage of the PS5 and this game to the next level is incredible. Insomniac has some of the best talent in the business and you can feel and see that craft and creativity in their games, especially now with Spider-Man 2, what a great interview John.
Please keep these types of interviews with the studios and GPU architects coming. Great info and always fun to see how many of the folks being interviewed look back to DF for your analysis on their games. 🖤
How can one person have so much professional knowledge in so many different aspects of a game? Amazing interview I love listening to technical deep dives like this !
Insomniac might be technically the most skilled game dev around in this day and age. To get that amount of graphical fidelity and performance out of PS5 is quite staggering.
Horizon: are we a joke to you?
@@Miguel_NoetherI'm sure you mean Guerilla Games that created the Horizon games? 😊. And yes Forbidden West is absolutely drop dead gorgeous, one if not the most insane game I've ever seen ♥️. Sony definitely have mega talented developers. Like Santa Monica Studio to mention another one ♥️. But what Insomniac Games created with Spider-Man on PS4 and now Miles Morales, Spider-Man 2 and Ratchet & Clank Rift Apart (which felt like playing an actual animated game, just wow) on PS5 is also absolutely insane on every level given the specs they have to play with. But it's exactly what I want from this generation of games and I'm so glad I get to experience this ♥️.
Last of Us and Horizon Forbidden West exist too, fact is Sony has very talented studios under them, they are all the best out there, and this is what will edge out Playstation over Xbox.
@@ep1cn3ss2 Yeah, and the new God of War games are made with single continuous shot (of course there are hidden loading screens between transitions, etc. but still). But I would say that what Insomniac is doing with for example 60fps ray tracing modes and with fast transitions on the in-game map or seamlessly between different worlds etc, is quite remarkable.
@@AJtheSwedeI think horizon looks better.
I love this type of video. I wish you could do it more often with devs.
To really get an understanding of how they did things is really neat for a person who has no clue about that sort of stuff.
Excuse you but the only dev we need to hear from is KING PHIL SPENCER!
@@mitchelljenkins4815😂🤣
this is a tech channel after all, stick to the tech, Interviews I can do without.
@@90lancaster
The don’t watch them.
When the interviews over inside into tech, they are completely relevant.
Watch the video about Ori 2 and how the devs managed to make it run and look as good as it does on Switch.
Amazing insight into, guess what, tech.
If you only want tech news and reviews, then watch those.
There are people who are interested in tech that want a deeper dive.
@@90lancaster It's an interview about the tech though. Clearly its relevant.
It's really wild the sheer amount of effort they put into making things like pop-in virtually unnoticeable here with incredible detail everywhere you look. Meanwhile Sonic Frontiers came out last year and seemingly didn't even bother having imposters or low res versions of floating structures. They would just completely disappear and reappear in plain sight at fairly short distances.
Yes oh my god. I detest pop in, in any game: and this game from start to finish had no pop in noticeable at all. It was glorious.
Shimmering and shader aliasing of the Xbox One/PS4 generation and 360/PS3 was my most detested "feature." TAA was a godsend, though it has it's faults like blurriness and ghosting. But pop in is a near 2nd. Some games are worst than others, and sometimes it's tolerable, especially in older games. But I don't get it in a modern title. So many tricks at this point.@@Tanzu15
the grass pop-in at central park is still pretty bad but besides that its great
It turned out the reason for this was because they kept the values the same across all platforms. It was using the Switch as a base for pop-in and such
Insomniac dont have to release its games on Switch hardware for starters. Also ST doesnt have Insomniac budget...
Awesome interview and so many fascinating insights here. Shout out to John for asking GREAT questions.
This game is a technical achievement, and this interview is truly awesome. Great work, John.
The simple concept of having much more dynamic and responsive data streaming is kinda insane. That can be a game changer for basically every single fast paced game out there lol
Such a simple idea and implementation and yet it feels so innovative and transformative lol Loved hearing that part!
The idea of having "more dynamic and responsive" data streaming isn't some new concept/game changer, that's literally been the goal of advancing data streaming since computers have been around
Watching this 6 months after the game launch, finished the game yesterday. I have found a new level of appreciation for Insomniac Games. Good job guys!
As a software engineer, developing data science and testing tools, this video was extremely interesting! I see alot of similarities f.e. with the character animations. We use similar tricks for database row comparisons. We develop tools that have to compare data rows with each other really fast. The kind of thinking to solve our problems is really similar how a game programmer would have to think to solve problems.
John, I love this new approach. DF getting away from console wars and getting the player closer to the developer is a great format! You did it with starfield, forza and now Spider-Man! Keep it going. It’s become disgusting and disrespectful at how under appreciative the users have become in the name of console warring. All focus on “bugs” instead of celebrating achievements and gaming in general.
We need more console war stuff
100% agree. Please more of this!
What is there to celebrate when Starfield with the best hardware in the world give problems?
Df doesn't console war. I have a switch, pc, and ps5. It's nice to have Df informing me on how games perform on each platform.
@@dante19890Especially the DF Retro long plays where they play a game of multiple platforms.
I'm not into superhero stuff, but Insomniac is definitely putting out impressive work
Just think of it as a ninja fighter and don't miss out on a great game because of a category you put the game into
Dismissingh the game because of "superhero stuff" is really a big mistake.
Legit me bro. I've never played a Batman game(tried them but just couldn't get into them) also I don't watch marvel or DC superhero stuff but as soon as I saw the 2018 Spiderman I knew I had to get my hands on it and having finished both now I wanna get my hands on this so bad but I don't own a PS5. There's something about Spiderman that tickles my senses😂
It's bad. It has some major bugs and issues and is loaded with political propaganda.
Yea I’m not into superhero stuff either but these games are absolutely brilliant.
It's great to hear these interviews, thanks for making these happen as it's great to get an insight on the kind of things dev's do to create these magical experiences we get to play. Bravo!
really enjoyed hearing from mike last go around for ratchet and it's great to hear what's new in spiderman 2! can't wait to hear from him when wolverine comes out!
love interviews with the engineers
Nice feature! I was glued. The asset streaming they've pulled off is wicked impressive.
Great breakdown of this game by Linneman and Mike, thanks, DF.
So that’s why they have ray tracing in every mode now because it’s required to render the rooms through windows that’s impressive
I enjoyed your interview with Mike back when Ratched & Clank Rift Apart released! This is a pleasant surprise!
As someone who lives in a Manhattan hi-rise....if you look in different windows across from you, it is not much variation especially to layouts. Insomniac did a great job with the interior solution to windows. 32 variations is more than enough lol.
The detail improvement between the pre-release trailer and the final game is shocking. I remember seeing the trailer and noticing that it wasn't clean but Insomniac cut no corners...
Spider-Man 2 is a MASTERPIECE!!! Great interview!
I love that instead of saying they "couldn't" do something they found creative ways to get it done and push the technology at the same time. Major props, especially when these days devs aren't optimizing and are relying soley on upscalers for performance increases.
That “devs are using upscaling instead of optimising” mantra is getting old. I would hope that people watching DF content know that there is more nuance to the issue.
I have bad news op, Spider Man uses upscaling to help optimize, the same as every game these days.
Upscaling is here to stay. It doesn't matter if the studio is held in high regard or not.
Absolute tech wizards over there at Insomniac.
The ray tracing is actually amazing and kinda unique
Get a PC 😂
@@ShobucKnot everyone likes to play on pc. 🙂
@ShobucK normally I'd agree . But pc ports are abysmal . If only every game supported cross save.
But xbox games do Not know what raytracing is, its Funny.
@@ArielCleirighXbox Series X is just as RT capable as PS5. Stop this fanboy nonsense. Both are good pieces of hardware and to be honest they’re mostly the same thing.
Its like revealing magic tricks. Well, almost exacty that. Cool they can work with one piece of hardware and know the goalposts from the beginning
3:03 - LOL! Look at that door inside the building!
I can’t get over how big the map feels I always forget there is an entire other part of the city across the bridge
Sometimes I was in Brooklyn being amazed how big it was then going up on a roof and realizing I wasn’t in manhattan 🤣
I love how involved and knowledgeable Mike seems to be about the inner workings of the game. This is how it sounds when they have the time and budget to get basically everything done right.
Kudos to Insomniac AND DF. You guys are the best! Thank you ❤
Great video John! Glad to see Mike come back and talk tech with you agian. Very informative!
This was a wonderful interview, very insightful! I have one little nit-pick (I'm so sorry!) I feel like when videos do comparisons side by side they usually put the inferior version on the left and the better version on the right, because we naturally read from left to right, but it pickled my brain a little bit when it was the other way round in this vid! Anyway, as I said, great video, thank you very much :)
i did not hate it, but initially it caused mini brain stutters ^^
Great interview. Insomniac and Remedy are two companies that are really pushing current gen hard and showing that these systems can do a hell of a lot more than just last gen titles in high res/refresh mode.
@@robfI agree🔥💪🏾
@@robfhonestly, in-house seems to be the way to go for quality looking at how shit UE5 has been on console and PC. Even Space Marine 2 looks to have that wow factor and it falls in the proprietary category too.
@robf EXPENSIVE and HARD AS FUCK. Like you said, it's a feather in the cap of the devs going that route. Honestly, Mike strikes me as incredibly humble considering the mountains they've moved to make some of this tech work at playable levels. I'm incredibly excited to see what they accomplish in Wolverine.
UE5 has legitimate issues in the coding. It is going to take an incredibly skilled development team to rewrite those portions of the engine and squeeze out a title that can move past its shortcomings. That, or Epic, need to quit adding features and focus on cleaning up. It could be amazing, but it's rough around the edges where it stands.
9:13 this shot alone says alot about how well raytracing was implemented in this masterpiece.
One of the things i really arpeciate is how much they also care for photo mode and trying to make the game look as good as possible for your pictures. One of the interesting things that i noticed happening since Spider-Man Remastered and Miles Morales and specially in Spider-Man 2 is that certain graphic options and toggles are set for the performance mode, because you want more frames, but for a picture that is static you'd want the ones from fidelity, things like hair model, reflections, all of those and more get an extra toggle in quality once you go into photo mode and to do all that on the fly considering the player can just press a button and the game needs to show all those extra things at that instant is really cool.
Props to all those who have made this game be what it is today and the people currently working on the improvements and fixes! Don't know if any insomniac dev will read this since its a couple of weeks old but: You're the real heroes!
Really enjoyed this interview! 💯
During nightime when you climb up to the highest point possible and look down on the city, it looks absolutely insane with every building windows light up.
Insomniac are so good their "bullshots" are worse than the actual game. This is exactly the opposite of the industry standard. Games normally never look as good as the trailer...
I really like these types of interviews if developers are able to give them! It is helpful to hear from different industry professionals how they are implementing new technologies. Great video!
I can't wait for Wolverine. Just saying.
I almost completely forgot. The efficiency of their development pipeline is insane🤯
Me either but I’m okay waiting a few years for it so it’s finished. Cause they are really only starting to now put real focus on it. I think it’s gonna be linear so with how efficient insomniac are I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s released late 2024. Insomniac really seems to be going for quality over quantity but with doing that are able to keep putting out bangers pretty much every year.
@ayourmum8521 Insomniac chose to go with quality and quantity these past few years.
Why? They’re just gonna turn it into Wokeverine
Thanks!
Nice too see the art of optimisation still exist in a few studios, can’t wait for this on PC, respect!
08:56 I mean... its just beautiful... feels so real...
Wolverine might be the best case for RTGI, lots of roughness and non reflective surfaces is to be expected with the bit of rain and water here and there. Very cool, always exciting to hear approaches to the problems, the build interiors might be my favorite. Great showcase for Ray Tracing outside from the typical headline stuff, no wasted rays.
Lmao I smell you, until they reach a 3080-3090 with 5800X (hopingly V-cache) its gonna be a point of constant choosing to remain quality and performant all-round. 3080 level RT/Raster is my avg target for all features turned-on with good resolution and 60fps. I'm usually right about these things, track recording looking almost flawless. Hardware age of course but there comes a point where you can do most things just fine like ending of PS4-Gen. Now RT knocks on the door to reset It for PS5 @spaghebbio
@@ItsAkile not happening on an AMD apu anytime soon, the 7900XTX is power hungry as hell and just barely matches a 3080 in RT. No way that gets boiled down into a console anytime in the next 2 years.
u kinda need a more linear game to pull that off
@spaghebbio
Unless a PS5 pro triples performance it isn't happening. After playing Spiderman 2 It's very apparent the sacrifices they had to make in order to get character/hero detail up to par.
The games great lighting and RT covers a lot of it up but if you really pay attention you can see the limitations of the hardware very clearly. it's even worse in performance mode as even with reduced quality the game requires HEAVY AI upsampling to get 60 fps.
Insomniac did an incredible job up against the very limits of the console hardware. They are a classy team.
Exactly, Wolverine is set to be a more linear experience they said. we'll see@@dante19890
I loved how the rain is rendered in this game, droplets being properly lit by different sources and seemingly changing their speed and direction as you swing around. Looks terrific. Wish there were more raining segments where I could just freeroam.
I hope we get some day and night cycle for the game with some weather effects. The Snow in Miles Morales was awesome! Spiderman 2 on a technology standpoint its amazing for what it can achieve on the PS5. Hope this comes to PC also!
Awesome interview. I'm not a tech-savvy person, but when there's passionate studios always pushing the envelope, it's great to hear the coverage to get more studios inspired and hopefully deliver good games.
Very professional interview
Great interview, and thanks for bringing up audio, great to hear more about the way Insomniac approached it!
Platinumed it in 31 hours. Im already ready to play it again, need that new game+ now.
I love this format John, you should interview devs more often!! Very insightful.
Insomniac games is the biggest bargain acquisition in the history of video games that I know of. Well worth more than what Sony paid for.
Awesome interview, love how the discussions were weaved in and out of the core tech/features of the game. Kudos to Insomniac's teams for such a wonderfully crafted technical beast of a game!
This is great. I would love to see more Developer interviews.
Amazing video.
All of John’s stuff is always great, but props to Mike for letting us non-devs get a bit of a peek behind the curtain, it was fascinating. I never would’ve imagined that animation streaming was a thing.
Damn Paul Rudd really knows his stuff
Loved this so far! (halfway through) Its always cool seeing the devs talk about the tech behind the game.
Moar! Moar of the tech interviews! They are so cool and informative and also seeing the human side of the developers is nice! 😍
this is a golden video MIKE THANK YOU for being here and John, awesome as always.
Loved this interview. Hopefully you do more of these! 👏🏾♥️💪🏾
This is truly impeccable content. This is as good or even better than a behind-the-scenes interview with the ILM team behind a big blockbuster in the 90s. I'm in awe and so interested in how they pulled this off.
Imagine the feeling you would get after finishing a monumental game like Marvels Spider-Man 2 and FINALLY being able to talk about it to the public. Must be a huge high and relief at the same time
Love how proud he is of his team it’s incredible how much effort from so many brilliant people it takes to build this tech. I am so excited about other games coming out on this engine
I just wish they bring back the Resistance Fall of Man franchise with an updated overhaul of graphics and RT the Game would be SOO SICK.
Dude. More of these please! What a fascinating conversation!
Since I’ve only got a series x, pc will be my only potential alternative. But huge kudos to insomniac and there smart pipeline delivery on this game. Truly an accomplishment and a reminder to other studios that if they can achieve this then similar hardware should be capable of this. Awesome interview
I was so excited to hear some of the optimizations they were able to put together creatively.
This kind of stuff gets me pumped.
It is so nice to see that there is still a company that cares deeply about the quality of their games.
Larian right? Yeah great devs!
Tango Game works right? Yeah, great devs.
EA Motive right? Yeah, great devs.
Avalanche software right? Yeah, great devs
I think many companies care about quality, but that usually takes too long and nothing gets shipped.
Insomniac does BOTH, ship a lot of games and all of them have great quality. This is what makes them so valueable for Sony. Just think about how Sony 1st party PS5 output would look without Insomniac...
Wow, the window interiors is such a cool way of using Raytracing. I never would have imagined.
I'm not really qualified to make a good opinion on this but damn I love the genius problem solving!
Love that DF conducts these interviews. It's a service to the gaming community because we get a snapshot in time of the tech behind the games
Thank you DF!
The complexity and that there is so much room for creative solutions in modern game development and how they achieve it. Fascinating.
Do one with the folks at remedy when AW2 releases!
Really interested in their view on series s and the 60fps mode on consoles since it appears to be extremely demanding.
Insomniac is so impressive. How prolific they are with the level of quality they put out is unmatched right now.
Flying around with the webwings has me wanting Insomniac to make a Superman game they are probably the only Dev studio who could make one.
The 40 fps mode with the open VRR framerate is sooo good ,bravo insomniac. Insane graphics with minimal popin . I wish more studios would offer the 40 fps modes . The PS5 at its finest for sure 👌
At some point would love to hear re bugs and glitches that are unlike insomniac but are very prevalent in this game.
Absolutely insane dude. I can't even imagine all the sanding involved in this one lol! I love how it all comes apart / goes together, very modular! 🤘
It's been a long time since the last breakdown of Star Citizen, we need a new breakdown on the shiny new Star Engine that was demoed at Citizen Con 2023! that thing is just gorgeous
It's the same old engine, just a new name. I believe their engine is based off CryEngine, just heavily modified.
@@DarkReturns1 i know, but this week they announced the new version and so many custom solutions tech.
These kinds of interviews are so nice. I love hearing straight from the developer on how they've done stuff 💝
Damn, wish ya would have asked about next projects and about how much more they feel they can push out of the PS5 Hardware.
So.. 2 graphical modes (fidelity ,performance) X 2 120 hz modes (on/off) X 3 VRR modes (smooth,uncapped,off) = 12 modes, all with RT
Another game (which we shall not say its name) - single 30fps mode, no RT, because of "creative choice"
😆
Whoa a game that actually looks better than the trailer. Who would have thunk that?! Maybe Microsoft can learn a thing or twenty from Insomniac
I love the game so much I think about xbox too 😂
To be fair, spider-man in 2018 and Ratchet and Clank in 2021 both had upgrades from their initial showing. So it's unusual from the rest of the industry, but is familiar ground with Insomniac
that tech for interiors is insane. Mindblowing how they are able to do that on top of raytraced reflections + secondary reflections at 60 FPS on a console
Yes. I’m glad y’all did this I’ve been looking forward to something like this since demon souls remake. Y’all should do this for all the big game releases. It’s just as interesting as the performance and graphic evaluations you do
Thx a lot DF & John, wee need more dev's interview❤
didn't know paul rudd worked at insomniac
John brought up the custom Atmos mastering they did and yeah they really outdid themselves in this department (on top of everything else that they did so well). Last night I played through the encounter with the Lizard in the sewers and the whole sequence was just a master class in positional audio. Those with ceiling speakers (or even floor to ceiling firing setups) are gonna be in for a treat.
They really did great with the positional audio when it comes to atmos. Even if it's a static mix they really utilised the tempest in the best possible way and really set a benchmark on how tempest should be used in mastering.
Sadly, the LFE is really lacking. With almost no content under about 35hz. I made a peak measure of the whole beginning section with Sandman with REW EQ and umik-1 and found that after 35hz it dropped like a stone...
Nevertheless. Other audio stuff is top notch.
Amazing interview John but let's be honest, what else can we expect from DF?
Oh man this was great! Would love to hear from more devs on these advanced next gen games. Project RED devs are on my wishlist lol. Remedy would be awesome too.
Insomniac my is favorite studio under PlayStation. They seem to be really passionate about amusing people.
Congrats guys.
Sacrificing the owner of Spiderman's inventor rights The character thief makes him Exclusive, basically this superhero is the superhero of a million people
@@robf mushrooms probably 😂
I love content like this, it'd be great to hear more developers explain how things work as it gives a much deeper appreciation for what a monumental acheivement games like this really are. I'm really pleased that John made a point to focus on the audio rendering on this one too. I only very recently reconfigured my AVR and home cinema from 7.1 to a 5.1.2 Atmos setup after the last PS5 system update that added Atmos output from it's Tempest Engine, and I have to say, this game blew me away with the sound placement. I'm the kind of player that spends as much time standing around and appreciating the artistry as I do blazing through the environment as fast as I can. One scene that stood out to me particularly was the Coney Island section. The soundscape of that scene is phenomenally immersive from what's happening all around, but with fireworks and rides above the character to, I could hear things going on above me. 3D audio through headphones is alright, but a full on surround sound system with discrete audio channels and Atmos decoding is incredible. I've spent years building up my dream home cinema system (on a budget) and it's been worth it to see and experience openworld games like Spider-Man 2 and Horizon Forbidden West in their full majesty. I feel like we're finally getting to see what current gen is capable of now the shackles of PS4 are being thrown off.
Fantastic stuff!
Wow!!! We need more of this!!