Cyberpunk 2077 reviews are trickling in...

[MadMummy76]

TLDW, can anyone say what are the actual recommended settings to fiddle with? Videos are the worst way to convey such information.

 

[DrezKill]

TLDW, can anyone say what are the actual recommended settings to fiddle with? Videos are the worst way to convey such information.

I agree, although I do make exceptions from time to time, for some like DF. I wish GN would also put out more articles to go along with their videos though. Anyways this DF article is related to the video: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-cyberpunk-2077-pc-best-settings


Some notes I quickly scribbled down from watching the video:

- Dropping SSR from High to Ultra improves performance by 4% (10% going from Ultra to Medium) , but doesn't look much worse. DF said Low is best, High is a good compromise if you don't like the graininess.

- SSAO High and Low produce similar results. DF recommends Low.

- Volumetric clouds don't look much different between Ultra and Low. DF recommends Medium.

- Color Precision is recommended to be on Medium. DF couldn't really find any real increase in the amount of color banding at Medium.

- Local Shadow Res: DF says already crappy-looking at High, and not much performance cost, so just leave it there.

- Local Shadow Mesh: Just keep it on High. Low doesn't really change much, either visually or performance-wise.

- Cascaded Shadow Resolution: Medium cuz High doesn't gain you much visually.

- Cascaded Shadow Range: High is already crappy and you don't gain much from lowering it, so just leave it there.

- Contact Shadows: Leave it ON, cuz barely any performance cost.

- Max Dynamic Decals: Ultra. Gain almost nothing from Low. They already disappear pretty fast on Ultra.

- Improved facial lighting geometry: ON, cuz turning it off gains you almost nothing in performance.

- Level of Detail: tentatively recommends High. DF is not sure if this is working correctly, or they are looking in the wrong areas.

- DF noticed something is up with subsurface scattering. Thinks it might not be working. As a result, has no performance cost. Recommends leaving it at High.

- Volumetric Fog Resolution: One of those effects that is tied to screen resolution. So for example, Medium at 1080p looks way worse than Medium at 4K. He says if internal resolution is 1080p, leave this setting on Ultra. 1440p should use High. Medium is fine for 4K.

- Mirror resolution: Tied to resolution. Heavy cost on performance, but mirrors are rarely seen in the game, and you have low interactivity during those scenes anyways. He said High setting for 1080p and 1440p. Medium for 4K.

- Stuff like Film Grain, Chromatic Aberration, DoF, Lens Flare, and Motion Blur have no real cost in performance. Turn them off if you don't like them. Really a matter of personal preference.

- Dynamic Resolution Scaling: doesn't seem to be working like it should, or like this guy expects. VSYNC affects dynamic resolution as well, which he feels shouldn't be happening. Other issues as well, so he recommends just not using this at all.

- Static FidelityFX CAS: Use DLSS instead if you have a card that supports it.

- Crowd Density from High to Low gains 10% performance in CPU-limited scenarios.

- Shadow Cascade Distance/Range: Low helps gain more CPU performance.

- Ryzen 5 3600 is not enough CPU for this game.

- The game is not properly utilizing the extra threads on Ryzen CPUs, but it is on Intel CPUs, which is making Ryzens perform worse than they should.

I did not jot down any of the stuff related to DLSS or ray-tracing, as none of that applies to me.

 

[Armenius]

I agree, although I do make exceptions from time to time, for some like DF. I wish GN would also put out more articles to go along with their videos though. Anyways this DF article is related to the video: https://www.eurogamer.net/articles/digitalfoundry-2020-cyberpunk-2077-pc-best-settings


Some notes I quickly scribbled down from watching the video:

- Dropping SSR from High to Ultra improves performance by 4% (10% going from Ultra to Medium) , but doesn't look much worse. DF said Low is best, High is a good compromise if you don't like the graininess.

- SSAO High and Low produce similar results. DF recommends Low.

- Volumetric clouds don't look much different between Ultra and Low. DF recommends Medium.

- Color Precision is recommended to be on Medium. DF couldn't really find any real increase in the amount of color banding at Medium.

- Local Shadow Res: DF says already crappy-looking at High, and not much performance cost, so just leave it there.

- Local Shadow Mesh: Just keep it on High. Low doesn't really change much, either visually or performance-wise.

- Cascaded Shadow Resolution: Medium cuz High doesn't gain you much visually.

- Cascaded Shadow Range: High is already crappy and you don't gain much from lowering it, so just leave it there.

- Contact Shadows: Leave it ON, cuz barely any performance cost.

- Max Dynamic Decals: Ultra. Gain almost nothing from Low. They already disappear pretty fast on Ultra.

- Improved facial lighting geometry: ON, cuz turning it off gains you almost nothing in performance.

- Level of Detail: tentatively recommends High. DF is not sure if this is working correctly, or they are looking in the wrong areas.

- DF noticed something is up with subsurface scattering. Thinks it might not be working. As a result, has no performance cost. Recommends leaving it at High.

- Volumetric Fog Resolution: One of those effects that is tied to screen resolution. So for example, Medium at 1080p looks way worse than Medium at 4K. He says if internal resolution is 1080p, leave this setting on Ultra. 1440p should use High. Medium is fine for 4K.

- Mirror resolution: Tied to resolution. Heavy cost on performance, but mirrors are rarely seen in the game, and you have low interactivity during those scenes anyways. He said High setting for 1080p and 1440p. Medium for 4K.

- Stuff like Film Grain, Chromatic Aberration, DoF, Lens Flare, and Motion Blur have no real cost in performance. Turn them off if you don't like them. Really a matter of personal preference.

- Dynamic Resolution Scaling: doesn't seem to be working like it should, or like this guy expects. VSYNC affects dynamic resolution as well, which he feels shouldn't be happening. Other issues as well, so he recommends just not using this at all.

- Static FidelityFX CAS: Use DLSS instead if you have a card that supports it.

- Crowd Density from High to Low gains 10% performance in CPU-limited scenarios.

- Shadow Cascade Distance/Range: Low helps gain more CPU performance.

- Ryzen 5 3600 is not enough CPU for this game.

- The game is not properly utilizing the extra threads on Ryzen CPUs, but it is on Intel CPUs, which is making Ryzens perform worse than they should.

I did not jot down any of the stuff related to DLSS or ray-tracing, as none of that applies to me.

Saw a comparison screenshot posted somewhere that showed you should not turn down the cascaded shadows as you will lose a lot of detail in faces. Probably not a big deal outside of conversations, but something to think about.

 

[MadMummy76]

Just found an overlay that actually works with the game, so here are my results:

Everything on Ultra or best setting available
RT = Ultra
DLSS = Quality
HDR = HDR10 (the game looks so much better with HDR, with AC I could take it or leave it)
3840x1600

Mildly overclocked 2080Ti (112% power target +200 Core, +400 memory clock)
Stock 3700X, not even PBO enabled at the time.

I get 45 FPS indoors, 35 FPS outdoors.

 

[Burticus]

• The most common is items getting detached from NPCs and floating mid air.
• NPCs loading into view in default pose then warping into position
• NPCs teleporting between positions

I have noticed all these for sure on Stadia. Especially the stuff floating in air, like Jackie's chopsticks when he's eating. Also I have seen rando people walking and vanish and re-appear in other places.

One thing I certainly dislike about the Stadia version is the lack of graphics fine tuning, and the FOV setting sucks and you can't change it.

 

[Burticus]

Except you don't have to do any of that with Geforce NOW. You just buy the game on your platform of choice, link that account to GFN, and click play. Same as Stadia, except the copy of the game you buy isn't tied to that platform.

Interesting. And hey, only reason I got it on Stadia was because the free hardware bundle. I'm sure I'll be picking up the Super Dooper GOTY edition in 2 years with all the DLC for $20

 

[Peter_Brosdahl]

One things that's been annoying the hell out of me is calling your car. It'll come....then drive right past me and keep on going. Can't even get in it when it does that. Then it just disappears for a while.

I've also had my car get stuck in weird places. To the point where you can get in it, but then you immediately get out.

I've also experienced some side missions that are scuffed. Or you come across a group of wanted people, start to engage them and one of them is trapped inside a building. No way to kill them and you're stuck in combat from that point on.

Haven't encountered these issues, yet, but I've read the same in other places. I really wish they'd let you customize the car and paint Roach on it. First time I used the call function I immediately thought of that.

 

[MadMummy76]

Anyone knows if the porsche was bait and switch or you can actually buy it in game ?

 

[Riccochet]

I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time getting sucked in to this game. Between the scuffs and the constant phone ringing it just seems like there is a lack of direction. Maybe it gets better, I just haven't adjusted yet.

And. when selecting a side job or mission from the journal it doesn't actually track it on the map. Which is kind of a waste of time having to look all over the map to find what you're looking for so GPS can track it.

 

[MadMummy76]

I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time getting sucked in to this game. Between the scuffs and the constant phone ringing it just seems like there is a lack of direction. Maybe it gets better, I just haven't adjusted yet.

And. when selecting a side job or mission from the journal it doesn't actually track it on the map. Which is kind of a waste of time having to look all over the map to find what you're looking for so GPS can track it.

As I've mentioned above the game gets better later, I wasn't thrilled with it early on either.
The second one is a bug, it happened to me once as well, but only once. Re-starting the game usually fixes all of these intermittent issues.

 

[Burticus]

I'll be honest, I'm having a hard time getting sucked in to this game. Between the scuffs and the constant phone ringing it just seems like there is a lack of direction. Maybe it gets better, I just haven't adjusted yet.

And. when selecting a side job or mission from the journal it doesn't actually track it on the map. Which is kind of a waste of time having to look all over the map to find what you're looking for so GPS can track it.

Yeah even after choosing your mission from journal, then you have to go over to the map side and check box for "track on map". It's dumb.

 

[MadMummy76]

Yeah even after choosing your mission from journal, then you have to go over to the map side and check box for "track on map". It's dumb.

That's strange. It automatically tracked everything for me when selecting side missions.

On another note, I've just finished the game, it was shorter than I expected. (About 27 hours) What's worse: I don't like the ending(s) at all. Each is a different level of bad. I only did 3 of the 4 possible endings open to me so far, but seeing these three I'm not holding out hope that the fourth will be better.

I was already planning my second playthrough but the ending has completely blown away my determination to start a new game. It's such a wasted opportunity.

 

[MadMummy76]

Here is my short summary of the game:

• I've finished the game in about 27 hours. Shorter than I expected, and much shorter than their 170 hours claim. Of course I didn't do all the optional activities. But I only left one main character arc hanging halfway through, I think I've exhausted all others.
• Bug wise it wasn't that bad, I didn't get any game breaking bugs - No I'm not saying they don't exist, I just got lucky, as I've encountered one literally 10 minutes into a new game while I was trying another origin story.
• Plenty of other bugs however, but they were far from ruining the experience, the game was enjoyable as is.
• I don't have much to complain about performance. 2080ti, 3700x 64GB (but you are more than fine with 32 possibly even 16). Played at 3840x1600 everything at ultra, DLSS - Quality, usually averaging about 45 fps, I expected worse.
• The FPS is pretty consistent, I know it might sound stupid to say but the game feels well optimized on the PC. The bugs I've seen are all asset and ui related
• I think this game is meant to be played in HDR and with RT, if you aren't you are missing out. It looks stunning this way.
• The first few hours of the game I did not enjoy that much, it was a bit of a letdown.
• The best side missions only reveal themselves late in the game, almost at the point of no return. But some of them were really great. Too bad doing side gigs clashes with the narrative urgency of the game, so I did them sparingly.
• I fully expected to be able to continue side missions after finishing the main story. Sadly that is not the case, when the game ends all you get is the main menu. Of course you can reload your last save before the point of no return but that's just not the same. This is probably the biggest letdown of the game to me. IDK how will the expansions work then? They'll tie into the middle of the game further contradicting the urgency of the main story? But that's a question for another day.
• I've seen 4 of the possible endings, and hated all of them so much that it killed my determination for a second playthrough.

I want to try the remaining 1 or 2 endings and the origin stories before writing a full review.

 

[Riccochet]

Out of curiosity I turned my resolution down to 1080P and cranked up the settings. Now the game crashes after about 5 minutes of play time. Repeatable. During that 5 minutes I'm getting around 70-80 FPS and it looks fantastic. CPU is at about 60% utilization across all cores and stays around 55C, GPU hitting 100% and stays around 45C.

Must be a setting that it doesn't like.

 

[Armenius]

Out of curiosity I turned my resolution down to 1080P and cranked up the settings. Now the game crashes after about 5 minutes of play time. Repeatable. During that 5 minutes I'm getting around 70-80 FPS and it looks fantastic. CPU is at about 60% utilization across all cores and stays around 55C, GPU hitting 100% and stays around 45C.

Must be a setting that it doesn't like.

There have been reports that there is a memory leak. Can't say I've run into it. I played for 3 hours straight without a crash or degradation in overall performance.

 

[northrop]

Here is my short summary of the game:

• I've finished the game in about 27 hours. Shorter than I expected, and much shorter than their 170 hours claim. Of course I didn't do all the optional activities. But I only left one main character arc hanging halfway through, I think I've exhausted all others.

170 hrs + is for completionist, which includes every single little gig, side quest and what not, and that number was quoted from a QA; CDPR never claimed this game to take this long to finish. In fact, they claimed the opposite, they claimed the game is shorter than the Witcher. Are you saying you did EVERYTHING in under 27 hours? I doubt it.... because I'm 30 hours into this game, and have only cleared Watson.

Out of curiosity I turned my resolution down to 1080P and cranked up the settings. Now the game crashes after about 5 minutes of play time. Repeatable. During that 5 minutes I'm getting around 70-80 FPS and it looks fantastic. CPU is at about 60% utilization across all cores and stays around 55C, GPU hitting 100% and stays around 45C.

Must be a setting that it doesn't like.

Sounds like another CDPR game. I still get crashes in Witcher if I change the resolution to anything other than my native. If I have a 4k screen, I must play in 4k, otherwise the game crashes within 30 seconds.

 

[MadMummy76]

170 hrs + is for completionist, which includes every single little gig, side quest and what not, and that number was quoted from a QA; CDPR never claimed this game to take this long to finish. In fact, they claimed the opposite, they claimed the game is shorter than the Witcher. Are you saying you did EVERYTHING in under 27 hours? I doubt it.... because I'm 30 hours into this game, and have only cleared Watson.

Lol, you haven't even fully read the one sentence you are quoting? That has to be a new low.

 

[northrop]

edit... nvm.

 

[MadMummy76]

And it's done.

I'm still debating within myself whether I'll complete the game again.

 

[Auer]