The Callisto Protocol Rebranded to “The Stuttering Protocol” by Players Following Poorly Received PC Release

[Tsing]

Striking Distance Studios has botched the PC release of The Callisto Protocol, according to early players of the sci-fi survival game who have taken to the usual channels, including Steam's review section, to vent and warn others about the PC version's apparently less-than-stellar performance.

See full article...

 

[DrezKill]

I saw DF posted this the other day:

Related article: https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2022-callisto-protocol-tech-review
And also: https://www.eurogamer.net/digitalfoundry-2022-the-callisto-protocol-pc-xbox-series-x-series-s
I didn't watch or read any of this, cuz I'm not interested in this game at all (I don't play horror games), but it sounds like the game worked out fine on PS5 but not so great elsewhere.

EDIT: I might actually check this stuff out now, cuz I saw that my friend got this game, and I asked him how it was. He said: "Refunded. I can't make any claims on the gameplay, as the performance was unbearable."

 

[Tempest]

The stuttering is supposedly caused by the compilation of shaders at runtime, which also affects games such as Gotham Knights. They both use the Unreal Engine, IIRC. Gotham Knights seems to have other issues as well (understatement), but I've barely read anything about either game. When I see RTX 4090 owners complaining of poor performance, I quickly move on.

 

[Brian_B]

You can blame Unreal... but at the same time, there are a bunch of games that do pretty well on Unreal... and it's not like they are using a different engine for the console version - those are using Unreal too.

Just a matter of where they put their optimization dollars really. Very clearly they are optimizing the crap out of the console version, and then relying on Day 2 patches to fix the PC versions.

 

[Tempest]

Consoles don't compile the shaders at runtime though. Some of the shader-related stuttering issues observed in newer PC games could be related to the introduction of Pipeline State Objects (PSOs), which changed the way shader compilation is handled: https://docs.unrealengine.com/5.1/en-US/optimizing-rendering-with-pso-caches-in-unreal-engine/

I don't know why stuttering would be any more of an issue in games built with Unreal Engine than it would be with other engines, or even that it is more of an issue. I don't feel comfortable comfortable speculating on the matter, as I'm not involved in game development. The blame ultimately falls on the company in charge of the game's development and release. They're the ones that chose the engine and it's their responsibility to work within its limitations.

Most games are riddled with bugs. That's why I usually wait until a few years after they've been released. And here's your Day 2 patch:

The Callisto Protocol Gets Its First Patch to Address In-Game Stuttering Issues

The Callisto Protocol has received its first patch to address stuttering issues following its many release day complaints.

www.thefpsreview.com

It may be a late by day or so, but who's counting? Hopefully the game will become playable by the Day 1000 patch. And the Die Another Way expansion pack will be free!