14 DAY TRIAL // A neat little video pitting the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One editions of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has surfaced on the Internet, enabling those interested to see how the game performs on the two systems.
Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare has just come out all around the world, and after heated debates regarding whether the game would run at 900p resolution on the Xbox One or whether it would be able to match the native 1080p it runs in on the PS4, developer Sledgehammer Games has announced that the first-person shooter uses a dynamic scaling model that enables it to run at resolution ranging between 1360x1080 and full 1920x1080, depending, of course, on how much is going on on-screen.
This is a very welcome upgrade, since the latest installment in the military shooter series, Infinity Ward's Call of Duty: Ghosts, ran in 720p on the Xbox One, at a significant disadvantage over the PlayStation 4 variant, which was able to pull off a consistent 1080p resolution.
Developer Sledgehammer Games worked really hard to bring up the pixel count on Microsoft's latest home console, and the results are truly welcome. As you can see in the video below, the differences between the two new-generation consoles are barely visible, especially when you're busy staying alive and taking down your enemies.
The experts' opinion on the matter
The video comes from Digital Foundry, who compared the gameplay performance and visual fidelity of the PS4 and Xbox One editions of Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. The team reports that the slight cut in resolution does translate into muddier textures and blurrier outlines, with everything looking a bit cleaner on the PlayStation 4, especially when a lot of things are displayed on screen at the same time.
However, the difference is reportedly hard to discern during action sequences, as Sledgehammer did a stupendous job with post-process effects such as motion blur and depth of field filters, making the difference between the Xbox One minimum resolution of 1360x1080 and the PlayStation 4's constant 1920x1080 less relevant and hard to perceive during firefights and other moments that involve a lot of hectic movement.
When the engine does, however, allow the Xbox One to reach native 1920x1080 resolution, such as in indoors areas, where there's less stuff to process, Sony's and Microsoft's console output an identical image.
Real-world performance
Digital Foundry conducted tests using mainly the performance during the single-player campaign as a benchmark, as that tends to push the visual boundary more than the symmetrical multiplayer experience.
The conclusion is that asset quality is mainly identical on both platforms, with only small details to distinguish between the PlayStation 4 and Xbox One in terms of visual fidelity.
One area where the difference is more noticeable, however, is in framerate. The Xbox One computer entertainment system manages to hit the 60 frames per second target with greater consistency, while the PlayStation 4 delivers a less consistent 50-60 frames per second performance during action-packed sequences, dipping into the 40s on occasion.
Both consoles register brief hiccups whenever Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare's autosave feature kicks in, and the Xbox One also encounters some tearing issues, during scenes with multiple allies and enemies on screen or when many transparency effects overlap.
