Monster Hunter World is a prime example of the old aphorism that how a game plays is more important than how it looks. I’m thoroughly enjoying every spare minute I have to play MHW, but I expected it to look better on the Xbox One X. Digital Foundry analyzed MHW’s PS4 beta and found it lacking. I was hoping the problems evident in the beta would be fixed, and the superior power of the One X would be leveraged in the final release. Digital Foundry is back with a full analysis of MHW on the Xbox One and PS4 consoles and, while things have improved, there are still notable problems.
General strengths and weaknesses
Both console families share a number of positive and negative technical characteristics. On the plus side, the monsters look fantastic. Skins are very well modeled, textures are detailed, and monster movements are generally smooth, natural and often terrifying. The character models are also excellent and adept use of inverse kinematics keeps characters well-grounded on walking and climbing surfaces. (If some technical terms are unfamiliar, check out this guide.)
High-resolution textures add richness to MHW’s environments. Shadows are detailed providing much needed visual depth. Although water reflections are generally poor, the water surface is attractive. In general, Monster Hunter’s world looks very good.
There are some issues, however. Perhaps the most noticeable is that visual contrast is reduced which produces a flat image that the detailed shadows can’t overcome. The weak contrast also makes brightly lit scenes look washed out. MHW makes use of HDR but its effects are barely noticeable. Finally, frequent clipping, lack of collision detection with some environmental assets, and poorly implemented motion blur detract from the overall presentation.
The basic Xbox One and PS4
Resolution on the PS4 is set at 1080p (1920 x 1080), just as it was in the beta. The One X is even worse with a resolution of 864p (1536 x 864). Moreover, Capcom, MHW’s developer, appears to have used an in-house technique to maintain resolution which produces fairly sharp images when the character is motionless and noticeably blurry images during movement.
Frame rates are uncapped on both of the vanilla consoles. The PS4 runs just like the beta with extended time spent below and occasional jumps above 30 fps. Again, the One X is worse with generally lower frame rates and less frequent rises above 30 fps. Frame time is ragged on both consoles adding additional visual judder and uneven controller response.
The PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X – Resolution mode
There’s a lot to consider when looking at how MHW plays on the top-of-the-line consoles because each console offers the choice to prioritize frame rate, resolution or graphics.
Resolution mode produces a surprise when compared across consoles. The Pro uses checkerboard rendering to arrive at 1800p (3200 x 1800). Again, just like the beta. The graphically much superior One X renders at a lower 1728p (3072 x 1728). That’s right, resolution is lower on the One X than the Pro.
The difference in resolution between the two consoles is offset by the Pro using checkerboard rendering while the One X does not. This translates into smoother edges on the One X. Which looks better comes down to whether you prefer the smoother image displayed by the One X or the sharper detail seen on the Pro.
There’s another odd difference between the consoles. As can be seen in the above picture, visual assets seen at distance on the Pro are missing on the One X. Why this is the case given the One X’s superior graphics processing power is a mystery.
Frame rate is uncapped on the One X and the Pro which produces uneven gameplay and controller response as always. Performance ranged between 30 and 40 fps in foliage-dense environments on both consoles in Digital Foundry’s tests.
Another mystery appears when you directly compare performance on the One X and the Pro. The Pro runs faster than the One X by a few fps much of the time. This shouldn’t happen, and combined with the absent visual assets on the One X, it seems to indicate Capcom gave little, if any, attention to optimizing MHW for Microsoft’s console.
The PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X – Frame rate mode
Monster Hunter World is limited to 1080p for both consoles in frame rate mode. This is better than the vanilla Xbox One’s 864p but it’s the same resolution you get on the base PS4. The visual assets that are missing on the One X in Resolution mode are missing here as well.
Frame rate is uncapped on both consoles and performance ranges between 30 and 60 fps with a more time spent between 40 and 50 fps than above 55 in Digital Foundry’s tests.
The One X produces higher frame rates than the Pro although the differences between the two are inconsistent. Digital Foundry carried out a side-by-side comparison of the consoles during a run without combat across the Ancient Forest, MHW’s first map. Average frame rates were 43 fps or the Pro and 46 fps for the One X. Not much difference there. In the foliage-free Astera base camp, frame rate on the One X was significantly higher – as much as 14 fps – than the Pro.
The PS4 Pro and the Xbox One X – Graphics mode
Once again, resolution is stuck at 1080p on both consoles in Graphics mode. However, LODs (Levels of Detail) are pushed much further into the distance. The visual assets that are missing on the One X in Resolution and Frame-rate modes finally make their appearance here.
Again, frame rate is uncapped but performance differs markedly on the two consoles During a side-by-side run across the Ancient Forest, the Pro ran between 6 and 10 fps slower than the One X. In general, frame rates were similar in the Graphics and Resolution modes on the Pro while frame rates on the One X were similar to the Pro’s Frame-rate mode.
Conclusion
There’s a lot to consider here with eight performance modes spread across four consoles. Here’s a summary of what Digital Foundry reported.
- Visuals are adequate and performance is disappointing on the base PS4. Both visuals and performance are disappointing on the vanilla Xbox One.
- Visuals and performance on the Pro and One X are adequate but disappointing for all modes.
- In Resolution mode, general visual quality is a toss-up but some assets are missing on the One X. Performance is better on the Pro.
- In Frame-rate mode, performance is better on the One X, but some visual assets seen on the Pro are missing.
- In Graphics mode, performance is strikingly better on the One X, while visuals are more-or-less the same on the two consoles.
It’s difficult to avoid the conclusion that MHW is a technical disappointment. In general, it looks like the game hasn’t been optimized to run on either the Pro or the One X, and the One X build is especially problematic. It’s a good thing Monster Hunter World is such an enjoyable game to play because its visuals and performance leave a lot to be desired.
If you’re interested in Monster Hunter World, here are other articles you might enjoy.
- ‘Monster Hunter World: A Guide To Quests And The Gameplay Loop
- ‘Monster Hunter World:’ How To Use The Slinger
- ‘Monster Hunter World’: How Research Can Make You A Better Hunter
- Quick Tip: How To Play ‘Monster Hunter World’ In Single-Player Mode
- The ‘Monster Hunter World’ PS4 Beta Has Disappointing Performance Issues
