Console Compatibility Tags
Being someone who still plays Dreams on a base PS4, I’ve recently, and over time, played quite a few Dreams which seem to have been created on consoles >= PS4 Pro without any disclaimer. Meaning that performance on a base PS4 like mine was often times sub-par.
I do appreciate anyone who adds a short disclaimer in their description. Something along the lines of “expect performance impact on base PS4” or “created on PS5”, to set expectations. Though this could be simplified.
But until we get more specific platform integration from Mm (as discussed by Elca here: https://forums.indreams.me/hc/en-gb/community/posts/7047099756061-PS5-Update-Collected-Thoughts-?input_string=Console%20Compatibility%20Tags), how about built-in tags for creators to tag their content appropriately? There are these kind of tags for VR creations, so there could be some for console versions as well. My thoughts:
- Simple platform compatibility tags like “compatible with PS4/PS4 Pro/PS5”
- Tags to indicate which platform the creation was made on/intended for, like “created with PS4/PS4 Pro/PS5”.
- Base PS4-specific tags like “PS4 compatible”, “playable but slow on PS4” and “not PS4 compatible”. I don’t know the numbers but I could imagine base PS4 players being fewer and fewer so this would become an edge case, which this tag would handle. Same as VR still being somewhat of an edge case.
This needs to be made visible enough to encourage the use of these tags, again similar to VR-specific tags.
I do understand the struggle of both sides. Naturally, you’d like to tap into the potential of your beefier hardware, so being held back by limitations of older consoles can be frustrating. Then again it’s similarly frustrating to browse Dreams and finding something cool to play, only to find out that once in the game or even at later stages of the game it’ll slow down significantly, because your old base PS4 is struggling.
Having tags in this regard could help ease frustration just a little bit for both sides. For one, creators can (try to) make sure their audience will be playing on better hardware, and therefore base PS4 players can set their expectations or skip entire creations altogether to not be disappointed or just to know beforehand what they might be getting into.
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Being able to see what is optimized for which system is great as I am already unable to play certain PS5 creations (especially in VR mode) so better communication to the player around this would be Especially important in future when native PS5 + PSVR 2 version available. -
How are creators to know how their games run on hardware they do not use?
As someone who games on a base PS4, i haven't run in to many issues with Dreams.
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That’s my point. If you develop on a PlayStation > base PS4 and you can’t test on one, there’s a least a way to communicate that via the tags I’ve suggested. This way you’re aware that it might not run too well for you.
And if creators CAN test in on a base PS4 then even better, they can clearly tag creations as “works” or “bad performance”.
It’s supposed to be a simple method of communication from creators to players what they made their creations on and how that might (or might not!) impact lower-end console players.
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To be honest, I've played a ton of creations warning that it's PS5 only but have never experienced any kind of major performance issues on my base PS4. It's never anything more than the framerate dropping a little bit for a few seconds when something big happens.
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That always depends on what you play and how you perceive performance and what you’re comfortable with. Sometimes reaching your console’s limits doesn’t always show in plain stuttering, but for Dreams esp. can also result in everything just going slower as it’s supposed to, like in slow motion. Sometimes it’s more noticeable, sometimes not so much. Then some people are perfectly fine with that, others might struggle to simply enjoy games like this or even get motion sick.
That said, those tags won’t hurt anyone. If your experience so far is that games run great, even if made on a PS5, you’re likely to keep doing what you do, new tags or not.
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I like the idea of showing the console it was made with.
There could be a ratings system similar to what there is for PSVR if it's not being played on a PS5. This was the creators don't actually have to do anything. Just a simple "Did this work good on your console?" shown to the first few dozen raters.
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