Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora

[polonyc2]

reviews are all over the place but generally seem in the 7- 8 range...it's not the typical Ubisoft open world design people were expecting going in...very nice visuals with the Snowdrop engine, excellent performance but the game uses a ton of VRAM...


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u_OU9zUVZrA


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8u73B9txl54

 

[Comixbooks]

I’m hoping this is Far Cry Avatar, but it’s still hard to tell.

Hoping for a new Avatar Ultima game

 

[polonyc2]

makes me even more excited for Star Wars Outlaws which is also using the latest version of the Snowdrop engine

 

[polonyc2]

Avatar: Frontiers of Pandora shows how good AMD FSR 3 frame generation can be, as its implementation in the game is the best yet

A new tech analysis of the game by German publication Computer Base highlights how AMD FSR 3 frame generation works much better in the new game by Ubisoft compared to its earlier implementations in Forspoken and Immortals of Aveum...the implementation is so good that it is hardly distinguishable, according to the analysis...as AMD's tech can be used on any GPU, all PC players will be able to take advantage of it

At the moment, it seems like the game is going to take a Lumen-like approach with software ray tracing like Unreal Engine 5 – throughout...Hardware RT, on the other hand, doesn't seem to exist at all...at the very least, that would explain why all RT options can be selected even on a GeForce GTX 1080 that doesn't support hardware RT...

https://www.computerbase.de/2023-12/avatar-frontiers-of-pandora-benchmark-test/

 

[Comixbooks]

This game just looks weird kinda like Death Stranding but but not a fan of the colors reminds me of Biomutant.

 

[usa all day]

This game just looks weird kinda like Death Stranding but but not a fan of the colors reminds me of Biomutant.

I've been looking / waiting for something like this for a long time (yeah, I saw the 1st movie & played the 1st game for about 8 hours).

"Something like this" means (to me) a game similar to FC Primal - half the fun was open world exploration & half survival in an exotic prehistoric / foreign world with unfamiliar wildlife vs just humans.

*if ya'll know any other games that similarly fit that bill, please let me know.

**I've been playing Elden Ring & maybe I've become RPG jaded, but it is nothing like Skyrim / Witcher 3 / ESO. It's just a LOT of wide open nothingness with some "experiences" in small object cluttered buildings and redonkulouse end bosses. Where are the NPC's & clues that tell me a story?

^^^That is what I am hoping for from AVATAR FRONTIERS. Let me explore an exotic new world & tell me a story via the environment & NPC's that ultimately require me to become their hero.

 

[Comixbooks]

I've been looking / waiting for something like this for a long time (yeah, I saw the 1st movie & played the 1st game for about 8 hours).

"Something like this" means (to me) a game similar to FC Primal - half the fun was open world exploration & half survival in an exotic prehistoric / foreign world with unfamiliar wildlife vs just humans.

*if ya'll know any other games that similarly fit that bill, please let me know.

**I've been playing Elden Ring & maybe I've become RPG jaded, but it is nothing like Skyrim / Witcher 3 / ESO. It's just a LOT of wide open nothingness with some "experiences" in small object cluttered buildings and redonkulouse end bosses. Where are the NPC's & clues that tell me a story?

^^^That is what I am hoping for from AVATAR FRONTIERS. Let me explore an exotic new world & tell me a story via the environment & NPC's that ultimately require me to become their hero.

Get Death Stranding that game is weird as shit Guild Wars 2 is fun Baldurs Gate 3 you can interact but I'm sure you own it already.
If you missed Kingdom come Deliverance that game is really good. I'm redownloading as I type this.

 

[usa all day]

I watched some Death Stranding reviews & said - nah - then it went on sale & I have it in the backlog. It does not look "pretty" compared to Primal & Avatar F

Guild Wars 2 & BG3 are on my STEAM wish list but I don't know if I can swing with BG3's isometric view (never played BG1~2 for that reason, but Diablo 1~2 were OK back in the day).

RE: Kingdom Come Deliverance - that WAS on my wish list for a long time but I removed it for some reason. I've added that back - thanks!

EDIT: ^^^ I think I removed KCD because it looked so much like DRAGON AGE (I have 3 DA games) or something...

I think BG3 will be my next new GF...

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

It's been a couple years so I was hoping this would be some kind of new generation of the Ubisoft formula to push me over the edge, but nope. Same old, same old.
Will wait to see how user reviews shake out.

Otherwise it's a "$20 GOTY Edition on sale in a few years" game.

 

[Dion]

Will get this on a deep sale. Good too see Snowdrop engine is still alive tho.

 

[Hershy]

Okay, I can’t not buy this.

Unapologetically, I’m a huge, huge Far Cry Fan… and I love Avatar… so, like I said earlier, I’m hoping for Far Cry Avatar out of this.

I’ll let you know what I think. I’m expecting poor performance that will be resolved over the next year or so, like every Far Cry game that’s ever been released. If this game runs smoothly, even on my 4090, I’ll be surprised.

If any of you buy this, please post your thoughts - I’d love to hear what you guys think… even if you hate every single thing about it. Some of the best posts I’ve read at this forum have been from people with a differing opinion. LOL.

I think this releases at midnight in each time zone, does it not?

 

[GoldenTiger]

Okay, I can’t not buy this.

Unapologetically, I’m a huge, huge Far Cry Fan… and I love Avatar… so, like I said earlier, I’m hoping for Far Cry Avatar out of this.

I’ll let you know what I think. I’m expecting poor performance that will be resolved over the next year or so, like every Far Cry game that’s ever been released. If this game runs smoothly, even on my 4090, I’ll be surprised.

If any of you buy this, please post your thoughts - I’d love to hear what you guys think… even if you hate every single thing about it. Some of the best posts I’ve read at this forum have been from people with a differing opinion. LOL.

I think this releases at midnight in each time zone, does it not?

I saw game codes for $20 in fsft. Might want to take a look before shelling out full price!

 

[KickAssCop]

Started it. Graphics look like FC4/FC5 era. Gameplay is Ubisoft. AMD FSR3 is like smeared vaseline on monitor. I was wondering why everything looked soft and why floating blurry water was a thing. Enabled DLSS at Ultra Quality and game looks the part with right level of sharpness. Tanked fps though as no frame gen on DLSS (thank you AMD).
Shelved for now until frame gen is introduced. Will get the Starfield treatment with AMD pulling this crap on 3 games this year (Jedi Survivor, Starfield and Avatar). Framegen and DLSS3.5 can be added day 1 to these games but this level of performance is not acceptable to me.

Fuck you AMD.

 

[TaintedSquirrel]

Seems to be some issues with the UI as well.


View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6McS5GdDozE

 

[lors]

I'm impressed with FSR3 in this game. Playing with DLDSR @ 5760*3240 + FSR quality and just got to the forest. Around 80fps there with FSR3 and it looks great. I can't see any extra smearing compared to DLSS. Only downside is the transparent mission UI/HUD which shows artifacts, but this should not be difficult to fix.

Even VRR works and it feels very snappy. Good job AMD!

 

[Flogger23m]

Started it. Graphics look like FC4/FC5 era. Gameplay is Ubisoft. AMD FSR3 is like smeared vaseline on monitor. I was wondering why everything looked soft and why floating blurry water was a thing. Enabled DLSS at Ultra Quality and game looks the part with right level of sharpness. Tanked fps though as no frame gen on DLSS (thank you AMD).
Shelved for now until frame gen is introduced. Will get the Starfield treatment with AMD pulling this crap on 3 games this year (Jedi Survivor, Starfield and Avatar). Framegen and DLSS3.5 can be added day 1 to these games but this level of performance is not acceptable to me.

Fuck you AMD.

What kind of frame rates and what settings/resolution? A lot of stuttering or just how frame rates?

 

[KickAssCop]

I am quite picky with shooters. With Ultra DLSS I am getting around 78 or something with drops to sub 60.
With Quality DLSS I am getting close to a 100 so now playing with quality.
Maxed out at 4K.

 

[lors]

I am quite picky with shooters. With Ultra DLSS I am getting around 78 or something with drops to sub 60.
With Quality DLSS I am getting close to a 100 so now playing with quality.
Maxed out at 4K.

What is going on with your GPU frametimes? My graphs are flat in comparison:

4K, ultra preset, DLSS quality / DLSS ultra quality (scaling method: fixed!)

Btw, there is a way to unlock "overdrive" aka "Unobtanium" settings: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/...ar-frontiers-of-pandora-pc-features-deep-dive

 

[polonyc2]

Btw, there is a way to unlock "overdrive" aka "Unobtanium" settings: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/...ar-frontiers-of-pandora-pc-features-deep-dive

that's only for the benchmark or can you use those settings in the actual game itself?

 

[lors]

that's only for the benchmark or can you use those settings in the actual game itself?

You can use it ingame.

 

[KickAssCop]

Ok I changed my mind about the graphics. Once you go outside and rain starts to fall or night comes it can actually look pretty good. Still a bit cartoonish but definitely better than FC4/5.
You can see in some interior shots it looks average at best. Also water up close looks bad (last shot).

 

[KickAssCop]

What is going on with your GPU frametimes? My graphs are flat in comparison:

4K, ultra preset, DLSS quality / DLSS ultra quality (scaling method: fixed!)

Btw, there is a way to unlock "overdrive" aka "Unobtanium" settings: https://www.ubisoft.com/en-us/game/...ar-frontiers-of-pandora-pc-features-deep-dive

Don't know. Game plays smooth. Might be it doesn't need the power required to run the game. Frametimes seem fine.

 

[CAD4466HK]

View: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRI_qgVSwMY

 

[lors]

Hm, I noticed FSR FrameGen is causing weird frametime issues which can lead to stuttering, more or less depending on the scene. I only really noticed this once it was nighttime and not in the beginning of the game. I have locked my FPS to 70 now and that fixes it. I have read that in Resetera Forum too. So FSR3 still not really stable with a variable refreshrate like DLSS FG.

 

[Mchart]

Holy crap. I don't care what anyone else says, or what the screenshots/videos on youtube look like - On my OLED panel with HDR and basically max settings w/ DLSS this game looks absolutely incredible. First time in a while i've been wowed by graphics.

Also, the game is butter smooth. The snowdrop engine is amazing here. I can't get over how smooth/good this game runs even with cranked up settings. I guess i'm used to years of unoptimized garbage and shader stuttering. I wish the latest COD's ran this good...

 

[Hershy]

Holy crap. I don't care what anyone else says, or what the screenshots/videos on youtube look like - On my OLED panel with HDR and basically max settings w/ DLSS this game looks absolutely incredible. First time in a while i've been wowed by graphics.

Also, the game is butter smooth. The snowdrop engine is amazing here. I can't get over how smooth/good this game runs even with cranked up settings. I guess i'm used to years of unoptimized garbage and shader stuttering. I wish the latest COD's ran this good...

I still haven’t launched the game… but this great news if true… because every Far Cry game has launched with atrocious stutter. I still think of this as a Far Cry game.

 

[Mchart]

I still haven’t launched the game… but this great news if true… because every Far Cry game has launched with atrocious stutter. I still think of this as a Far Cry game.

Reminds me of Far Cry Primal quite a bit - But this is a completely different engine from the Dunia/Whatever engine FarCry has been using for years.

 

[Colonel Sanders]

I still haven’t launched the game… but this great news if true… because every Far Cry game has launched with atrocious stutter. I still think of this as a Far Cry game.

it is definitely true. this is the prettiest, most well-optimized game i've played in a long time. cp2077 has the amazing ray tracing features, but as far as "holy shit this is gorgeous, buttery smooth, and i didn't have to tweak a damn thing" factor goes, it's not even close. the only thing i kinda wish it had was some sort of sharpening options because i find the image quite soft, but that is the most ridiculous nit i've ever picked quite honestly

 

[Hershy]

Reminds me of Far Cry Primal quite a bit - But this is a completely different engine from the Dunia/Whatever engine FarCry has been using for years.

Even better. I loved Primal. I played on perma-death mode when it was patched in and I went more than 20 intense hours until I was killed by a Sabertooth tiger. Incredible experience.

I’m getting excited. You guys are saying some good things.

 

[KickAssCop]

Image is soft when you use FSR3. DLSS or no upscaling gives a sharper image. DLAA gives the sharpest image but maybe too sharp.

Also I would rather not play a game with FSR3 because it is garbage.

 

[lors]

Image is soft when you use FSR3. DLSS or no upscaling gives a sharper image. DLAA gives the sharpest image but maybe too sharp.

Also I would rather not play a game with FSR3 because it is garbage.

I put my nose on my 77" OLED, comparing back and forth and I just can't see a big difference in overall sharpness

For FSR3 you need to lock the FPS, otherwise it will introduce stuttering, more or less depending on the scene. I you don't mind the HUD/Map artifacts, FSR3 in combination with DLDSR gives the best image quality + smoothness (if you lock the fps) IMO. It's still a shame that there is no DLSS FG though.

 

[KickAssCop]

Different strokes I guess. I am ok with DLSS Quality for myself. Hitting 100 fps routinely is good enough for this game. Just got my Ikran.

 

[KickAssCop]

Game is growing on me and reminding me a lot like Horizon Zero Dawn. I ended up playing this almost all day exclusively. If you are fan of the movies then might as well play it.

 

[lors]

I don't like the nighttime and weather where they tried to simulate a foggy night? The image looks so soft and blurry then. I first thought this was a bug lol
Edit: Or maybe it is a bug? I'm so confused. It looks weirdly bad.

 

[robbiekhan]

First impressions are that up close, textures in indoors areas do not stand up to scrutiny, they are low res low poly, and only get blurry if you zoom in /if/ depth of field is on lol.

I am using the Unobtanium GFX preset

Outdoors in the forest it looks really good. With FSR3 Frame Gen enabled I can pull 100fps fairly easily using Quality mode. Ultra Quality is using the native render res (3440x1440 for me). I don't like frame gen in this though, there is obvious frame time stuttering when panning the camera left and right, and it is visually less-smooth at 100fps using FSR3 frame gen than DLSS Quality at 60fps which has a completely flat frametime graph line on RTSS. I wonder what DLSS3 injected into the game via a mod will do, it would be hilarious to get better results than FSR3 (usually the case anyway in other games though).

Using DLSS Quality results in 55-65fps out in the forest, and up to around 80fps indoors. There is no Reflex or RAW mouse input option but I don't think it's needed as mouse camera latency/response seems really good, even at the lower fps in Unobtanium settings. I dropped the mouse sensitivity to 95 for the 3 mouse values and that's good for me on a 1000dpi/1000Hz mouse.

Setting the preset to Ultra results in over 100fps out in the forest with DLSS Quality. Visually there's not that much different between Unobtanium and Ultra. See for yourself:

https://imgsli.com/MjI1MTA0/2/3

Technical faffery aside, the gameplay seems really cool, the control mechanics are a bit different to other games I play(ed), so takes a bit of adjusting to them, but feels fine. I bound the crouch and melee actions to the mouse back/forward buttons which is much more intuitive than doing finger-yoga at times.

It's annoying that cutscenes are in 16:9 though, hopefully a 21:9 cutscenes mod comes out soon.

Benchmark in Unobtanium:

 

[gerardfraser]

Game looks great and 100% my kind of game that is fun to play.I do not know where some people come up with the crap they spew on the forums.

 

[noko]

Having a great time with this game. Love the battles where you move fast for different angles of attack hiding in the terrain, reminds me of Crysis on picking them off just different mechanics to stay invisible. Game when exploring Pandora is incredibly detailed, beautiful, fun and engaging, sound is outstanding.

Game is smooth, really smooth. FSR has some artifacts but mostly it is good and usable, probably the best FSR implementation I've seen so far. Frame Gen is working well too:

• In Fullscreen, Vertical sync does not work with FG, nor does the frame limiter in the game or driver Vertical sync
  • FreeSync works except when it goes out of range, believe for Nvidia users VRR is busted in Fullscreen, should work in Fullscreen borderless
• In Fullscreen borderless, frame rate seems to be limited to 120fps with monitor refresh rate, vertical sync, giving a flawless VRR experience
• Been playing with Ultra settings but no motion blur or Depth of Field (if you want sharper textures turn those off), with and without FG and just ended up leaving FG on
• Performance is really good even without FG using FSR Quality, with FG Quality or Ultra Quality for a almost locked 120fps experience, in Full Screen AMD Drivers after a two hour period said my avg FPS was 138fps avg which surprised me. I went to a Fullscreen Borderless after that for better FreeSync
• Benchmark without FG has very consistent frame Times, with FG it looks terrible except I am not seeing that in the game or noticing it. Not sure what is up with that
• Had one crash needing to reboot the machine otherwise pretty stable

 

[KickAssCop]

Yup, I was trying to beeline and finish this but now that I started exploring pandora (with Ikran) it is much more enjoyable.

Plenty of graphical bugs with DLSS like flashing water/hair, sometimes stretchy hands when flying Ikran at top of the mountains etc.

FSR3 for me is unusable due to HUD elements with a box around it etc plus water looks really weird. Overall image is also blurry.

Really fun game overall. Not sure why it got 7/10 on most sites. My rating is 8.5/10 and the gameplay is now much better once you have some abilities. Plus map is absolutely huge.

 

[Comixbooks]

This game is 69.00 at Walmart for a hard copy.

 

[LukeTbk]

Got the game via AMD bundle, I join the group that for what it look, it seem to play extremely smoothly on what is by now average hardware (at least on hardocp), 3900x-3070, it picks its auto-setting well.

Maybe in-house big budget title will have a window in time, before the new Unreal affair get massed out (if they ever, shaders compile plagued many of them for so long), game studio get used to it versus how much an Ubisoft will have mastered is long standing in-house tools and hardware catch up to it.

And I do not imagine the FPS are specially high here, it is maybe more about 1% and no surprise jurky loading ?

https://www.techpowerup.com/review/avatar-fop-performance-benchmark/5.html

At 1440p, the average and the 1% low are really close .

On screenshot at least minimum quality seem quite nice, would not be a big deal to play with those sets:
https://gamegpu.tech/action-/-fps-/...-benchmarks-for-graphics-cards-and-processors

FSR / dlss upscaling seem to be good on it as well, which help.