Here we go again?
Input lag is the invisible opponent we can feel whenever it’s around more than a couple dozen milliseconds, and it’s not something we can truly escape completely (though some game developers are getting closer).
The newly released Granblue Fantasy Versus: Rising had its input lag put to the test recently, and the PlayStation 5 has again seemingly been hit with some concerning results.
Latency expert Nigel “Noodalls” Woodall ran experiments running the game on the slim PlayStation 4, PS4 Pro, PS4 version running on PS5, the PS5 version and on PC to see how long it takes button presses to register at launch.
On console, the best performance on average was using the PS4 Pro, which had around 40.36 ms and equates to around 2.52 frames, and that’s about as good as you can expect on the system.
The PS4 version running on PS5 is actually right behind it, however, with just 41.19 ms or 2.57 frames.
PS4Pro
Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising
1080P60
Video Interrupt Method
Fixed,
94 trials
P1 Command History using Brook UFB Fusion 40.36ms
P1 Animation using Brook UFB Fusion 40.36ms
0:0 with 94 draws. Difference = 0.0mshttps://t.co/5Nw4fFdi7s— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) December 13, 2023
Then there’s the PS4 Slim averaging at the noticeably higher 72.33 ms or 4.52 frames, which is still pretty typical of what we’ve seen out of fighting games from the past generation on the system.
But finally, Noodalls’ tests found the native PS5 version having 87.42 ms or 5.46 frames, so over double the PS4 at its best.
PS4onPS5
Granblue Fantasy Versus Rising
1080P60
Video Interrupt Method
Fixed,
106 trials
P1 Command History using Brook UFB Fusion 41.19ms
P1 Animation using Brook UFB Fusion 41.19ms
0:0 with 106 draws. Difference = 0.0mshttps://t.co/tewxruF4q7— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) December 11, 2023
This is further backed up by Kimagre Gaming’s own tests of Granblue’s input lag as well, including showing a slight increase when running at 4K resolution instead of 1080p too.
グランブルーファンタジーヴァーサス -ライジング-の入力遅延を測定。
4～5Fくらいで一般的な部類。
PS4版をPS5本体で動かしたときに異常に遅延が少なくなったけど、計測ミスの可能性あり。
原因調査する予定。#inputlag #グラブル pic.twitter.com/Pni77QWLim— kimagre gaming@ゲーム検証 (@kimagreGaming) December 14, 2023
The PS5 has quite the history with running into some problems with latency in games using the Unreal Engine 4 since the console launched in 2020, and it looks like it still takes the developers extra work to try and amend that.
Even Sony and Epic Games publicly acknowledged the problem and were working together to try and find a resolution.
According to Noodalls’ and Kimagre’s prior tests from last year, the PS5 results are pretty close to what we saw out of DNF Duel on release too from Arc System Works as well.
Though the developers haven’t said anything yet, this is something that’ll very likely be addressed in future updates considering ArcSys did previously figure the problem out for Guilty Gear Strive and brought its lag down to under 3 frames on PS5 last year.
If you’re serious about lag, however, it’d probably be best to stick with the PS4 version running on PS5 for now.
Finally, Noodalls also tested the PC version of Granblue, which unsurprisingly appears to run the best out of them all.
The final average came to around 24.96 ms on Steam, which is a miniscule 1.56 frames of delay and fairly impressive.
Noodalls explicitly notes, however, that the PC tests were done using a different method than the PS4 and PS5 with different hardware, so they shouldn’t necessarily be directly compared.
As always video interrupt and camera methods aren’t directly comparable.
— Nigel Woodall (@noodalls) December 19, 2023
With that being said, it looks like the computer will once again be the best place to technically run a new fighting game if tuned correctly.
Though such results are pretty much to be expected at this point.