Visit the Kill Switch Master List for more information on this and other current known issues: https://forums.bhvr.com/dead-by-daylight/kb/articles/299-kill-switch-master-list
Why is dbd on consoles still not optimized?
My friends can barely play Dead by Daylight on the PlayStation 4 Slim let alone on the Nintendo Switch. Constant frame rate issues, lag, skill check issues, graphical glitches and probably more.
Since they promised to optimize it a few years ago, did they just drop the whole thing because it seems hopeless from the beginning? What happened?
They had an entire article about it. Why giving up?
Comments
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PlayStation 4 Pro and PlayStation 5 can play Dead by Daylight comfortably at 60fps.
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AH HA HA HA HA.
Coming from an old PS4 user, I swapped to PC because the optimization was pretty bad.
If it's the start of the match and nobody is doing anything then yea youll be at 60 FPS, the issue is when any action that involve game progression cause major FPS decreases (unhooking, completing generators, etc.) which of course interferes with gameplay since those actions are always happening in the background beyond the start of the match.
Also a reminder that not everyone plays on the PS4 Pro as well, some people play on just your standard PS4 etc. Until the issues with next-gen Console stock gets fixed (which there are still issues with that, bare in mind), BHVR is going to have to make the game accessible for all last-gen Consoles it is available for until such issue is sorted out.
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The older consoles just can't handle things as well. There's not much BHVR can do about that with current staffing levels. Looking towards the future, once you get on next gen things run pretty smooth. A lot of people aren't there yet, but stock is starting to show up in stores. Hope you can upgrade soon.
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@Pulsar is more or less our Console Crusader and leader, and can expound on this subject at length. He started the absolute biggest thread ever on this forum on this very subject.
The bottom line is this: for last gen machines they promised 60 frames across the board, and like 2+ years later thechnobabble a response saying why they cannot do it.
As for optimization, it is quite unsatisfactory on any of the platforms DBD is out on, with only the badasses of PC's having zero problems. The devs chose to handle optimization in-house (most often developers farm that work out to specialists) and not to bash them too hard on this, but the results speak for themselves.
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It is not the capabilities of the prior gen machines, it is the coding of this game that they have such trouble digesting.
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Lol! Idk i mean yea there are some issues but its not unplayable. Have over 6k hrs on switch. Yea switch. And i can definitely rock a killers world if they sleep on me.
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There's really no excuse.
Yes, they can. DBD is not an intense game. If Battlefield 4, Battlefield 1 and Battlefront II can run better than DBD, there's an issue.
It's completely unacceptable that DBD looks like a PS3 game and runs like your trying to play RDR2 on your grandma's Windows 98 laptop.
Here's the link to the longest Forum thread which I'm working on an update for.
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Zero excuses for the poor console optimization. Like, even D2 is more demanding game and it never gave me nearly the problems. Might as well run on Raspberry Pi at this rate.
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I think you missed my point. They're focused on PC and next gen. They're not going to hire on a bunch more people to keep old platforms up to speed when those are going to become obsolete as soon as manufacturers can start getting products in stores, which is starting to happen now. It simply wouldn't be a smart business decision on their part given the staff and resources it would require. Sucks for a lot of people, but that's the reality of it. Consoles are moving forward and they gotta follow that.
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They promised this three years ago.
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They did, and they probably tried their best...but it was too optimistic. Now we're at a point where it just wouldn't make sense to follow through. I love BHVR and DBD, but at best they're barely on the high end of indie studios. You're trying to compare them to EA Dice and other major devs. EA's legal department has more people and resources than the entirety of BHVR. It's not a fair comparison.
I get it. BHVR overpromised and it feels like a let down. It feels like they're just draggin their feet cuz they want to screw you over or something, but that's not the case. They had big goals and just couldn't pull it off. I'm sure they're disappointed too. Now that ship has sailed and they gotta try to move on for the long term health of the game. They may try to get some small fixes pushed through to do as much as they can for players on older hardware, but it's not gonna be the giant overhaul you want. They can't do that and stay in business. It's too much.
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The kicker is the new gen machines are slowly showing the same frame drop triggers the last gen ones did. I'm not saying they'll end up as roughly running DBD they are too powerful for that, for now.
But similar issues cropping up on the new machines is troubling.
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The issues that cause last-gen systems to have problems are also causing new-gen systems to have problems.
The underlying issues are the same. Will you be saying the same thing in a year when these issues get worse?
RPD, Garden of Pain and Haddonfield all cause major frame drops and freezes on my Series X. I can only imagine what sort of slideshow horror the game is on Xbox One or PS4.
DBD came out in 2016, I don't think it's too much to ask that the game WORKS on systems that were current when the game came out. Hell, the Xbox One X has the same issues and it released YEARS after DBD. The game is EXTREMELY poorly optimized, even for people on PC.
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You're both right. The same issues will continue to creep in. That's not unusual. The DBD we have now is a significantly bigger game than the DBD that released in 2016. The problems arise because for all these years they've been building off of that original code. The foundation is trying to support more than it was originally intended to. They try to improve what they can, but those original building blocks can only stretch so far. So now they're stuck with 2 options. Keep trying to move forward with what they have or scrap everything and build a new DBD from the ground up.
Don't get me wrong, I'd love for everything to be better. But if you come to me and say "hey, to do this we need a whole new game and you gotta start from scratch (a la Destiny 2)" my response would be a resounding "nope".
That's just the nature of game development. BHVR is not big enough and doesn't have the resources to do a complete overhaul in place. The only way they could do it at this point would be to make an entirely new game and that would absolutely decimate the playerbase. As much as it sucks, I'd rather see them continue as they are.
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Since collectively the consoles by far make up the largest playerbase of DBD, that approach cannot and will not work. It hasn't worked since 2018, and it is worsening as we speak. Plus lower-end PC's also struggle with the coding, despite meeting the min and recommended specs.
I realize it started out as a PC-only game, as many do. But they ported it on over to the consoles, and imo it is not unreasonable to ask for the game to run & continue to run somewhat well. If that is not possible, it should have stayed just on Steam and by now would be largely forgotten. But they did put it out for console. So around we go.
Our passionate frustration is rooted in the same place as you, our love & hope for what can be an awesome game.
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We're definitely on the same side here. I do think as more people move to next gen consoles we'll see some sort of optimization for those platforms. I just don't think they have the resources to try to do much when it comes to older consoles. They will continue to slip until they're no longer supported at all. It happens to games with every new generation.
As much as it sounds like I'm defending BHVR, I'm really not. Simply being realistic. They set themselves up for this kinda backlash because they have a terrible track record when it comes to over-promising and under-delivering. Everyones frustration with that is completely justified.
I hope they can find a solution that keeps older console versions viable for as long as possible, but I wouldn't hold my breath on that one.
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It's just the way it's going. Most games that are playable on the older and newer gen consoles (ps4 vs ps5 and xbox 1x vs series x) means that the games are barely usable on the older consoles. I play jurassic world evolution on console. On my series X it runs fine but on the xb1x it's a laggy mess that crashes regularly.
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They absolutely need to stop with these visual updates, they keep making things worse for everyone who's either stuck on a console or on a low spec pc. The least they could do is add another setting which reduces the visuals to potato level. After all most of us care for the gameplay and not for the visuals. Heck, I wouldn't mind playing the equivalent of a N64 version of this game.
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The devs said before that a graphics option similar to what PC has wouldn't improve frames on the consoles. The bottleneck occurs elsewhere apparently.
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We're not just still burning about how last gen ended up being treated, but as Pulsar also said these same dang issues are showing up on the new machines as well.
Hard to have much hope for a decent optimization given their record up till now.
Besides our concerns, options like a replay mode to lessen the reporting system demands on the playerbase can only happen with a fresh coding from scratch. And those options would benefit us all regardless of platform.
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Why should I buy a PS5 just to play Dead by Daylight? PS5 doesn't even have games.
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Agreed. For the players, a new game with a clean, up to date foundation would be best. For BHVR, given their current size, it would absolutely bankrupt them. They could try to reach out to a major publisher, but that comes with a ton of downsides from a business sense. I don't think they're willing or able to go down that road. If they did, we would almost surely get hit with far more predatory monetization. Personally, I don't think it's worth it.
I don't know how else they could pull it off on the business side. How do you think they could do it?
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That's gotta be the trolliest comment I've ever seen. PS5 has a bunch of games that are pretty awesome, with more in the pipeline. Not to mention almost every PS4 game, including DBD (which also has a free upgrade to PS5 version), plays significantly better. Once you get a PS5 you'll never want to go back. It's that much of a difference.
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I don´t think PS4 will change much anymore.
I play on PC and PS4 and just did the rifts on both. It is playable (at least for me).
You notice that the frames are lower on PS4. But surv with controller is ok.
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We really notice it while playing as killer.
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I don't think they can. I do not think they'll be a DBD2, nor a recoding. All the reasons you pointed out are true and make sense.
What I think will happen is the second Microsoft and Sony end their support for last gens so will DBD. That'll likely happen just over a year from now. I pray some form of Cross Progression happens for those who would go that route.
At the moment about half of those playing on Xbox and PS are still on last gen, so it's not an insignificant number of neglected players imo.
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Switch is the worst. Screen is too small and controller is not great
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I agree. There’s nothing on ps5 yet that I have to buy one. I can wait another year or two.
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Damn, I was hopin you'd have an idea I'd overlooked.
They really should implement full cross progresaion at this point. It wouldn't be hard to do and I think long term, more people would be willing to spend more money on other things like new DLC or cosmetics. There's probably a lot of people that hold back because they're not sure how long their platform is gonna be worthwhile or they're thinking of hopping to PC, but don't want to buy everything again and start from the bottom.
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even on PC the game stutters often by a lot of reasons , cant imagine console running DBD at 60 fps consistenly...
(yes this is talking about low - high settings , no matter whats the options you choose the game still runs like crap on any)
compared to other modern games , DBD has really bad optimization and thats a fact that some people still dont want to admit
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u r using a PC that can't even play Dead by Daylight stably... poor you. Well, I have nothing to do with it...lol
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My friends can play Elden Ring with tons of AI and a huge map on the PlayStation 4 Slim but Dead by Daylight can't even handle 3+ zombies and small maps in the game? Give me a break. PS5 only have 6 games in total and that is Astro's Playroom, Demon's Souls (2020 video game), Destruction AllStars, Final Fantasy XVI, Horizon Call of the Mountain and Ratchet & Clank: Rift Apart. Everything else is playable except for Dead by Daylight, that is, mind you, made in 2016.
6 games for a new console. You have to be more realistic, please.
You, sir, are the troll here.
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I'm flabbergasted that people here are literally defending BHVR for their poor optimized video game, and then also tell or suggesting people to buy a PS5 just so you can play dead by daylight. 1 game. There are even people who said that this game is getting worse on the PS5. It's absolutely ######### mental.
I should of never bought the DLCs. I'm the biggest dumbass in the world.
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What?
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It's a troll account.
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Just give up. There is no hope.
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There really is no excuse for this game to not run well on older consoles. It’s a six year old game, for crying out loud. It’s very well known in this community that the optimization for this game is piss poor compared to most other games.
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What on earth does this even mean?
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Ok, buddy 🤣
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lol I remember seeing the trailer for the Switch version of the game. They desperately tried to avoid showing off any violence, it was really pitiful to watch. Nintendo basically reduced the game to a Scooby Doo caricature with the killer chasing the survivors or pulling them out of a locker, that's all their audience got to see of the game.
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BHVR can't even be bothered to add needed controller options like dead zone and response curve settings, nor can they give the really absolutely necessary brightness/gamma setting for Switch handheld. It's abysmal. Optimization is one thing, it's difficult (and it should have been contracted out to professionals), but these missing options imply they don't even care about their customers on console. They never should have ported the game to consoles. They don't deserve console players' patronage or loyalty at all.
That's without going into how upset I am about the basically canceled Switch cross-progression. I was really counting on that. It killed all faith and any remaining trust I had left for BHVR.
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What I question myself all year is: "Why is there no setting to disable aim assist?"
Yes, but what can we do? I just read now that Pulsar made a thread, that is extremely popular in the past, blatantly ignored by the developers? What hope is there for this game to have any optimization?
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They tried to make it child friendly because it's Nintendo Switch? 😂🤣
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DbD on PS5 is perfect.
On PS4 is disaster.
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I play primarily on the Switch too, how do you find the camera sensitivity though? I have it on 100% and it's still way too slow, especially compared to when i play on PS5 which is just way smoother as well. Wondering if maybe I need to buy new joy con's?
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From what I understand this game was strewn together from pre-defined assets and code libraries. Meaning that everything they used to create the game was built by someone else, so to optimize it, they need to reconstruct it, or hire people who know how to refactor all their existing code - they might even need to rebuild things from the ground up. They likely have the money to do that, but it may not be cost effective to hire the manpower to make that work, so instead they try to optimize where they can which leaves them where they are now.
I'm trying to be optimistic. The pessimist in me thinks that they have only so many man hours set aside to work on this, and it's low priority because of console population sizes and how much those players contribute to their overall revenue. That's business, though.
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They said the were going to optimise the game to run 60fps, but instead decided to update the graphics and add new lighting and effects which actually made the performance worse; and since then spend time updating things like the pallet and breakable wall graphics.
I think collectively console users make up a huge portion of the playerbase, and if they aren’t spending as much then I would say that is because of the games poor optimisation.
I have definitely stopped spending money because it feels like a waste when I don’t feel I’m valued as a player on the format I play on.
As said above; even if performance wasn’t improved, there are small quality of life changes they could add such as basic dead zone and controller acceleration options which would show they at least are still considerate of console users struggles.
As is though I for one feel neglected as a player and format, like my time and money isn’t valued as much as PC; and I feel very jaded because of it.
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Altogether the consoles are by far the largest playerbase
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What I question myself all year is: "Why is there no setting to disable aim assist?"
There's an answer to that: because the game doesn't have aim assist. The thing that causes killers to miss hits is called "aim dressing." Aim dressing exists to make the animation look better, adjusting the direction of the killer's swing so hits look like they connect with the survivor. This benefits survivor players, not killers. Because it's not even for killers, killers would never be allowed to turn it off. And every killer would turn it off, because as Peanits himself said, while aim assist exists to help players get hits they otherwise wouldn't, aim dressing will never help you get a hit, it can only cause a killer player to miss a hit they otherwise would have gotten.
Source of Peanits talking about aim dressing:
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Nintendo Switch literally has Bayonetta games. Let's not use child friendly as an argument
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