[dropcap size=dropcap]A[/dropcap] few days ago, we have informed our readers that Call of Duty: Ghosts will run natively in 1080p on PS4 and 720p on Xbox One. After the release of the next gen consoles however, it seemed that the difference in resolution came with a price as more and more users reported frame rates dropping problems and game judders on PS4, especially in multiplayer parties. First, they blamed the issues on the visual effects such as smoke, but there were times where they could not identify the reason.
Recently however, Digital Foundry claimed to have found the underlying issue to be caused by the game rendering faster than 60FPS. How is this possible? Well, according to their specific measures, Call of Duty: Ghosts runs on PS4 at a frame rate higher that 60 fps on a frequent basis. Since the console’s video output is restricted at 60Hz, the result is a “judder and perceived frame rate loss”. Actually, there is no frame rate loss; there is only an illusion of such sorts. According to Digital Foundry, the problem is way serious than the frame rate drops experienced on the Xbox 360 versions of the game, as users are actually seeing “skipped and incomplete frames” appearing on screen.
Sure, there was a Call of Duty Ghosts patch released on launch date of the next gen console Playstation 4 that was supposed to increase the native resolution to 1080p, reducing the judder effect. However, it was not removed completely.
The simplest way to reduce the judder will be therefore to play the game at maximum resolution, in which case the game will experience some frame drops. According to our sources, ‘Call of Duty: Ghosts’ will fall to 50fps under heavy stress but at the same time, it will stick between 50 and 60 fps on 1080p.
“Thankfully, the effects of these normal frame-rate drops are less obviously visible than the judder caused by the renderer exceeding the 60Hz refresh, although even with the 1080p patch enabled things don’t appear as smooth as the Xbox 360 version of the game” said Digital Foundry.
The PS4 version of Call of Duty: Ghosts was launched alongside with the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, PC and Wii U versions earlier this month.