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Horizon Forbidden West PS5, PS4 Graphics Modes Analysed by Digital Foundry - Push Square

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 06:45 AM PST

You've seen the overwhelming amount of praise Horizon Forbidden West has been treated to in this morning's reviews, so now the attention turns to how the PlayStation 5, PS4 game runs on the two consoles. Digital Foundry is, as always, the master in this field. It has today posted its findings covering both systems in a lengthy video analysis embedded above, but an accompanying written piece shares the details we're all craving. What are the resolutions of the PS5, PS4 graphical modes?

According to Digital Foundry's research, they are as follows:

Base PS4: Dynamic 1080p at 30fps
PS4 Pro: Dynamic checkerboard 1800p at 30fps
PS5 Resolution Mode: Native 4K at 30fps
PS5 Performance Mode: Checkerboarded 1800p at 60fps

John Linneman of Digital Foundry then goes on to explain that in the case of the two PS4 models, they lock at 30FPS much more reliably than Horizon Zero Dawn did back in 2017. "Finding frame-drops in gameplay is challenging. The same can be said for PlayStation 5 in both performance and resolution modes: 60fps and 30fps are essentially a lock (cutscenes in performance mode aren't quite so solid)." Linneman notes there is the occasional stutter during transitions between camera angles, but that's essentially it.

The site says the biggest differences between the PS4 and PS5 versions can be found in geometric density and reduced asset quality on the last-gen console. "Horizon Forbidden West on PS5 is remarkably dense to an extent where YouTube video compression actually sells the game short. The PS4 consoles reduce this density significantly, with many objects reduced or removed (an impressive moss layer completely vanishes, for example). Foliage rendering is also reduced in quality, with the PS4 consoles using software-based variable rate shading up against full resolution on PS5."

John Linneman then signs off by actually recommending PS5 owners play Horizon Forbidden West on the Resolution Mode, opting for 30fps purely because of the increased graphical quality. "Double the frame-rate is nice, but you're missing out on a decently-sized chunk of the next-gen (current-gen?) experience. Whichever way you choose to play, however, we highly recommend that you buy this game." Click through the link to read Digital Foundry's full Horizon Forbidden West PS5, PS4 analysis.

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You Can Now Visit Websites Using Only Emojis �� - Gizmodo

Posted: 14 Feb 2022 01:03 PM PST

🌈🚀👽.

OK, let me explain. That string of emojis is a URL that, when entered into the address line in the Opera browser, takes you to singer Kesha's website.

Opera said on Monday that it had enabled emoji-only based web addresses "to bring a new level of creativity to the internet." You don't need "www" or ".com" to access these sites—only a string of mini icons like the one above. The feature was added in partnership with Yat, a company that sells emoji-based URLs, much like Domain.com does with traditional domains.

These unique emoji strings are called Yats and their owners can tokenize them as an NFT on the Ethereum blockchain and sell or hold a short animation of the string on OpenSea. The company plans on letting users connect their Yats to electronic payments. Yats are between one and five characters and can sell from anywhere between a few dollars to hundreds of thousands of dollars: The most expensive Yat was a single-character gold key that went for $425,000 in mid-2021.

Severable notable celebrities—mostly musicians—have already purchased Yats for website hosting or promotions. Kesha is one example, and you can visit Steve Aoki (🎂🎵) or Lil Wayne's (👽🎵) webpages or the iTunes listing for Questlove's "Questlove Supreme" podcast (❓❤️).

"It's been almost 30 years since the world wide web launched to the public, and there hasn't been much innovation in the weblink space: people still include .com in their URLs," Jorgen Arnesen, executive vice president of mobile at Opera, said in a press release.

With its Yat integration, Opera becomes the first browser to simplify visiting a Yat-based webpage by removing the need to type a "y.at" prefix into the address bar as you do on other browsers (a full Yat URL looks something like this: https://y.at/👑✨). Also, emojis embedded in web pages will now link to Yat pages, so whenever you come across an emoji string on any website, it will direct you to the corresponding Yat page (if one exists).

Yat believes the emoji strings it sells can help people personalize their online identity and give celebrities more online visibility. It's a fun concept, and I can see how these visual URLs could draw people in, but the dollar amounts being thrown around to own one of these are preposterous. Especially since the process of typing in a Yat on a PC is tedious, even when using Opera, and the URLs themselves still contain "https://y.at/." It's also a lot harder to remember the order of these emojis than everyday words, and choosing the exact emoji (Raised Back of Hand Medium Skintone, for example) can be a guessing game.

That said, I could see Yats being used in marketing campaigns or bought and resold at egregious prices—if NFTs and crypto have taught us anything, it's that people will attempt to make money off even the most dubious digital assets.

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