Bloodborne Performance Analysis

The folks at Eurogamer’s Digital Foundry have taken some time to analyze the performance of Bloodborne, From Software’s latest action-RPG, which is exclusive to Sony’s PlayStation 4 console. While the level of detail and geometry present in the environments is praised, issues with frame pacing (an incorrect ordering of frames that leads to stuttering even when the framerate is otherwise stable) and long loading times (which Sony claims will be fixed or at least mitigated in a patch) are cited:

Though its 30fps average is technically correct, Bloodborne often produces two unique frames followed by two duplicates – rather than one after another – creating a perception of frame-rate drops throughout. It’s not smooth in motion at all as a result, and frame-time updates swing erratically between 16ms and 66ms – and sometimes higher. It’s an unfortunate oversight by From Software. However, we have seen both Bungie and EA Gothenburg react to the issue in each case, correcting their games soon after launch. We hope this will be the case for Bloodborne as well.

Bloodborne’s other pending issue is its loading times. Longer than any Souls title before it, reviving at a lamp in Central Yarnham takes between 40-45 seconds – a patience-testing number given the frequency of death in this game. It’s also a nuisance due to the game’s hub-world structure, where each level loads from the Hunter’s Dream area, which in itself takes 12 seconds to load. The obvious question is to what extent upgrading to an SSD might solve the issue. We gave this a test, swapping out the stock PS4 drive for a Sandisk Extreme Pro 480GB SSD, and find that loading times are reduced by around 25 per cent overall.

The SSD upgrade has a cumulative effect. After dying over and over, plus warping back and forth, a 25 per cent saving on the time spent looking at the loading screen could seriously add up by the time the game is complete. It also makes each of the (many) losses a bit easier to take; the last thing we want is a lengthy wait for another shot at a tricky section, and this upgrade at least softens the blow. It doesn’t pull it back in line with Dark Souls titles’ turnaround, which tended to reload within 10-20 seconds on PS3. However, until From Software swoops in with a patch to optimise this aspect, upgrading your PS4’s to an SSD is easily the best option for a fresh Bloodborne playthrough.