First things first, it should be noted that testing was predominately carried out on a PC featuring an Intel Core i5 3570k clocked at 4.5GHz paired with an Nvidia GeForce GTX 780, with the game tested on both an SSD and standard hard disk drive - but we also tested the game on a number of other systems too, simply to confirm just how power-hungry Dead Rising 3 actually is. Unfortunately, we encountered consistent crashing problems on both of our main gameplay systems, making testing far more difficult than it needed to be. Sometimes we could play for 10-15 minutes without a problem, while on other occasions the game would crash within a minute or so of beginning play. A fresh install without unlocking the frame-rate made no difference. Ultimately we were unable to capture as much footage as we would have liked simply because making progress in the game was almost impossible. Reading over various forums suggests that we aren't alone in this and Capcom Vancouver is currently investigating the problem.
Digging into the options menu straight away, first impressions are positive: Dead Rising 3 ships with a wide variety of options for PC users to adjust. Shadow quality, texture quality, LOD (level of detail), reflection quality, zombie quality and various other toggles including ambient occlusion and subsurface scattering are all available in an exhaustive list. Unfortunately,
our enthusiasm dampened a bit after testing when it became clear that the highest possible settings are essentially only a match for the original Xbox One release.
What's perhaps more interesting is that selecting the default 'high' preset actually produces results nearly identical to the Xbox One version, complete with 720p internal resolution and 4x anisotropic filtering. For all intents and purposes, the developer has defined the Xbox One version as the premiere preset, at least before additional adjustments are made. Despite this, the massive potential improvements to image quality ultimately result in a superior-looking game all around.
A more serious problem appears in the form of highly noticeable texture and model pop-in while traversing the city. Objects routinely dissolve into the scene as the players moves through the world while many surfaces retain low-resolution textures far too long in close proximity. Comparing the two versions reveals that these issues on PC actually somewhat mirror the Xbox One version. Textures and objects often load in with similar frequency on both platforms even when the game is installed on an SSD. There are instances when assets load a touch more quickly on the PC but this issue remains a problem throughout most of the experience and often sullies otherwise-decent texture work.
We started the game using maximum settings at 1080p and were immediately disappointed by the results. During normal gameplay, primarily in populated areas, we averaged around 52fps with the majority of gameplay falling just below 60fps resulting in noticeable judder. By reducing the internal rendering resolution to 900p, however, we were able to average around 58fps instead, with many more sections operating at our full target frame-rate. This is certainly not ideal, but it certainly makes a good case for Nvidia's G-Sync technology, at least.
Curiously, cut-scenes are even more demanding than the game itself. At 1440p we noted sustained drops to a performance level as low as 20fps during playback. Lowering resolution was ultimately necessary just to reach a stable 30fps and only at 720p were these scenes able to hit 60fps with any frequency. The cut-scenes are impressively detailed, no doubt, but it's difficult to imagine why they push the system so hard. Perhaps the wealth of highly detailed, articulated models all beautifully shaded with excellent use of subsurface scattering on their skin takes its toll? Either way, the performance is highly disappointing bearing in mind the raw horsepower of our system.