Project Spark Beta Test GPU

BASIC GAME INFORMATION

 

Developers: Microsoft Game Studios and Team Dakota
Publisher: Microsoft Game Studios
Released Games: 2014g.
Genres: Action / 3D / 3rd Person 

 

Calling Project Spark a game wouldn't be very accurate, because it's more like a game world editor. In this project, absolutely everything will be available for you to change. In addition to natural phenomena, such as the time of day, the presence and number of trees, mountain ranges, rivers and much more, the player will also be able to create natural phenomena, and all this can be done directly during the gameplay. Using a convenient constructor, it will be quite easy for you to set behavior algorithms for NPCs

The game also includes collaborative participation, allowing users to share their worlds. Project Spark will be available for Xbox 360 and Xbox ONE users, as well as for Windows 8. 

THE GRAFICAL PART

This subsection of our review highlights the main graphical aspects of this game. Particular attention is paid to the version of the graphics engine used, the version of the API used, graphic settings and the quality of development of the main visual aspects.

Supported OS and graphics API

Project Spark is supported by the operating system  Windows 8.1. Other operating systems are not currently supported by developers and will not be supported. 

 

The priority and primary graphics API for Project Spark Beta is DirectX 11. 

Game engine

The Project Spark game engine is a proprietary product of Microsoft Game Studios. There is practically no information on the network about the structure and development of this engine. Rather, the engine is a further development of the product line for games based on Microsoft Game Studios' own intellectual property.

We were unable to find detailed information other than our own visual observations. 

Advanced Game Settings

Project Spark has a very limited graphics menu and supports changing only a few graphics settings. As for the resolution itself, it depends directly on the one installed on the desktop Windows.

 

Below we have provided screenshots of the game at various graphics settings, where our readers can see the difference between the minimum, medium and maximum graphics quality settings. 

Various quality modes

As we can see, the picture quality between different graphics settings is quite significant, which is very pleasant, considering such a sparse graphic menu.

Comparison of FullHD and 4K

Project Spark looks good in 4K, but the game would benefit from higher-resolution textures.

Mode comparison 4K NVIDIA and AMD

In 4K mode, the game with AMD video cards has some problems, namely the correct detection of the screen. Instead of the required 3840x2160, it defines it as 2160x3840...

General visual design and game physics

Project Spark is a multi-platform project, since in addition to PC it is also being developed on Xbox One, which, in general, influenced the game itself. In view of this, we have a very poor graphical menu without support for changing resolution and an FPS lock at 30 frames, which for PC gamers is in some way a “low blow”...

 

But if we omit all the above listed shortcomings, then the game is a very interesting project with almost all possible modes of level construction, which are limited only by the player’s imagination. The graphics in the game themselves are cartoonish and pleasant and do not cause irritation.  

 

Next, we will move directly to gaming tests and determine what impact this game has on modern computer hardware. 

TEST PART

Test GPU

All video cards were tested at maximum graphics quality using the Intel GPA Monitor 2014 R1 program. Other monitoring programs are unable to recognize the game. The purpose of the test is to determine how video cards from different manufacturers behave under the same conditions. The average and minimum FPS were taken as the performance indicator, due to the lack of support for monitoring programs with video recording, this time the video of the test segment is missing from the review. 

 Our graphics cards were tested at separate screen resolutions of 1920x1080, 2560x1600, and 3840x2160 at the maximum graphics quality settings allowed by Project Spark Beta. The game has an internal FPS limit of 30 frames.

Testing at resolution 1920x1080

     

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 

  

With these settings An acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 6850 or GeForce GTX 560 level.

Testing at 2560x1600 resolution

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 2560x1600

 

With these settings An acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the Radeon HD 6870 or GeForce GTX 650 Ti level. The optimal video cards will be Radeon HD 6970 or GeForce GTX 650 Ti and above.  

Testing at resolution 3840x2160

 

Testing at maximum quality settings 3840x2560

With these settings acceptable FPS indicator was shown by video cards of the level Radeon R7 260X or GeForce GTX 660. The optimal video cards will be Radeon R9 270 or GeForce GTX 660 and above.  

Testing of video memory consumed by the game was carried out by the program MSI Afterburner. The indicator was based on results on top video cards from AMD and NVIDIA with separate screen sizes 1920x1080 and 2560x1600 with different anti-aliasing settings.

Testing at maximum memory quality settings GPU

 

The recommended amount of video memory usage for a resolution of 1920x1080 will be 1024 MB of video memory, for a resolution of 2560x1600 - 1280 MB of video memory and for a resolution of 3840x2160 about 1536 MB of video memory.

Test CPU

   

We tested processor dependence on 15 models of basic configurations that are relevant today. The test was carried out in those places where the video card value for the game is minimal and its load was less than 99%, this time at a resolution of 1920x1080 with maximum graphics quality settings.

Testing at maximum quality settings 1920x1080   

 

Processor performance in the game is limited to an FPS limit of 30 frames.

Loading of processor coresat maximum quality settings 1920x1080 Intel% 

 

Loading of processor cores at maximum quality settings 1920x1080 AMD% 

 

The game can support up to 4 computing threads, but again, the frame limit does not allow you to fully assess the load on the cores.

RAM test

The test was carried out on the basic configuration of Core i 7 3970X@4.9 GHz with 16GB DDR3 2400 MGz pre-installed memory. The entire used operational memory was taken as an indicator. The RAM test on the entire system was carried out on various test benches without launching third-party applications (browsers, etc.).

Testing the game's RAM consumption at various quality settings 

 

As we can see, with various quality settings, the amount of RAM consumed in Project Spark is at the level of 900-1000 megabytes.  

Testing system RAM consumption  

 

On a 4GB system, Project Spark consumes about 2.1GB of RAM. In the presence of a system with 8 gigabytes, the RAM consumption of all RAM was 2.6 gigabytes. With a 16 GB system, the total memory consumption was almost 3.2 gigabytes.   

IRONSPONSORS

 

 

GAME SPONSORS