This is a challenge for Nvidia's new top-tier RTX hardware that's very, very different from the usual benchmarks and gameplay tests - is it actually possible to run the deeply flawed PC port of Batman: Arkham Knight at 4K resolution at a smooth, locked 60fps? Three years on from its highly controversial launch, has the quality of the port improved at all? Can the latest mainstream PC technology attain the consistent performance level that has traditionally eluded this most baffling of ports? And perhaps more to the point - why return to Arkham Knight at all?

The last point is the easiest to answer - it's about preservation, the idea of running one of the greatest games of this generation not just on the games machine of today but on the hardware of tomorrow. Publisher Warner Bros has already taken a swing at remastering the PS360 era Arkham titles for the current generation of consoles with limited success, while Arkham Knight itself has received no support for the enhanced Sony and Microsoft machines. Through that process of elimination, the PC version is all we have to work with when the next best alternative is the 1080p30 PS4 experience running under boost mode on PS4 Pro.

And what's clear from running the PC game at higher resolutions is that Rocksteady's original assets not only hold up at 4K, they look absolutely beautiful. While some of the core effects like depth of field or the game's signature rain don't scale to higher pixel-counts so effectively, the high frequency detail, the stunning character modelling and the sheer atmosphere of Rocksteady's open world Gotham is simply phenomenal when pushed to the next level. Even before we attempt to drag the PC version kicking and screaming to 60fps, what we have here is a fascinating 'what if' - a vision of what Arkham Knight running on the enhanced consoles could potentially deliver.

But it's the performance issue that is our biggest challenge here - matching the consoles' 30fps target is no real problem. In theory, this should be easily doable. Running the game unlocked on powerful hardware easily sees the game regularly operate well north of 60fps - but average frame-rates are not the issue, it's all about the highly intrusive stutter that brings performance crashing down. Returning to Arkham Knight and running the PC port across a range of hardware, there are several issues to tackle here.

First of all, unless you like tearing a lot there's a double-buffer v-sync to contend with that can easily send frame-rates crashing down from 60fps to 30fps in a blink of the eye. Secondly, background streaming - yes, the dreaded Batmobile sections in particular - also inflicts a degree of stutter, and that's possibly down to streaming issues baked into the core Unreal Engine 3 technology. Then there's bandwidth intensive areas in cut-scenes, which can drag performance down hard. Just play through the initial diner scene, or where the Joker is torched at the game's very beginning for a couple of examples of this.

So how do we deal with all of these issues? For Nvidia users, using adaptive v-sync (we recommend the GPU control panel flavour) and a max in-game frame-rate set higher than 60fps trades occasional screen-tear for the lurching frame-rate drops caused by the double-buffer v-sync set-up. It's not ideal, but it's a clear improvement in overall fluidity. The bandwidth intensive scenes are harder to tackle, but based on RX 580 and Vega 56 testing, this may not be as much of an issue for AMD hardware, which seems more stable overall than the GTX 1060 and 1070 counterparts. This in turn raises the question - is there some kind of GPU driver bottleneck on the Nvidia side?

Beyond that, it's all about brute-forcing the game with modern PC gaming technology. The remaining stutter issues are resolved simply through raw power - I tested a six-core Core i7 8700K which helped immensely, while a quad-core Core i7 7700K added some more dropped frames but was still fairly solid overall. Setting the 7700K to quad-core i5 and dual-core i3 configurations with reduced clocks to match today's locked Intel processors saw more of those dreaded dropped frames crop up during Batmobile sections. Tweaking only goes so far - we reach the point where it becomes about sheer horsepower and frankly massive amounts of overhead.

Using a monitoring tool like Riva Tuner Statistics Server, it's frankly embarrassing how little of our CPU and GPU power is actually utilised for the majority of gameplay. It seems to be the case that simply having the power on tap is required to ensure consistency. According to the RTSS overlay, AMD GPUs are utilised more effectively than their Nvidia counterparts, regularly hitting above 90 per cent utilisation while GeForce cards are in the 75 per cent range. The bottom line? In our testing, RX 580 and Vega 56 worked beautifully at 1080p and 1440p respectively when paired with an 8700K, while GTX 1060 and 1070 could randomly stutter in cutscenes, while Batmobile sections worked fine. Arkham Knight demands a lot of VRAM - a six gig minimum seems to be required, even though around 4GB is apparently used at 1080p (based on RTSS read-outs). Again, it's about overhead.

With a 4K60 resolution/performance target in mind, GeForce is the only game in town. GTX 1080 Ti is fine for the most part, but sits on an uncomfortable threshold where the double-buffer v-sync can still bring frame-rates crashing down in cutscenes and heavier gameplay scenes. RTX 2080 improves matter by a small but noticeable degree, but it's the top-tier RTX 2080 Ti paired with the i7 8700K that gives us a nigh-on locked 60fps at a beautiful ultra HD pixel-count. Based on frame-rate analysis of the initial 10 minutes of the game (a far better benchmark than the useless in-game tool) we dropped just single frames - 18 of them from an 18,000 sample. To all intents and purposes then, we're there - a virtually locked 4K60. It's not quite perfect but you'd struggle to tell and to be frank, it looks absolutely glorious.

The extreme resolution combined with a beautifully consistent frame-rate elevates Arkham Knight to the next level - it's the closest we'll get to a 4K remaster and it's simply beautiful to behold. There's still the sense that there's perhaps too much detail in some of the character rendering: moire pattern aliasing still resolves on the weave of Batman's armour, but there's no doubt - this is the elevated experience that shows us just how much work, effort and detail went into the original artwork. But as good as it looks, it also highlights that Arkham Knight remains a game of its time - its approximation of physically-based rendering and the handling of materials has a distinct, unique look but the real thing looks a lot better in more modern games. Similarly, the anti-aliasing technique is sub-par and was at launch - today's TAA would work wonders in resolving Arkham Knight's obvious shader aliasing.

In returning to the game and conscious of the performance tightrope we're walking here, we didn't run at max settings initially. Nvidia Gameworks features were disabled, and we dropped shadows to the normal setting (not that it makes a huge amount of difference). This helps with more consistency with GTX 1080 Ti/RTX 2080 class hardware and it's what was used for the capture in the main video on this page. But just how much overhead was left over on RTX 2080 Ti? Could we push further? Nvidia's PhysX smoke still has a crippling impact on performance so had to be disabled - but paper debris, light shafts and enhanced rain (which seems limited to flying droplets from the Batcape when the Dark Knight glides from a building) seem to work just fine with no obvious performance hit, while shadows can return to the max setting. Playing through the first 15 minutes of the game - a crucial litmus test for overall performance - everything works fine, with just one exception, one momentary glitch during some early gliding across Gotham.

It's a reminder that no matter how much we brute-force Arkham Knight to deliver this genuinely exciting experience, fundamentally we are dealing with a really poor PC port with an often baffling performance profile. A good example here concerns the curiously impressive AMD performance. Directly after running the game on RX 580, I swapped back to GTX 1060 and re-tested. Literally all of the performance dips I'd seen before were suddenly gone - a situation I hoped would extend to GTX 1080 Ti at 4K (but alas, its issues remained). The inconsistency in testing is frustrating but by and large, the way forward is clear - we begin by mitigating the streaming issues with Batman Tweak v1.01 then brute-force everything as far as we can take it.

The results are worth it though. Arkham Knight may be three-years-old now and the general level of optimisation in the PC port is still remarkably poor - but the game itself is a product of genius and undoubtedly one of the standout titles of this console generation. And beyond the visuals, the quality of the storytelling and mission design remains second to none. Rocksteady's next project remains unknown - and it's clearly the primary focus for the studio - but we hope that the studio's future plans also include looking after the legacy of the exceptional Arkham Trilogy. There's the sense that Return to Arkham was well-intentioned but fell short technically and the extent to which Rocksteady signed off on it is unclear. But what's clear is that Arkham Knight doesn't need a huge amount of remaster work - the game assets hold up, but PC clearly requires a technical revamp, while some degree of 'forward compatibility' for the consoles to come is the least that this brilliant title deserves.

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우선, 많은 눈물을 흘리는 것을 좋아하지 않는다면, 눈 깜짝 할 사이에 프레임 속도가 60fps에서 30fps로 쉽게 떨어질 수 있다고 주장하는 이중 버퍼 v-sync가 있습니다. 둘째, 특히 Batmobile의 두려운 부분 인 백그라운드 스트리밍은 어느 정도의 말더듬을 유발합니다. 이는 핵심 Unreal Engine 3 기술로 스트리밍되는 문제를 해결할 수 있습니다. 그런 다음 컷 - 씬 (cut-scenes)에 대역폭을 많이 사용하는 영역이있어 성능 저하를 초래할 수 있습니다. 초기 식당 장면을 통해 놀거나 조커가 게임의 시작 부분에서이 예제의 몇 가지 예를 들어 불을 뿜는 곳을 살펴보십시오.

4K60 해상도 / 성능 목표를 염두에두고 GeForce는 유일한 게임입니다. GTX 1080 Ti는 대부분 괜찮지 만 더블 버퍼 v-sync가 여전히 컷씬과 무거운 게임 플레이 장면에서 프레임 속도를 떨어 뜨릴 수있는 불편한 임계점에 있습니다. RTX 2080은 작지만 눈에 띄는 정도로 물질을 개선하지만 i7 8700K와 결합 된 최상위 RTX 2080 Ti는 아름다운 초고속 픽셀 수에서 60fps의 고정밀도를 제공합니다. 게임의 초기 10 분 (사용하지 않는 게임 도구보다 훨씬 나은 벤치 마크)의 프레임 속도 분석을 기반으로 18,000 개의 샘플 중 18 개가 단일 프레임을 제외했습니다. 모든 의도와 목적에 따라, 우리는 거기에 있습니다. 사실상 4K60으로 고정되어 있습니다. 그것은 완벽하지는 않지만 솔직히 말해서 투쟁하기가 힘듭니다. 그것은 절대적으로 영광스럽게 보입니다.

게임으로 돌아와서 우리가 여기서 걷고있는 성능 줄타기를 의식하면서 우리는 처음에는 최대 설정에서 뛰지 않았습니다. Nvidia Gameworks 기능이 비활성화되었으며, 그림자를 일반적인 설정으로 떨어 뜨 렸습니다 (큰 차이가 없음). 이는 GTX 1080 Ti / RTX 2080 클래스 하드웨어와의 일관성을 유지하는 데 도움이되며이 페이지의 주요 비디오 캡처에 사용되었습니다. 하지만 얼마나 많은 오버 헤드가 RTX 2080 Ti에 남아 있었습니까? 우리가 더 추진할 수 있을까요? Nvidia의 PhysX 연기는 여전히 성능에 심각한 영향을 미쳤으므로 사용하지 않아야했습니다. 그러나 종이 파편, 가벼운 샤프트 및 강화 된 비 (다크 나이트가 건물에서 미끄러질 때 Batcape에서 물방울이 튀는 것에 국한된 것처럼 보임)는 그림자는 최대 설정으로 돌아갈 수있는 반면 명백한 성능 저하는 없습니다. 전반적인 성능에 대한 중요한 리트머스 테스트 인 게임의 첫 15 분간을 플레이하면서 - Gotham의 초기 미끄럼 중 한 순간의 결함 만 제외하고 모두 정상적으로 작동합니다.

Arkham Knight가이 흥미롭고 흥미로운 경험을 얼마나 많이 제공했는지에 상관없이 근본적으로 우리는 종종 불만스러운 성능 프로필을 가진 PC 포트를 처리하고 있다는 것을 상기시켜줍니다. AMD의 놀라운 성능에 대한 좋은 예가 흥미 롭습니다. RX 580에서 게임을 실행 한 직후, GTX 1060으로 다시 바꿔서 다시 테스트했습니다. 문자 그대로 내가 전에 보았던 모든 성능 저하는 갑자기 사라졌습니다. 4K에서 GTX 1080 Ti로 확장 할 수있는 상황이있었습니다 (그러나 슬프게도, 문제는 남아있었습니다). 테스트의 불일치는 실망 스럽지만 전반적으로 명확한 방법입니다. 먼저 Batman Tweak v1.01로 스트리밍 문제를 완화하고 모든 것을 무차별 적으로 실행합니다.

결과는 가치가있다. Arkham Knight는 3 세가 될 수 있으며 PC 포트의 일반적인 최적화 수준은 여전히 ​​매우 낮습니다. 게임 자체는 천재 제품이며이 콘솔 세대의 탁월한 타이틀 중 하나입니다. 그리고 비주얼을 뛰어 넘어 스토리 텔링과 미션 디자인의 품질은 결코 뒤지지 않습니다. Rocksteady의 다음 프로젝트는 아직 알려지지 않았으며 분명히 스튜디오의 주된 관심사 임에도 불구하고 스튜디오의 향후 계획에는 예외적 인 Arkham Trilogy의 유산도 포함되기를 바랍니다. Arkham으로 돌아온 것은 선의 였지만 기술적으로는 짧았으며 Rocksteady가 동의 한 정도는 확실하지 않다는 느낌이 있습니다. 그러나 명백한 것은 Arkham Knight가 엄청난 양의 리마 스터 작업을 필요로하지 않는다는 것입니다. 게임 자산은 멈추지 만 PC는 분명 기술적 인 개조가 필요합니다. 반면에 콘솔에 대한 어느 정도의 '순방향 호환성'은 가장 적습니다. 화려한 제목은 가치가있다.