Xbox One Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition’s Gameplay May be 900p Upscaled, Worse Textures

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In the run up to the release of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition for the next generation of consoles, the internet has been ablaze with criticism surrounding the staggering differences in frame-rates between the XBOX One and PlayStation 4 versions of the game. Recently however, users of NeoGAF have begun to question whether or not the XBOX One version’s gameplay is actually presented in 1080p, period. It seems to be an upscaled 900p version of the game that we’re getting, with worse textures to boot.

Texture and graphical differences abound in the comparison shot.

While it’s clear from the gif above that there is a massive difference between the graphical presentations of Tomb Raider, Square Enix attempted to face rumours head on, taking to the stage this morning in an interview with VideoGamer, promising fans that both versions are technically the same.

“The Xbox One and PlayStation 4 versions of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition both run at native 1080p”, said Square, “[sharing] identical assets, including textures, character models and particles”.



However, Digital Foundry went on to discover that this was actually not the case, posting a full report onto EuroGamer as part of their Next-Gen Face-Off series. NeoGAF also took apart Square Enix’s statements as being untruthful.

A closer look at the texture differences.

“[In the XBOX One version] we see the inclusion of what looks like a variable resolution framebuffer in some scenes, while some cut-scenes are rendered at a locked 900p”, explained Digital Foundry ,“explaining the additional blur in some of our Xbox One screenshots”.

The gameplay itself also seems to be up-scaled and it’s still upsetting to see the Xbox One version of Tomb Raider: Definitive Edition’s cinematics, and the franchise, taking such a huge hit shortly after release. Square Enix needs to clarify the technical specs of the Xbox One version, if only to address the pretty damning rumors and studies going around.

(Sources: N4G, EuroGamer, VideoGamer)