PORT analysis for Monster Hunter Rise PC

Almost a year after its launch in Nintendo Switch arrives at Steam the Port for Monster Hunter Rise PC, allowing us to go beyond the limits of the already excellent version of Switch. The Port offers higher resolutions, more fluid Frame-Rates and a series of graphic options to take advantage of the strengths of the PC, as well as compatibility with ultrapanoramic monitors and voice chat. Everything basics is here, but does the PC port correct the technical sacrifices of Switch's original, especially if we have the Monster Hunter Rise pass to a more demanding open world design? And, in the same way, what other improvements are offered on PC?

Being fair, the switch version is extraordinary in its own terms. It is a vision of the franchise that has been created first for the Nintendo hardware, and remains exclusive for Switch in consoles. Monster Hunter Rise is also the first game of the Saga created with the REPINE, the same engine used in Resident Evil VII and Resident Evil Village, allowing Cap com team to produce more open scenarios with fewer load times, eliminating the division of zones that we had seen so far in the franchise. The Terra X1 of the Nintendo console moved him well, although in certain aspects he stayed behind the Monster Hunter World 2018, for example in the absence of animation in the shadows of the trees or at the speed of fifties by the way in the Far enemies.

And how does the PC version compared to SWITCH? Simply with the jump to resolution 4K on PC scenarios as the forgotten temple are more pleasant in sight, and the small details in the main hub area are also more attractive by having more definition. Regarding the Frame-Rate, there is evidently there is also a direct advantage when having a combat to 60FPS; Timing when attacking, dodging or using the corrupter to jump large spaces is also more precise to 60fps. Back After this to the Switch version is complicated, but the truth is that you have to recognize the Nintendo console the merit of moving as well the game with a fixed resolution of 1344x756. In Switch the Frame-Rate is blocked at 30fps with some occasional frame-pacing problem, but the frame-rate graph rarely falls below 30fps in the initial missions.

Obviously a simple jump to 4K is not enough to impress the users. Increasing the amount of pixels presses Cap com to ensure that the world of rise endure the type to a more detailed scrutiny, and that is why a series of extras have been added to the PC graphic menu. By maximizing the game with the 'High' Global Preset we have a quality option of 150% in the image quality. It makes Super sampling of a higher base resolution to obtain a cleaner image, apart from using existing FAA and TAA techniques. High resolution textures are also activated, together with environmental occlusion, dynamic shadows and a movement option in vegetation. The distance from the meshes - which contemplates the drawn distance from the trees and objects in the remoteness - also increase to high, along with the quality of the shadows. In movement, all this translates into a satisfactory improvement. Even with our CPU Ry zen Thread ripper 1950X - a pretty old processor - there are no problems reaching the 60s. In this case, our Titan RTX - a card that is the fastest tag than an RTX 2080 Ti - upset without issues offering an image to 4k, whose result you can see in the video that accompanies this article.

One of the great promises of the PC version is the improvement in the quality of the textures. However, in practice the improvement is not as great as I expected, although it continues to be evident at certain times. The general option of high resolution textures affects the materials for the modeling of the characters, the creatures and the objects scattered around the Hub area. In Switch her quality was already respectable, but the PC has a clear advantage in the first planes of the Master Hobo Master, for example. Looking at the options, the use of the VRAM rarely reaches the maximum in the modern GPUs, but compared to the 4 GB of RAM of Switch Cap com has space of leftovers to improve quality. The textures are sharper in most kinematics, but once again the improvement is not universal. If we look at the details in Eugen we see an unequal result: the shaders of your skin do improve a lot in resolution, but other items, such as the mesh dimension, use the same switch low-resolution texture mapping. In the same way, soil textures in the temple often use the same resources as in Switch. At least in PC the presentation improves thanks to an option of filtering of higher quality textures, although the use used is the same.

One of the greatest improvements in the PC version arrive at the level of detail. The forgotten temple demonstrates this very well: going down to the initial field, the PC version shows a drawn distance from much greater in the vegetation. The plants and the trees are rendered much further away, along with a shadow waterfall. In general, most areas are sufficiently contained as so that this does not pose a problem in switch, but it is a pleasant addition in PC on the most open scenarios. It is also very appreciated eliminating 50% animations in Switch; At a distance, in the hybrid console of Nintendo the entertainment animations are reduced to 15fps, but that figure is not adjusted and 60FPS are shown. All graphic elements move with the same refreshment - 60Hz in our capture -, which is a point in favor for the PC port.

The last pillar of the PC version is the improvement in the shadows. Configuring your quality to the maximum is worth even at the expense of forcing the GPU a little more, obtaining a thicker and abundant shading under the plants. The definition is sharper in the shadows of the characters, as well as in which they are projected from the branches of the trees, a remarkable improvement with respect to the original switch. And, in addition, now the shadows of the trees are animated, moving with the wind, while in Switch they kept static at all times. However, environmental occlusion, as in Switch, continues to show a very pronounced dithering effect when the camera is approaching a lot, creating some artifacts in the image. This is especially obvious in the necklaces of the characters, or in the shade under the knob on his face. The PC version improves the accuracy of the environmental occlusion method of Cap com, but it is not perfect. In addition, in some situations to put the quality of the shadows to the maximum can cause some additional artifacts that did not appear in switch, although this is rare that this happens.

Logically the game works fluidly on a card like the Titan RTX, and it is promising to see that 4K and the detail to the fullest is not a problem to reach the 60FPs. There is a paste, yes; In the initial menu and in some cinematic the PC version returns to the 30fps limit regardless of the frame-rate you have chosen for the gameplay. This blocking at 30fps is activated in the initial kinematics with the master Fen, and in the panoramic planes of the Hub. It is also unfortunate that, as in SWITCH, in PC these moments show an uneven frame-pacing, causing the feeling that there are pulling in the movement. It is a small spot on what, for the rest, is a rather round title, and fortunately, most posterior kinematics are reproduced to 60FPS:

It is usually fantastic to see Monster Hunter Rise released from any binding on PC. The improvement in the resolution and the Rate are clearly the most remarkable, going far beyond what was possible in Switch. The improvements in textures, shadows and the level of detail do not have as much impact, however, but at least they refine the presentation. Undoubtedly, Monster Hunter has never seen himself better. That said, there are certain sticks to point out of the PC version: the kinematics blocked to 30fps and the occasional defects in the shadows.

Monster Hunter Rise moves well to PC, even if there are some things that we would have liked to see in him. The icing on the cake would have been CROSS-PLAY between the versions of Switch and PC with some kind of saved in the cloud similar to Steam Cloud. This idea proved to be a success in Ports for Switch as The Witcher 3 or original Divinity without 2, allowing players to resume their departure at home with the computer after playing outside with the laptop. It is also surprising the absence of high-end PC features as a rays plot, being something that is capable of re-engineering and having to settle for reflections in screen space. In any case, Monster Hunter Rise is a robust PC conversion, and it is worth recommending. It is a satisfactory port, even being one with few extras to excite the users of high-end PCs.

Translation by Joseph Maria Sempre.