Zelda on Switch Runs More Smoothly in Portable Mode

Megalith

Megalith

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Maybe I am the only one who is surprised by this, but Zelda: Breath of the Wild plays better when the game is running in the Switch’s portable mode. Throughout the whole Switch saga, one obvious fact was that console mode would give you more power, but it never crossed my mind that developers, especially Nintendo themselves, would allow a bump in resolution and call it a day without further tweaks. I wonder how true it is that the newest Zelda is better than all previous titles, including A Link to the Past and Ocarina of Time...

In terms of performance, it's immediately clear to the naked eye that the docked Zelda stutters in places where the mobile experience does not - and to confirm this, we manually counted frames by eye based on our camera shots to ensure accuracy in producing the performance test below. It's really easy to isolate this issue as it occurs frequently in the open world, right from the beginning of the game. In some places, we see the smooth 30fps update while docked drop down to a momentary 20fps - confirming a basic double-buffer v-sync implementation.
 
I think it is a little too early to get worried about this. The Switch does allow more clock speed when docked, so I think it will take developers a little time to get used to optimizing for both modes. Zelda is a Wii U port, so I am guessing there wasn't a lot of time to make sure they got everything right. The Switch is still a cool device, the coolest Nintendo has released in some time, so I think we just need to give devs a little more time to get used to the hardware. Not to mention most of Nintendo's money has been coming from the handheld market for a while, so making a great 3DS replacement is a smart move, and one that can dock and can play with my friends is even better.
 
HeadRusch said:
No Games, No Lines, No Buzz. Worse than the Wii U.
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The Switch caught me completely off guard when it was announced, so I never preordered. Hopefully it sells well and provides more competition, and a wider variety of games, because in my opinion, we certainly do need that for consoles.

Anyway, as for the difference in fluidity with portable vs docked mode... It's 2017, and 3D games have been around for how long? I'm hoping one day, one of these manufacturers will finally put their foot down and say that 30 fps in the bare minimum that games need to maintain for the vast majority of their game (talking 90%+). I understand the consoles are underpowered, but if you need to keep Zelda at 720p vs 900p, is it really going to make that much of a difference in IQ?
 
The buzz that I've heard so far is that the dock scratches the screen on the portable as you insert/remove it. There are plastic guides inside the dock, and the screen is sadly plastic. People are already modding the dock and of course getting tempered glass screen protectors.

Pretty dumb oversight. Should mention that the scratches are not on the viewing area but just outside that, but it still looks unsightly.

http://www.glixel.com/news/youre-going-to-want-a-screen-protector-for-your-nintendo-switch-w470245
 
I think it's got a problem with pricing....same as a XO or PS4? For a 720p tablet? I want to understand the niche in Japan this product is designed to fill because it does not seem like something designed for the world-markets. Is this the 'upscale portable' that Nintendo hopes all those single middle-aged people in Japan will be using as they 'outgrow' the clunky plastic boxes that were the previous handhelds?
I'm being serious, for once.....I personally never want to see anyone or anything 'fail', this just feels like a product without a market. Like if someone tried to bring back mini discs or something in an age of solid state storage.....
 
brentsg said:
The buzz that I've heard so far is that the dock scratches the screen on the portable as you insert/remove it. There are plastic guides inside the dock, and the screen is sadly plastic. People are already modding the dock and of course getting tempered glass screen protectors.

Pretty dumb oversight. Should mention that the scratches are not on the viewing area but just outside that, but it still looks unsightly.

http://www.glixel.com/news/youre-going-to-want-a-screen-protector-for-your-nintendo-switch-w470245
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The screen is not plastic. There is a coating on it however that I could see getting scratched.

As for Zelda running worse on a 1080p TV - It doesn't run any worse than any number of titles I've played on Xbox or PS4. Gears of War 4 on Xbox One is a joke when it comes to frame rates, and that's a recently released 1st party title as well. Zelda runs FAR better than GoW4 does, and that's just one example. I can rattle off a number of big AAA games on the other consoles that run like dogshit compared to Zelda.

This is once again false outrage, although about the only people complaining about it are people that don't even have a Switch from what I've seen.
 
HeadRusch said:
No Games, No Lines, No Buzz. Worse than the Wii U.
Click to expand...

I'm going to disagree with you on this. There was a lot of negativity surrounding the WiiU. It to date is the only Nintendo console I have ever refused to purchase. While the switch certainly isn't perfect, it is a far cry better than the WiiU. The only major problem I see with the switch is that it is what the WiiU should have been when it released so the switch may suffer more from Too little, too late than anything. Yes it has the online issues and the voice thing, but those honestly were as bad or worse on the WiiU when it launched and for the most part still are. The switch is not perfect, but it is cheaper and overall a better thought out console than the WiiU ever was. It won't be as popular as the wii, but it will certainly be far better than the WiiU.
 
Dekoth-E- said:
I'm going to disagree with you on this. There was a lot of negativity surrounding the WiiU. It to date is the only Nintendo console I have ever refused to purchase. While the switch certainly isn't perfect, it is a far cry better than the WiiU. The only major problem I see with the switch is that it is what the WiiU should have been when it released so the switch may suffer more from Too little, too late than anything. Yes it has the online issues and the voice thing, but those honestly were as bad or worse on the WiiU when it launched and for the most part still are. The switch is not perfect, but it is cheaper and overall a better thought out console than the WiiU ever was. It won't be as popular as the wii, but it will certainly be far better than the WiiU.
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IMO the Switch is going to sell quite well over the next few years. Once you put hands on the system and play Zelda.. It's an instant sell. As more and more people see it in the wild and see what it's doing it'll sell itself.
 
I think the switch is great. I consider it the new Gameboy / 3DS, not the new Playstation, so its really powerful with a great screen for that market.

As for the docked mode being slower despite much higher GPU clocks, id guess memory bandwidth limited.
 
Nintendo has always been blissfully unaware when it came to the west, with their products designed purely for the Japanese market imho. For example, with them calling their old console the Wii. Or their terrible approach to online, which, while better on the Switch, is still pretty awful compared to the Xbox and PS4. Or that their consoles are still targeted towards children. All of these make sense when you view it through a Japanese Culture Lens. (Where group play tends to be more local than anonymous online, and adults tend to be more mobile gamers than console gamers).
 
Our local Walmart Borg Supercenter had a grand total of 15 preorder slots and 10 retail units...
 
EricVB said:
I think the game runs higher resolution when in docked (900p) vs 720p (portable) hence why they could be seeing the issue.
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OMFG YOU MIGHT BE RIGHT... HOLY FUCK! FUCKING AMAZING! WOW. MIND BLOWN. CANT EVEN.
 
This news was up a week or two ago, didn't think it was still a thing. Regardless, you are gaming on a tablet, so please, temper expectations.
 
Mchart said:
The screen is not plastic. There is a coating on it however that I could see getting scratched.
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I've seen a lot of back and forth on this and it feels like plastic to me.. but I don't have any interest in arguing it. Either way, if they used glass and then put a scratch-able coating on it, it's pretty inept. Between the scratch-able screen, the fragile kickstand, and the port cover for the game slot, I wouldn't have wanted my kids to have one unless I was prepared to have it trashed.
 
brentsg said:
I've seen a lot of back and forth on this and it feels like plastic to me.. but I don't have any interest in arguing it. Either way, if they used glass and then put a scratch-able coating on it, it's pretty inept. Between the scratch-able screen, the fragile kickstand, and the port cover for the game slot, I wouldn't have wanted my kids to have one unless I was prepared to have it trashed.
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Almost every cell phone screen on the market has an oleophobic coating which is what most people 'scratch' when you scratch the screen. This is not limited to the Switch, and is an issue of pretty much every mobile device on the market currently. Unless you have a completely sapphire crystal display glass w/ no coating a screen is going to scratch if you get sand/dirt in contact areas.

I do slightly flaw Nintendo for just having hard plastic on the inside of the dock that touches the display. If you get any sand/grit in there or on your screen and then insert it roughly into the dock it's going to scratch the coating.
 
yea $400 dollars to play a single game...woohoo!!

least if I wanted one, no problems finding them. Say at least 8 at target and 10+ at both walmart locations near me.
 
At 5:48 in the video.....

dd25228dc4a710c1bd5166d7d4da5d13.jpg
 
apparently launch sales stink for the switch.
i dont know if it's just me, but my total lack of interest for this console, i forgot it was due to be released yesterday, so is it just me or is this the most irrelevant console launch in decades?
the console doesn't seem able to generate any hype at all.
 
im not sure why ppl are surprised by this when there is no extra hardware in the base station. of course its gonna run slower at a higher res. and not sure how the launch stinks when its sold out everywhere.
 
To be fair, when was the last time there was a decent lineup of games for any console release?
 
You could not do more to sabotage your own company than Nintendo has been doing recently. Cringeworthy.
 
EricVB said:
I think the game runs higher resolution when in docked (900p) vs 720p (portable) hence why they could be seeing the issue.
Click to expand...

Makes sense. However, this never should have been an issue in the first place. Especially with your 10/10 system-selling title.
 
bigdogchris said:
I agree the game lineup is really bad.
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You people have a really short memory, or love to distort reality.

The WiiU had no launch lineup. It had New Super Mario Bros U. A rehash title that no one cared about, and that was basically all it had for the first year.

The Switch out the door has an outstanding RPG at the very least, and by Christmas will have a few more great first party titles.
 
Mchart said:
You people have a really short memory, or love to distort reality.

The WiiU had no launch lineup. It had New Super Mario Bros U. A rehash title that no one cared about, and that was basically all it had for the first year.

The Switch out the door has an outstanding RPG at the very least, and by Christmas will have a few more great first party titles.
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I'm not talking about Wii U.
 
This game is frigging amazing. (Breath of the Wild)
I couldn't get into Morrowind / Oblivion because it was too daunting,
and the side quests felt needlessly needless.

This game dumbs down the Oblivion / Skyrim experience and makes
everything have a bit of meaning.

And the game is just.....!!!! i don't know how to explain it. Everything FEELS great while playing it. Even at 30fps i don't even....

Im 5 hours in and on board with the 11/10 rankings.
 
Yep. They really capture the best elements of open world w/ Zelda purpose and dungeons.

The game is really smooth and the input feels really direct. Even during the occasional slowdown playing @ 1080p it still feels better than most games on the other two consoles.

People putting off the system and overlooking Zelda are really missing out on an incredible game.
 
My mother won't stop talking about that game. It's got some complex combat system with emergent styles, stealth, and critical strikes. e.g. You can get one-shot if you don't dodge, and it encourages you to fight dirty. ;)
 
It's fairly complex combat for a Nintendo game / open world RPG in general. The enemy AI fights pretty dirty using everything in the environment. And yeah, there is a parry system that is similar to dark souls, though the timing doesn't need to be as precise to nail it.
 
Easily better than OoT. OoT was good for 1997...it's twenty years later. Wind Waker was also good for 1997...but it came out years after 1997.
 
I managed to get my hands on the new LoZ courtsey of a friend for a few hours. Let's start with "It is very good, one of the better LoZ for certain". However is it worth the endlessly glowing no faults 10/10 reviews? Not by a long shot. I'm certainly looking forward to playing it when I get around to buying a switch after some issues are worked out. I am not however blinded to the fact that there are flaws with the game and a good list of things that could have been done better.
 
Mchart said:
Almost every cell phone screen on the market has an oleophobic coating which is what most people 'scratch' when you scratch the screen. This is not limited to the Switch, and is an issue of pretty much every mobile device on the market currently. Unless you have a completely sapphire crystal display glass w/ no coating a screen is going to scratch if you get sand/dirt in contact areas.

I do slightly flaw Nintendo for just having hard plastic on the inside of the dock that touches the display. If you get any sand/grit in there or on your screen and then insert it roughly into the dock it's going to scratch the coating.
Click to expand...

Here you go, confirmed to be plastic.

 
Terpfen said:
Posting this on a forum where people spend $400 in upgrades to play one new game is more than a little tone deaf.
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Basically, I laugh at people who complain about how others waste their money. I've had rich friends spend $400 on dinner for 2, me paying $360 to buy a console and play 2 or 3 games that will probably give me 200+ hours of enjoyment doesn't sound so ridiculous now does it?
 
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