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DF on Zelda Switch: Docked has major frame drops, portable doesn't (no score talk)
- Thread starter Theorry
- Start date
OrbitalBeard
Member
You should check out some Bethesda and Rockstar reviews.
Don't forget Last Guardian either
MikeHaggar
Member
Welp, there it is. The game wasn't designed from the ground up for the Switch hardware. It was designed to max out the capabilities of the Wii U at 720p. The Switch can handle everything the game is doing at 720p without issue, but not at 900p due to bandwidth. It's a sound theory and likely correct.
I'm assuming Nintendo felt the need to have some type of "improvement" in docked mode and upped the resolution to 900p knowing that there would be some frame-rate issues here and there. Apparently they felt the trade-off was worth it.
I'm on full on blackout, honestly - if someone has a sec to answer my questions I'd greatly appreciate it.
I haven't played GTAIV in a long time but I do not believe this
SinCityAssassin
Member
Lol I take a break from Zelda and there's a 10 page thread about massive drops? Lol calm down people, game is great and like most things Switch related blown out of proportion.
Have not had any major drops in ten hours of play, you don't even notice the small drops since you are so engrossed in the game. With out spoiling stuff, drips only really effect certain areas of the game.
I have been playing in TV mode with separated Joy-cons. My Pro pad game later in the post but after playing a while ive decided i like the separate playstyle alot better than traditional. I don't Like the grip at all ATM.
Anyway those of you that are excited for the game read the reviews and actual player feedback about the game and don't let your fears get the best of you. Those of you who can't get over it then I truly feel sorry for you as the game is phenomenonal warts and all.
Have not had any major drops in ten hours of play, you don't even notice the small drops since you are so engrossed in the game. With out spoiling stuff, drips only really effect certain areas of the game.
I have been playing in TV mode with separated Joy-cons. My Pro pad game later in the post but after playing a while ive decided i like the separate playstyle alot better than traditional. I don't Like the grip at all ATM.
Anyway those of you that are excited for the game read the reviews and actual player feedback about the game and don't let your fears get the best of you. Those of you who can't get over it then I truly feel sorry for you as the game is phenomenonal warts and all.
Huge Succeeded
Banned
Somehow, I'm certain you haven't even read the reviews. People have noted the performance and explained how they don't feel it detracts too strongly from the experience this game provides. It's mind boggling to me that so many of you absolutely refuse to believe that's the case, when you probably wouldn't with any game that wasn't named Zelda.
Case in point, y'all don't even remember how GTA V ran.
spoiler alert: less than 30fps almost all the time, sometimes significantly so
It's post patch, they said that much.
What I mean is that overlooking technical issues is not a new thing or a special privilege that only Nintendo/Zelda is getting.
I don't have any particular stance on how performance should factor into scores, I'm just pointing out that there are plenty of instances where games with bad framerates have been very positively received.
That's pretty terrible. Did any of the reviews mention these issues? None of the ones I read did and it seems like something worth noting :/
Many reviews marked TLG down for performance/technical issues though, so try again I guess.
Many reviews marked TLG down for performance/technical issues though, so try again I guess.
tkscz
Member
The game was originally made for a 720p console that was based on pre-GCN AMD hardware and then ported over, forced to 900p and put on Maxwell v2 Nvidia hardware only a few months before release (think it was spring of 2016 they started the port). These frame issues in docked mode don't surprise me.
Frankie Faison
Member
Amen Brudda. Fallout3 on consoles was buggy shambles of a "slide-show" at frequent intervals. But it's still one of the best games of all times. It is a bit strange, but it's all about the gameplay isn't it?
No. Higher resolution means worse framerate. Don't let anyone tell you others.
No doubt. This will most certainly replace the 3ds at some point.
GA IV ran like dog shit on ps3, plenty of popin and the framerate was nothing to write about.
Skyrim wasn't an "outlier", it literally became unplayable.
And BotW is a multiplatform game, like TLOU became afterward although it wasn't released on multiple platform like BotW.
Can someone in the know confirm this? I don't want people creating false hopes.
SinCityAssassin
Member
They all did. The difference is the whole game does not fucking run at 20fps, the drops frequently occur in the beginning area and get more infrequent through the rest of the game.
adamsapple
Or is it just one of Phil's balls in my throat?
Tell that to all the people citing GTA IV, V, TLoU and Skyrim in this topic
GTA IV and V were also available on 360 where they ran much better. TLoU on PS3 never dropped down to 20 FPS, you're welcome to check the DF articles and videos for that as reference.
Would be interested seeing how the WiiU version holds up against the Switch version for BoTW
GabeTheGrouch76
Member
I wonder if the development team would had been able to iron out the framerate issues in time if the Switch released during the holidays, rather than this spring.
Speaking on behalf of both the Wii U and Switch versions, by the by.
Speaking on behalf of both the Wii U and Switch versions, by the by.
Dude, stop spreading nonsense.
Tal Shiar Agent
Member
Framerate is extremely important to gameplay.
Once you experience near perfect 30 or 60fps it's extremely challenging to play titles with bad drops.
Soapbox Killer
Grand Nagus
The point that I am trying to make , or be corrected on is: The is nothing in the Wii U Architecture that is superior to the Switch's in a pound to pound comparison. Unless I have underestimated the AMD that's in Wii U, None of this is a hardware issue.
But it's a fact...
Someone on the first page mentioned the framerate dropping even lower in the villages, which is further along in the game. That's not true?
It's confusing to me that people are trying to correlate this game's performance to it's reviews.
10/10 has never meant a game is beyond criticism. I can list plenty of criticisms for some of my favorite games of all time that have gotten 10/10 scores. Undertale was commonly considered a GOTY contender and received frequent top scores. That game has poor puzzles and is occasionally wrought with tedium, but it was still perhaps the most memorable impactful game I played that year. Bayonetta 2 received plenty of 10/10s, was my second GOTY of 2014 and GAF's chosen GOTY of that year - it's not perfect, the playable Loki section is shit, same goes for some of it's "minigame sections" and they all have weird ways of gauging scoring for Pure Platinum ranks, too many bosses are airborne, the final boss is not as amazing as the first game and it also has infrequent frame drops of it's own. I still fucking love that game. Bloodborne was GAF's GOTY of 2015 and a high GOTY contender of that year all around, and it too has framerate issues. Uncharted 4 from last year; poor as hell pacing, still 10/10. Doom from last year; shitty multiplayer. Still considered by many to be perhaps the best game released that year. I can go on but I think you get the point here.
And in this case I too can find the frame drops of Zelda disappointing and kind of shitty, but it doesn't mean that the game still can't be one of the best experiences I have ever played and a new benchmark for how open world games should be. The only takeaway here should be that evidently, for a LOT of people, people were willing to overlook the performance because the game itself left that much of an impact on them.
Every review is always going to be subject to personal opinion and while criticism is expected people still have to follow through with the most important fact being their personal and emotional takeaway because games are a lot of things to different people. Something that's a 10/10 for someone is not going to be that for anyone else, there is no such thing as a universally appreciated game that everyone will think is good - and if you can't accept that a game can receive perfect accolades in spite of criticism then you don't have a problem with people being "generous" with scores, you just have a problem with the idea of ratings systems in general.
10/10 has never meant a game is beyond criticism. I can list plenty of criticisms for some of my favorite games of all time that have gotten 10/10 scores. Undertale was commonly considered a GOTY contender and received frequent top scores. That game has poor puzzles and is occasionally wrought with tedium, but it was still perhaps the most memorable impactful game I played that year. Bayonetta 2 received plenty of 10/10s, was my second GOTY of 2014 and GAF's chosen GOTY of that year - it's not perfect, the playable Loki section is shit, same goes for some of it's "minigame sections" and they all have weird ways of gauging scoring for Pure Platinum ranks, too many bosses are airborne, the final boss is not as amazing as the first game and it also has infrequent frame drops of it's own. I still fucking love that game. Bloodborne was GAF's GOTY of 2015 and a high GOTY contender of that year all around, and it too has framerate issues. Uncharted 4 from last year; poor as hell pacing, still 10/10. Doom from last year; shitty multiplayer. Still considered by many to be perhaps the best game released that year. I can go on but I think you get the point here.
And in this case I too can find the frame drops of Zelda disappointing and kind of shitty, but it doesn't mean that the game still can't be one of the best experiences I have ever played and a new benchmark for how open world games should be. The only takeaway here should be that evidently, for a LOT of people, people were willing to overlook the performance because the game itself left that much of an impact on them.
Every review is always going to be subject to personal opinion and while criticism is expected people still have to follow through with the most important fact being their personal and emotional takeaway because games are a lot of things to different people. Something that's a 10/10 for someone is not going to be that for anyone else, there is no such thing as a universally appreciated game that everyone will think is good - and if you can't accept that a game can receive perfect accolades in spite of criticism then you don't have a problem with people being "generous" with scores, you just have a problem with the idea of ratings systems in general.
molnizzle
Member
We have no way of knowing if the game is poorly optimized or not.
We also have no way of knowing how "simple" a patch would be.
That poster is talking out of their ass.
Huge Succeeded
Banned
Tell that to all the people citing GTA IV, V, TLoU and Skyrim in this topic
I don't need to, because they're citing other games that had performance woes that didn't impact the scores heavily at all, as evidence that that's very much a thing that happens, instead of saying
GTA only scored highly because it's got the words Grand Theft Auto on the box
TLoU only scored highly because it's a Sony first party made by the Naughty Gods
Skyrim only scored highly because Betashed gets a free pass
There's no reason to be confused, the reason isn't one based on logic, its based on cognitive dissonance.
Gotdatmoney
Member
No it doesn't.
No it isn't. The Switch performs better when docked than when undocked. That's a fact, irrespective of whatever is going on with Zelda.
Frankie Faison
Member
I don't think it is. It's not ideal, but the game still plays the same. I can see the difference, it just doesn't bug me the way it does others. To be fair, I am in thread where the whole point is to inspect at great depth such issues. So, I'll bow out..
Elfotografoalocado
Banned
Seeing as this is the only game with these problems on Switch, I'm thinking it might have to do with tiling framebuffers. Being the game based on Wii U code, the algorithms are sure to be optimized for rendering whole framebuffers in its 32MB eDRAM, and maybe a number of effects require full framebuffers, requiring a lot of bandwidth from Switch's main memory.It usually happens around DOF, for instance.
SinCityAssassin
Member
I never said they weren't still there, the frame rate drops in villages were still mentioned in a couple of reviews as well, I'm just saying they become less frequent.
Huge Succeeded
Banned
GTA V didn't run significantly better on 360, PS3 and 360 were about neck and neck.
GTA V just ran like shit on both platforms.
talking about how the performance issues in Zelda mean it should have received worse scores, no brainer, right?
and yet GTA V was mired with performance issues and you don't even remember them.
but that's not a bad thing. Just ask yourself why you don't remember those performance issues too strongly.
Did you have a good time with GTA V? Was it an awesome game for you?
The experience you had with the game may have outweighed its performance issues...
...whoa.
BLAUcopter
Gold Member
I still don't understand why it scored so high given it's running the way it is. Surely that would take a few points off from it being a 10/10 game?
(I'll never understand the review system)
hardcastlemccormick
Banned
I would attribute the majority of it to a complete misunderstanding of the purpose of review scores, the existence of websites like Metacritic are not helping with in the slightest.
Here's a quick explanation: Review scores are made up.
Some people here trying to defend 20fps it's really impressive. When it comes to Zelda, they ask you to forgive performance issues, that 20fps is ok because the game is amazing. Sure, won't stop me from playing it, but people have the right to complain about this kind of performance, even if it is the almighty Zelda/Nintendo.
review scores are subjective and ultimately meaningless
efyu_lemonardo
May I have a cookie?
Seems odd for Nintendo to create a system so heavily bottleneck by memory bandwidth.