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GAF Breath of the Wild Wii U performance impressions
- Thread starter oni-link
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linko9
Member
The only consistent issues are in towns, where things are pretty bad; 20 is the norm, and it often goes below that. However, noticeable drops are somewhat rare elsewhere, which is really impressive. Standing at the top of a mountain, seeing all of Hyrule around you, you can spin the camera around to your heart's content, with no drops. Things are smooth in combat as well, though drops will happen in huge groups. So overall I guess I'm actually impressed with the performance, but the towns are a really noticeable blemish that does affect my enjoyment of the game.
edit: Loads are fine for me, never 15 seconds like some are reporting; I have the DL version on an external HDD. I haven't timed them, but ~7 or 8 seconds seems about right.
edit: Loads are fine for me, never 15 seconds like some are reporting; I have the DL version on an external HDD. I haven't timed them, but ~7 or 8 seconds seems about right.
FleetingFlowAir
Member
It's been playable for me 90% of the time, but I had a moment where I knocked a Moblin with one of my hammers on the way to scaling higher for a tower and then the game fell to 0 FPS during the ragdoll. I really thought that the game froze until a few seconds later where everything was back to normal after it fell off the edge.
Stahsky
A passionate embrace, a beautiful memory lingers.
Load times are not impressive, but I have seen worse. Framerate in town is pretty horrible, too. I'm from a PC background, so I wasn't coming into this expecting technical brilliance.
My real concern is the lockups that happen when certain creatures start to ragdoll down hills.
My real concern is the lockups that happen when certain creatures start to ragdoll down hills.
It's not bad for open world games.
Forgot to say that my Wii U froze twice in 38 hours of gameplay. I had to hold the power button to shut it down. I wasn't doing anything demanding in both cases. First one I was looking at wall while waiting the storm to pass when suddenly I heard a buzz from my Wii U and a few second laters the game froze.
Then something similar happened while exploring, no monsters or explosions on the screen.
I guess so, I don't play those often. But it makes sense from this perspective.
Then something similar happened while exploring, no monsters or explosions on the screen.
I guess so, I don't play those often. But it makes sense from this perspective.
Fast travel in some open world games comes with a 30-90 second load time, since the system needs to reload the game world. The upside is that you can wander wherever you want in the overworld without more loading until you quick travel again, or enter a dungeon/building.
Drops of 33% or more are not minor.
Well, whatever the case, that was still low compared to what we were seeing on other systems. And its framerate still dropped. Point still being, it had technical problems, but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of it.
The performance is trash and completely unacceptable. Any game other than Zelda would never get a pass on it. I notice drastic frame drops in any town/stable (seems like less than 20 fps regularly in these areas, maybe even as low as 15). Out in the wild I notice less frequent drops but they do still happen. Perhaps the worst of all the frame drops for me was at the very beginning of the game, when you first walk out into the Plateau, which leaves a bad first impression. From the sounds of it I'm in for a treat whenever I find
.
I was watching someone stream the Switch version, they walked into
and if they got any frame drops it was not that noticeable compared to the Wii U version. It's really awful. If we had heard anything about a patch to improve this, I would set it down and wait, but I doubt we're getting anything of the like.
Korok Forest
I was watching someone stream the Switch version, they walked into
Kakariko
Shamrock7r
Member
It's gotten choppy in a few areas but I have yet to encounter a moment where the frame rate dip has affected gameplay
After I dumped the game to my hdd, I feel like the load times has gone down a bit. But the framerate is still quite bad at times. Don't notice any difference between setting the console to 1080i or 720p, or just running on the controller. Still though it feels like the frame pacing is good enough to not make the game feel like a f.ing chore to play when it occurs. Had some problems during certain parts on my way to
, but I survived. Still I do dream of Nintendo releasing a patch to improve the performance on WiiU... Hahaha. yeah right... 
Zora's domain
Its pretty bad. In every town you can expect the mean to be closer to 20 fps than 30, but that has already been discussed. The real issue for me is slowdown during combat encounters, which happens quite a lot when you are out in the world. I'd say there are noticable framedrops in between 30-50% of all fights, which compromises your ability to maneuver and time attacks quite a bit, in a combat system thats already pretty sluggish. The game is still fantastic, but thats in spite of these aspects.
chaosblade
Unconfirmed Member
It's bad but not unplayable. Definitely one of the low points of the game. I had read it is worst at the beginning and in towns but really it is just sporadic. Sometimes just exploring you get hit with drops.
Usually doesn't impact gameplay but sometimes they do crop up during fights.
Usually doesn't impact gameplay but sometimes they do crop up during fights.
calavera_jo
Neo Member
It isn't that bad to me. Some slowdown, nothing too bad.
Maneauleau
Member
Graphically I am sure the game would benefit from a higher resolution but it is still a very pleasant world to explore and experience.
For the animations in general I have difficulties seeing the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps in games but even I can see the frame drops in BotW when I play. That being said it doesn't happen constantly and the game stays extremely playable and extremely enjoyable.
All in all I am enjoying BotW so much on Wii U that I don't regret not having a Switch to play it. I wished they had implemented 2nd screen functionalities like map and/or inventory with touch screen. That would have been ace!
For the animations in general I have difficulties seeing the difference between 30 fps and 60 fps in games but even I can see the frame drops in BotW when I play. That being said it doesn't happen constantly and the game stays extremely playable and extremely enjoyable.
All in all I am enjoying BotW so much on Wii U that I don't regret not having a Switch to play it. I wished they had implemented 2nd screen functionalities like map and/or inventory with touch screen. That would have been ace!
Played on Switch for about 8 hours in both docked and undocked mode. Undocked mode is noticeably smoother, to the point where performance is pretty much in line with your average 30 fps game. It also looks fairly smooth to me due to how well the animations tend to blend together. In docked mode, it's fairly rough to me, but not unplayable. I can look past it. I played on Wii U yesterday all the way up to the point after you complete the first four shrines. I frankly thought it ran on par with the docked Switch version, though it seemed noticeably less sharp on my TV, despite the minimal resolution difference.
As someone who bought a Switch because of how people talked about performance differences, I felt like the Wii U version was actually totally fine. I didn't get to the villages though, but I did experience fairly major drops in a village's
area on the Switch.
As someone who bought a Switch because of how people talked about performance differences, I felt like the Wii U version was actually totally fine. I didn't get to the villages though, but I did experience fairly major drops in a village's
fairy fountain
I laughed, but come on now.
Near a village it's as bad, if not worse.
Drilbit777
Member
The only real performance issues i notice is whenever battles get too hectic or when i'm in the stables. I swear it drops to around 20fps whenever you're in a stable
I'm only a few hours in, but while small framerate drops are fairly regular, it rarely stays distractingly low except in towns. Most of the small framerate drops I've seen are a few juttery moments while out in the world running or climbing somewhere.
They're never bad enough to interfere with gameplay though, mostly because most of the drops just come from simple motions like panning the camera while you're just running somewhere.
I don't think I've ever run into a situation where the framerate made me do worse in a fight, for example.
I think the game is still very good and well worth playing despite the framerate issues. If you've played any game in the N64 era, then this still runs way better than N64 Goldeneye or Perfect Dark.
They're never bad enough to interfere with gameplay though, mostly because most of the drops just come from simple motions like panning the camera while you're just running somewhere.
I don't think I've ever run into a situation where the framerate made me do worse in a fight, for example.
I think the game is still very good and well worth playing despite the framerate issues. If you've played any game in the N64 era, then this still runs way better than N64 Goldeneye or Perfect Dark.
There's definitely a lot of times where the framerate drops, but the only time I really notice it is in the towns, not in the field.
Thankfully I'm not too sensitive with framerate drops unless the game becomes a slideshow, but this definitely isn't a game for anyone who is.
The loading after dying is really quick thankfully, because you die a lot in this game.
Thankfully I'm not too sensitive with framerate drops unless the game becomes a slideshow, but this definitely isn't a game for anyone who is.
The loading after dying is really quick thankfully, because you die a lot in this game.
I'd be ok with bad but not unplayable
My experience on Wii U has mostly just been framerate choppiness in towns and definitely on the Great Plateau in some areas. Outside of that... I've only really encountered it (outside of towns) dropping in one of the jungle environments, especially during a thunderstorm. But it didn't impact anything majorly in terms of recognizing my inputs or messing me up in any way because the area itself wasn't a heavy combat zone.
In general, I haven't had the really bad drops that I've seen where the game practically looks like it's soft locked or crashed. But then again, I haven't been to the area that it apparently prominently occurs in.
But I wouldn't say the game is unplayable on Wii U. You're not in towns for very long and there's only maybe one town that is super bad, the others I've been to don't drop nearly as much as that one town does (especially when it rains). But no matter the town, if it is raining, the game does drop in framerate pretty noticeably.
Being more out in the open areas and what not I haven't had nearly as many drops, though, like I said. There's a lot more instances where the game is running mostly fine for me than dropping framerate. Again, not unplayable.
In general, I haven't had the really bad drops that I've seen where the game practically looks like it's soft locked or crashed. But then again, I haven't been to the area that it apparently prominently occurs in.
But I wouldn't say the game is unplayable on Wii U. You're not in towns for very long and there's only maybe one town that is super bad, the others I've been to don't drop nearly as much as that one town does (especially when it rains). But no matter the town, if it is raining, the game does drop in framerate pretty noticeably.
Being more out in the open areas and what not I haven't had nearly as many drops, though, like I said. There's a lot more instances where the game is running mostly fine for me than dropping framerate. Again, not unplayable.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Happy to forgive the dips here and there. Wasn't expecting such a hardware-intensive game to run incredibly smoothly on Wii U. Doesn't impact on gameplay at all where it matters either.
Some of you are expecting too much out of Espresso in particular, given all the effects and physics simulations. They could either make it look fantastic and satisfy almost everybody, or downgrade the visuals below Switch or run sub-HD, destroying image quality in the process.
Nintendo held steady and pulled every last bit of juice they could out of the Wii U hardware. It looks phemonenal and it's great that they were able to make it a 1:1 match visually with Switch, minus the lower resolution compared to docked Switch (720p on Wii U instead of 900p docked).
Some of you are expecting too much out of Espresso in particular, given all the effects and physics simulations. They could either make it look fantastic and satisfy almost everybody, or downgrade the visuals below Switch or run sub-HD, destroying image quality in the process.
Nintendo held steady and pulled every last bit of juice they could out of the Wii U hardware. It looks phemonenal and it's great that they were able to make it a 1:1 match visually with Switch, minus the lower resolution compared to docked Switch (720p on Wii U instead of 900p docked).
Phoenix RISING
Banned
I am playing Nier on PS3 in preparation for Automata on Steam and that game loads 30sec+ just to renDer a small room. 15 sec for an Open World console game ain't bad.
I reached the notorious Kakariko Village. It does remind me of the frame drops of Blight Town in Dark Souls, but that comparison is still unfair because Zelda is actually fun still, lol.
Frame drops are noticible, but I'm less annoyed by that than the 30 fps lock in Horizon. Yeah, that might seem non-sequitur, but aesthetics matter.
Agree with this completely, especially the bolded part. After 22 hours and counting, I have never had the framerate drop when it really matters (e.g., shrines, boss fights, difficult enemy encounters), causing me to die or get frustrated.
The game is a masterpiece and I want to know what open world games on Xbox 360/PS3 ran at locked 30 at all times.
Yep, this has been my experience playing on Wii U as well. I haven't had a death due to a framerate issue, all been my fault lol. All things considered, it's a marvel they got this to run on the Wii U as well as it does.
That has been my experience as well, however the drops do get irksome. But its not effecting the gameplay in serious fights.
Only near a village but everywhere else its fine.
cireza
Member
Blight Towns. Otherwise the rest of the world is fine.
Gotdatmoney
Member
I ran into the notorious frame dropping to 1-2 frames while fighting moblins when theu do their rag doll shit. Really fucking weird. It doesnt strike me as a performance issue more than some real weird ass bug. Game still runs like ass in stables and towns.
On the main field its decent.
On the main field its decent.
Been playing for 15 hours just exploring and stuff. I still haven't even reached
so the framedrops have been from minimum to non-existent to me so far. Open world areas run great with all kinds of weather, windy, sunny, rainy, snowy, etc. I don't mind framedrops so I'm expecting the worst once I reach villages and late parts of the game and still continue enjoying this masterpiece of a game.
Kakariko Village
Not in towns especially, the wiiu has repeatable drops every time. The switch is fine.
Digital game installed on a 128GB PNY USB:
Wii U menu to game menu: Around 12 seconds
First loading (after continue, select save data): 12 seconds
Entering a shrine: 6 seconds
Reloading a save: 8 seconds
Fast travel: 12 seconds
Game Over to Continue: 6 seconds
Considering the size, 12 seconds at most to load the entire map is short.
No noticeable huge drops. The only weird spot is a... really dark are in the game were the only light source is fire ctom tourches and the lighting effects look sub-Hd everywhere.
Gunslinger
Member
I haven't noticed any lag when I played it on the wiiu controller. But the game has lot of fps issues when played on TV. Still playable though.
No problems on my end. I think I noticed it drop to ~20 at one point but it wasn't too awful. Granted, we've only played the first couple of hours and we haven't been to any villages yet. We're using the Wii U Pro Controller exclusively thus far. No input lag as far as we can tell.
I'm a frame rate snob but drops in this type of game generally don't offend me. I demand 60fps in my arcade-style, racing and fighting games, but in other genres I'm not quite so picky.
I'm a frame rate snob but drops in this type of game generally don't offend me. I demand 60fps in my arcade-style, racing and fighting games, but in other genres I'm not quite so picky.
SmoothRunningGun
Member
The performance is fine. Nothing that bothers me (only a few hours though). Bloodborne's frame pacing gave me more issues.
SuperDowns
Banned
You really don't need to buy a Switch to play this game. Wii U ver. dips in framerate but that is only in intense scenarios and, while noticeable, doesn't take away from the game in any way.
This is not the fuckage that was Blighttown at all.
This is not the fuckage that was Blighttown at all.
stuminus3
Member
This is exactly what it reminds me of.
I get the feeling a lot of the early comparisons vs the Switch version were only done in the opening Plateau area of the game.
Didn't play The Last Guardian?
afternoon delight
Member
Playing from a disc with the required patch has not once felt unplayable- quite the opposite.
D.Lo
Member
Oh I just posted about this in retrogaf. I had a chance to grab the Wii U version for about half price so got a copy because I was curious about how it ran, I love seeing systems pushed to their limit.
If it was the only version you had it would be very impressive. Certainly early on (isolated plateau) it seems near identical to Switch, just a bit more saturated (probably just the RGB range), maybe minus 3-5fps, and 720p.
But once you get past there, then compare it to the Switch, Switch is clearly a vastly better performing game. Massive gain in clarity due to the resolution bump in high detail areas (eg Villages, though I've only got to the first two on Wii U), textures are clearer looking further into the distance, and performance is basically doubled in the same areas (from 15-20fps to mostly solid 30 with some momentary dips, more like glitches than drops).
It's super clear this game was designed around Wii U limitations, load times from disc are very good for this type of game, and probably the biggest graphical limit - the detail disappearing for distant areas, is identical in both versions. The Switch clearly has a lot more juice than Zelda needs and they've ported it quickly.
If it was the only version you had it would be very impressive. Certainly early on (isolated plateau) it seems near identical to Switch, just a bit more saturated (probably just the RGB range), maybe minus 3-5fps, and 720p.
But once you get past there, then compare it to the Switch, Switch is clearly a vastly better performing game. Massive gain in clarity due to the resolution bump in high detail areas (eg Villages, though I've only got to the first two on Wii U), textures are clearer looking further into the distance, and performance is basically doubled in the same areas (from 15-20fps to mostly solid 30 with some momentary dips, more like glitches than drops).
It's super clear this game was designed around Wii U limitations, load times from disc are very good for this type of game, and probably the biggest graphical limit - the detail disappearing for distant areas, is identical in both versions. The Switch clearly has a lot more juice than Zelda needs and they've ported it quickly.
Pancake Mix
Copied someone else's pancake recipe
Wrong. They could either make it sub-HD and run barely better or cut down on the graphics (equivalent to Switch except the shadows by a slim margin), and probably both if they were desperate. Only then would it run well, but it would look awful doing it.
I'm glad Nintendo pushed the Wii U to the limit here and gave us a roughly 1:1 visual match with Switch (720p vs 900p docked aside). The game looks great and generally runs well enough. Show me a PS360/Wii U-era open world game that never dips. Good luck. Even if you find one, it would look awful compared to this gorgeous game.
Also, the game runs better than some PS360 games, Crysis 3 on PS3 comes to mind in particular, and that was without v-sync.
Even from one end of the map to the other (it varies), fast travelling is faster than that for me. Disc version here.
Haven't timed first load, but I think it's more like 25 seconds for me from disc also. I'm guessing you have the digital version and your HDD happens to suck.