Not really. The Switch is loading from the internal flash storage while PS4 is loading from the slower internal HDD. If the PS4 had an SSD installed it may load faster.
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DF: Snake Pass PS4/Switch Comparison.
- Thread starter Prithee Be Careful
- Start date
Not really. The Switch is loading from the internal flash storage while PS4 is loading from the slower internal HDD. If the PS4 had an SSD installed it may load faster.
Buggy Loop
Member
Tabasco
Member
How is that weird?
I would imagine the PS4 version would have to take extra time to load in shadows and detail that the Switch version doesn't have.
or like people have been saying, cart vs drive.
JonnyDBrit
Member
Well, it's been a subject of curiosity how loading from the Switch's internal memory and/or SD card could compare with the PS4's HDD. Adding to that now though is knowledge of the Switch's RAM vs the PS4's. So it could be a number of factors affecting the loading speeds here.
The low gap between PS4 and Switch is good news for future UE4 games on Switch that aren't so low res on PS4 to begin with.
It's a small indie game not made by Shinen, so whats surprising is how it compares to Switch, not how it looks absolutely, because it is very unlikely that the quick port job to Switch, somehow lead to that version being particularly well optimized over PS4, it's simply Tegra X1's strengths put up against AMD's GCN in UE4 and coming out closer than virtually anyone suspected. That is really what the video and thread are about too, not how this compares to Horizon, but how this looks on these 2 platforms.
Skittzo0413
Member
One of the benefits of a flash storage drive is that it's far faster than the hard drives in the PS4/XB1. Game cards and SD cards are faster too.
To be fair, the other reason why this is so surprising (<900p, <720p) is because of how good it's looked in videos and in person. Which again begs the question, if it look so good why do people care what the resolution number is? If UE4's TAA is so good that it makes 1536 x 864 look like 1920x1080, then why is this a problem?
EDIT: Maybe devs should start a new bullshit metric where they factor in AA and resolution to come up with a new number. Snake Pass is 6,000 glorps!
franklyshankly
Member
And I'm not interested in the console wars aspect personally. I think people on both platforms should expect this to run much better. You're right, it doesn't compare to horizon. Horizon also runs at 1080p30 without issue. They aren't pushing the graphical or effects envelope, it should at least be native res.
You're right, plenty of indies don't push any bleeding edge graphics, and they aren't expected to. But I at least expect them to hit the native res of the device if they aren't. Come on.
in handheld mode.
Otherwise the games look pretty much comparable. It's impressive for the switch to have a game released at the same time as another platform and look close enough that the average game player probably wouldn't even notice a difference unless you put them side by side.
It's also sad that i can read posts from people who clearly can't enjoy a game if it's graphics aren't up to some standard. The game is great.
switch internal storage would be faster than a standard hdd.
IronicSonic
Member
Switch version it is
Ah, those few certainties in life! The sun rises, the moon waxes and wanes, and opricnik takes a piece of info and presents it as unfairly as possible to shit on the Switch.
ShadowFox08
Member
I wonder if they capped the frame rate from 45-50 to stable 30fps in exchange for special effects like the shadowing and water effects on the ps4 version, or if the ps4 could have ran at 45fps capped with the special effects.
It doesn't add up that the ps4 pro has the special effects with twice the framerate and 40% better resolution. Pro only has 2x as powerful gpu and 25% CPU. Then again. Ps4 pro can run fp16 like thr Switch, while OG ps4 can't? Hmmm.
It doesn't add up that the ps4 pro has the special effects with twice the framerate and 40% better resolution. Pro only has 2x as powerful gpu and 25% CPU. Then again. Ps4 pro can run fp16 like thr Switch, while OG ps4 can't? Hmmm.
Okay, I'll keep waiting until they officially say whether they will patch them in or not.
Slow down, the console wars aspect is beyond what I'm talking about, this thread isn't a console war thread, and the comparison is just a real result, what is interesting in Switch keeping up so well is that porting other games shouldn't be a large problem, the thing you aren't noticing here is that the game is pushing this art style on these platforms and maxed out at these resolutions, that isn't an issue with the developer, it's an issue with the performance of the platforms. PS4 Pro proves the developer can hit 1080p and 60fps, PS4 just isn't powerful enough to do this because PS4 Pro is capable of about 6 TFLOPs mixed precision, which is likely used in this case, as Switch shouldn't be this close to PS4 without mixed precision.
Try to change perspectives here, yes they could have lowered graphic fidelity to something that would run 1080p on the PS4, or 1080p on the Switch even, they chose to instead push 1080p on PS4 Pro at 60fps.
franklyshankly
Member
PS4 Pro should be hitting 4K checkerboard on this game, not 1080p. That is my expectation when a game looks like this. There is literally no way this game is "maxing out" any of this hardware as is. Even the Switch. And I say this as someone who frequently feels the Switch is absurdly weak.
Don't be silly, FP16 doesn't exist!
jk
It definitely is very interesting. The Pro runs at 1080p and 60 fps, which translates to more than three times the number of pixels per second. They almost have to use fp16 code to make this happen, since I can't see them optimising more for the Pro than for the OG PS4. That could be why Switch is closer to PS4 than expected as well.
Yep, that looks like the case, also means that a small studio can take advantage of mixed precision pretty easily, especially with the quick and dirty port to Switch. Game is actually pretty great looking too.
I can understand your thinking here, but honestly game looks pretty great, lots of powerful effects are being thrown around, this is UE4 after all. It just doesn't have all the set pieces and more realistic tone you are use to, but technically it's not slouching, especially for an indie game.
The screen is 720p native. It might look shitty on a TV, I agree. If I owned a switch it would be for it's handheld capabilities.
franklyshankly
Member
Lighting, textures, shading, poly count. shadows, AO, etc. etc. none of what I see in this game approaches what the hardware can do "maxed out" with UE4. It's not just the art style.
Thoughts on what the game might specifically be using half precision for?
I think getting a better basleine idea of where fp16 is useful will make for a better predictor of performance of future Switch ports (and possibly PS4/Pro gap as seen here).
Maintenance
Member
I play PC RPGs from the 90s and text based games, I can live with subpar graphics. My point was about the "it's great news".
Relaxed Muscle
Member
900p and 30fps for this kind of game?, damn you Uni....oh wait!
Dat 3DS feel.
Skittzo0413
Member
The great news is in how close the Switch version is to the PS4 version, which bodes well for future UE4 games.
Also (to me) the great news is how good this looks even at low resolutions. It's impressive that people were convinced this was running at 1080p.
JonnyDBrit
Member
I wonder if such would mean PS4 Pro was the lead console they were developing for, effectively.
Get over yourself.
I wouldn't say that. fp16 basically means that you use differently sized variables (16 bit instead of 32 bit floating points) at certain points, which come at a loss of accuracy. For plenty of processes this loss is not problematic, and in those instances using fp16 is an almost free way to get extra power out of systems that support double speed fp16 processing (like the Switch and PS4 Pro, and unlike the PS4 OG and Xbox One). I wouldn't call that having PS4 Pro as the lead platform, just that it happens to be one of the systems that benefits most from the choice of fp16 programming.
Jonneh3003
Banned
It's unfortunate that people now know Snake Pass as "that game that's below 900p on PS4". It's a brilliant games and while people with no intention in playing it complain, I'll revisit levels to try and get a 100% completition rate.
JonnyDBrit
Member
Well I mean in the sense that they actually decided to focus on and make use of it, but fair enough. Suppose as well with how quickly they ported it to Switch to begin with, it may have been something they were always willing to account for where possible.
RobbieNick
Junior Member
Shows real promise for Switch ports in the future. As long as Switch versions of games like these are this comparable, I'll buy on Switch for it's portability.
Buggy Loop
Member
Sad that peoples are just seeing X resolution and then extrapolate a shitload of things out of it. Temporal AA is a huge improvement in overall visuals over just numbers, as DF mentionned.
Kingpin Rogers
Member
This game needs a demo for the Switch. I'm interested in it but hearing conflicting reports on how blurry it is in undocked mode. If I could just see for myself I'd know whether I want to get this on PS4 or Switch.
Yeah, but not everyone will like it.
The soft and not very crisp look it has on the Switch just isn't really very pleasing to me.
Of course YMMV.
Skittzo0413
Member
I agree with wanting a demo but for me it's more about the controls. It seems very unintuitive to me, which is holding me back from buying it right away.
Did you ever play a sub native game on Vita? It's no worse than that and you (can) get used to it. IMO playing it portable is real nice because of the kind of game it is.
TrojanBlade
Member
wtf ... what year is this? come on!
Jaded Alyx
Member
For what it's worth, I never bothered looking up the controls before buying the game, and just from the in-game tutorials I can say the controls are simple to grasp and work perfectly fine. There's also an 'easier' control setting but I haven't felt the need to even try it.
Interfectum
Member
A year where a small dev team can use a professional game engine to make a game for and submit to a ton of different platforms, including a brand new one, in a reasonable time frame and cost?
Jonneh3003
Banned
I feel like DF went out of their way to discourage shit posting by going to great lengths to explain why the image quality is still great even without 1080p but it seems few listened. Like you said, people just see X resolution.
pretty done
Member
This seems like a really bad PS4 version. That res @ 30fps with these visuals... what?
Skittzo0413
Member
I'd even wager that most people didn't watch the video and hear John talk about that at all. It's mighty impressive that this temporal upscaling managed to fool most of GAF for a while into thinking this was 1080p.
Yes, it sounded very positive and I'm not surprised even on YouTube it looks really good.
Wait you mean to say that when people over obsess about some technical "standard" they may be missing the whole picture, shocked! I am shocked! Okay not really shocked.
I get that for some reason the # of Ps a game has & and all the frames they can cram on to a screen is way important. There are times where I agree, but the obsessive slavering over specs and technical stuff is over bearing and ultimately not nearly important as if a game is good, has good mechanics that are engaging and interesting. I get that folks want the technical floor raised over and over, but honestly we start to hit a point of diminishing returns, and barring some major changes in compute power for cpus and gpus, I think we should focus on rewarding and encouraging devs to squeeze every ounce of power out of the tech we have.
It will make them better and more proficient, and when we do get that next technical leap it will be by larger margins than what we are seeing today. I mean look what Guerrilla did on standard PS4 with Horizon, we should push that way.
Sorry for the random rant.
It's a start. This was a port that was literally done in less than three months and the fact that it actually runs decently in that timeframe is impressive in itself. I fully expect more UE4 indie titles to have more time for optimization which should allow for higher resolutions.
Vital Tundra
Member
So due to the PS4 version being sub 1080 can we stop shitting on the Switch version and chalk it up to Sumo not making the most optimized product?
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