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NXGamer: The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Patch 1.1.1 Frame-Rate Analysis

Slaythe

Member
All those people in the other thread with their "they downgraded the game" are going to eat crow now (and rightfully so).
 
Great to hear. Ended up taking a break from BotW for a bit but it's nice to know I'll get a better performing game when I get back to it!
 

gogogow

Member
He really should have tested the forest. You can't just say the handeld is almost locked and not try this obvious place. It still dips in a specific part.

He did say:

Now, i'm not saying there's not gonna be any dips in undocked mode now, as I can't test everything.

He could probably test the forest, but he also said it's a spoiler free video. But yeah, that place is probably the biggest framerate offender in the game. Other areas where you can get crazy dips are in very dense woods, when it's raining with thunderstorms.
 

Easy_D

never left the stone age
Holy shit the image quality in that video. Is that what the game actually looks like if your Switch colorspace is setup properly?
 

Instro

Member
The only thing that I thought may have been downgraded was the draw distance. Personally the pop-in seemed more aggressive, but maybe I was just looking for a problem.
 

-shadow-

Member
This does feel like a different v-sync solution if the game isn't affected otherwise, but not sure. Guess DF will confirm if it is or isn't.
 
I noticed it runs better but it def still locks up on some moblin fights. Last night it froze for 2 secs when I killed one.
 

Teletraan1

Banned
I stopped playing it after I completed it on Wii U. I was going to do some more shit but the performance was pretty unsatisfactory, especially for a Nintendo title. Will wait for it to be optimized on Wii U or run well on Cemu before I jump back in. I will say that the overall performance of this game on WiiU was a huge letdown for me especially with how on point framerates had been in Nintendo titles on Wii U prior. I know open world yadda yadda yadda but cut down on some alpha effects etc if the system can't handle them.
 
If you are just about to start playing the game for the first time now that this patch was released:

I'm fucking JELLY

Edit: that said there's a certain level of satisfaction that comes from noticing the improvements. Like running around
Lost Woods
(one of my favorite areas in the game) now that it's super smooth compared to how it used to be (playable but not ideal.)
 
If you are just about to start playing the game for the first time now that this patch was released.

I'm fucking JELLY

I just got to Korok Forest
after the patch on WiiU. This isn't really that bad. I will never know how bad it ran before I suppose but it seems better than
Kakariko
before the patch.
 
You cant make frame rate suddenly better without downing some graphical details,so yes downgrade is real but its subtitle enough you wont notice compared to frame

LOL...of course you can!! Is the only case you know Assassins Creed Unity or what?
They optimized the game for the Switch and if they keep going we could even see more improvement in the future when the DLC arrives. More effects here, better textures there.
 

Descapp

Neo Member
Seems very solid now for Switch users, too bad the Wii U version has no improvements, at least from my experience.
 

Kebiinu

Banned
Love how some of y'all continue to insist that there's a downgrade, when all facts point to improvement. Wash your face, cause your eyes are busted.
 
You cant make frame rate suddenly better without downing some graphical details,so yes downgrade is real but its subtitle enough you wont notice compared to frame

They lowered the shadow resolution a bit, nothing more. All texture work, draw distance, effects and texture filtering is identical to before.

Breath of the Wild was never optimised for Switch. They dumped the the Wii U code onto it to hit launch. What you're seeing now is four weeks of optimisation work. If they keep optimising they could hit 1080p / locked 30fps when docked.

Switch when docked is several times more powerful than Wii U. This shouldn't surprise anyone that it's getting much better results when actually optimised even though the game was built around a completely different CPU, GPU and memory architecture.

The Wii U improvements will be far lower than Switch as the game was already optimised around its hardware and is pushing the console to its limits. It's a technical marvel that the game runs at all on Wii U.
 

DooMAGE

Member
You cant make frame rate suddenly better without downing some graphical details,so yes downgrade is real but its subtitle enough you wont notice compared to frame

I don't think you know how optimization in game development works. You can optimize your code and get better FPS. Downgrade graphics, shaders, etc its not the only way to optimize a game.
 

NXGamer

Member
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K5vhikphzLg

Several key points:

- No resolution changes between the post- and pre-patch versions;
- No LOD changes between the two versions;
- Handheld mode completely locked after patch, improvement from pre-patch;
- Docked mode improved over pre-patch, significantly so in some areas (like
Kakariko Village
).

Please note that NXGamer does these analyses as a hobby project, so he does not have the ability to test the whole game for the analysis. There may be drops he could not trace down, for example, so his statements about no drops carry this caveat. Still, the results are pretty good I'd say.

Edit: NXGamer does not own the Wii U version, so no word about that version sadly. Maybe a mod could include in the title that it is Switch-only?

Good summary and thanks for the thread.

Kind of funny that NX Gamer rarely covered anything related to "NX" while that was a thing. I think this is the first Nintendo post I've seen from them.
But yeah, the patch is good for something not teased in advanced. Helps with some random drops that felt like a lack of optimization rather than anything.
Some drops still exist but it's pretty good for a launch title of this scale.

I did some, but listed info before launch and Nintendo can claim many videos, always try to cover as much as I can.

Looking at the framerate analysis why was this game even double buffered to begin with?
Many reasons, response times, memory space, engine choices. Not a bad choice ever just that like pretty much everything it has a compromise and that is not hiding latency as well when issues arise.

I like NXgamer but I feel he was being too kind to the game pre patch. The first two areas were an embarrassment pre patch with constant drop spikes to 20fps around trees and shadows in the sunshine. I don't mind drops from 30fps to 25-29 but those spikes were extreme and negatively effected the experience.

Anyway good video and good to see confirmation of the massive framerate improvements which some people were claiming were a placebo lol!

The docked Switch version is now the definitive version of Breath of the Wild on native hardware :)

Fair point, I would agree it can have some choppy moments but in the scheme of the game these are a small percentage but still needed addressing, which this patch does appear to have remedied well.

He really should have tested the forest. You can't just say the handeld is almost locked and not try this obvious place. It still dips in a specific part.
I did try and keep it as spoiler free as possible but may look at a stress test as you say in docked mode.
 

NXGamer

Member
Holy shit the image quality in that video. Is that what the game actually looks like if your Switch colorspace is setup properly?
The game can looks absolutely beautiful at times and always vital to match the output gamma range, I spend time with my captures setting then best for each device.
 

LordKano

Member
They lowered the shadow resolution a bit, nothing more. All texture work, draw distance, effects and texture filtering is identical to before.

Breath of the Wild was never optimised for Switch. They dumped the the Wii U code onto it to hit launch. What you're seeing now is four weeks of optimisation work. If they keep optimising they could hit 1080p / locked 30fps when docked.

Switch when docked is several times more powerful than Wii U. This shouldn't surprise anyone that it's getting much better results when actually optimised even though the game was built around a completely different CPU, GPU and memory architecture.

The Wii U improvements will be far lower than Switch as the game was already optimised around its hardware and is pushing the console to its limits. It's a technical marvel that the game runs at all on Wii U.

Source ? There's no evidence of a single downgrade, from what I've seen.
 

LordKano

Member
Yeah. I think they mentioned that in their GDC panel. Makes sense, though.

No, they didn't mentioned that. It's bad interpretation of a slide taken out of context.

It doesn't even make sense anyway. You don't dump a code of a completely different machine into another.
 

EDarkness

Member
No, they didn't mentioned that. It's bad interpretation of a slide taken out of context.

It doesn't even make sense anyway. You don't dump a code of a completely different machine into another.

Of course. I always got the impression that they did a basic port without a whole lot of optimization. Kinda like I'm doing with the PC version of my game. I'm not ashamed to admit it, but I've done the bare minimum for that version since I mainly develop on a Mac. It runs, things work, I'm happy with that. If I get time, I'll go back and tighten things up. My impression is that Nintendo did sort of the same thing with the NS version.
 

gogogow

Member
No, they didn't mentioned that. It's bad interpretation of a slide taken out of context.

It doesn't even make sense anyway. You don't dump a code of a completely different machine into another.

Dohta did say "same code, engine..." Anyway, that doesn't really matter. He said they got it running on the Switch without any optimization and got equal or better framerate than the Wii U version. Unfortunately Dohta did not expand any further on this. Did they do further optimization for the final game? Is there still room left for further optimization? Imo, with patch 1.1.1, it's positive and obviously that there's room left.

oGJ29qN.png
 
This doesn't seem like a very thorough analysis.

It could have been more thorough but I think they were wanting to show whether or not there was any improvement from the patch. In that context it done what it set out to do as it clearly improved performance.
 

Kolx

Member
Waiting for the WiiU comparison.

The WiiU version has improvements.
Kakariko
runs significantly better. It's crazy to me no one could notice this.

Is there still areas in the game running as low as one digit on WiiU? or was that fixed?
 
You cant make frame rate suddenly better without downing some graphical details,so yes downgrade is real but its subtitle enough you wont notice compared to frame
So... You think optimization is.. turn on and turn off settings until get that 30fps locked???? Lolololol.
 

Zedark

Member
So... You think optimization is.. turn on and turn off settings until get that 30fps locked???? Lolololol.

You should watch some gaming flame wars some time. Claims like this are rampant there, it's really funny to see so many people think/argue that optimisation does not exist (in the pc vs. consoles "debate") and is just a "console fanboy secret sauce argument".
 
Waiting for the WiiU comparison.

Is there still areas in the game running as low as one digit on WiiU? or was that fixed?

The moblin thing is not fixed if that is what you are referring to. I haven't played the whole game so I don't have an honest answer for areas hitting single digits. I can say that I have just gotten to
Korok Forest
and it is between 20-30 fps. It runs better than
Kakariko
before the patch.

Overall there is noticeable FPS improvement. It isn't perfect but it's a lot better imo.
 
Holy shit the image quality in that video. Is that what the game actually looks like if your Switch colorspace is setup properly?

Yep. I play at home on a calibrated Bravia with full range RGB turned on in the Switch settings and the game looks like that for me. I took my Switch on the road recently and hooked it up to the TV in my hotel room and it was hard to believe that it was the same game o_O
 

Minsc

Gold Member
Speaking of effects, the weather effects in BotW are so great. Any other recent games come close? Ever since STALKER it's always been one of the favorite things I like in immersive games.

It's pretty crazy how the rainstorms change the environment by adding huge puddles everywhere there is low grass, make mountains slippery, and windy storms can be seen over the whole landscape with bushes and trees swaying and gusts of wind appearing all over. The weather system isn't just an afterthought, it drastically changes how traveling in the world feels.
 

Zedark

Member
Speaking of effects, the weather effects in BotW are so great. Any other recent games come close? Ever since STALKER it's always been one of the favorite things I like in immersive games.

It's pretty crazy how the rainstorms change the environment by adding huge puddles everywhere there is low grass, make mountains slippery, and windy storms can be seen over the whole landscape with bushes and trees swaying and gusts of wind appearing all over.

Horizon does this very well too, even more impressively than Zelda from what I gathered in my 2 hours I have dabbled in Horizon.
 
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