Toadthemushroom
Member
A New video from Digital Foundry comparing Monster Hunter Generations across both, er, generations of 3DS hardware has been published:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orbz3Astxx4
In short: It's N3DS enhanced like 4 Ultimate, but the list of enhancements doesn't extend anywhere near as far as it did in 4U. For instance, unlike 4 Ultimate, which featured improvement to shadow resolution, texture filtering and texture quality, there are no visual improvements whatsoever in Generations.
The framerate advantage that N3DS enjoyed in 4U no longer exists because Generations does not have an uncapped framerate, instead it's locked to 30fps which both models can sustain. Uneven frame pacing plagues both versions of the game but is marginally less of an issue on N3DS, so I'd imagine N3DS is likely to hold 30fps in areas with framerate dips on both versions. DF didn't come across any areas in their testing where the original 3DS couldn't sustain 30fps, though.
One area where N3DS does noticeably excel at is load times, so I guess all three "game" CPU cores are being used, along with the extra level 2 cache.
The list of improvements is disappointing, especially as the game is actually N3DS, so I'd imagine extra testing would have been done to ensure the game runs well across the board in both original 3DS mode (1x 286Mhz ARM11) and New 3DS mode (3x 804Mhz ARM11, 2MB Level 2 cache). I guess this is why Sony has mandated all PS4 games include a NEO mode with enhancements post-October, as some publishers or developers aren't going to see a business case for it unless the platform holder goes all-out on it and makes it clear that the new model offers a technical advantage across the board.
Hopefully we see more New 3DS/3DS comparisons in the future. Please find a thread documenting all the games with enhancements to date over here.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Orbz3Astxx4
In short: It's N3DS enhanced like 4 Ultimate, but the list of enhancements doesn't extend anywhere near as far as it did in 4U. For instance, unlike 4 Ultimate, which featured improvement to shadow resolution, texture filtering and texture quality, there are no visual improvements whatsoever in Generations.
The framerate advantage that N3DS enjoyed in 4U no longer exists because Generations does not have an uncapped framerate, instead it's locked to 30fps which both models can sustain. Uneven frame pacing plagues both versions of the game but is marginally less of an issue on N3DS, so I'd imagine N3DS is likely to hold 30fps in areas with framerate dips on both versions. DF didn't come across any areas in their testing where the original 3DS couldn't sustain 30fps, though.
One area where N3DS does noticeably excel at is load times, so I guess all three "game" CPU cores are being used, along with the extra level 2 cache.
The list of improvements is disappointing, especially as the game is actually N3DS, so I'd imagine extra testing would have been done to ensure the game runs well across the board in both original 3DS mode (1x 286Mhz ARM11) and New 3DS mode (3x 804Mhz ARM11, 2MB Level 2 cache). I guess this is why Sony has mandated all PS4 games include a NEO mode with enhancements post-October, as some publishers or developers aren't going to see a business case for it unless the platform holder goes all-out on it and makes it clear that the new model offers a technical advantage across the board.
Hopefully we see more New 3DS/3DS comparisons in the future. Please find a thread documenting all the games with enhancements to date over here.