Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Greiger]

(diffrent) Friend claims the changing clock rates will kill the console because developers will have to limit their game's capabilities to the mobile mode and not the docked mode.  After all the game needs to be able to run both ways.

I'm hoping devs will be able to do the cool thing and just reduce graphics or do best approximation calculations when it switches to mobile mode.  Why not just treat it like how pc games have worked.  Give the game 2 preset graphical and processing settings and have it switch between them like pc games can.

Or (here's the one they probably won't do) Let devs force the system to run on high power mode at all times when their game is running.

[wierd]

The better option, IMO, is to change the default LoD when in portable mode.  That makes tremendous sense to me anyway, since the portable mode should have lower resolution for the smaller screen anyway.  Less to process == lower computational demands.

Shutting things like "Grass eyecandy" and "Rippling water" off in portable mode would save you a lot of clock cycles.

[Sensei]

From the dev materials we saw before this release, we know the following:

-CPU speed does not change between docked and un-docked states.
-GPU speed is limited to 307MHZ when un-docked. While docked, developers may choose to run at 307MHZ or 768MHZ.
-The memory controller can run at 1331MHZ or 1600MHZ, docked or un-docked.

This means developers cannot choose to run the GPU at full power while mobile, but they can choose to run it at mobile speeds while docked for performance consistency. This is only on the GPU side, so, only graphics should be affected. The GPU speed while mobile is a bit under half the speed while docked, so you might see games that run at 60FPS while docked and 30FPS while mobile. It's also possible that, if a Switch game targets a 1080p display while docked, it can simply target the 720p while mobile. Funny enough, the ratio of pixels in a 720p picture to a 1080p one (921600/2073600= 0.44) is nearly the same as the ratio of un-docked to docked GPU clock speeds (307.2/768= 0.40).

Based on that, I suspect that this is exactly what Nintendo has in mind- 1080p while docked, 720p while mobile (the mobile display's full resolution). Of course, developers themselves are free to pursue other means such as removing graphical effects and reducing the number of objects drawn, or reducing the framerate.

[frostshotgg]

So since it doesn't seem to have come up yet: What was Nintendo thinking? A launch lineup of 8 games?

Did they learn absolutely nothing from the launches of 3DS and Wii U? They flopped more than just because they were advertized poorly. They had no games on release. Until this day every time an exclusive for one of those systems comes up, my thoughts immediately go to "I wish I had a Wii U/3DS, but I just can't justify the purchase for a couple titles." At this point they have more than enough games to justify the purchase, but it's just so ingrained at this point that they have no worthwhile titles that I could never bring myself to get one.

And now the launch a new console with a staggering 8 titles at launch. After it already was delayed several months just to get it out the door with Zelda. It's not even launching with Skyrim, which was released in 2011. What the hell Nintendo?

[Aklyon]

How was the 3ds a flop? Seemed to do pretty well iirc. Certainly better than the wii u fared.

[Urist McScoopbeard]

How was the 3ds a flop? Seemed to do pretty well iirc. Certainly better than the wii u fared.

I loved my 1st gen 3DS...

[wierd]

3DS was "a gimmick".

Also, caused eyestrain.  Most of the catalog was DS games which did not make use of the 3DS screen tech. Not really worth the expense.

[Tawa]

How was the 3ds a flop? Seemed to do pretty well iirc. Certainly better than the wii u fared.

It started weakly, but a price drop and good library led to its success after a year or two.

IIRC, Pokémon X and Y and Fire Emblem: Awakening were the big ones that pushed it into the mainstream.

[frostshotgg]

According to wikipedia's numbers, which admittedly may be flawed, the full 3DS family, including 3DS and New 3DS (Seriously who that that was a good product name), has sold about 62 million units as of September 2016, after 23 quarters of sales. The DS family sold 132 million units in that time, more than double. Less than half the sales in the same time period with even less competition (PSP launched around the same time as DS with substantially more advertisement than PS Vita launched with which came out a year after 3DS).

While it didn't fail nearly as badly as the Wii U (13mil after 16 quarters, vs 3DS 50mil) it still did quite poorly.

[Neonivek]

It does help though that the 3ds was kind of sold a bit early in the DS's life... which is always a recipe for disaster.

That and it was using a gimmick that was dying at the time and the 3ds couldn't even pull it off competently.

If anything we should consider the 3ds more of an extension of the success of the normal DS.

[Aklyon]

3DS was "a gimmick".

Also, caused eyestrain.  Most of the catalog was DS games which did not make use of the 3DS screen tech. Not really worth the expense.

I've never used the gimmick, actually. Costs extra battery and looks crap from any angle to me most of the time. Its a stronger 3ds that can't play gba games but completely obsoletes the DSi.
The 2ds on the otherhand made little sense to me, since I doubt you can fit that thing in a pocket and having a more-exposed screen on whats supposedly more for younger kids is an odd idea; its just going to be more likely to get something dropped on it.

It certainly didn't hurt that last I'd heard, the vita has practically no games of note unless you're in japan. No competition.

[Neonivek]

It is really noticeable how many games were made in Japan. A lot of the gimmicks use street pass which is a LOT more convenient in super dense cities like Japan has... with no real alternatives if you aren't in a dense city.

[Aklyon]

Most of the 'actually be in a city near lots of people' gimmicks are destined to fail, yeah.
Or you have stuff like Bravely default which grab random people off its internet-thing as summons, SMT4A where its streetpass menu is basically just a disguise for a random internet streetpass card-swap function (which in theory also could be used as streetpass if that was relevant to anywhere) or persona q, where technically its streepass but really its a qr code menu if you use it at all.

[Greiger]

I had a 2DS before I got a New 3DS.

It does fit into large pockets.  Just not smaller ones.  Fit into my jacket pocket just fine, and I could jam it into some cargo jeans pockets without much finangling.  Both my 2DS and 3ds screens are about the same damagewise too, if anything my 3ds's screen is in worse shape.  They made the 2DS as durable as a nokia.  I was very happy with it, if they made an upgraded 2ds like they did the 3ds I woulda got that instead.

[Krevsin]

(diffrent) Friend claims the changing clock rates will kill the console because developers will have to limit their game's capabilities to the mobile mode and not the docked mode.  After all the game needs to be able to run both ways.

I'm hoping devs will be able to do the cool thing and just reduce graphics or do best approximation calculations when it switches to mobile mode.  Why not just treat it like how pc games have worked.  Give the game 2 preset graphical and processing settings and have it switch between them like pc games can.

Or (here's the one they probably won't do) Let devs force the system to run on high power mode at all times when their game is running.

Honestly I don't think having to spec games to mobile is going to harm the console that much. It just means the devs will have to get creative instead of just throwing more graphics at problems.

Just like with the 3DS, it encourages creativity with art styles and presentation. Time will tell if that's enough tho. As has been mentioned, the launch lineup is fairly sparse which could be bad if that's all Nintendo intends to bring to the table. But if Nintendo keeps pushing out games for it on a regular schedule, the sparse launch lineup should not be too big of a problem.

Unless Nintendo does something entirely ridiculous. Then the Switch is doomed to go the way of the Wii U.