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Visually, I find TOTK is extremely underwhelming at 720p on the half-baked potato they call a switch. It’s like 15 years behind in every way. Nonetheless… to

Visually, I find TOTK is extremely underwhelming at 720p on the half-baked potato they call a switch. It’s like 15 years behind in every way. Nonetheless… to your point, the fact that it’s not worse is a miracle, and testament to the significance of well rounded art direction.

lucasyvas 3y ago
Seeing it emulated shows you how amazing the art direction is - it scales extremely well and it's indisputable how beautiful it looks. One the hugest misses of Nintendo to be honest. The art styles they develop are designed to scale down to their hardware, but they also scale way up and they never provide you an official way to take advantage, even on future hardware. The art team is being done a bit dirty in this respect.
- xnx 3y ago
  Tears of the Kingdom came so late in the lifecycle of the Switch and the next Zelda is so far off, that I wonder if Nintendo will do some type of light re-release on Switch 2 (or whatever it is called). I read that the did a closed-door demo of Tears of the Kingdom running on Switch 2 hardware.
  - zirgs 3y ago
    They most likely will. The same happened with the previous zelda game.
- bzzzt 3y ago
  Since there is no 'future hardware' announced yet how can you state Nintendo will never provide you with an official way to take advantage of it? Seems Nintendo regularly re-releases games on new consoles, often with graphical improvements. FI, you can play Zelda Skyward Sword in HD on the Switch.
  - _cenw 3y ago
    Never is a long time, but it's not likely to be the next iteration (which was demoed in private at Gamescom). Mostly because the Switch graphics API is very hard coupled to the specific Tegra chips they use.
    - bzzzt 3y ago
      You mean you don't get an upgraded version for free when buying a new console. While I'd like that Nintendo is not big on 'for free' ;)
      - _cenw 3y ago
        No, I mean that there wouldn't be backwards compatibility, and Nintendo usually doesn't re-release games immediately (with the notable exception of Mario Kart 8 and some simultaneous releases like Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild).
  - zirgs 3y ago
    Most games are still stuck on their older consoles. Even well known games like Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 and Xenoblade Chronicles X. They port only their most popular stuff. This is why piracy is necessary in the long term. Platform holders don't care about game preservation.
    - bzzzt 3y ago
      Super Mario Galaxy 1 was part of the 'Mario 3D All stars' pack for Switch. It's hard to take a case for illegal copying serious if you start with incorrect examples. I'm convinced that as long as people want those games they will be made available eventually, but probably not on the timeline you want. I think some kind of 'continued availability' provision in copyright law would be more realistic than an appeal to resort to piracy.
      - zirgs 3y ago
        > Super Mario Galaxy 1 was part of the 'Mario 3D All stars' pack for Switch. It was on sale for a limited time and got delisted apparently. Better than nothing, I guess - but if you missed it - then it might not even exist. My point still stands - pirated copies of those games are available 24/7. As GabeN said - piracy is a service problem and Nintendo fails to provide a better service.
- maccard 3y ago
  > it scales extremely well and it's indisputable how beautiful it looks. I disagree - I had a google and found [0]. This is emulated, at 4k with raytracing. It's a good decade behind what we're seeing come out these days IMO. It's dated, suffers from the hallmarks of not-quite-HDR (that lovely shiny surface that we all learned to love during the late 360/PS3 days). [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA7BAbMQU3c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA7BAbMQU3c
bzzzt 3y ago
> It’s like 15 years behind Did you expect 4090 performance on a system you can pick up for less than $300? Finished TOTK last week and had a lot of fun with it. I'm not blind and can clearly see jaggies, frame drops and resolution drops, but nowhere in the game did that really interfere with the core gameplay or make it impossible to enjoy it. While newer systems have more detail, most of the time it's imperceptible since you don't have time to look at the scenery anyway and when it matters (e.g. when rendering faces) it still doesn't look realistic to me. Burning a kilowatt just to get a bit more detail or framerate for the same old gameplay just sounds insane to me.
- tokamak-teapot 3y ago
  “when rendering faces […] it still doesn’t look realistic to me” This gets to the heart of the matter for me. No matter how much hair sways like real hair, skin wrinkles like real skin, or eyes get a glassy look when emotion suggests they should, real humans can spot weirdness from miles away. That person you see walking towards you, barely visible in the dark and without your glasses on? The tiniest stiffness in the way they made that last step, the way their elbow shifted, have raised your awareness and you’re now considering them a threat, and will watch them carefully and keep your distance. Or the way they get up from the table they are sitting at clues you into the fact they have a pulled muscle in their lower back or upper right leg and you instinctively watch a little closer in case they fall and you can help somehow. The scowl and glare of a woman who is playfully admonishing her kids and encouraging them to play along. While we asymptotically approach ‘perfect’ rendering and simulation, we are still just alongside it, unable to climb out of the uncanny valley. A game can look beautiful with some creativity and care in its visuals, and it seems like nearly everyone who’s played Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild is enamoured with their beauty. I often play just to travel around and enjoy the beautiful landscapes. Even The Depths is enchantingly beautiful, reminding me of what you can see while scuba diving. I wonder if this was intentional. So yes, while I do appreciate a super high resolution game with rock solid megahertz framerates and physically correct lighting, these are additive in their enhancement, not multiplicative. Spending effort on these that could have been spread more evenly across art direction, gameplay, music and other aspects serves only NVidia, AMD and those who enjoy ‘high fidelity’ visuals or the game (in its own right) of chasing hardware that is capable of running these games. To me, there is a parallel with the 'audiophile', who lusts after higher and higher 'fidelity' and perpetually upgrades their equipment but only ever listens to a playlist titled "Songs to test headphones with". Spine-tingling cymbal wash and awe-inducing bass sweeps are amazing. Others are here for the remaining 90% of the music, and are happy to listen on their phones, and don’t even notice when a live performance isn’t a clone of album tracks. I personally fall into both camps. I love to put on some headphones and listen to ‘audiophile’ music, but that’s a hour or two every few months. Most of the time I’m having a blast with medium fidelity, ultra fun music … and gameplay.
andrepd 3y ago
Exactly. It runs on a "potato" yet it still looks better than many AAA games and their generic bland art direction and janky animations.
- pb7 3y ago
  It’s also a AAA game, it’s just running on a potato and looks the part. It would be a better game if it was developed for hardware from this decade.
kyleyeats 3y ago
Lots of people forget that Breath of the Wild was developed for the Wii U. The engine for TOTK is actually two generations old.

lucasyvas 3y ago

Seeing it emulated shows you how amazing the art direction is - it scales extremely well and it's indisputable how beautiful it looks. One the hugest misses of Nintendo to be honest. The art styles they develop are designed to scale down to their hardware, but they also scale way up and they never provide you an official way to take advantage, even on future hardware. The art team is being done a bit dirty in this respect.

xnx 3y ago
Tears of the Kingdom came so late in the lifecycle of the Switch and the next Zelda is so far off, that I wonder if Nintendo will do some type of light re-release on Switch 2 (or whatever it is called). I read that the did a closed-door demo of Tears of the Kingdom running on Switch 2 hardware.
- zirgs 3y ago
  They most likely will. The same happened with the previous zelda game.
bzzzt 3y ago
Since there is no 'future hardware' announced yet how can you state Nintendo will never provide you with an official way to take advantage of it? Seems Nintendo regularly re-releases games on new consoles, often with graphical improvements. FI, you can play Zelda Skyward Sword in HD on the Switch.
- _cenw 3y ago
  Never is a long time, but it's not likely to be the next iteration (which was demoed in private at Gamescom). Mostly because the Switch graphics API is very hard coupled to the specific Tegra chips they use.
  - bzzzt 3y ago
    You mean you don't get an upgraded version for free when buying a new console. While I'd like that Nintendo is not big on 'for free' ;)
    - _cenw 3y ago
      No, I mean that there wouldn't be backwards compatibility, and Nintendo usually doesn't re-release games immediately (with the notable exception of Mario Kart 8 and some simultaneous releases like Twilight Princess and Breath of the Wild).
- zirgs 3y ago
  Most games are still stuck on their older consoles. Even well known games like Super Mario Galaxy 1/2 and Xenoblade Chronicles X. They port only their most popular stuff. This is why piracy is necessary in the long term. Platform holders don't care about game preservation.
  - bzzzt 3y ago
    Super Mario Galaxy 1 was part of the 'Mario 3D All stars' pack for Switch. It's hard to take a case for illegal copying serious if you start with incorrect examples. I'm convinced that as long as people want those games they will be made available eventually, but probably not on the timeline you want. I think some kind of 'continued availability' provision in copyright law would be more realistic than an appeal to resort to piracy.
    - zirgs 3y ago
      > Super Mario Galaxy 1 was part of the 'Mario 3D All stars' pack for Switch. It was on sale for a limited time and got delisted apparently. Better than nothing, I guess - but if you missed it - then it might not even exist. My point still stands - pirated copies of those games are available 24/7. As GabeN said - piracy is a service problem and Nintendo fails to provide a better service.
maccard 3y ago
> it scales extremely well and it's indisputable how beautiful it looks. I disagree - I had a google and found [0]. This is emulated, at 4k with raytracing. It's a good decade behind what we're seeing come out these days IMO. It's dated, suffers from the hallmarks of not-quite-HDR (that lovely shiny surface that we all learned to love during the late 360/PS3 days). [0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA7BAbMQU3c https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rA7BAbMQU3c

bzzzt 3y ago

> It’s like 15 years behind Did you expect 4090 performance on a system you can pick up for less than $300? Finished TOTK last week and had a lot of fun with it. I'm not blind and can clearly see jaggies, frame drops and resolution drops, but nowhere in the game did that really interfere with the core gameplay or make it impossible to enjoy it. While newer systems have more detail, most of the time it's imperceptible since you don't have time to look at the scenery anyway and when it matters (e.g. when rendering faces) it still doesn't look realistic to me. Burning a kilowatt just to get a bit more detail or framerate for the same old gameplay just sounds insane to me.

tokamak-teapot 3y ago
“when rendering faces […] it still doesn’t look realistic to me” This gets to the heart of the matter for me. No matter how much hair sways like real hair, skin wrinkles like real skin, or eyes get a glassy look when emotion suggests they should, real humans can spot weirdness from miles away. That person you see walking towards you, barely visible in the dark and without your glasses on? The tiniest stiffness in the way they made that last step, the way their elbow shifted, have raised your awareness and you’re now considering them a threat, and will watch them carefully and keep your distance. Or the way they get up from the table they are sitting at clues you into the fact they have a pulled muscle in their lower back or upper right leg and you instinctively watch a little closer in case they fall and you can help somehow. The scowl and glare of a woman who is playfully admonishing her kids and encouraging them to play along. While we asymptotically approach ‘perfect’ rendering and simulation, we are still just alongside it, unable to climb out of the uncanny valley. A game can look beautiful with some creativity and care in its visuals, and it seems like nearly everyone who’s played Tears of the Kingdom or Breath of the Wild is enamoured with their beauty. I often play just to travel around and enjoy the beautiful landscapes. Even The Depths is enchantingly beautiful, reminding me of what you can see while scuba diving. I wonder if this was intentional. So yes, while I do appreciate a super high resolution game with rock solid megahertz framerates and physically correct lighting, these are additive in their enhancement, not multiplicative. Spending effort on these that could have been spread more evenly across art direction, gameplay, music and other aspects serves only NVidia, AMD and those who enjoy ‘high fidelity’ visuals or the game (in its own right) of chasing hardware that is capable of running these games. To me, there is a parallel with the 'audiophile', who lusts after higher and higher 'fidelity' and perpetually upgrades their equipment but only ever listens to a playlist titled "Songs to test headphones with". Spine-tingling cymbal wash and awe-inducing bass sweeps are amazing. Others are here for the remaining 90% of the music, and are happy to listen on their phones, and don’t even notice when a live performance isn’t a clone of album tracks. I personally fall into both camps. I love to put on some headphones and listen to ‘audiophile’ music, but that’s a hour or two every few months. Most of the time I’m having a blast with medium fidelity, ultra fun music … and gameplay.

andrepd 3y ago

Exactly. It runs on a "potato" yet it still looks better than many AAA games and their generic bland art direction and janky animations.

pb7 3y ago
It’s also a AAA game, it’s just running on a potato and looks the part. It would be a better game if it was developed for hardware from this decade.

kyleyeats 3y ago

Lots of people forget that Breath of the Wild was developed for the Wii U. The engine for TOTK is actually two generations old.