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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - DigitalFoundry: Skyrim for Switch

RaptorGTA said:
Cerebralbore101 said:
Quick question here. How are the loading times? I can't go back to playing Skyrim with anything more than a 5-10 second loading window.

Load times are good. Moving from inside to outside are within 20 seconds or less.. Dont have my switch with me or I'd test to confirm now.

 

There is a lengthy load time when the game is first started. Faster then the 360 load time...but still over 45 seconds.

Thanks. IMO 20 seconds is too long. PS4 version takes 5-10 seconds. 



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Cerebralbore101 said:
RaptorGTA said:

Load times are good. Moving from inside to outside are within 20 seconds or less.. Dont have my switch with me or I'd test to confirm now.

 

There is a lengthy load time when the game is first started. Faster then the 360 load time...but still over 45 seconds.

Thanks. IMO 20 seconds is too long. PS4 version takes 5-10 seconds. 

The game only has load screens when you get inside/outside towns and dungeons, 20 seconds is not that much at all.



curl-6 said:
bonzobanana said:

I was pretty much all over the place myself. At the beginning thinking it would be running the Tegra chipset at full speed and the rumour of a VR headset had me imagining a VR system capable of running 360/PS3 ports in VR then the Switch launched and the games were really disappointing technically even for early titles. It's pretty much turned out right in the middle of my opinion swings in the end. One thing when comparing the spec I probably didn't take account of which I should was how much of the ps3 and 360 performance is dropped simply because they are always moving data in and out because  of limited memory with more ambitious games. The Switch doesn't have to do that (thanks Capcom) and I feel gave it an important upgrade going from 2GB to 4GB which is 1GB more than the Shield box. In the end its a very nice unit with sufficient performance to get the job done and its portable functionality can only improve with each revision of the console. In fact improvements in the later firmware, perhaps usb hard drive support and other features will enhance it too. 

Yeah the <500MB available to games was the primary bottleneck of PS3/360, and frankly it's amazing that their most graphically accomplished games look as good as they do under such brutal memory limitations.

Switch's 3.2GB available to games (according to DF) gives it a big advantage in terms of things like higher resolution textures, a greater number of different assets in play at once, etc.

It also means the Switch's CPU doesn't have to work as hard, since it doesn't need to stream and unpack data as aggressively as PS3/360 do.

By chance this video came up this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ljTX9R5QhA

Again it shows the Switch have limited draw distance with lots of popping compared to ps3. From what I understand there is a CPU component to animated objects in the distance and both portable and docked Switch cpu performance is the same and have the same issue. So in this one regard it does look like the Switch's limited cpu performance is having some effect. GPU can't be a factor because surely docked is comfortably stronger than ps3 by some margin. Memory bandwidth is another possible cause but I'd go with cpu myself although it could be a factor. On paper though the Switch cpu performance always looked a bit weak and was much reduced compared to the Tegra's maximum mhz. However as that video states there are few games of that era that required such high CPU resources.

It doesn't detract from the great overall package the Switch is becoming and I still feel there is a possibility of unlocking some cpu performance with a later firmware as later Switch revisions are using improved fabrication. I use PSP as an example of this. They improved the mhz in a later firmware that had a knock on effect to the earlier PSP's battery life in some games but by that time developers were needing a bit more performance to handle more ambitious games. I think originally locked at 222mhz but went to a 333mhz speed for some games with a later firmware revision. It would be nice to see a docked cpu speed increase anyway.

It's likely a later Switch will have a dedicated customised Tegra chip unlike the current off the shelf chip and will see many background improvements I'm sure. One likely improvement is wifi that doesn't tax the console as much to allow improvements in multiplayer frame rates. 

I honestly feel some of these games like Skyrim and LA Noire could be improved with time as Nintendo improves the firmware to unlock some more performance.



bonzobanana said:
curl-6 said:

Yeah the <500MB available to games was the primary bottleneck of PS3/360, and frankly it's amazing that their most graphically accomplished games look as good as they do under such brutal memory limitations.

Switch's 3.2GB available to games (according to DF) gives it a big advantage in terms of things like higher resolution textures, a greater number of different assets in play at once, etc.

It also means the Switch's CPU doesn't have to work as hard, since it doesn't need to stream and unpack data as aggressively as PS3/360 do.

By chance this video came up this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ljTX9R5QhA

Again it shows the Switch have limited draw distance with lots of popping compared to ps3. From what I understand there is a CPU component to animated objects in the distance and both portable and docked Switch cpu performance is the same and have the same issue. So in this one regard it does look like the Switch's limited cpu performance is having some effect. GPU can't be a factor because surely docked is comfortably stronger than ps3 by some margin. Memory bandwidth is another possible cause but I'd go with cpu myself although it could be a factor. On paper though the Switch cpu performance always looked a bit weak and was much reduced compared to the Tegra's maximum mhz. However as that video states there are few games of that era that required such high CPU resources.

It doesn't detract from the great overall package the Switch is becoming and I still feel there is a possibility of unlocking some cpu performance with a later firmware as later Switch revisions are using improved fabrication. I use PSP as an example of this. They improved the mhz in a later firmware that had a knock on effect to the earlier PSP's battery life in some games but by that time developers were needing a bit more performance to handle more ambitious games. I think originally locked at 222mhz but went to a 333mhz speed for some games with a later firmware revision. It would be nice to see a docked cpu speed increase anyway.

It's likely a later Switch will have a dedicated customised Tegra chip unlike the current off the shelf chip and will see many background improvements I'm sure. One likely improvement is wifi that doesn't tax the console as much to allow improvements in multiplayer frame rates. 

I honestly feel some of these games like Skyrim and LA Noire could be improved with time as Nintendo improves the firmware to unlock some more performance.

Yeah I saw that one. DF do point out that the game was tailored to the PS3's Cell CPU; if I recall correctly, the Xbox 360 version struggled too as a result. Going from tasks divided among the PS3's 6 specialized SPUs and single central core to the 3 standardized cores available on Switch and 360 is naturally not going to be the best fit. I imagine Switch would fare a bit better with a game that was more suited to the 360 given they share a straightforward tri-core configuration. 

The way the industry has been going, I would be surprised if we don't see a Switch revision down the line that allows for improved performance, similar to New 3DS and PS4 Pro.

Last edited by curl-6 - on 24 November 2017

20 seconds is glacial for a load screen in 2017 and would definitely feel a bit on the unacceptable side to me.



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Considering how Doom, L.A. Noir, and this game are all from the first slew of "quick and dirty" ports, this all bodes very well for how games could look on the system a couple years from now.



Just started playing my copy earlier today. I have to say I am impressed with the way it looks in portable mode. The game really looks fantastic and plays fantastic.



bonzobanana said:
curl-6 said:

Yeah the <500MB available to games was the primary bottleneck of PS3/360, and frankly it's amazing that their most graphically accomplished games look as good as they do under such brutal memory limitations.

Switch's 3.2GB available to games (according to DF) gives it a big advantage in terms of things like higher resolution textures, a greater number of different assets in play at once, etc.

It also means the Switch's CPU doesn't have to work as hard, since it doesn't need to stream and unpack data as aggressively as PS3/360 do.

By chance this video came up this morning.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8ljTX9R5QhA

Again it shows the Switch have limited draw distance with lots of popping compared to ps3. From what I understand there is a CPU component to animated objects in the distance and both portable and docked Switch cpu performance is the same and have the same issue. So in this one regard it does look like the Switch's limited cpu performance is having some effect. GPU can't be a factor because surely docked is comfortably stronger than ps3 by some margin. Memory bandwidth is another possible cause but I'd go with cpu myself although it could be a factor. On paper though the Switch cpu performance always looked a bit weak and was much reduced compared to the Tegra's maximum mhz. However as that video states there are few games of that era that required such high CPU resources.

It doesn't detract from the great overall package the Switch is becoming and I still feel there is a possibility of unlocking some cpu performance with a later firmware as later Switch revisions are using improved fabrication. I use PSP as an example of this. They improved the mhz in a later firmware that had a knock on effect to the earlier PSP's battery life in some games but by that time developers were needing a bit more performance to handle more ambitious games. I think originally locked at 222mhz but went to a 333mhz speed for some games with a later firmware revision. It would be nice to see a docked cpu speed increase anyway.

It's likely a later Switch will have a dedicated customised Tegra chip unlike the current off the shelf chip and will see many background improvements I'm sure. One likely improvement is wifi that doesn't tax the console as much to allow improvements in multiplayer frame rates. 

I honestly feel some of these games like Skyrim and LA Noire could be improved with time as Nintendo improves the firmware to unlock some more performance.

Talking about LA Noire port, DF stated that LA Noire was built specifically with PS3 Cell CPU on mind, so basically LA Noire engine and hole game was built to take most of PS3 Cell CPU, and only around 8 months later game was ported to Xbox 360, and that's actually one of only few multiplatform games that runs better on PS3 compared to Xbox360 from same reason. So when you port game that's specifically made just for one type of hardware on mind, you will hardly use most of that other hardware. I mean this is only Switch multiplatform game that has some drawbacks compared to PS3 version of same game, and that because reason I mentioned.

Also keep on mind that this Switch version will probably have further patches and optimisations while PS3 version was with all patches, and of course we still talking about 1st year ports, future ports will be better and more optimised in any case.

Saying that, Switch CPU is bottleneck but is not big problem (CPU is bottleneck also for PS4/ XB1),  but things would be even better if CPU is for instance 1.5GHz instead of 1GHz, but that would definatly effect battery life in curent Switch model.

Last edited by Miyamotoo - on 25 November 2017

Cerebralbore101 said:
RaptorGTA said:

Load times are good. Moving from inside to outside are within 20 seconds or less.. Dont have my switch with me or I'd test to confirm now.

 

There is a lengthy load time when the game is first started. Faster then the 360 load time...but still over 45 seconds.

Thanks. IMO 20 seconds is too long. PS4 version takes 5-10 seconds. 

 

So I double checked and for playing off the game card the load times are much shorted then I originally thought. Going in and out of a house are between 5 to 10 seconds. The time varies based on how much of a change is occurring..like if your in your house and then exit to White Run the load time is around a few seconds..Leave a dungeon into Skyrim is a longer load time of 10 seconds.. Biggest load time is from starting the game up...pretty sure on the 360 load time was over 3 minutes. On the Switch is under 30 seconds.  Would be cool to see time comparison between playing on the game card, playing on the SD card and playing from internal memory much like DF did for Zelda. 

 

Sure the number of load times in this game are a bit crazy..but its such a great game that it doesn't bother me at all.  I dont think the game should have been $60....but eh well. 



"Tell me why does it have to be so hard

to let go when it?s your final day

...When death is on it's way"

RaptorGTA said:
Cerebralbore101 said:

Thanks. IMO 20 seconds is too long. PS4 version takes 5-10 seconds. 

 

So I double checked and for playing off the game card the load times are much shorted then I originally thought. Going in and out of a house are between 5 to 10 seconds. The time varies based on how much of a change is occurring..like if your in your house and then exit to White Run the load time is around a few seconds..Leave a dungeon into Skyrim is a longer load time of 10 seconds.. Biggest load time is from starting the game up...pretty sure on the 360 load time was over 3 minutes. On the Switch is under 30 seconds.  Would be cool to see time comparison between playing on the game card, playing on the SD card and playing from internal memory much like DF did for Zelda. 

 

Sure the number of load times in this game are a bit crazy..but its such a great game that it doesn't bother me at all.  I dont think the game should have been $60....but eh well. 

That sounds much better. 5-10 second load times is what I would expect out of a system with 2 - 4GB of Ram in 2017.