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Forums - Nintendo Discussion - Digital Foundry: Dragon Quest 11 on Switch, " a remarkably impressive port"

Radek said:
Red Dead Redemption 2 is native 1080p on PS4, no dynamic resolution either but DQ 11 is only 900p lol.

Japanese devs really don't know how to optimize, same goes for Yakuza 6 and Judgement which are also 900p.

Red Dead Redemption 2 is also one of the greatest technical feats of the generation.  Saying any game that can't match that is poorly optimized is like saying anyone who can't match Federer's 20 Slams is a garbage tennis player.  

Dragon Quest XI isn't a technical tour de force but it is a very well crafted and optimized game for what it sets out to do.  It presents a detailed world with a robust post processing pipeline, highly detailed character models, with a locked framerate.  It is plenty well optimized.



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Soundwave said:
DonFerrari said:
I would expect a very good port, the game doesn't seem to be to heavy on the processing power of the console.

Yet the PS4 can't run it at 1080p. 

I could agree if PS4 didn't have hundred of games that are higher than 1080p and look better and more taxing than DQ11.

curl-6 said:
DonFerrari said:
I would expect a very good port, the game doesn't seem to be to heavy on the processing power of the console.

Soundwave beat me to it as I was away for a couple of days, but it's demanding enough that the PS4 version runs at 900p and 30fps.

It's an Unreal Engine 4 title, games made on that tend to be rather taxing.

I would say it is a poorly designed game, the game using cartoon artwork (that looks good enough mind you) get only 900p, while Detroit (from a much smaller studio than S-E) looks much much much better and more taxing.

Radek said:
Nuvendil said:

Red Dead Redemption 2 is also one of the greatest technical feats of the generation.  Saying any game that can't match that is poorly optimized is like saying anyone who can't match Federer's 20 Slams is a garbage tennis player.  

Dragon Quest XI isn't a technical tour de force but it is a very well crafted and optimized game for what it sets out to do.  It presents a detailed world with a robust post processing pipeline, highly detailed character models, with a locked framerate.  It is plenty well optimized.

I could literally name 20 games on top of my head that are 1080p on PS4, many Japanese devs stick to 900p for some reason.

It would be harder to list 20 games on the top of your had that are 900p than 100 that are 1080p.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

Radek said:
Nuvendil said:

Red Dead Redemption 2 is also one of the greatest technical feats of the generation.  Saying any game that can't match that is poorly optimized is like saying anyone who can't match Federer's 20 Slams is a garbage tennis player.  

Dragon Quest XI isn't a technical tour de force but it is a very well crafted and optimized game for what it sets out to do.  It presents a detailed world with a robust post processing pipeline, highly detailed character models, with a locked framerate.  It is plenty well optimized.

I could literally name 20 games on top of my head that are 1080p on PS4, many Japanese devs stick to 900p for some reason.

I believe I already covered this in this thread earlier, but a lot of Japanese devs use UE4 these days.  Not all, but a good number.  And it isn't uncommon for devs using UE4 to sacrifice resolution a bit in order to get more out of the post processing pipeline and make more agressive use of UE4's image treatment options. 

That said, there are several Japanese devs that still pull off impressively technical feats when they put in the money and resources to go all out.  Japan does, however, have a larger midrange development sphere than the west these days.  



DonFerrari said:

curl-6 said:

Soundwave beat me to it as I was away for a couple of days, but it's demanding enough that the PS4 version runs at 900p and 30fps.

It's an Unreal Engine 4 title, games made on that tend to be rather taxing.

I would say it is a poorly designed game, the game using cartoon artwork (that looks good enough mind you) get only 900p, while Detroit (from a much smaller studio than S-E) looks much much much better and more taxing.

The two are very different games to be fair; Detroit is almost an interactive film where the highest priority is placed on realistic graphical fidelity; DQ11 is an open world game where graphics are less of a priority and the visuals aim to create a clean, CG-like cartoon look.

As Nuvendil already covered, UE4 is just a demanding engine in general in terms of its feature set, and games made with it tend to run at lower resolutions than you'd typically see on the same hardware.



I would not classify DQXI as an open world. It's separated by regions and progress. Zelda BOTW is an open world where you can go anywhere anytime. Everything is there right away. You cannot in DQXI. You only get to new areas when you progress and they are not connected. It has large regions to explore but later it acts as any JRPG with an overworld with the boat and later the flying whale. Open worlds. Regional worlds and overworlds all function very differently.



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curl-6 said:
DonFerrari said:

I would say it is a poorly designed game, the game using cartoon artwork (that looks good enough mind you) get only 900p, while Detroit (from a much smaller studio than S-E) looks much much much better and more taxing.

The two are very different games to be fair; Detroit is almost an interactive film where the highest priority is placed on realistic graphical fidelity; DQ11 is an open world game where graphics are less of a priority and the visuals aim to create a clean, CG-like cartoon look.

As Nuvendil already covered, UE4 is just a demanding engine in general in terms of its feature set, and games made with it tend to run at lower resolutions than you'd typically see on the same hardware.

Prefer that I use Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, God of War, Spider-man or Red Dead Redemption 2 for examples that would qualify for the "open world" (and in GoW case it is a single set piece without any loads in between) that look and play leagues above DQXI to accept that there really isn't excuse for it not reaching 1080p? It was a design decision probably to save cost. And it isn't made by a small no name studio so that shouldn't qualify as excuse as well.



duduspace11 "Well, since we are estimating costs, Pokemon Red/Blue did cost Nintendo about $50m to make back in 1996"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=8808363

Mr Puggsly: "Hehe, I said good profit. You said big profit. Frankly, not losing money is what I meant by good. Don't get hung up on semantics"

http://gamrconnect.vgchartz.com/post.php?id=9008994

Azzanation: "PS5 wouldn't sold out at launch without scalpers."

Radek said:
Nuvendil said:

Red Dead Redemption 2 is also one of the greatest technical feats of the generation.  Saying any game that can't match that is poorly optimized is like saying anyone who can't match Federer's 20 Slams is a garbage tennis player.  

Dragon Quest XI isn't a technical tour de force but it is a very well crafted and optimized game for what it sets out to do.  It presents a detailed world with a robust post processing pipeline, highly detailed character models, with a locked framerate.  It is plenty well optimized.

I could literally name 20 games on top of my head that are 1080p on PS4, many Japanese devs stick to 900p for some reason.

For some developers art style trumps raw graphics.  I tend to agree with them.  I'd much rather look and play DQ over RDR2 any day of the week.  And if nothing else this just further demonstrates that resolution is grossly overrated.  DQ looks absolutely stunning on the ps4.  Clearly there is nothing wrong with 900p.  



curl-6 said:
Mr Puggsly said:

I was expecting a lower resolution as well but that 720p+ resolution came with compromises.

A significant downgrade to the lighting, lowered geometry, much more jarring pop in, etc. I can't help but wonder if there could have been less visual compromise with a lower resolution. But given this is UE4, that would probably mean a very blurry game, even more so.

I think CoD games on last gen were hitting something like 600p and they still look pretty good. UE4 games though tend to look really soft a low resolution.

Current gen games tend to look softer (though less aliased) at sub-HD resolutions than PS3/360 games because they tend to use a lot more post-processing effects that can soften the image. Also, modern AA tends towards the temporal and post-process variety which suppress the jaggies at the cost of adding blur.

Having said that, DQ11 is HD and above in TV mode. I actually haven't played it myself, but looking at DF's footage I don't think it looks overly blurry, to my eyes anyway.

The softness of modern games seems to be from low taxing AA solutions. Developers often opt for that in UE4 games. Which means games get really blurry if the resolution is low, so resolutions in the range of 720p get muddy. That same solution on 900p or 1080p can be fine in comparison.

To me this game looks muddy and Im sure it due to poor AA and AF. Its not just an issue with Switch though, there are X1 games that suffer from this. Tekken 7 and Soul Calibur VI are pretty rough, but thats a cost of 60 fps.



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curl-6 said:
DonFerrari said:

I would say it is a poorly designed game, the game using cartoon artwork (that looks good enough mind you) get only 900p, while Detroit (from a much smaller studio than S-E) looks much much much better and more taxing.

The two are very different games to be fair; Detroit is almost an interactive film where the highest priority is placed on realistic graphical fidelity; DQ11 is an open world game where graphics are less of a priority and the visuals aim to create a clean, CG-like cartoon look.

As Nuvendil already covered, UE4 is just a demanding engine in general in terms of its feature set, and games made with it tend to run at lower resolutions than you'd typically see on the same hardware.

Perhaps the studios working on with UE4 also matters. Crackdown 3, Sea of Theives, Days Gone, Gears 4 and Gears 5 look great with high resolutions.

3rd party games using UE4 tend to be less impressive. Although DQ11 on PS4 looks solid. I feel PS4 fans over react when a game isnt 1080p.



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Mr Puggsly said:
curl-6 said:

The two are very different games to be fair; Detroit is almost an interactive film where the highest priority is placed on realistic graphical fidelity; DQ11 is an open world game where graphics are less of a priority and the visuals aim to create a clean, CG-like cartoon look.

As Nuvendil already covered, UE4 is just a demanding engine in general in terms of its feature set, and games made with it tend to run at lower resolutions than you'd typically see on the same hardware.

Perhaps the studios working on with UE4 also matters. Crackdown 3, Sea of Theives, Days Gone, Gears 4 and Gears 5 look great with high resolutions.

3rd party games using UE4 tend to be less impressive. Although DQ11 on PS4 looks solid. I feel PS4 fans over react when a game isnt 1080p.

Yeah it is ultimately the studio that decide what resolution they want to target. A lot of them when working with UE4 simply tend to opt for the engine's high quality but expensive suite of effects and take the hit in pixel count. 

DonFerrari said:
curl-6 said:

The two are very different games to be fair; Detroit is almost an interactive film where the highest priority is placed on realistic graphical fidelity; DQ11 is an open world game where graphics are less of a priority and the visuals aim to create a clean, CG-like cartoon look.

As Nuvendil already covered, UE4 is just a demanding engine in general in terms of its feature set, and games made with it tend to run at lower resolutions than you'd typically see on the same hardware.

Prefer that I use Horizon Zero Dawn, Uncharted 4, God of War, Spider-man or Red Dead Redemption 2 for examples that would qualify for the "open world" (and in GoW case it is a single set piece without any loads in between) that look and play leagues above DQXI to accept that there really isn't excuse for it not reaching 1080p? It was a design decision probably to save cost. And it isn't made by a small no name studio so that shouldn't qualify as excuse as well.

It's still very much apples to oranges though. None of those games are UE4 titles for a start.