Video: Digital Foundry Breaks Down the Resolution and Framerate in Splatoon 2

The game played very well considering this wasn't the console it was designed for.

I wonder if some performance improvements were because it only had to drive one screen.

Res don't bother me too much if the games solid in the fps department. Least it don't look like a muddy mess.

The testfire is likely happening to test performance in the actual environment.

It's possible they might still hit a solid 720p in handheld, and 1080p docked, even if I'm not getting my hopes up.

@Dakt
Maybe they just testing if that is enough, as it will leave a lot of breathing room for other optimization.

If it turns out it's too icky, they may have enough power to double it back up.

Glad I don't care about this crap or I'd missed out on a lot of good games.that's right I'm a 80s kid,this new gen ain't true gamers.Just picky brats lol

"understandable changes"
"possible tradeoff"
"visual compromises"
"not too bad, considering"

I keep seeing these kind of half-apologetic phrases in all these articles, but here's the thing: i have never once said "I wonder how many p's I'm gonna get in this game, except when playing Mario 3.

I ALWAYS ask myself, is this gonna be some dag-gone fun or should I skip it?

Does that make me old school? Idk. I have no idea what the framerate or resolution were on DKC:TF, Yoshi's Island, or Megaman 2. among countless others across all generations. All I know is, they play great and were straight up fun. #'s like FPS and resolution are largely marketing. Like Sega saying "blast processing!" who cares. SNES had better/more games. But... but.. teraflops! lol. Games, my friend. Games.

If this game is fun, that's all that matters. Don't pretend you can't have fun if it's 720 instead of 1080 or 4k. The only thing you lose is playground bragging rights "i got more p's bro. like 4 million p's".

Oh, that's so much better than the 30 fps and 240p of the 3DS!

Wait, what, I should compare it to the Wii U and say it's not that great, you say? But why?
Oooh, I see, you like to see the bad side of things instead of the good one!
Well, do you what you want to do, but don't say after that you're not happy when you could be!

@Dakt
I certainly sometimes felt with the Wii that I had really been tricked into buying the GameCube one more time.

At least with the Switch it's a new chipset and an entirely different form factor and value proposition, even if the performance is rather close to the Wii U for the first games coming out now.

@Dakt What does the server tick at? I've no interest in splatoon 1/2 but I'm curious to see how it compares to other games on tick rate. I'm expecting really a really bad rate because nintendo and online....

no 1080p in docked mode? not even 900p?? seriously? that's disappointing

@speedracer216 I'm with you in spirit, but I don't think it should be 'off limits' to discuss the numbers behind the games that we love.

And if we are going to get into the tech specs, I'd rather is was part of a level-headed, insightful discussion grounded in some solid data. Which is exactly what the above video is (as indeed are all the Digital Foundry videos I've seen).

The 'console war' willy waving contest is as stupid as it's always been, but I don't think the internet is any worse off for the mature discussions and experiments that the Digital Foundry provide.

Likely the comment section will soon fill up with hyperbolic idiots declaring the end of the world. But from the Digital Foundary's perspective, and Nintendo Life's for linking the video, I think they've done no wrong.

This is a certain type of video for a certain type of person with a certain type of interest. But in my opinion, it excels at being that video, even if it doesn't appeal to everyone.

... did anyone complain about how the game looked before they revealed the pixel count?

So long as the game is able to present the style it aims for and run smoothly, numbers don't bother me. Like they get at in the vid, I think for this game, rock solid 60fps is top priority to get the wet/fresh feel. I still say it's a win.

@Dakt Half the tick rate accounts for half the bandwidth usage, but it makes sense. IMO the first was going too fast in all things, and the rapid tick rate coupled with the massively poor internet worldwide was the leading cause of random deaths after one hit from a splattershot. I've always felt the built the first for LAN (or Japanese internet that performs like LAN) rather than real world internet conditions. In the testfire, I experienced a fraction of the really frustration inducing "pass through opponent roller then splat" and "one-hit kill from a 4 hit weapons" situations that were regular in Splatoon 1. It happened a few times, but not nearly as often. I didn't see as much teleporting either. I imagine the slower tick rate is a contributor to the solutions for that.

@Dakt What are you talking about...it's runs at 60fps solid!

@6ch6ris6 Yes, because all that matters is resolution... right?

@Fitkong I played it on my 65" 4k TV and it looked great. My son played it on his Switch and he didn't have any complaints. People need to stop being so fixated on pixel count and more on game play. I have a high end gaming computer that runs almost everything that I throw at it in 4k 60+fps ultra settings. I still love to play games on the Wii U, Xbox One and Switch even though they are lower res. When you're zooming around the screen, you really don't have time to care about 720p or 1080p. There is far more that goes into how the game looks on the screen than just the resolution. Kind of like people who buy $100 cameras with high pixel count and brag about it even though they take poopy pictures.

You people who say "I refuse to play this unless it's at least 1080p" are not gamers. You are tech junkies. Which is fine--to each their own--but you're complaining on the wrong website.

For a fast paced exclusive game like Splatoon 2 I don't think resolution really matters. Either you are going to play the game on Switch or you aren't going to play it, it's an exclusive. For Zelda BotW you had a choice of getting the game on Switch or Wii U so the side by side comparisons gave people something to think about.

Going forward, when Switch starts getting multiplats like DQ11 I think the numbers will matter more to people who own multiple consoles. DQH2 on Switch looks more like a PS3 game than Vita or PS4. I do believe most people can't tell the difference when playing a game how good or bad it looks, only when watching comparison videos do the differences really stand out. Hyrule Warriors on old 3DS was playable as long as it wasn't compared to the significantly better New 3DS version.

Point is, people want to know these things b/c they want to buy the best version of a game. Splatoon 2 is an exclusive so it doesn't matter, get it on Switch or don't. But everybody should be prepared for a whole lot more of these articles. Starting this holiday multiplats will basically have 6, count'em six, versions of each game - PS4, PS4 Pro, X1S, Scorpio, Switch handheld, Switch docked. Digital Foundry guys are going to be very busy indeed.

@Maxz
and this is where I'm with YOU in spirit:
I like the digital foundry videos too and am happy to see them shared as fact. I think NL feels like they have to apologize for those facts whenever they say "it's 720p......... which is really not that bad if you think about it and at least its runs with a (respectable) framerate.... all things consdier and besides no one ever thought switch would be more powerful than blah blah blah"

haha. I built my own PC with near-top of the line specs a few years ago. the numbers game is interesting. but i'm not replacing parts every year because the numbers game doesn't effect how fun the game is. that's all i meant. mature discussion is great. comments sections are.... the internet still nowhere near as bad as something like ign though.

@Dakt It really depends on how they synchronize player state with the updates. Splatoon updates are fairly large because the entire surface of the stage is effectively a "player" to track and the map needs to be kept up to date. I've always been of the opinion due to the fast nature of the game and the size of data, that it was bottlenecking on less than perfect internet which they didn't count on because of the near-perfection of internet in Japan and they never thought outside their bubble.

I don't think we're looking at Switch limitations, I think we're looking at part of whatever solution they come up with for the GLARING problems in the Splatoon netcode. I can safely say there was LESS teleportation, random unexpected hits, etc. Some did happen, but it was nothing like Splatoon 1, it was a lot more predictable. Granted, as long as they're using predictive AI to make gameplay seem smooth and lag free, there's always randomness whenever players hit packet loss, but what you describe that halving the ticks would worsen the situation of random hits, does not seem to be the case. They're clearly hit tracking very differently now, which is good.

I mean I see what you're saying, but given the results showing improvement I think we're seeing half of a bigger solution, and reducing congestion was a compoonent of it. Whatever they did do seems to be improving the situation, not worsening it.

It's still not as perfect as I'd like to see it, but it's better than it was. And my bandwidth will thank me for the reduced traffic

@NEStalgia I don't think it's accurate to compare a test fire to a full fledged game. When the first Splatton had a testfire it was relatively calm due to no one really knowing how to play. I think when it officially comes out and veteran Splatoon players buy the switch just to play it. We'll have a more accurate representation of gameplay differences.

@Nintendoforlife While there were certainly noobs around, the gameplay I saw wasn't very different from what I'd see in Splatoon 1 when new weapon packs came out and people were trying them. Splatoon 1 was new during that test fire and nobody had any experience with it, EVERYBODY was a noob.

This time, were talking about a limited selection of players, nearly all of which were day-1 console preorder customers. The majority of the day-1 preorders are going to be the Nintendo loyal, and the majority of Nintendo loyal are going to have had a WiiU and likely played Splatoon.

There's a portion of people playing that were WiiU owners that never played Splatoon, and a portion that never had a WiiU at all etc, but it's fairly safe to say a bulk of the people playing this testfire were veterans or lapsed veterans of the original game. The gameplay wasn't AS intense as what I'd expect hopping into ranked, but it was more intense than your average Splatfest before the whole FesPower changeover for the last two.

I'm not sure how the matchmaker was working out but it seemed to be taking skill into account (it was awarding points after matches and the like) and the player groupings later on seemed much more from my skill bracket just like when leveling up an alt...er...I mean just like when we all started playing the original!

There were lots of vets in that testfire (myself included, lapsed vet though I may be....I don't think I still earn my S-rank street cred ) But in terms of testing the random ohko tentatek it was a fair assessment netcode wise I think.

it ran and looked 100 % fine without any issues in portable and tv mode. absolutely no complaints

@NEStalgia You make fair points, the point I want to address in particular is the vets comment. Maybe some of the predictability came from just know how to play well, while going against those who don't know or have forgotten. Would it be fair to say you're comparing this level of gameplay to gameplay you've experienced within the last year and a half of Splatoon? In which case everyone basically knew what to do, and how to get it done efficiently.

I mean I can't discredit your point because I didn't partake in the testfire. But I still believe it was too small of a sample size to really understand the skill ceiling that can be met.

If Switch wasn't so underpowered they wouldn't have to choose between graphics and framerate.

I love the Switch. But personally I would have liked it to be twice as thick with twice the power and twice the price... but that's just me.

I will wonder if they up the tickrate by the release, considering how these tests are literal tests. Even as a HIGH LEVEL SPLOOT PLAYER, I had trouble noticing anything off about it.

@Dakt That is an absolutely appalling tick rate. Overwatch was destroyed by the world for having a 21 tick rate at first on all platforms (which is still does on consoles, changed to now 63 on pc). BF4 got panned for being I believe it was 10 (maybe 20) on launch and now it's adjustable from 30/60/120/144.

It almost makes me wonder if they didn't try anything visually with splatoon 2 because of either 1. the "power" of the switch or 2. (and the more sinister of the reasons) esports pandering.

@whodatninja Sarcasm? I hope that was sarcasm. Yeah...it has to be sarcasm.

Hold on, wasn't Spratton 2 and MK8 supposed to run at 1080p/60fps? Wasn't that the promise made by Nintendo?

@Nintendoforlife Yeah I stopped regular play after Sheldon's Picks Pack 2 came out, so I'm a bit rusty but it all came back to me very fast (including the darned jump button, unfortunately ) But I'd say the level of play I was seeing, especially in the last hour (Sat night) was on par with what I'd expect from a TW around that time. Ranked is going to be different obviously, and I was often up exclusively against Japanese players by the time I stopped playing S1, and not as intense as the (frankly entirely unfun) last two splatfests with the Fes Power thing, but similar to normal play otherwise. Tellingly, I was the best on my team only a handful of times, and generally most players were doing similarly well (or badly). Accurate roller 1hko flicks are a good indicator

I certainly don't think the full skill ceiling of the game was reached with these new weapons of course, it was like the sheldon's picks releases from S1 more than an S match. But with mostly experienced players all learning new weps at the same time. I.E. unfamiliarity with weapon specifics but a solid handle on gameplay wep classes and reaction times.

FWIW a lot of the regulars in the splatoon community seem to have participated, though I didn't encounter any familiar names during my testfire play.

IMO the netcode issues I'm seeing improvement in didnt' depend on having high skilled players either way though. That was the worst of it with S1, getting an ohko from a tentatek through a wall from a player that was barely even dodging

I don't think it's totally fixed....I think Splatoon will always have netcode issues on this engine. But I do think they improved it. Add in Switch's Wifi issues, and the netcode must be MUCH better for it to work half as well I did get splatted AFTER the roller passed me by once, so stuff does still happen. But I saw no teleporting at all! And there were a lot of ledges in these maps.

@Dakt I don't see 900p happening for 2 reasons: 1: I'm going to guess, like BotW the WiiU based engine it's coming from isn't the most optimization to the Switch and FPS wins all in this game. Second, something someone else mentioned earlier, higher resolution could provide advantages to playing on a TV that aren't available handheld for accurate aiming which would be a problem if it crippled one of the highlighted play modes.

I wouldn't rule it out, but I can't imagine it happening.

@Amsterdamsters no. 60fps is more important, but 720p resolution on a 1080p tv just looks poo.

@Dakt Handheld scales down? Ohh, that's different then. I didn't see that listed. So in that case nothing's holding back the dock from doing 900p. Other than the fact that if the handheld can't do 720 p the docked can't do 900p and hold 60fps

Might be rough going for the first year or two for resolution hogs. I think Switch can do MUCH better, but all these games are WiiU engine ports, and it'll be a while before we get things built from scratch for Switch from Nintendo unfortunately.

I probably won't get Splatoon this time around, but it really does need at least some anti-aliasing

@Dakt Haha, yeah. Well, I think Shin'en has showed us that the Switch can look amazing. That's our early tease as to the kind of thing we can expect from a skilled dev working with a fresh start. It just might be a few years before first party clears the WiiU port pipeline. Not that RMX isn't a port.

Game looked great to me. Both on TV and handheld.

Of course my TV auto-upscales to 4K, as does almost every TV made in the last 5 years.

But... ya. Game looked a little sharper and better than the first, for sure.

@speedracer216 but framerate means fun my boy
Imagine playing a shooter at 20fps, unplayable
There's a reason there are completely unnecessary 240fps monitors for PC now, you won't have as good of a time if you don't get a high framerate, and a low framerate isn't good for competition either. 30fps would be fighting with the controls m8, shooters demand a high FPS. It's in their name

The fun factor is what I care about!

1080p would be nice, but it's far more important to get that 60fps. Glad to hear the frame-rate is solid.

@Dan_Dan When Nintendo say 1080P they mean upscale in most cases. Mario Kart will be 900p60 docked upscaled to 1080p.

Splatoon is more complex than Mario Kart so they may need to reign the horns in abit.

Either say 720p60 is fine.

Game looked fine to me, we have a 40inch 1080p tv. I also played in handheld mode, it looked fine then too.

Trade kills seemed much less frequent on this one, which is a very good thing imo and also hit registration felt better. But maybe this was because i wasn't playing with japanese players for the most time, got lucky i guess.

Will be a fun game.

@6ch6ris6 You must have a pretty crappy TV. While 720p doesn't look super sharp, it looks very good on my 4K TV. Looks super great on the display in the Switch.

Ok, so now we know for sure it's 720p, but it's weird, I was playing the Wii U Splatoon and you can tell it's 720p, yet Splatoon 2 looked alot better, like it was slightly higher res. Splatoon 2 looked great on my 50" TV though, the colours are so vivid.

Gosh the guys on the video talk like it's a post mortem...

Yes it's disappointing, but it's a port of a Wii u game, kind of to be expected.

@Danrenfroe2016

what do u mean port of a wii u game? Splatooon 2 was never on wii u.

@Slim1999 Graphics are a nice addition to a game in the visual compartment, but yes they do not necessarily have to be very high end. However, this is a strange situation where the graphics effects in the game are better, but the resolution is worse than the previous game. I would prefer to see gradual upgrades in technology, not the reverse.

So yes your stance on graphics being focused on too much is valid...but I don't think you should say that graphical improvements aren't needed or appreciated. It is a problem that some games like BotW have framerate drops at all. How would this bode for 3rd party developers? Would the NS get more support than the Wii U if devs see a weaker system? Would this snowball into the Wii U's dire situation?

Nintendo doesn't have to have the cutting edge, but they still need to stay relevant to other 3rd party devs, not fans.

I personally don't care as I want Nintendo systems for their first party games, and then I play AAA games on my significantly more powerful PC. I may consider FPS games since I could see the Joycons being cool "guns" or I could see the Gyroscope being useful. My situation is one that many other people are coming to the realization is needed to have the best experience with their games. If someone has a system that presents a better experience at the same price for a game....why would you pick a worse system?

How about to render the UI in 1080p and rest of graphics in 720p?

@JaxonH Yep, looks good to me too... the '5 years' comment is a bit of an exageration as not even ALL of the latest 4K TV's upscale correctly right now, let alone 5 years ago (was there even a 4K 5 years ago??)... but yes.. it's looking good either way

@FTL
Oh ya. In fact, in 2013 4K was definitely around. And I probably shouldn't have said "all" but most of them upconvert. Particularly because back then there was a lack of content, so up converting was a crucial selling point of the TV, and while it's not quite the selling point nowadays it's just as prevalent if not more so

@speedracer216 it's the same game. Different Arenas and weapons and modes and such but it is the same game essentially. Not saying they should not make a Splatoon 2. It's just that I think it's more of a 1.5 as the article States.

@Amsterdamsters Exactly, someone who appreciated games for what they are supposed to be... FUN.

Be nearly 47, I have been playing games for over 3 decades, and have used many different systems. At the moment, I have a dedicated gaming PC (just upgraded to the GTX1080), Xbox ONE, Wii U and a SWITCH. I love playing games on all of them. some have exclusives yes, but mostly, if I want to play with certain friends, I play on PC. Other times, Xbox, other times Nintendo.

All this stuff about 720,900 or 1080 and now 4k. Honestly, between 900 and 1080p, you cannot notice any real difference anyway. When did FPS become the number one factor for gamer`s these days? For me PERSONALLY, I look to see what I can do in the game, what the game offers me (innovative ideas), how the game makes me feel, replay ability, can I co-op with a friend. Of course we all like to see pretty images, but how on Earth did FUN seem to be near the bottom of the list now, for what gamer`s look for in games.

Maybe I am too old now. I have asked myself the question many times. Quickly approaching 50, should I really be playing computer GAMES still? Should I really be looking for another hobby?

@GrailUK It wasn't sarcasm.