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Should Nintendo have gone with a 540p Screen?

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Buddy

Buddy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,295
Germany
So the switch is everyone's darling right now and like most switch owners, I'm loving the system.

But its clear the system is not powerful enough to render more complex games at 720p in portable mode. Nearly every game uses some sort of resolution scaling and games like doom, rocket league, snake pass, nba playgrounds, xenoblade2, rime or even zelda and Mario are having trouble hitting the native resolution of the screen. And I don't like the muddy look of these games in portable mode.

My question is, would a 540p screen have been the better choice? What are you guys thoughts on this issue?
 
cw_sasuke

cw_sasuke

Member
Oct 27, 2017
26,401
No.

We are talking mostly about a handful first-gen games that were rushed to hit the Holiday season.
There are plenty of first party, indie and retail 3rdParty games that look just fine on the Switch screen.

Non-optimized software during the first months of a system isnt a Switch specific phenomena. Just look how XB2 looked during e3 in its docked mode and how it runs now. They will update/fix the portable performance down the line as well.
 
FiXalaS

FiXalaS

Member
Oct 27, 2017
6,569
Kuwait.
Even if it was 540p, there will still be complex games that aim for more and end up sub-native.

I'm glad its 720p
 
takriel

takriel

Attempted to circumvent ban with alt account
Banned
Oct 25, 2017
10,221
No. 720p is perfect for this screen size. Games can look absolutely gorgeous on the small screen. Zelda and Skyrim come to mind.
 
Aztechnology

Aztechnology

Community Resettler
Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
14,144
No, I'm ok with it being higher resolutions most the time and dropping occasionally. And for titles it works on, it's so much better. 3DS made my eyes bleed, and Vita was too low for my tastes. Sure sometimes it won't hit 720p, but it's better than having a fixed lower res for me.
 
leng jai

leng jai

Member
Nov 2, 2017
15,119
540p would look terrible on a screen that size and you would be stuck with it for every game.
 
Aktlys

Aktlys

Member
Oct 27, 2017
1,535
Switch can render at 720p
Its up to the developer to decide what to pull back on
 
Stuart

Stuart

Banned
Oct 30, 2017
785
I don't think so, 720p seems like a nice compromise.

They need to work within the limitations of the Switch hardware though. At the moment we're seeing a few games like Doom and Xenoblade 2 pushing advanced graphical effects at the expense of framerate and resolution, when those should be the absolute priority.
 
jeffrockz

jeffrockz

Member
Oct 26, 2017
62
lower res screen with native res game > higher res screen with subnative res game.

So yes 540p screen would be good.
 
Jahranimo

Jahranimo

Community Resettler
Member
Oct 25, 2017
9,020
Hey buddy, I think you're jumping the gun here with this thinking regarding portable mode.

As more devs get more acquainted with the hardware, portable mode should be able to hit these resolutions with less issues.
 
Chinner

Chinner

Member
Oct 25, 2017
520
Should Nintendo have gone with a 240p screen? This would increase the graphics on the screen as there are less pixels.
 
SleepSmasher

SleepSmasher

Banned
Oct 27, 2017
2,094
Australia
Buddy said:
So the switch is everyone's darling right now and like most switch owners, I'm loving the system.

But its clear the system is not powerful enough to render more complex games at 720p in portable mode. Nearly every game uses some sort of resolution scaling and games like doom, rocket league, snake pass, nba playgrounds, xenoblade2, rime or even zelda and Mario are having trouble hitting the native resolution of the screen. And I don't like the muddy look of these games in portable mode.

My question is, would a 540p screen have been the better choice? What are you guys thoughts on this issue?
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
What about the other hundreds of games where resolution in handheld mode is not a problem? Also, Zelda and Mario both look absolutely fine in handheld mode.
 

Deleted member 442

Avenger
Oct 25, 2017
2,431
No. So far Zelda and Mario have both had different approaches to handling portable performance and have done well, I've not seen in detail what's happened with Xenoblade 2 but I wouldn't take that to be an impetus to further hamper portable specs. I'd say it makes the argument for an early Switch 2 in a year or so a bit more convincing.
 
SalvaPot

SalvaPot

One Winged Slayer
Member
Oct 25, 2017
8,599
I'll live with a 720p screen that works perfectly for 96% of the games on it.
 
unrealist

unrealist

Member
Oct 27, 2017
757
I think they should have went with dual 240p screens instead, with stereoscopic 3D. Maybe touch screen with a stylus too?
 
N00MKRAD

N00MKRAD

Banned
Oct 31, 2017
1,376
No lol.

Give it time. PS4 games keep looking and running better, devs need some time to get to know the hardware.
 
Neiteio

Neiteio

Member
Oct 25, 2017
24,137
Many of my games are native 720p in handheld, though. Most games seem able to reach native resolution; I'm quite alright with some games running below it.
 
Hate

Hate

Member
Oct 26, 2017
5,730
Find a 13" laptop with 1080p res (170ppi) and that's exactly what you're dealing with if you have a 540p screen on Switch's 6.2" display(177ppi).

I'm perfectly fine with a 540p screen.

felipepl said:
What about the other hundreds of games where resolution in handheld mode is not a problem? Also, Zelda and Mario both look absolutely fine in handheld mode.
Click to expand...
Click to shrink...
Then they can actually improve other effects such as shadows and lighting instead of putting resources on res.
 
OP
OP
Buddy

Buddy

Member
Oct 25, 2017
1,295
Germany
Don't get me wrong. The system is fine as it is. But its tiresome to read the complaints in every switch game discussion. Sub native resolution is one of the most frequent complaints
 
Jimrpg

Jimrpg

Member
Oct 26, 2017
3,280
Yep Vita is more or less a 540p screen at 5 inches and its still a very good quality screen. Anything close to 200ppi is perfectly fine.

3DS(XL) obviously isn't.
 
Mr. Pointy

Mr. Pointy

Member
Oct 28, 2017
5,141
Switch Pro will come with a 1080p screen and 99% of the games for it will be sub-native. Switch 2 will probably have a 1440p screen and 99% of the games for it will be sub-native. Games with sub-native resolutions are the future.
 
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