Trials Rising’s Switch port is pretty bad

[JigglesBunny]

With the announcement of Trials Rising (the newest entry in the criminally underrated Trials franchise) came the announcement of a day and date Switch version. While media concerning the port has been scarce in the lead up to launch and the bizarre omission of the platform from the Closed Beta had some of the Trials community concerned, the currently available Open Beta (that runs until Monday, the day before the game officially releases...) has given us our first chance to get hands on with the Switch version and it's bad.

Let's start with some handheld footage...


Now a screenshot comparison using the docked mode on Switch...

Xbox One

Nintendo Switch (docked)

For starters, the game operates at 30 FPS and still struggles to maintain that at times while all other platforms (and every previous game in the franchise) is running at a smooth 60 FPS. Next up, the visuals are incredibly pared back. Environment details are removed outright, fog is introduced to obscure the backgrounds of certain levels and the image quality is quite soft. There is also a considerable amount of texture pop-in and the occasional loading stutter which, in a time trial based game, is pretty unforgivable.

Coming off the heels of the disappointing and bug laden Switch ports of Ubisoft's South Park titles, the poor quality of this port has me concerned about Ubisoft's output on the system in the future. I for one would love to see what Steep looked like before its apparent stealth cancellation. In any event though, be aware of the quality of the port that you're getting if you plan on picking up the Switch version of Trials Rising when it releases this coming Tuesday.

 

[harz-marz]

I love my Switch but can't imagine playing this game at anything other than 60fps

 

[Hasney]

It's just giving you the N64 retro experience with all that fog

 

[gogojira]

Yeeeeahhhhh this is going to be an Xbox game for me.

 

[bytesized]

Damn, I thought it looked ok when I played it on switch (although 30fps does suck) bit I had no idea this was even after cutting so many corners from the Xbox version. One would think that with such simpler geometry they should've been able to get to 60fps.

 

[DonMigs85]

How's it look compared to the Xbox 360 game?

 

[Herb Alpert]

You greatly exagerate south Park issues OP.
I played the first, supposedly the worst port technical wise, and played from start to finish without issues apart from some rare frame drops and a quest that wouldn't load. This was patched later.
Second one is a good port iirc.

But yeah, trials was probably ported by 3 guys in a garage and seems like a cynical cash grab.

 

[sredgrin]

Clearly it's just a crossover with Silent Hill.

 

[lvl 99 Pixel]

That's unfortunate. Its one of those types of games that are perfect for short portable runs that would make good use of the Switch.

 

[JediMPG]

Still more fog than the Silent Hill HD collection...

 

[JigglesBunny]

How's it look compared to the Xbox 360 game?

Click to shrink...

Here's the last game, Trials Fusion, on Xbox 360. This ran at a locked 60 FPS.

Here's Rising on Switch, 30 FPS.

 

[Benjamin1981]

Played the Switch and PS4 versions yesterday. Switch is fine and only sruggled to hold 30 fps when there six drivers on the screen at once. It by no means is a bad port.

 

[DonMigs85]

I wonder if it's a CPU or GPU limitation. Maybe the CPU's having issues with all the physics

 

[tolkir]

Sincerely I would prefer a perfect Trials Fusión or Trials Evolution port than this.

 

[Deleted member 37917]

It would be a bad port on xbox360 as well. It feels to that the switch being underpowered as compared to the other 2 is sometimes used as an excuse for subpar releases.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Played the Switch and PS4 versions yesterday. Switch is fine and only sruggled to hold 30 fps when there six drivers on the screen at once. It by no means is a bad port.

Click to shrink...

Significantly paired back visuals (including loads of cut geometry), half the framerate of the other versions and inconsistent performance isn't exactly what I call a solid port. If we look at something like DOOM for example, it managed to pare back visuals and slice the framerate in half but it also included the same geometry and is a significantly more demanding title across the board. Granted, Panic Button are wizards and this wasn't handled by them but there is certainly no justification for a port this rough.

EDIT - Geometry is not the word I was looking for here and I was too tired to fix it, my bad. I meant models. General point still stands though!

 

[Deleted member 426]

Significantly paired back visuals (including loads of cut geometry), half the framerate of the other versions and inconsistent performance isn't exactly what I call a solid port. If we look at something like DOOM for example, it managed to pare back visuals and slice the framerate in half but it also included the same geometry and is a significantly more demanding title across the board. Granted, Panic Button are wizards and this wasn't handled by them but there is certainly no justification for a port this rough.

Click to shrink...

Switch is way less powerful than the PS4 and Xbox One. Of course it's going to have serious compromises.

 

[JigglesBunny]

Switch is way less powerful than the PS4 and Xbox One. Of course it's going to have serious compromises.

Click to shrink...

Obviously, yes. Again though, look at the nature of the game we're talking about and look at the significant cut backs both in performance and visually. You wouldn't agree that they should have been able to do far more with this port?

 

[Benjamin1981]

Significantly paired back visuals (including loads of cut geometry), half the framerate of the other versions and inconsistent performance isn't exactly what I call a solid port. If we look at something like DOOM for example, it managed to pare back visuals and slice the framerate in half but it also included the same geometry and is a significantly more demanding title across the board. Granted, Panic Button are wizards and this wasn't handled by them but there is certainly no justification for a port this rough.

Click to shrink...

The game runs fine 99 % of the time. Of course the visuals are not as strong as on the big boys but that was expected. I think you are overreacting.

 

[Deleted member 426]

Obviously, yes. Again though, look at the nature of the game we're talking about and look at the significant cut backs both in performance and visually. You wouldn't agree that they should have been able to do far more with this port?

Click to shrink...

Trials Rising may not be a AAA game but it's still got deceptively decent graphics, so yes I'd expect half the frame rate and graphical compromises. Switch is half way between a PS3 and PS4 in terms of power.

 

[Acquiescence]

I don't see the problem, the game gives off some pretty heavy Silent Hill vibes in that screenshot, what with all the fog. You aren't happy to have more Silent Hill in your Trials?

 

[Fat4all]

it's not 60fps?

i need that for Trials

 

[Jon Carter]

The comparison in the OP is the most extreme example in the beta.

 

[.exe]

Here's the last game, Trials Fusion, on Xbox 360. This ran at a locked 60 FPS.

Here's Rising on Switch, 30 FPS.

Click to shrink...

These two are not even remotely comparable. You need to set more realistic expectations for yourself. Have you even seen Rocket League? That strips out almost everything that makes the game look contemporary.

It's a pretty common trend for 60fps target games on PS4/XBO to run at 30 on Switch. Warframe, for example, is not at all a looker either and runs at an unstable 30, if you recall.

 

[RM8]

I'm enjoying it both on PC and Switch :x Best and worst version respectively.

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

Switch is way less powerful than the PS4 and Xbox One. Of course it's going to have serious compromises.

Click to shrink...

Going from 60FPS to 30FPS is a big compromise already. This and a resolution reduction should be more than enough for the game to run.

But the images look like they ported it to an N64 not to a modern device that is far more powerful than any console released before PS4/XOne.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

oh wow. i played the switch beta and enjoyed it but didn't know it looked so much worse than other platforms.
i had a lot of fun with it and really like the gameplay of trials, but i think i'll skip it.
how does the game look that much worse (and have massive texture pop in) AND have half the fps of other versions (and not a stable 30 fps even, there were constant drops). by halving the frame rate one may have expected partial visual parity, just at a lower resolution. this just doesn't seem like it was optimized for switch at all.

 

[Dphex]

The Switch is not so powerful as many think...

 

[beni12]

These two are not even remotely comparable. You need to set more realistic expectations for yourself. Have you even seen Rocket League? That strips out almost everything that makes the game look contemporary.

Click to shrink...

Rocket league run at higher res and 60 fps.

 

[hi whats up guys]

Switch version seems so half-assed, I'll just wait for a performance patch or a really deep discount. It's such a shame since Trials is so good fit for portable device. Hope they can salvage this mess somehow. Not gonna reward devs half-assing this shit by buying on another platform either.

 

[Spine Crawler]

i played the beta and i liked what i played so far.

 

[.exe]

Rocket league run at higher res and 60 fps.

Click to shrink...

It also looks completely flat in handheld and still drops in resolution at times. The patches improved things a little, but not by much.

 

[Ant]

Don't think the comparison screenshot in the op are not fair or the one with the 360.

The level on the one has a long off draw distance which needed to be scaled back and geometry removed probably to help with performance.

The 360 level looks nice but it is a level with no far off draw distances or extremely complex geometry and is unfair to compare againsts the switch level. I would assume that a level like that exists on the switch version would exist where its less intensive on the hardware and it may look a bit better?

I will give trials on switch the benefit of the doubt as surely if it was as bad as suggested it would have been delayed a bit(im hoping).

 

[Deleted member 23965]

Significantly paired back visuals (including loads of cut geometry), half the framerate of the other versions and inconsistent performance isn't exactly what I call a solid port. If we look at something like DOOM for example, it managed to pare back visuals and slice the framerate in half but it also included the same geometry and is a significantly more demanding title across the board. Granted, Panic Button are wizards and this wasn't handled by them but there is certainly no justification for a port this rough.

Click to shrink...

I highly doubt that the geometry is same in Doom, since same geometry implies similar poly count. The screenshot on the One is super ugly, I kinda like the Switch fog that obscures these ugly details.

 

[KratosEnergyDrink]

These two are not even remotely comparable. You need to set more realistic expectations for yourself. Have you even seen Rocket League? That strips out almost everything that makes the game look contemporary.

Click to shrink...

Rocket League is technically a joke. The game is not demanding, physics and graphics are just not demanding. The problem with RL is that it is very unoptimized and throws many, many, unnecessary transparent layers on the screen. If this game had been coded carefully it could run flawlessly on a Wii.

But it was developed for PC and the programmer saw no need in much optimizing because it is basically so undemanding that they just coded without thinking if optimization. It was later, when the game was ported to other platforms when the problems began.

Trials is a complete other thing, it's a modern game on (probably) a modern engine, it should be able to scale down to Switch much better than this images suggest.

I hope these images are just an extreme example or the game has weather and in the Switch version a sand storm is just happening.

 

[xyla]

With the game's visuals being this paired back, I would have hoped for 60fps docked at least.

Unstable 30 is sadly not acceptable for a trials get for me.

 

[Wanderer5]

You can enjoy being in a sandstorm with the switch version. It's actually kind of cool!

 

[Robin64]

Worth noting that people in the beta thread said even the PS4 Pro didn't achieve a consistent 60fps, there are drops on there too.

But sub-30 is horrible, and not what you want for Trials. The only saving grace on the Switch version is that it supports GameCube controllers for full analog throttle and braking.

 

[beni12]

It also looks completely flat in handheld and still drops in resolution at times. The patches improved things a little, but not by much.

Click to shrink...

i think lowest res in rocket league is still higher than trials on switch. also it's not like trials doesn't look flat on switch , they removed some of the shadows.

 

[.exe]

Trials is a complete other thing, it's a modern game on (probably) a modern engine, it should be able to scale down to Switch much better than this images suggest.

I hope these images are just an extreme example or the game has weather and in the Switch version a sand storm is just happening.

Click to shrink...

It doesn't look quite as bad on other stages from the footage I've seen

Another sandy stage for example: https://youtu.be/3FrNb8dqUao?t=479

Still looks bad, but what I'm saying is it's not entirely unexpected for this to be 30 (and look bad) as that's been the trend. The main outlier being RL.

 

[Deleted member 51789]

Are there side by side comparisons for the other levels of the beta, or just the desert one?

It doesn't look quite as bad on other stages from the footage I've seen

Another sandy stage for example: https://youtu.be/3FrNb8dqUao?t=479

Still looks bad, but what I'm saying is it's not entirely unexpected for this to be 30 (and look bad) as that's been the trend. The main outlier being RL.

Click to shrink...

This makes things in Switch seem a bit better (though of course not perfect) - does that stage have random sandstorms as the difference from the screenshot is quite major?

 

[Ac30]

These two are not even remotely comparable. You need to set more realistic expectations for yourself. Have you even seen Rocket League? That strips out almost everything that makes the game look contemporary.

It's a pretty common trend for 60fps target games on PS4/XBO to run at 30 on Switch. Warframe, for example, is not at all a looker either and runs at an unstable 30, if you recall.

Click to shrink...

Evolutions had wide open backgrounds, looping tracks and ran at 60/720 on a 360. This is pretty disappointing.

 

[Deleted member 10737]

there really is no excuse. the game can't look that bad (at a much lower resolution) and run at an unstable 30. one of those things would have been acceptable, not both.

 

[trugs26]

I had no idea it was this gimped.

I played the beta yesterday and still has fun ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

[Deleted member 8593]

The beta was okay but the game simply doesn't feel as good as it should @30fps. It's an easy skip.

 

[@dedmunk]

Is this cherry picking bad screens? Do other levels look any better?

 

[.exe]

Evolutions had wide open backgrounds, looping tracks and ran at 60/720 on a 360. This is pretty disappointing.

Click to shrink...

It doesn't take much to see that the geometry, character model, and visual effects are more complex in this new one compared to the old. You can cherry pick a few spots where it looks plain bad and perhaps even somewhat comparable to the 360 game, but the game needs one target frame rate for all levels.

 

[RM8]

Is this cherry picking bad screens? Do other levels look any better?

Click to shrink...

That's the worst level I'd say. The sand storm effect is not present in other levels, it looks okay to be honest.

 

[syth]

That's the worst level I'd say. The sand storm effect is not present in other levels, it looks okay to be honest.

Click to shrink...

Yeh I don't remember foggy diarrhoea from the half a dozen levels I played.

 

[Brink]

That OP screen is pretty dishonest.

Good way to falsely generate some anger though, well done!