There seems to be a issue with the pausing for inventory when you stop moving. If you place Link next to a wooden latter or if he is next to the fairy Statue when in inventory & unpause after 3 or 4 sec's you will see the games graphics go from sharp to blurry. If you look at the surround area you will see that the game is loading lower texture from coming out the pause screen. So the game is displaying higher textures when in inventory buy when you come out of it the game gets downgraded for some reason. So does this mean that the game is having some graphics bug that needs fixing along with the frame rate? Also at times the pause can cause the games frame rate to dip as well.
"Does doing something to an electronic its not designed to do fix a game?" no A patch will come out buddy let nintendo do their thing. too many people are babies and ungreatful
@@JeremySheer If the issue was due to the game being too much for the Switch's CPU and/or GPU to run at a steady 60fps at their default speeds then yes making them run faster would fix the problem you idiot. Nintendo uses overclocking themselves in botw and probably other games too to speed up loading times and to potentially compensate for things the Switch doesn't handle well at default settings. The point of this is experimentation to gain knowledge about a well known thing, not to try to find a permanent fix before Nintendo finds the solution. Go complain somewhere else. Man I hate stupid people.
Hi,Where do you get Freebird 0.9.2 ? I don't find anywhere...I read online if the game install on internal memory results on a better performance can you test it?
The swamp section is definitely GPU bound. The post processing (blur, especially tilt shift style like that, is NOT cheap) combined with alpha blended water and particles, distortion effects, depth buffer sampling to get rid of edge artifacts, etc... it's actually impressive they have it running so well for such comparatively low-end hardware.
Tegra X1 in the switch is faster than a 360/PS3 even with the reduced clocks of the switch. Plus GPU is a bit more modern, I would say this game code was sightly rushed and it's not the best looking thing I seen on the switch.
@@mjc0961 it's not running like trash, though. The Frame rate stays above 30, it just bounced between 60 and 30 way too much to be comfortable to play. That's not running "like trash," that's running "good enough but not *nearly* to Nintendo's usual quality"
waterheart95 Yeah, but we have the PS4 and Xbone now - Xbox 360 and PS3 were last gen. I love me my Switch, it’s just true its performance isn’t close to other modern consoles.
Honestly with the swamp section they should have had some art tricks with textures instead of committing to the post processing, since that's the only place in the game that uses those exact assets.
Lmao this game BARELY needs a performance patch, dropping from 60 to around 40 FPS is not news for Nintendo games and Link Awakening is one game that is barely affected if at all by actual "performance issues" lmao, there are waaay worse Nintendo 1st parties that sometimes drop into single digits. This entire thing is almost disrespectful to Links Awakening as it is literally one of the best looking Switch games lmao.
I'd be interested in the temps of the SOC. I wonder with such a crazy overclock if it is just getting so hot that it is dropping its clocks. Hence why it seems to be more lock steady at the entrance of the lost woods versus leaving.
I noticed in the dungeons that when you transition to another room that the floor texture drops significantly when you first enter, to speed up the performance even though it's dropping frames. I think they've optimized it as best as it can be before lowering the resolution and the post processing. I think the problem in the swamp primarily is the flowers that spew out loads of particles.
I just play Link's Awakening on my GBC at a locked 60fps, then rely on my noggin's RTX cores to upconvert the graphics to Switch standards in realtime. Problem solved. If I notice any lag, I just a bit of sugar to my coffee.
@@circuit10 I was going to leave a not very nice reply but I looked at you're channel and realised you're about 12 years old and probably would take my comment to heart oh well my humour will just have to shine another time
@@circuit10 the difference between 30 FPS to 60 FPS is significantly bigger than 60fps to 120fps just Google it and il explain why and how far better than I can
they really should have kept the screen transitions and optimized loading of assets between areas. Having the WHOLE WORLD be streamed like this while also using every dang effect the Switch is capable of really did not do this game any favors.
I might be wrong but your overclock did seem to help the game bounce back to 60 a bit quicker when the loading FPS drops happened. Probably not worth damaging your switch but it's something I guess.
According to some stuff I've seen, the bottleneck with the asset loading seems to be either encryption or reading from the cart. When modders would use an overlayed filesystem running in RAM that was unencrypted, they claimed the stuttering stopped.
I finished the game this afternoon and while the stuttering was annoying, it didn't detract from the fun. I was just too excited to play a remake of my favourite Zelda game. I was kind of hoping there would be an option to dial down the tilt-shift to get a performance increase, but I was surprised at the total lack of options within the game.
They will most likely improve the optimisation in the near future, like they did for BOTW. It isn't as bad as BOTW was, especially in the great plateau. At the moment, it is just a minor annoyance that can put people off, but can be lived with.
@@darthraider450 Damn calm down, the overall experience is still great. It has some framerate drops here and there but it doesn't ruin the game at all.
So even Ninendo games can get a “buy after a few months” stamp. Why would you bother now if the game is better in a few months? And why release it like this? Its not like there are not enough new games on the moments. I mean Luigi is around the corner.
@@darthraider450 That's because BotW had innovations in open world game design as a whole and ditched the 20 year old Zelda formula. It deserved the praise it got even if the preformance at launch was a little crusty.
Honestly it isn't that bad. The Switch doesn't run on the weird CPU/GPU loop that Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U ran on. The game still runs at full speed when frame rates start dropping. Having played the game, the frame drops are hardly noticeable. It's not a big deal, it's still an excellent top-down Zelda. I would still recommend picking it up if you have a Switch.
Great video! Though I'm still waiting for the now available Wii Mini hack video ;) Keep on the amazing work! This is definitely one of my favorite youtube channels! Very interesting content very well presented!
I read a theory that said that the problem was the decrypting of the assets. If you have all your game contents as a mod (via layeredfs) they don't need to decrypt and the game doesn't lag. Have you heard this? Can you try?
Link's Awakening Remake is really interesting to analyze, you'd think it'd run really smoothly with the simplistic, toylike artstyle it has and somehow all the asset loading and post-processing makes the framerate tank, quite ironic.
Nah, that's pretty typical. If you really want to tread lightly on a GPU, your art style can't just *look* simple, it actually has to *be* simple. Think of the N64 and Sega Saturn: low-poly models and blurry or absent textures. Whimsical art (Kirby and Yoshi's games for example) is no less expensive than quasi-real video-game art of the same period. Yoshi's Island is a great example: it contains the same FX hardware as Star Fox.
Well heck, Link's Awakening was the first Zelda game I played and I was really looking forward to this port. Honestly, I'd play it at 30fps but I feel like I'm short changing myself as the original hardware ran at 60fps. Might hold out for a new Switch revision or wait for emulators to do their thing.
You might get an idea of whether the swamp section is memory limited by underclocking the RAM and seeing if performance drops proportionately. That section of what seems to be the only area in the game with reflections, so might be something to do with reading back render targets.
Badly coded? No. Badly optimized? Hell yes Nintendo is known for making their stuff amazingly optimized and even compressed like they managed for Smash Ultimate, I don't know what even happened with this game, it's like they developed it with a kit and didn't pay attention to actual hardware performance, as a kid I wouldn't have even mind a bit about 30 fps, now as an adult too, but I can see people getting annoyed by it for being 60+ fps classists or something
zenv weeeeell... Nintendo didn’t actually develop this. They had Grezzo do it; the studio that did the Zelda 3D games on 3DS. The thing is though... they have that experience, so I agree that the bad optimization is pretty dumb at this point. Plus with Nintendo publishing it, you’d think they’d expect the same type of quality that they usually push.
@@MultiTelan To be fair I dont care about it running bad as long as its playable I could care less we will most likely see a patch maybe not this week but sometime
Thanks for testing this out! The framerate issues really bothered me in the beginning, but I've gotten used to them somewhat. They're still annoying, but it doesn't bother as much as before.
You probably can improve the situation a quite a bit by either using triple buffering at all times (code don't have to wait for the Vsync and don't get forced into choosing between hard 30 or hard 60 fps but adds extra 16ms of lag), or it should switch between double and triple when the 16ms of extra input delay is preferable to a massive slowdown.
I'm going to disagree. Have the performance mode disable the blurring and reduce the resolution slightly and FPS should be a much more consisted 50 to 60, "eye candy mode" should just be the game as it is now, but locked to 30. I'd much rather have a very consistent 30 over something that varies wildly between that and 60.
Honestly, I don’t really notice frame rate drops if it doesn’t go below 30. The only time 30 FPS is a problem for me is with really fast paced games like Sonic Generations. That game being at 30 FPS on the 360 really makes it hard to play. But for the most part, it’s not really a problem to me. This game does look great tho, and if I ever get a Switch, I’d really like to have this one. I don’t think the frame drops will bug me at all.
@@Squirt4757 Yeah. I hear you, but even watching this video at 60fps, I couldn't even tell it was dropping frames. So it really doesn't bother me. I could understand why it would bother others though. Especially if it draws you out of the game. I will notice it in movies though, with most of them being at 24fps. And if a video is rendered with frame blending, it drives me crazy. Same with interlacing. But for some reason, 30fps never bothered me unless it was a really fast game that shouldn't even be 30fps.
Remember back when we were kids and we just played games, however they were made? If there was slow down in a game (like Gradius) we either took advantage of it, or worked around it! Now days everyone is constantly nit picking games to death over stuff like this. I'm guessing were both around the same age so maybe that's why your take is always more relaxed than others on it. It's nice that you say it doesn't make the game bad and it shouldn't stop anyone from playing it. I personally think all quirks aside it's a great game and a fantastic remake.
@@moafwaz5563 Its actually not. If your goal is consistent 60fps and you're failing to acheive that, then you have optimization problems with your code. You can't just change clock rates and call it fixed, thats a hacky solution at best. Over clocking to solve frame rate solves the symptoms of slow down but it doesnt fix the root cause which is either optimization issue or asking too much from the hardware.
its a free open source tool called trdrop thats a pain to set up but once you do you can easily do Digital Foundry style framerate analysis - github.com/cirquit/trdrop
Nice job as always. Anyone on the fence for this game, i'd say go for it. the frame dips are certainly noticeable, but the game is still highly playable in this state. it's good enough that i would tell you not to wait for a patch and just jump in
I for once bought it as it is because I could find it at a lower price, and the game is very playable as it is indeed. Let's just not forget they're asking 60 dollars for this, it's ok to be a bit disappointed about the performance.
The fan is thermally controlled. It turns itself up automatically in response to higher temps, and people who have tested it found that even while overclocked temps stayed in the safe range and didn't throttle.
I absolutely loved the original, but something about the remake turned me off before I even got to play it. I think its the mixture of the doll-like styling along with the generous blur filter that really had me turned off. After actually trying it, the 8 way direction movement feels worse than the implementation in A Link Between Worlds (Which I really enjoyed.) and the super inconsistent framerate just make the game feel bad to play. Definitely not worth $50 when you can just a buy Link's Awakening DX cart and Gameboy Color/Advance for much less.
There is absolutely no way your getting a GBC plus the LADX cart for "much less" than $50. Maybe around the same price but let's not exaggerate for effect here. Just call it like it is. And I personally don't think the game is unplayable. It has some stutter and a little slow down but it's not horrible, i.e. the game never comes to a crawl. And all things in perspective, this is a handheld console! Nintendo can call it whatever they want to. I own full consoles so I know what the difference looks like. This game would run perfect in it's current state if it was being played on either of the big two
@@TheOfficalAndI I'm well aware of all the avenues you can play the original as digital content. Hell, you can emulate this for free if you want to go that far. But the comment was you can buy a GBA and original cart for way less and that's just not true.
@@alunaticbastard That's true. It's pretty impressive that a used 2ds + links awakening from eshop is so much cheaper than buying the original hardware.
What are you on about? The Switch is underclocked to begin with, your OCs only took it to standard Tegra clocks that the Shield Tablet uses. I don't understand how that would damage the internals at all?
Because the switch doesnt have the same cooler you moron. Do you have any idea how overclocking works? The console will have been built to specifically handle the heat from stock loads. Hell, my two Nintendo switches have a warped and cracked chassis from the heat exhaust.
I personally like the look. It makes it all look like small plastic toys, which is a cool aesthetic. But it seems like they've just overdone it and it should be much more subtle. However, if it is resulting in post-processing that is actually dipping the performance, then it should just be binned; It isn't really worth it.
A shame Nintendo didn’t keep the Screen Warp Glitch. I was the first person I know of to identify this glitch back in early 1994. It blew my mind back then.
See if that graph wasn’t there showing the FPS drops.....I wouldn’t have noticed. The drops in BOTW didn’t bother me and I dare say these won’t either. However, pretty cool analysis. It will be interesting if Nintendo can patch it as you seem to suggest that would be tricky (without actually doing some scaling back on the graphical effects etc in a particular ‘problem’ scene). Subbed btw👍
I'm pretty sure the original link's awakening was 60fps (don't quote me on that), and I guess they wanted to as faithful to the original as possible. Maybe to it's detriment, as locking the walking direction to 8 directions is a slight bummer.
I noticed it most when going in and out of areas with lots of grass, like exiting a house in animal village or coming out of a cave in the plains or entering the town. It drops when you go the new area for a few seconds then is mostly fine after that. Even the swamp is noticeable but not bothersome. Eh, I'll probably 100% it by the time its patched, so would only help me in a replay down the line.
@@JungleOfMeat Well i also get really into the games, the issues they point out arent game breaking. That being said I though Last of Us on PS3 ran great until i played the PS4 version running at 60 FPS.
I disagree with your misconception that the “overclocking” damages the hardware, as the switch is severely down clocked compared to the Nvidia shield that the Tegra x1 is also in, especially since the switch docked achieves much higher clocks compared to the handheld mode.
The heat would be the same in docked or higher in the dock due to airflow being worst. The reasons for different clocks are mostly battery reasons. Plus the switch does have a fan compared to the terga x1 in the pixel c, that generally runs at higher clocks.
Heat is the only damaging factor here. And comparing this to another platform with the same chip set is like comparing apples to oranges. No two have the same thermal solution installed. And the switch is basically putting a sweater on when you dock it so the temps are worse than when in handheld, which is held back primarily for battery life reasons. The bottom line is that was just a simple disclaimer because any time you OC something it runs the risk of damage. Rule 1: Relieve yourself of liability for the stupid things others may do.
Finished the game this last sunday and I never noticed any issues with stuttering or anything like that. It was a beautiful made remake, I really loved the music and sound effects. I hope Nintendo and Grezzo continues with Oracle of Seasons and perhaps even with A Link To the Past or maybe a whole new The Legend of Zelda game with these fine graphics.
I'm not sure what everyone is so upset about. The game runs 60 FPS and at times, runs into the 30s. They could have very easily decided to lock the framerate at 30 FPS and then had it go down from there with busy screens. Many excellent PS3 games have 30 FPS. It's fine.
They're talking about this like the game is lagging under the 30s. 30 is playable, not slow, and not laggy. I can understand being irked that it's not consistent but it's kinda silly. I think it would have been fine at 30 just like any other game.
The first thing I noticed was that the game, as reported by Digital Foundry, runs in double buffered V-Sync mode, but your Framerate is quite _fluctuatious_
Interesting analysis... I've yet to start this game but I have it on my Switch waiting for a "rainy" aka free day. I too hope some of these slow downs are fixed with an update patch...
It’s prettt clear that it’s badly optimized. An absol no go for a 1st party Nintendo game. Nintendo should’ve doubled down on the developer here. There isn’t even talk about a patch yet. Mario Odyssee was constantl 60 fps and looked great. The slow downs here really bug me..
@@KingSigy Mario Odyssey is still doing more with a bigger world and more stuff to stream in. Link Awakening is close gameboy remake, in a close world that is top down and simpler in scope.
@@KingSigy When Mario Odyssey dipped, it wasn't all the way to 30. So scenes running at 45-50fps probably wouldn't have been noticed in the heat of the moment.
I know why they use it, they want to be able to make optimizations to the engine so that other developers can reap the rewards. Yet this is a game that very much would have benefited from a bespoke engine or Unity. Nintendo needs to stop letting their second party parties release lesser optimized games like this and Yoshi's Crafted World.
The only tech analysis channel with verifiable professional opinion I trust on YT is *Digital Foundry* and *Modern Vintage Gamer.* GameXplain tried dabbling in the analysis genre, but they suck at it because they're more of a review channel than an analysis channel.
The framerate drops don't bother me. The gimping of late game items does, as well as adding bottles to remove challenge, and removing the ability to kill chickens and foxes with the fire wand. You also can't throw the boomerang, pick up the flying rooster, and have the boomerang hover below you anymore, which was a ton of fun. The end of the game was so disappointing that I didn't bother finishing it. Adding a lame dungeon creator l doesn't make up for any of it, considering that it lacks the tools to actually make anything interesting, like creating your own puzzles. Do yourself a favor and pick up the original instead, and don't waste $60 on a poor remake. I wish I could get a refund.
FPS analysis tool i use - github.com/cirquit/trdrop
There seems to be a issue with the pausing for inventory when you stop moving. If you place Link next to a wooden latter or if he is next to the fairy Statue when in inventory & unpause after 3 or 4 sec's you will see the games graphics go from sharp to blurry.
If you look at the surround area you will see that the game is loading lower texture from coming out the pause screen. So the game is displaying higher textures when in inventory buy when you come out of it the game gets downgraded for some reason.
So does this mean that the game is having some graphics bug that needs fixing along with the frame rate? Also at times the pause can cause the games frame rate to dip as well.
"Does doing something to an electronic its not designed to do fix a game?" no A patch will come out buddy let nintendo do their thing. too many people are babies and ungreatful
@@JeremySheer If the issue was due to the game being too much for the Switch's CPU and/or GPU to run at a steady 60fps at their default speeds then yes making them run faster would fix the problem you idiot. Nintendo uses overclocking themselves in botw and probably other games too to speed up loading times and to potentially compensate for things the Switch doesn't handle well at default settings. The point of this is experimentation to gain knowledge about a well known thing, not to try to find a permanent fix before Nintendo finds the solution. Go complain somewhere else. Man I hate stupid people.
where did you see all these reviews. I seriously didn't see a single review mentioning performance besides this one.
Hi,Where do you get Freebird 0.9.2 ? I don't find anywhere...I read online if the game install on internal memory results on a better performance can you test it?
The swamp section is definitely GPU bound. The post processing (blur, especially tilt shift style like that, is NOT cheap) combined with alpha blended water and particles, distortion effects, depth buffer sampling to get rid of edge artifacts, etc... it's actually impressive they have it running so well for such comparatively low-end hardware.
Tegra X1 in the switch is faster than a 360/PS3 even with the reduced clocks of the switch. Plus GPU is a bit more modern, I would say this game code was sightly rushed and it's not the best looking thing I seen on the switch.
"running so well"
You high? It's running like trash!
@@mjc0961 its a portable so its running well enough lol
@@mjc0961 it's not running like trash, though. The Frame rate stays above 30, it just bounced between 60 and 30 way too much to be comfortable to play.
That's not running "like trash," that's running "good enough but not *nearly* to Nintendo's usual quality"
waterheart95 Yeah, but we have the PS4 and Xbone now - Xbox 360 and PS3 were last gen. I love me my Switch, it’s just true its performance isn’t close to other modern consoles.
I’d rather drop some postprocessing than lose framerate.
too bad i cant turn off depth of field
Agreed. Performance is far more important than looking pretty. And some of the post processing here actually looks pretty bad.
Honestly with the swamp section they should have had some art tricks with textures instead of committing to the post processing, since that's the only place in the game that uses those exact assets.
I hate the dof and blur
@@haloharry97 everyone should.
The day we would all be happy to hear Nintendo make the update log "Improved performance and stability to enhance the user experience.'
You know what game came out alongside Link's Awakening that doesn't need performance patches? Untitled Goose Game.
lol..... that game looks crazy good and cute
Wow a game with way less demanding graphics has smoother performance, who would've thunk
Lmao this game BARELY needs a performance patch, dropping from 60 to around 40 FPS is not news for Nintendo games and Link Awakening is one game that is barely affected if at all by actual "performance issues" lmao, there are waaay worse Nintendo 1st parties that sometimes drop into single digits. This entire thing is almost disrespectful to Links Awakening as it is literally one of the best looking Switch games lmao.
@@jolty9540 the simple and clean graphics is why the performance drops were so distracting to me, at least.
@@jolty9540 you sound like a Karen
I'd be interested in the temps of the SOC. I wonder with such a crazy overclock if it is just getting so hot that it is dropping its clocks. Hence why it seems to be more lock steady at the entrance of the lost woods versus leaving.
I noticed in the dungeons that when you transition to another room that the floor texture drops significantly when you first enter, to speed up the performance even though it's dropping frames. I think they've optimized it as best as it can be before lowering the resolution and the post processing. I think the problem in the swamp primarily is the flowers that spew out loads of particles.
I just play Link's Awakening on my GBC at a locked 60fps, then rely on my noggin's RTX cores to upconvert the graphics to Switch standards in realtime. Problem solved. If I notice any lag, I just a bit of sugar to my coffee.
Coming from the PSVita were even a locked 30 fps was a dream on stock speeds. These small dips wont bother me much.
30fps sounds disgusting but you do you fam
@@toby2524 I can't tell the difference between 30 and 60 fps
@@circuit10 I was going to leave a not very nice reply but I looked at you're channel and realised you're about 12 years old and probably would take my comment to heart oh well my humour will just have to shine another time
@@circuit10 the difference between 30 FPS to 60 FPS is significantly bigger than 60fps to 120fps just Google it and il explain why and how far better than I can
@@toby2524 OK? I just said that I don't notice it
they really should have kept the screen transitions and optimized loading of assets between areas. Having the WHOLE WORLD be streamed like this while also using every dang effect the Switch is capable of really did not do this game any favors.
Boys: Try to get Link's Awakening to run more smoothly
Men: Try to get Kirby Star Allies to run at 60fps
its the way meant to be
Jesus, what a cringey comment.
That's the manliest comment I have ever read.
Only strong, hard and tough man can play Kirby
Warframe
I might be wrong but your overclock did seem to help the game bounce back to 60 a bit quicker when the loading FPS drops happened. Probably not worth damaging your switch but it's something I guess.
Overclock doesn't even damage the switch haha
you won't damage the switch, the chipset is design to run at those speeds
You're right magic, the stock clock for the X1 is 1.9GHZ the switch is downclocked to 1.2GHZ. The switch can easily handle overclock haha
@@drd5455 It depends on the clock rate you want.
Ayris no it doesn’t...?
According to some stuff I've seen, the bottleneck with the asset loading seems to be either encryption or reading from the cart. When modders would use an overlayed filesystem running in RAM that was unencrypted, they claimed the stuttering stopped.
Nice! Surprise MVG video on a Sunday! Awesome. :D
BTW MVG, if you want that Alan Wake X360 debug build hit me up.
It's Monday buddy! 😂😂
@@NathanChisholm041 he lives in the US, it's still Sunday here
@@ryanmalin I know I was just kidding
@@NathanChisholm041 I did look at my calendar for a second though. :P
@@ErroneousClique lol I'm in Perth Western Australia and it's 8:12am
I finished the game this afternoon and while the stuttering was annoying, it didn't detract from the fun. I was just too excited to play a remake of my favourite Zelda game.
I was kind of hoping there would be an option to dial down the tilt-shift to get a performance increase, but I was surprised at the total lack of options within the game.
They will most likely improve the optimisation in the near future, like they did for BOTW.
It isn't as bad as BOTW was, especially in the great plateau.
At the moment, it is just a minor annoyance that can put people off, but can be lived with.
Mr SG yeah and that dogshit got tens galore and “GotY awards” from reviewers despite masses of issues that other games get shredded for.
@@darthraider450 Damn calm down, the overall experience is still great. It has some framerate drops here and there but it doesn't ruin the game at all.
So even Ninendo games can get a “buy after a few months” stamp. Why would you bother now if the game is better in a few months? And why release it like this? Its not like there are not enough new games on the moments.
I mean Luigi is around the corner.
@@darthraider450 That's because BotW had innovations in open world game design as a whole and ditched the 20 year old Zelda formula. It deserved the praise it got even if the preformance at launch was a little crusty.
Honestly it isn't that bad. The Switch doesn't run on the weird CPU/GPU loop that Gamecube, Wii, and Wii U ran on. The game still runs at full speed when frame rates start dropping. Having played the game, the frame drops are hardly noticeable. It's not a big deal, it's still an excellent top-down Zelda. I would still recommend picking it up if you have a Switch.
I 100% agree.
So happy to see you doing a switch video again
TL;DR: it doesn’t
Thanks
TL;DW*
TL;DW
TL;DF
Too long, didn't fit.
Thank you. I saw the video was 8 minutes long and immediately went to the comments to save myself the time
Great video! Though I'm still waiting for the now available Wii Mini hack video ;) Keep on the amazing work! This is definitely one of my favorite youtube channels! Very interesting content very well presented!
I read a theory that said that the problem was the decrypting of the assets.
If you have all your game contents as a mod (via layeredfs) they don't need to decrypt and the game doesn't lag.
Have you heard this? Can you try?
It could be. It probably is
Link's Awakening Remake is really interesting to analyze, you'd think it'd run really smoothly with the simplistic, toylike artstyle it has and somehow all the asset loading and post-processing makes the framerate tank, quite ironic.
Nah, that's pretty typical. If you really want to tread lightly on a GPU, your art style can't just *look* simple, it actually has to *be* simple. Think of the N64 and Sega Saturn: low-poly models and blurry or absent textures. Whimsical art (Kirby and Yoshi's games for example) is no less expensive than quasi-real video-game art of the same period. Yoshi's Island is a great example: it contains the same FX hardware as Star Fox.
The loading stutter could also be caused by reading from slow storage. Great video as always!
Hi! Good vid as always MVG
Glad you mentioned Digital Foundry since they did such a great job detailing the game.
Well heck, Link's Awakening was the first Zelda game I played and I was really looking forward to this port. Honestly, I'd play it at 30fps but I feel like I'm short changing myself as the original hardware ran at 60fps. Might hold out for a new Switch revision or wait for emulators to do their thing.
Not to mention $60 is ridiculous for this game
@@Hyperbolic_G my dad bought me Awakening and a Gameboy from a pawn shop in the nineties for less than that
To be fair, it seems like the slowdowns are mainly during transitions with the swamp area being the only area where it sticks at 30.
You might get an idea of whether the swamp section is memory limited by underclocking the RAM and seeing if performance drops proportionately. That section of what seems to be the only area in the game with reflections, so might be something to do with reading back render targets.
No amount of cpu/gpu/memory overclocking can save a badly coded and optimized game.
Badly coded? No.
Badly optimized? Hell yes
Nintendo is known for making their stuff amazingly optimized and even compressed like they managed for Smash Ultimate, I don't know what even happened with this game, it's like they developed it with a kit and didn't pay attention to actual hardware performance, as a kid I wouldn't have even mind a bit about 30 fps, now as an adult too, but I can see people getting annoyed by it for being 60+ fps classists or something
zenv weeeeell... Nintendo didn’t actually develop this. They had Grezzo do it; the studio that did the Zelda 3D games on 3DS. The thing is though... they have that experience, so I agree that the bad optimization is pretty dumb at this point. Plus with Nintendo publishing it, you’d think they’d expect the same type of quality that they usually push.
Its not that bad really, and i will put money on an incoming u0date by the end of the week
@@zenv9180 Double buffer v-sync is garbage, is the reason
@@MultiTelan To be fair I dont care about it running bad as long as its playable I could care less we will most likely see a patch maybe not this week but sometime
Hey MVG I am very happy you're making Switch videos again. Your videos are always inspiring and informative.
You must not go alone take my like before nintendo gets you
I would take your like, but dislikes are not counted by youtube
I wish Nintendo would allow a quality mode where it’s a locked 30 FPS but higher resolution.
I hope they make Oracle of Ages / Seasons for Switch
Considering they already have most of the assets they need already I think it would be very likely
The original would be nice to have like this too.
@@JamesSmith-dn8lb Thats what im hoping for. LA its cool and all, but the Oracle games is what im really waiting for.
and the third one as well
I would love to see Ages again someday, beat it the most of any zelda game
Thanks for testing this out! The framerate issues really bothered me in the beginning, but I've gotten used to them somewhat. They're still annoying, but it doesn't bother as much as before.
They should add a performance mode and lock fps at 30 it might help with jarring dips.
yup, no game should run to 60 to 30, it's terrible stuff we saw on ps2 games like Medal of Honor AA.
You probably can improve the situation a quite a bit by either using triple buffering at all times (code don't have to wait for the Vsync and don't get forced into choosing between hard 30 or hard 60 fps but adds extra 16ms of lag), or it should switch between double and triple when the 16ms of extra input delay is preferable to a massive slowdown.
Yes. This is great option for a lot of people. Jumping around is jarring
I’d sooner a locked 30 then a stuttering 60-30 frames it’s just to noticeable and makes the game just seem optimized badly
I'm going to disagree. Have the performance mode disable the blurring and reduce the resolution slightly and FPS should be a much more consisted 50 to 60, "eye candy mode" should just be the game as it is now, but locked to 30. I'd much rather have a very consistent 30 over something that varies wildly between that and 60.
How long will this video stay without getting striked another time by Nintendo?
Hope nintendo will Fix the Patch sometime soon...
Fix what patch? Or did you mean they should release a fix/patch?
They really don't care, do they?
3 years later.. Still no patch. Thanks Nintendo!
Installing on the Switch's internal memory will fix the transition slowdowns at least.
Couldn't agree more, I thought I was alone with this lag issue. Cheers
Honestly, I don’t really notice frame rate drops if it doesn’t go below 30. The only time 30 FPS is a problem for me is with really fast paced games like Sonic Generations. That game being at 30 FPS on the 360 really makes it hard to play. But for the most part, it’s not really a problem to me. This game does look great tho, and if I ever get a Switch, I’d really like to have this one. I don’t think the frame drops will bug me at all.
I think the problem with this game is it’ll go from 60 all the way down to 30 randomly
@@Squirt4757 Yeah. I hear you, but even watching this video at 60fps, I couldn't even tell it was dropping frames. So it really doesn't bother me. I could understand why it would bother others though. Especially if it draws you out of the game. I will notice it in movies though, with most of them being at 24fps. And if a video is rendered with frame blending, it drives me crazy. Same with interlacing. But for some reason, 30fps never bothered me unless it was a really fast game that shouldn't even be 30fps.
Remember back when we were kids and we just played games, however they were made? If there was slow down in a game (like Gradius) we either took advantage of it, or worked around it! Now days everyone is constantly nit picking games to death over stuff like this. I'm guessing were both around the same age so maybe that's why your take is always more relaxed than others on it. It's nice that you say it doesn't make the game bad and it shouldn't stop anyone from playing it. I personally think all quirks aside it's a great game and a fantastic remake.
I've played all the way to the final boss so far; the frame-rate dips were a little annoying, but the game is fun and gorgeous, so I'm good.
Freebird is pretty buggy, use Sys-clk with the sys-clk editor instead
it works %100 fine for me, i prefer the UI over sys-clk too
EmperorLemon: All you ever do is complain.
Drop during streaming could be RAM and I/O limited in which case overclocking wouldn't do anything.
Nice work MVG. Fascinating look at the benefits of Switch overclocking.
Yeah overclocking never fixes the cause just the symptoms.
@@moafwaz5563 Its actually not. If your goal is consistent 60fps and you're failing to acheive that, then you have optimization problems with your code. You can't just change clock rates and call it fixed, thats a hacky solution at best.
Over clocking to solve frame rate solves the symptoms of slow down but it doesnt fix the root cause which is either optimization issue or asking too much from the hardware.
0:57 that's an interesting way of handling reflections...
Basically, it need optimization, not just more power... Well, that happens sometimes :/.
This is great testing and good benchmarking for those who think it's a clock speed issue - it's obviously an optimization problem!
What are you using to get that scrolling FPS bar at the bottom?
its a free open source tool called trdrop thats a pain to set up but once you do you can easily do Digital Foundry style framerate analysis - github.com/cirquit/trdrop
When I first heard Grezzo was going to be the ones making this remake I knew there were going to be performance issues.
Sure enough.
They mastered the 3ds.... which BTW I'm sure this game was meant for the 3ds
I've almost beaten Link's Awakening. The performance issues are real, but never make the game unplayable.
Already?
@@MrMoon-hy6pn I've actually finished it now. I beat the GBC version years ago.
Nice job as always. Anyone on the fence for this game, i'd say go for it. the frame dips are certainly noticeable, but the game is still highly playable in this state. it's good enough that i would tell you not to wait for a patch and just jump in
I for once bought it as it is because I could find it at a lower price, and the game is very playable as it is indeed. Let's just not forget they're asking 60 dollars for this, it's ok to be a bit disappointed about the performance.
"Highly playable"
is there a fan controller cause if you overclock something that small you should also max out the fan if not you get thermal throttling
The fan is thermally controlled. It turns itself up automatically in response to higher temps, and people who have tested it found that even while overclocked temps stayed in the safe range and didn't throttle.
Did you put new thermal paste on? (thermal mod)
I absolutely loved the original, but something about the remake turned me off before I even got to play it. I think its the mixture of the doll-like styling along with the generous blur filter that really had me turned off.
After actually trying it, the 8 way direction movement feels worse than the implementation in A Link Between Worlds (Which I really enjoyed.) and the super inconsistent framerate just make the game feel bad to play. Definitely not worth $50 when you can just a buy Link's Awakening DX cart and Gameboy Color/Advance for much less.
There is absolutely no way your getting a GBC plus the LADX cart for "much less" than $50. Maybe around the same price but let's not exaggerate for effect here. Just call it like it is.
And I personally don't think the game is unplayable. It has some stutter and a little slow down but it's not horrible, i.e. the game never comes to a crawl. And all things in perspective, this is a handheld console! Nintendo can call it whatever they want to. I own full consoles so I know what the difference looks like. This game would run perfect in it's current state if it was being played on either of the big two
@@alunaticbastard You can play it on DS and GBA. Or get it for 3DS on the e-shop
@@TheOfficalAndI I'm well aware of all the avenues you can play the original as digital content. Hell, you can emulate this for free if you want to go that far. But the comment was you can buy a GBA and original cart for way less and that's just not true.
@@alunaticbastard That's true. It's pretty impressive that a used 2ds + links awakening from eshop is so much cheaper than buying the original hardware.
I didnt notice any frame rate issues while watching this video. People are probably over sensitive to the issue. I can't wait to get this game.
What are you on about? The Switch is underclocked to begin with, your OCs only took it to standard Tegra clocks that the Shield Tablet uses. I don't understand how that would damage the internals at all?
probably has much, much worse cooling than the shield tablet
@@Cabalex how could it have worse cooling, the shield tablet is about the same size as the switch
Well said! These people know nothing...
Well, my switch gets a little toasty in botw, so a "stock clock" might be too much for the little guy
Because the switch doesnt have the same cooler you moron. Do you have any idea how overclocking works? The console will have been built to specifically handle the heat from stock loads.
Hell, my two Nintendo switches have a warped and cracked chassis from the heat exhaust.
Didn't know you lived in North America, was expecting a pegi warning on the Link's Awakening box.
Major? I didn’t even notice the frame drops until someone was moaning about it on Reddit.
Okay but we do
1:48 I imagine a very pissed off MVG face at that moment
I just want that damn blur gone.
There is a patch for the blur
MVG makes a Nintendo Switch video...
Nintendo Lawiers: "Ahh, shit. Here we go again"
I hate the blur. 50% of the screen is out of focus. I hope they release a fix with an option to disable it.
I wouldn't have bought it if I knew.
I personally like the look. It makes it all look like small plastic toys, which is a cool aesthetic. But it seems like they've just overdone it and it should be much more subtle. However, if it is resulting in post-processing that is actually dipping the performance, then it should just be binned; It isn't really worth it.
A shame Nintendo didn’t keep the Screen Warp Glitch. I was the first person I know of to identify this glitch back in early 1994. It blew my mind back then.
How can such a simple looking game actually tax the Switch too hard? Btw. this game seems to be very similar to IttleDew, Isn't it?
See if that graph wasn’t there showing the FPS drops.....I wouldn’t have noticed. The drops in BOTW didn’t bother me and I dare say these won’t either. However, pretty cool analysis. It will be interesting if Nintendo can patch it as you seem to suggest that would be tricky (without actually doing some scaling back on the graphical effects etc in a particular ‘problem’ scene). Subbed btw👍
Just a stupid question here, why wasn't the game just locked to 30fps instead of trying to go for 60fps?
I guess cause 60fps is becoming the new standard, Nintendo doesnt want to look like its falling behind
I wish they would of gave us the option to choose performance over style.
I'm pretty sure the original link's awakening was 60fps (don't quote me on that), and I guess they wanted to as faithful to the original as possible.
Maybe to it's detriment, as locking the walking direction to 8 directions is a slight bummer.
@Trujillo 2020 The GameCube probably used many games written in assembly language, which has died down a lot as time goes on.
@@pegleg759 this isn't made by Nintendo internally
Waiting a video about performance of the new Switch rev.! Also, i love your content, keep it up man!
worst framerate drops by far is fortnite on switch it hits 12 and 9 fps
That sounds bad for playing online against other gamers?
@@CAPCOM784 The game is online, could be lag? Idk man, sounds stupid that a game that can run on phones could be so bad on a switch
@@aurum3747 Yeah don't make any sense I'm guessing poorly optimized?
@@aurum3747 the mobile version was designed from the ground up. The switch version is based off xbone/ps4 versions.
@@TonyJenn also most modern phones are much more powerful than the switch too
The technical stuff is cool, but above my pay grade. What I really want to know is what you are doing at 6:45 in the Goponga Swamp without BowWow :)
remake programmed with awful feet instead of hands
I played this game, for me it was berly noticeable.. you did this test because its your nature and thats y we watch your videos. Thats it.
I have to be honest, I didnt notice any of the framerate issues when playing this game.
I noticed it most when going in and out of areas with lots of grass, like exiting a house in animal village or coming out of a cave in the plains or entering the town. It drops when you go the new area for a few seconds then is mostly fine after that. Even the swamp is noticeable but not bothersome. Eh, I'll probably 100% it by the time its patched, so would only help me in a replay down the line.
Same. It’s just pixel perfect idiots that cry about something so minute.
@Bratwurst Gourmet Is there a difference between the cartridge and the download?
@@JungleOfMeat Well i also get really into the games, the issues they point out arent game breaking. That being said I though Last of Us on PS3 ran great until i played the PS4 version running at 60 FPS.
Since you can memory overclock now, as evident of the tears of the kingdom video, will you make an update video to this game with that option?
I disagree with your misconception that the “overclocking” damages the hardware, as the switch is severely down clocked compared to the Nvidia shield that the Tegra x1 is also in, especially since the switch docked achieves much higher clocks compared to the handheld mode.
It all comes to heat, not the frequencies.
The heat would be the same in docked or higher in the dock due to airflow being worst. The reasons for different clocks are mostly battery reasons.
Plus the switch does have a fan compared to the terga x1 in the pixel c, that generally runs at higher clocks.
But the hardware won't be damaged by higher clocks due to Tegra x1 was made for higher temps in tablets or low power media players.
Heat is the only damaging factor here. And comparing this to another platform with the same chip set is like comparing apples to oranges. No two have the same thermal solution installed. And the switch is basically putting a sweater on when you dock it so the temps are worse than when in handheld, which is held back primarily for battery life reasons.
The bottom line is that was just a simple disclaimer because any time you OC something it runs the risk of damage.
Rule 1: Relieve yourself of liability for the stupid things others may do.
@@alunaticbastard The Pixel C has only passive cooling, while the switch has active.
It bothered me at first but I got use to it and enjoyed the game very much
Just wait for yuzu to be more developed and play it on a proper hardware.
Finished the game this last sunday and I never noticed any issues with stuttering or anything like that. It was a beautiful made remake, I really loved the music and sound effects. I hope Nintendo and Grezzo continues with Oracle of Seasons and perhaps even with A Link To the Past or maybe a whole new The Legend of Zelda game with these fine graphics.
I like the game too, but lets have Nintendo themselves make it using their propriety engines instead of what Grezzo used....
I'm not sure what everyone is so upset about. The game runs 60 FPS and at times, runs into the 30s. They could have very easily decided to lock the framerate at 30 FPS and then had it go down from there with busy screens. Many excellent PS3 games have 30 FPS. It's fine.
They're talking about this like the game is lagging under the 30s. 30 is playable, not slow, and not laggy. I can understand being irked that it's not consistent but it's kinda silly. I think it would have been fine at 30 just like any other game.
It's very noticeable while playing
For many people like me, it would be preferable to lock it at 30. I can get used to any consistent framerate, the problem is when it jumps around.
The first thing I noticed was that the game, as reported by Digital Foundry, runs in double buffered V-Sync mode, but your Framerate is quite _fluctuatious_
wait for switch pro? 🤔
Interesting analysis, thanks for testing this out
Here's to hoping Yuzu emulator fixes all these glaring fps issues in the future.
Interesting analysis... I've yet to start this game but I have it on my Switch waiting for a "rainy" aka free day. I too hope some of these slow downs are fixed with an update patch...
It’s prettt clear that it’s badly optimized.
An absol no go for a 1st party Nintendo game.
Nintendo should’ve doubled down on the developer here.
There isn’t even talk about a patch yet.
Mario Odyssee was constantl 60 fps and looked great.
The slow downs here really bug me..
@@KingSigy Mario Odyssey is still doing more with a bigger world and more stuff to stream in. Link Awakening is close gameboy remake, in a close world that is top down and simpler in scope.
@@KingSigy When Mario Odyssey dipped, it wasn't all the way to 30. So scenes running at 45-50fps probably wouldn't have been noticed in the heat of the moment.
And here we are in Nov of 2021 and still no patch. Thanks Nintendo for only concentrating on Smash and effectively abandoning all your other titles.
They managed to get A Link Between Worlds to run at 60FPS
I don't see anything holding this game back other than simple optimization
i gotta say the post-processing going on in this game is insane for this console
unreal engine 4 is just too heavy for the switch
I know why they use it, they want to be able to make optimizations to the engine so that other developers can reap the rewards. Yet this is a game that very much would have benefited from a bespoke engine or Unity. Nintendo needs to stop letting their second party parties release lesser optimized games like this and Yoshi's Crafted World.
@@anthonya.jumelles7103 actualy, still there is nothing confirming that this game uses Unreal Engine
switch: burns hands after 20 minutes of use. mvg: are you challenging me?
The fps drop simply shows this game was rushed during development..
would love to know about the modded switch OS you're running. possibly use a different video host provider than youtube though
Great video MVG, plz unlist this video though. Really don't want your channel to get shutdown :(
Im going to hell but you remind me of the villain from Thunderbirds. That ain't an insult, I love Thunderbirds.
Shoulda done it in 32bit pixel style but with a modern polish, which I've yet to see anyone do.
And how in the world does this game.run poorly????
You should check out Octopath Traveler if you wanna see the aesthetic you described in practice!
Quite simple. They are probably using stupidly bloated dev tools.
@@Ryan86me I played the demo, not quite but almost
The only tech analysis channel with verifiable professional opinion I trust on YT is *Digital Foundry* and *Modern Vintage Gamer.* GameXplain tried dabbling in the analysis genre, but they suck at it because they're more of a review channel than an analysis channel.
The fps issue literally makes me feel sick, weird.
Cerus98 yeah. I like the idea of the tilt shift effect, but just doesn’t work really just looks weird.
The framerate drops don't bother me. The gimping of late game items does, as well as adding bottles to remove challenge, and removing the ability to kill chickens and foxes with the fire wand. You also can't throw the boomerang, pick up the flying rooster, and have the boomerang hover below you anymore, which was a ton of fun.
The end of the game was so disappointing that I didn't bother finishing it. Adding a lame dungeon creator l doesn't make up for any of it, considering that it lacks the tools to actually make anything interesting, like creating your own puzzles. Do yourself a favor and pick up the original instead, and don't waste $60 on a poor remake. I wish I could get a refund.