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Digital Foundry vs Octopath Traveler: a 90s-style JPRG brought to life with cutting-edge tech
- Thread starter Deleted member 2791
- Start date
Yeah, I can definitely get that. The vast majority of the analysis is pretty glowing, and that reflects my experience with the game. My post is mostly directed to the people who assume that wishing the resolution was better is mutually exclusive with enjoying the game.
You're lucky they didn't use raytracing. You'd be waiting several minutes for a frame to render - despite using 2D sprites.
The game is designed to replicate a low res 2D look and uses purposely low res 2D character sprites. Who cares if it runs in 720p only when docked?
The dev team made the right decision to pour all of the Switch's GPU power into the global illumination, physics and special effects. A higher resolution would be barely noticable by comparison to the effects in this case.
It's a stonkingly beautiful game and the sheer amount of special effects and shaders being thrown onscreen here is off the charts! Resolution isn't a priority when you're aiming for a purposefully low res look anyway.
The dev team made the right decision to pour all of the Switch's GPU power into the global illumination, physics and special effects. A higher resolution would be barely noticable by comparison to the effects in this case.
It's a stonkingly beautiful game and the sheer amount of special effects and shaders being thrown onscreen here is off the charts! Resolution isn't a priority when you're aiming for a purposefully low res look anyway.
Interesting. I booted up Mania yesterday for the first time in almost a year and I forgot just how damn good that game looks.
Like, I really like how OT looks and definitely respect what it's trying to do, but I am still floored by how Sonic Mania looks, especially when playing portable.
If octopath was 1080p you would see the difference only in some UI elements. The artstyle prevents this game from benefit from higher resolutions.
And the framerate really does not matter for this kind of game.
It means a LOT!
This is a 3D model though.
All of OT's characters are sprites. Even 3D buildings have 2D-like pixelated textures slapped on them.
Upping OT's resolution would not make a big difference.
OP
OP
Ehhhhh, that's not really how it works. Art style can certainly help but a native resolution image is certainly clearer than than a sub native resolution. It may be harder to tell the difference with a more stylized look but you can certainly benefit from a higher resolution.
Which is part of the problem and any off-topic discussion to combat this is looked down upon. Valid discussion shouldn't be thrown out just because it doesn't adhere to specific resolution or tech talk.
I think DF threads need to be more open ended in this regard, because people are closed minded and then continue this negative discussion outside of these threads because they read two numbers.
But what do I know, I'm not a mod.
Taxing is a big word. I wouldnt be surprised if Acquire was also not at ease on this project. Sure, it can explain the framerate. But 720p/30fps docked...
There's a lot of effects going on there indeed, but the low geometry or the more contained world and scenes make up for this.
The only thing I hope that they do patch in is 1080p UI when docked. It's not a big deal if they don't but it would be nice.
Makes sense that the UI elements are rendered at 720p in handheld while the actual gameplay isn't. The character sprites on the save menu look sooooooooo much nicer than they do in-game. 1:1 pixel mapping for sprites on a handheld screen can work wonders in terms of detail and clarity.
Art style works well with the lower resolution. A resolution increase wouldn't add too much here.
Octopath uses pixel graphics and just zooms in. If they get zoomed to 720p or 1080p makes no difference at all. The resulting image looks exactly the same. Nonetheless on some bad/cheap TVs everything other than the native resolution could look bad (especially when people don't use the TVs game modus and TV tries to use filters on the image), but thats a whole other problem.
The undocked image on the Switch screen being subnative and below 720p is disappointing, for this kind of game. Honestly the applied filters are not fancy and seems not very optimized on a technical side. I would expect this performance from a Unity game which is often used by unexperienced developers and has many technical downsides anyway, but not from a more sophisticated engine like Unreal4, but even then it depends on the developers experience.
What exactly is wrong again? Nobody knows or cares about resolution until their told and then it becomes this super important thing.
It's basically a numbers game at this point.
I guess I was trying to say that in handheld mode, I don't notice any blurriness in the rendered stuff to complain.
the sprites are 3D models. but yes, with the kind of texture work the game has, higher resolution wouldn't have done anything to it
how is it click bait? it literally is the same engine as Fortnite
also, it's funny how there hasn't been many complaints about resolution until the DF analysis. same song and dance every time
DF: the game looks great and unique!
Era: LOW RESOLUTION! REEEEEEEEE
Of course it would. In fact, it matters even more. People fail to understand that scaling for 2D titles is even more important than 3D ones. You want a perfect pixel scaling for your game otherwise you're ruining the pixel art. For exemple, many 2D games renders at lower resolution but are upscaled at higher res res with nearest neighbour, keeping a pixel accurate look to the visuals. But if you output your game at non-native res, your TV will then upscale the signal, which means it'll ruin the look of your game.
Why do you think people invest in expensive hardware scalers for retro consoles ?
The tilt shift blur and lighting help to hide the sub HD handheld res, and the HD UI elements keep the visual impression sharp. Still, I'm surprised by both docked and undocked resolutions. I hope Acquire's next Switch rpg can hit 1080 and 720 docked and undocked with optimisation and greater familiarity with the hardware.
I would actually be really happy if they gave the UI a higher resolution. 720p menues are suuuuper noticeable to me. The Switches home menu is still an eyesore to me.
Finally, someone brings some sense into this thread. I can't believe the amount of ignorance in here with regard to the impact of native res and scaling in a game with this art style.
Like I said in an earlier post, compare how the character sprites look in their native 720p form on the save menu to their lower-res gameplay appearance in handheld mode. It's night and day in terms of clarity.
"Clickbait" is maybe not the right word, but they very obviously want this video to show up in the feeds of people who watch and search for Fortnite content on YouTube.
Finally got around to downloading the demo last night because I'm sick. Game is very addicting, and I have it coming in the mail from Target. However, I thought something was wrong with my Switch because the image playing this game was very soft. It looks like a film was placed over the screen.
Turns out, the game does indeed run a very low resolution. I played Mario Right after and that looked very crisp by comparison. Everyone keeps saying how amazing the game looks, but to me it looks incredibly average. I appreciate the 16-bit brought to 2018 art style, but this game is not breaking any ground with its graphics. Which is fine.
Turns out, the game does indeed run a very low resolution. I played Mario Right after and that looked very crisp by comparison. Everyone keeps saying how amazing the game looks, but to me it looks incredibly average. I appreciate the 16-bit brought to 2018 art style, but this game is not breaking any ground with its graphics. Which is fine.
i just wish they would dial back the fucking depth of field blur. or give me an option to
i really like the look of the game, but the bokeh blur is SO heavy handed
i really like the look of the game, but the bokeh blur is SO heavy handed
I've experienced some horrid stuttering I can't see it being frame time related because to be blunt I've had games that DF says are running at 15fps that I've not noticed look that bad. Weird they say it's a solid 30fps with just some frame timing issues.
I'll probably be disappointed in Switch tech until a hardware revision comes out. A lot of this is just embarrassing.
That said, I'll rarely complain about art direction on many of the games with suboptimal performance, and this art is stunning.
Yes, it's pixel art, but when you have crisp three dimensional effects giving the game its signature look, resolution and framerate matter.
That said, I'll rarely complain about art direction on many of the games with suboptimal performance, and this art is stunning.
Yes, it's pixel art, but when you have crisp three dimensional effects giving the game its signature look, resolution and framerate matter.
Embarrassing compared to what? Is there another hybrid console that does better performance?
Yeah but you have to consider this is not a 2D game either. I'm not even sure if all pixels are same size.
yea, you're probably not gonna be too happy with the revision. maybe the Switch 2? if they keep a 720p screen anyway
Besides the UI, the game doesn't have the pixel scaling you are looking for. It's a sprite slapped on a 3D plane. Even at perfect screen resolution it's not going go be 1:1 like you think it is (besides the UI which they could set to pixel perfect scaling).