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Nintendo Switch Teardown

fictiv.com

111–120 of 192 posts

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#111
post #89
post #87

Just a few quick comments on the Switch after a day of use. First, a quick digression, Nintendo seems to have gauged the launch demand pretty well. There are some other comments here regarding Target morning waits. I was 2nd on line at 6:40am in a northern NJ Target. The guy in front of me had slept in his car (!), but he seemed to be the only one that did. By 7:45 the line was 20ish people. Our Target had 25 console…

How is selling out by 9AM considered 'gauging the demand well'? What about all of the people who go at lunch of after work? I'm pretty sure they always like to sell out as a marketing ploy anyway

Well if you plan to sell out you don't waste any money on extra product you won't sell.

Overproducing just throws money away, means you need to push back your launch date longer, or build much more manufacturing than you'll ever need again.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#112

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the docked mode is grating at times. You've got these great mechanics and beautiful world but constant input lag. Very frustrating. I'd prefer to be able to sit down and play on a TV at a higher resolution, but it's a worse experience. It effectively makes it a mobile game. It's 2017! 1080p or 60fps should be the minimum. To be fair that's not doable at $300 on a mobile gpu, but as a console that's rough. re: sc…

I've played Zelda on Switch docked for 10 hours and have not yet once experienced input lag. It occasionally hits seemingly 20-25fps with a lot of enemies and environmental grass and such for a few seconds but that has absolutely not sullied my experience of playing one of the most thoughtful and enjoyable games of all time.

Glad you've had a great experience and I agree it's a great game.

Perhaps input lag is the wrong term or you just aren't looking but even just walking out into the starting area framerates start to drop and the game becomes noticeably slower. Try it in undocked mode and it's very obvious.

If you are used to playing at higher framerates (which isn't uncommon seeing as other big console exclusives are 60fps usually at 1080p) it's a real difference.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#113
post #99

Just got mine. Charged and used. This thing is such a joy to use. I'll probably play with it more in mobile mode. It feels good to hold it. And yes it's underpowered on the spec sheet but at the same time, it works really well. And I'm having a lot of fun with it so for me that's the main thing really :D.

I don't understand the negativity based on technical performance. The thing is supposed to be fun to play, not bring you closer to the limits of what modern technology can achieve. Nintendo has some extremely fun games that I'd rather play very much before an extremely high performance super high HD game that ultimately falls flat.

Not asking for super HD super high performance, but there's a huge gap between that and sub 30 fps framerates especially for a game that while stylized isn't super HD.

Sony was hyping 1080p on the PS3 in 2006. Granted, they didn't reach it most times, but when you are releasing a console more than a decade later, people have expectations.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Crash Bandicoot for PS1 was so revolutionary that most studios were never able to catch on. Naughty Dog improved even more with Crash Bandicoot 2 and Crash Bandicoot 3, but the first game was already at the top of what the PS1 could do.

Time to post this series on the development of CB again. I'm sure the LISP fans here will love it, even if most of them will have already read it: http://all-things-andy-gavin.com/2011/02/02/making-crash-ban...

In other words: Spam?

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#115
post #96

Ifixit just posted their teardown as well. https://www.ifixit.com/Teardown/Nintendo+Switch+Teardown/782...

I like Ifixit's a lot more than Fictiv's. It gets to the point with specs and short annotations.

It's a more structured article, that's for sure. No unfunny comedy at ifixit!

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#116
post #51

The Nintendo Switch seems like a nice tablet form factor game console. I am a bit underwhelmed by their decision to compromise the usability of the right Joycon - moving the analog stick below the digital buttons is certainly bad for US/European bigger hands, bad for ergonomic reasons, an unreasonable trade off. I am underwhelmed by their decision to add no additional fan to the Dock. It's just s piece of very cheap…

Yeah, I'm a big Nintendo fan but so far I'm meh so far. I am not clear why they are having performance issues but the NVIDIA Shield I have, based around the same or even earlier version chipset, is capable of outputing 4k games to my TV at quite excellent frame rates. The touch screen should always be available in both modes, otherwise not useful to developers. A second screen experience would have been nice so they…

Using a single screen unifies them with every other developer experience though. Currently if you're porting to the 3ds you have to think of some use for the second screen and make you code support it. It seems like this time Nintendo is trying to get a larger dev audience, by supporting Unity, Unreal, etc. so you can send your game to the switch just as easily as every other platform.

EDIT: I also agree that they should let you transfer purchases. They seem intent on making everyone buy Super Mario Bros over and over. Tjey might lose some profit there, but it would buy them so much in their customer relationships.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#117
post #26
post #3

The dock is pretty underwhelming from what I've seen. There is no protection for the screen, sliding in between two pieces of plastic. Pretty cheap, for a premium priced, and well engineered hybrid device, that will be taken in and out. Semi-relevant. Breath of Wild looks like such a fantastic game, but it's completely ridiculous that the performance is often times WORSE in the docked mode. I'm hoping this is just cr…

I don't know how they justify selling it at the same price as the current gen consoles. You also have to pay extra for a real controller.

Current gen consoles you have to pay extra for a real screen.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#118
post #102

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yes, the docked mode is grating at times. You've got these great mechanics and beautiful world but constant input lag. Very frustrating. I'd prefer to be able to sit down and play on a TV at a higher resolution, but it's a worse experience. It effectively makes it a mobile game. It's 2017! 1080p or 60fps should be the minimum. To be fair that's not doable at $300 on a mobile gpu, but as a console that's rough. re: sc…

What makes you say it's not doable on a $300 mobile GPU? There are phones out that cost $300 that have better performance than the Switch. Also it's really down to the software. They could have targeted 1080p resolution with 60fps with the new Zelda but they would have had to make sacrifices on draw distance, effects, texture resolution, poly count, etc.

That's my point, though. They clearly can't make a game with the features of BotW - draw distance, effects, etc without major compromises.

Not personally aware of any games as full-formed as BotW that are running on $300 mobile sets. Though this could just be poorly optimized, which makes it more disappointing.

Re: Nintendo Switch Teardown

#119
post #52
post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't know how they justify selling it at the same price as the current gen consoles. You also have to pay extra for a real controller.

Because they have legions of rabid fans who not only buy their products regardless of quality, but act as an army of apologists for them. The result ironically, is that unlike Sony's harsh lesson learned around the PS3, Nintendo has no such backlash to fear. The worst they can do is just own the portable market, and sell a few iterations of a console to their diehards, which are numerous.

wait is this thing made by Nintendo or Apple?
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