Psyonix Targeting 60fps, 720p With Rocket League On Switch, Docked And Undocked

Performance is king here, well done.

@BLP_Software yep agreed, this is an amazing game and is another reason I am buying a Switch after last night's press conference.

Why not 1080p when docked? Other developers have been called out for doing similar.

720p and 60fps is perfectly fine with me.

Sure, I mostly play on the tablet anyway

If you've played Super Bomberman R before and after the patch, you know you want 60fps for a multiplayer action game. Of course, it would be good if they could achieve 1080p as well, but I guess that's not easy.

I'm more than ok with this.

Thank you Psyonix for caring more about fps than visuals. Personally I can live without the visuals if it means a smooth ride.

This just breeds the ill-informed that the Switch isn't capable of modern console games. I call BS. Lazy devs. Nintendo should help.

To be honest I think performance goes before visuals.

Of course performance should be the highest priority, but the GPU in the Switch is 60% faster when docked. So Psyonix is just wasting all that potential because... well, I can't think of a reason.

Baffling.

60fps is always more important than resolution. Perhaps they could implement a dynamic resolution scaler when docked so it hits 1080p where it can?

@moroboshi Agreed. Hard to believe the higher clock speeds won't allow them to get consistent performance at 900p, or even something slightly better than 720, but a locked 60 on both would be enough for me to be happy regardless.

Even with the lower resolution,the Switch will have the best version of Rocket League available,providing the game runs fine that is.It's portable,has Nintendo themed gear and is crossplay.When I'm out and about,I could connect to my mobile hotpsot and play a few games against my mate on his Xbox One.That's superb!

These guys get it. In my personal experience, anything past 480-540 wades into the territory of sights that wow you for the first time and then you're completely distracted by the rest of the game and need Digital Foundry to remind you of the all the graphical fidelity. Far be it from me to underrate the labour poured into achieving such resolutions, but as a gamer, I personally find this an investment of rather limited returns. Except for maybe VR (it has two screens all but pressed to your eyes, after all, and they have to maintain the tech's whole point of first-person immersion despite that) - I'm not interested in it, but good and all for those who are.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE what developers have been called out for doing something similar?

Kudos to the developers for placing the emphasis on performance, that's what I say.

60fps is more important than 1080p on a game like this.

@moroboshi perhaps for reasons similar to Minecraft where the Switch is the first platform they deal with that has to, well, switch resolutions on the fly? So they choose performance until they familiarize themselves with this stuff, lest there should be issues or release delays imposed by this familiarizing period. IIRC Minecraft devs have a patch in their plans for later, so I won't be surprised if Psyonix plans one, too.

RL on PS4 cross plays with steam, or is that about to change?

Definitely prefer that stable frame rate. However, I hope they keep working to try to get that 1080p 60fps. But 720p as a worst case scenario isn't bad at all.

Performance first of course but it concerns me a bit that most games released at this early stage of Switch can't run 1080p docked. What will come in few years with more demanding game graphics?!
Is it really that underpowered???
We already lost new Monster Hunter...

60FPS is absolutely necessary for Rakkit Legg.
But what are they doing about the lack of analogue triggers? They're essential for timing aerials.

Honestly I've barely noticed a difference between 720 and 1080; maybe its something you need a 55+ inch tv to notice?

For this sort of game 720 is more than ample whilst 60fps is needed for smooth gameplay.

If I know anything about Psyonix, it's that if there's any way they can feasibly do 1080p60 now or in the future, they'll do it. The 60fps update on PS4 was a genuine gamechanger so I'm happy to see it prioritized on Switch as well. Just because 1080 isn't supported at launch doesn't mean it won't ever happen.

This dev has its priorities in order. Pity I just don't like the game.

@SLIGEACH_EIRE There's a good chance that trying to achieve 1080p while docked will drop the 60fps down. Even if it only drops it 10 fps from time to time a game like this needs to be locked at 60fps to keep player on level par with the other platforms.

Framerate is far more important than resolution, especially in a game like Rocket League, whose visual style and art direction isn't exactly heavily detailed.

Would've liked 1080p docked but I'm happy with 60 fps 👍

I'm all in on this one. Performance is more important. Immature decision Sony has made on the crossplay. Not sure I want to keep playing PS4 now....

Fine with me im digging performance more.

I wish all developers thought like this.

@nhSnork "and need Digital Foundry to remind you of the all the graphical fidelity."

I noticed they actually have to pause games and zoom in 500% to show people the difference these days. That's how bad it's got. Screw what the game plays like it's all about the fidelity on foliage in the background.

Frame rate all the way

He is right. I take performance anyday of the week before fidelity.

@Dakt The fact that they can achieve 720p60 undocked already shows that they could achieve a higher resolution when docked. Maybe they will try to push it in a later patch, like it was done with Shovel Knight and is being done with NBA Playgrounds.

Considering this is a game about RC cars driving fast and knocking balls around, I'd say a good, strong, consistent framerate is absolutely paramount.

That's why I can't play this game on my 6 year old computer.

Like most people in this thread already have said, with game like Rocket League, performance is of the essence.

720 is plenty enough.

Performance everyday of the week. Don't care about 1080p. 60 fps all the way.

If the Switch can't run a game like this at 1080/60 when docked... then the hardware was rushed... which is too bad but at least it's getting fun games.

I guess we need to wait for the New Switch for modern performance standards...

@SLIGEACH_EIRE I'm sure they're doing their best. It's possible they're not able to do as good a job as other developers.

60 FPS > 1080 for me.

Graphical optimisation may have to come from the engine (Unreal) so hopefully they're working on that.

@DJKeens I play with people who use mouse and keyboard and they arial better than me using a 360 controller so I'm not too worried.

720p with 60fps is more then enough for this type of game. It looks gorgeous anyway. Can't wait till release.

Fps is more important than full hd resolution imo.. Also, the Switch is a tiny tablet device, how come people expect it to even come close to ps4 and xbox one graphics wise? I really don't get it. I don't think 3rd party support will ultimately make or break the Switch. 1st party support is the most important. As soon as the 3DS is abandoned, Nintendo will be able to focus all attention on Switch and I expect we will get an absolute boatload of first party titles.

They've made the right choice. Maybe the docked mode could add a bit of anti-aliasing though?

@BumpkinRich yeah but are you any good at aerials? Haha. It's more about boost management tbf.
@DJKeens I've never seen a decent alternative to analogue triggers for racing games, using the sticks on GT was rubbish.

@DJKeens As a PC gamer, I use the Steam Controller which offers a pair of two-stage analog triggers that would make the GameCube controller jealous and/or proud. Though not essential, it is really nice to be able to link the variable gas "pedal" and the boost to just one trigger, while having variable-speed reverse on the other. I can't imagine any existing alternative being anything but a downgrade.

As for shooters with an analog stick:
pounds chest and bruises self
That's just COD! I dare you to try that with SQUIDS!

@DJKeens Well there's no way I'd try any CoD without motion control. Why? Because (from what I've seen) console shooters after a certain point in industry history haven't really been designed with analog sticks in mind, even when analog sticks were the only usable input method! They've always felt slow, jerky, and imprecise. My experience might be old though, as my last console shooters (other than Splatoon) were on PS3 and my most recent CoD was that Goldeneye one on Wii. What's it like playing CoD on sticks these days? How are the control options?

Great to see them call Sony out on this.

Also love that they're prioritizing performance over visuals/resolution. Wish more developers did that. For the record, this runs on UE3, which the Switch doesn't have proper support for and Epic obviously isn't going to care about their old engine when UE4 has full native support on Switch. Psyonix is having to port it themselves basically.

I couldn't put it better than @BLP_Software did.
Lag, in Rocket League, means goals not getting registered at times. Serious stuff, you know.
This game will definitely benefit from Nintendo's paid online next year.

@DJKeens The jerkiness in aiming I describe came from seldom being able to tilt the stick with enough precision: always too little or too much. Oftentimes the smallest adjustments still moved too far, and any less would be deadzone (so no movement). Two console generations of muscle memory under those conditions hadn't refined my muscle memory, but did a pretty good job undermining what I'd developed from the Goldeneye/Perfect Dark/TimeSplitters trifecta long before then, which was actually a different system for aiming.

The improvements you speak of probably would have made things a bit less painful (especially disabling aim assist!), though I think I'd still just miss the old way. But, what is the acceleration you speak of?

@iChadman The Switch's specs don't all increase to the same degree when docked. Even with a 2-2.5x increase in shader performance, it's memory speed only goes up 20% which doesn't insure that a game that runs in 720p in handheld mode can climb to 1080p in TV mode. Even TV mode, the Switch doesn't have much more bandwidth than the PS3 or 360 had available to them and they were 720p consoles.

@FX102A Do you have a 1080p TV?

For a fast paced game like this I think it's a reasonable trade off...

@myownfriend I do and after countless games in 720p, 900p and 1080p I still can't see much of difference if any. Whether it looked good or crap depended on how well it ran, the art style used or what was happening on screen.

Performance is king here, so I applaud these guys' decision. Maybe they could improve in docked mode, but they haven't had much time with the hardware - we know Nintendo was stingy in handing dev kits, so 720p for know its great!