Video: Digital Foundry Breaks Down Splatoon 2's Tech Improvements Over Its Predecessor

Yeah, it's clear they didn't just add more props to the game. Splatoon 2 is a clear upgrade.

Even more that that, I think the dynamic resolution trick they use is pretty cool. I'll take 60 fps over resolution any day. I love my smooth games.

I just want to hear "you're a kid now you're a squid now" again.
Is that too much to ask? Every match. The whole time. lol

"you're a kid, you're a Squid"

Que digital foundry o caraio ! Deixa o menino brincar....

I continue to be impressed with the capabilities of this tablet-sized console. Also impressed with how much of a priority Nintendo has placed on achieving smooth framerates for most of its games (Zelda aside).

They had me at "60 FPS"

I’m fine with 60 FPS adaptive resolution. I never really played the first Splatoon, but the game looks great and I’m really loving the portability of the Switch. I like being able to play whenever/wherever. I’ll be picking this up on the 21st.

60fps > all

Since it affects gameplay.

Now about those server ticks....

Very enjoyable video

All hail Nintendo, gods of resource management and pure quality gaming.

You play docked now, you play portable now! You play docked, you play portable, you play docked, you play portable, you play docked noooooow!
Just rolls of the tongue, huh?

@Ralizah Zelda is pretty damn solid after that first patch. And even before that, it held 30 in most locations.

Sounds like they made good choices.

I'm hyped beyond words for this game.

Why can't Nintendo put together a more powerful gaming system? It's 2017, everything should be 1080P at 60 frames per second. We are making the "switch" to 4K for crying out loud!

@Bengals76

Because a 4K handheld would have a barely existent battery life and likely issues with overheating.

Also the price would be absolutely nuts.

@Bengals76
4k on such a small screen is useless though, plus PS4 and Xbox one are not even always 1080p/60fps. You have to take into consideration that the higher your res/fps, the less you can draw and do on the screen. You will always have that tradeoff regardless of the power.

@Bengals76 agreed. I am moving to 4k tv wise and for my Xbox. I really don't think nintendo games need it but 1080p 60fps should have been the goal with these cartoon like games. Really wish this system was Xbox One level when docked. It does make a difference. If it didn't then we wouldn't have drooled over mario kart 8 deluxe 1080p 60fps. Either the graphics matter or they don't.

@Pikachupwnage
I said everything should be 1080P at 60 frames per second, not 4K. But, thank you for reading half of my comment. Lol

@iMarkU
My point is, we should not have to make that trade off until we get past 1080P. If the system is around for another 4 1/2 years it's going to be really outdated, sooner rather than later. If, it's not already!

@Bengals76 doesn't it look pretty anyway? Does it burn your eyes? Isn't BOTW a marvel to look at? Won't Metroid be amazing?

It's a handheld, Nintendo trying to achieve 60fps is already a great deal, optimizing the resources using art instead of power

300 dollar hand held where I can plug on my tv and play 60fps games? Sold

Splatoon 2 is clearly just two Splatoons duct-taped together.
/s

@Bengals76 I get where you're coming from but you're asking for a lot from a tablet running modern console games on a TV. In several years, of course a $200 tablet will be able to solidly run 1080p 60FPS for every game, but right now they couldn't get that without rising the price or encountering technical difficulties like overheating and battery life. Hell, if you play zelda in TV mode for a while and then switch to handheld, the thing is already pretty toasty, bump up the graphics of zelda and you'd be able to "switch" to an improptu cooking pan.

It's getting so old hearing people complain about the Switch not being 4K. The base PS4 & Xbox One struggle at 1080p/60fps, which very few games actually achieve on those systems. The Nintendo Switch is very impressive for a hybrid system, people need to get there expectations together.

On another topic the jump to 4K is no where near as significant as the leap from Standard definition (SD 240/480) to high definition (HD 720/1080)

I am personally in no hurry to run out and buy a 4K TV, might get one in two or three years from now, but by then everyone is going to be crying about games running in 8k 🤷🏽‍♂️

I'm ok with 30fps in adventure style games and such, but for twitch based reaction games or competitive games, 60fps is where it's at and where it needs to stay. Adding Splatoon 2 alongside Arms and Mario Kart 8 Deluxe at a constant 60fps is terrific. I fully expect Mario Kingdom Battle and Super Mario Odyssey to hit 60fps as well. Xenoblade 2 and Skyrim will likely be 30pfs, which again, that's fine for that type of game.

Noticeable improvements over Wii U as well. The shadows are kind of a big thing. Gotta have the shadows.

Very pleased to hear that it maintains a constant 60fps. I was hoping it would be constant 1080p as well, but the game looks great nonetheless.

Prioritizing the frame rate was definitely the right move for this title.

@Bengals76 Do you know of any 4K handhelds that have good prices and good battery life? Didn't think so.

@mikegamer if you read my post it says everything should be 1080P at 60 frames per second. Get your facts straight before you try to argue.

"Why can't Nintendo put together a more powerful gaming system? It's 2017, everything should be 1080P at 60 frames per second".

Mmh, if they can't get Splatoon 2 to run at a stable 1080p, SMO will probably (sadly) not get a boost either.

@Bengals76 I absolutely agree that we shouldn't make the move to 4K before 1080p 60FPS is a universal standard. If you can achieve 60FPS in 4K with today's hardware, then by all means have at it! Microsoft has succeeded with Forza Motorsport 7, but if you're moving to those resolutions and not hitting 60FPS, then your priorities need to be checked.
Framerate beats resolution every day of the week!

@Bengals76 you're kidding yourself if you think everything on PS4 / XBone is 1080p and 60fps...

Even if Nintendo never really pushes for the graphics that Sony and Microsoft try to achieve they always amaze me from a technical standpoint.
After going through the files from their games over the years you can really see that they are amazing at compression and a lot of thought has been put into only showing only what is needed.
They've definitely taught me about resource management when it comes to working with 3D programs. -Especially when compared to a lot of Sony's games which have character models more detail than is needed and poor compression.

@Indielink yeah, it would be possible to reach 60fps using some techniques as LOD and using fog but i think that in this case they did just right going graphics over fps since zelda isn't a so fast paced game and the huge open world its beautiful and creates an immersive environment , so 30fps its good enough. And for splatoon 60fps its perfect too, nintendo is doing really good choices with switch games.

@MartyFlanMJFan what is it with people, do they not read my posts? I didn't even mention Xbox or PlayStation.

Even in weak specs, Nintendo always makes stunning games

Everything now should be running at the same quality as everything will be about five years in the future, otherwise we're suffering a great injustice. And five years in the future, everything should be running at the same quality as it will be a further five years after that (or else similar injustice). And so on until the eventual heat-death of the universe. Or until video games become more realistic than reality and we start complaining that our actual lunch isn't sufficiently high resolution.

"I'd like to send this soup back to the kitchen until you can serve it at an acceptable frame-rate - and no, I don't want to hear any excuses about the Planck Constant"

Until then, the important thing is that we have something to complain about. So let's all enjoy that sweet luxury together across the internet's various comment sections for many years to come.

Here's to the complaints of today, tomorrow, and all those of the perceivable future. Cheers.

@Maxz nice one

@Maxz Great comment. Have you been watching the Strange Mystery's channel on YouTube by any chance?

@OorWullie Nooo, I haven't. Have I referenced it in some way? I'll give it a look. : )

Haven't actually played the first one, but the one thing I like better in the videos is paint. That paint sparkle seems a bit unnecessary. Really love the solid colours of the original.

@Maxz It's a superb channel. I only come across it a week or so ago. He goes over theories like heat death and that the past, present and future are all happening at the same time among many other mind blowing things. I knew of a lot of the theories to ours and the universe's existence already but this guy has a great way of making it easy to understand. Vsauce is another great channel.

@costalarga Um brasileiro por aqui??? Que bruxaria é essa?

@OorWullie Aah man, yeah. YouTube's got some great resources it if you're interested in getting your mind blown. I'm currently studying for a General Relativity module - which has been difficult coming from a non-Physics background - so I've been going through a number of resources online, and... well, things can get pretty mind blowing pretty fast.

My Dad's always been a keen dispenser of worldly (or otherwordly) facts about the nature of the universe, and so I've grown up politely nodding along but not really understanding. I've started to make a bit more sense of them recently, which has been kind of gratifying.

It's not entirely related, but my current jam for getting my mind blown has been this series of YouTube videos analysing video game music. It's a little more 'down to Earth' than all the heat-death and space-time and general massive explodey universey stuff, but I've still found it exhaustingly intriguing in a similar way (mainly because I'm only beginning to crawl my way through music theory, so it takes a fair bit of effort to even understand the basic terminology).

Perhaps it's the opposite of Vsauce and other channels, in that it takes something really familiar and intuitive (music) and goes over it in such detail that it becomes incredibly complicated. Either way, I've found it interesting - but it's soaking up a lot of my daily capacity for mind-blownness, so I haven't been adding much on top of that. Maybe when I get this General Relativity module out of the way I can start indulging in more mind-blowing Physics facts for fun.

But yeah, man. The world man. And the universe too. Like, woah...

Man @Bengals76, @Maxz just made you sound like a little baby angry that he can't have exactly what he wants right now. You gonna take that bro?

Techie whining aside, Nintendo (as usual) makes the right call here. People have to understand that developers don't just chop framerate or resolution arbitrarily. The reason that games aren't always 1080p and 60fps, even on the most powerful consoles, is because the power available isn't infinite. Resolution, frame rate, top visual quality. In most cases as a dev you only get to pick two.

@TeslaChippie I can't possibly imagine what you could be referring to.

But yeah, I agree about the right call being made for this game. I'd much rather have a 'dynamic resolution' than an 'unstable framerate' (which is really the fps equivalent). I've played games with a so-called 'dynamic resolution' before and never even noticed, but if a framerate fluctuates it's normally pretty apparent.

Mario Kart, Splatoon, and ARMS - all being action games - deserve a solid, nippy framerate first and foremost, and it seems the creators have delivered on all three counts.

@Bengals76 That's what I said a while ago. But after the many criticisms of the other guys here, I'll agree. 4K gaming isn't necessary, and the failing and minimal numbers of the XBX and PS4 Pro will prove that to you. Consoles shouldn't try to be PCs. If I want a strong console I'd rather get a PC than a console. Pretty obvious.

@Ralizah Zelda has very few drops actually after the update. Personally, I only felt framerate drops in Korok Forest. Previously it used to happen when I fought a Guardian in tall grass or when I went Lynel hunting too. Now it's only in Korok Forest, a place I rarely visit. So I'd count it as an upgrade too.

@Maxz 60fps first and foremost, they should focus on this first, then add all the gloss, then stop adding unnecessary fluff when it starts to dip. It seems a lot of "AAA" console developers these days add all the fluff and glitter then desperately try to strip it back to a stable 30fps these days.

@Bengals76 sure I read your comment, you said 'why can't Nintendo put together a more powerful gaming system?' specifically naming them then saying that in 2017 everything should be 1080p and 60fps, you're clearly suggesting the other gaming platforms, ie PS4 and XBone, are currently and consistently hitting this target of yours.

So glad they upped it to 1080p AND kept it at 60fps. Messing around on the Splatoon 2 demo and running around the hub area you immediately notice how much better it all looks, coming from Wii U it's a big jump in visual quality.

Did anyone else notice that there is a little dip in the fps graph just when he says that he hasn't seen a single dropped frame so far

@Bengals76 Beggars can't be choosers

@sixrings I have a glorious top of the line 4K TV, and quite honestly, the Switch looks absolutely KILLER on it. Esp tweaking the settings a bit in HDR/Game more (Samsung ks8000).

Blown away at how good it looks. Yes you might now be able to see each of the leaves "veins" but dam does it look beautiful.

Same goes for MK8, Thumper(!!) And the rest.

@Bengals76 Power hasn't been their target for over a decade now. They focus on affordable hardware and let the software sell the system, typically. It's why your cheap-o 3DS only cost you short of 200 bucks.